This is my humble suggestion for a future multiplayer part of the game.



When starting a session, the first window that pops up would be the Hero Auction. Hero Auction (HA) is an idea where the game puts 3-6 (depends on the number of players, 3 Heroes for up to 4 players and so on) random Heroes for players to choose from. However, the number of available Heroes would be always less then the number of players playing the session, meaning that there ALWAYS will be one or couple of players starting without a Hero. Now the HA comes into play - each player will have 100 Dust coins that can be spend on 'bidding' the Hero for themselves. Each player can choose if he wants to continue bidding for specific hero or withdraw from the Auction. Withdrawing means player saves his 100 Dust coins for the start of the game. If two or more players have bidded all of their Dust coins on one hero, when the HA ends - the game gives the Hero to a random player that took part in the auction. Every player that picks a hero that noone else bids for - pays 50 Dust Coins at the end of HA.



Example:

MP session #1

4 players.



Game puts 3 Heroes into an Auction: Administrator+Corporate ; Pilot+Commander ; Pilot+Assassin

(obviously the first one will be the most wanted)

2 players are bidding for Adm+Corporate Hero, the other 1 has chosen Pilot+Commander, no-one wants the Pilot+Assassin

The Auction ends with one player spending 100 Dust for a Amd+Corp hero, the other one withdrawn with 25 Dust Coins left.

Third player gets the Pilot+Commander and 50 Dust Coins at the start of the game.

Fourth player didnt want any of those Heroes and didnt took part in the Hero Auction, thus gets 100 Dust Coins at start extra.



I know my description of the idea may be a little bit chaotic, but I hope you all get the point.

Feel free to discuss. Thoughts?

I like this. And, considering that a number of Heroes are described as having been cast out of their home faction, or are struck by wanderlust and want to explore (either option making them mercenary-like figures), it would make sense that the empires would bid or compete for their services.



Perhaps, though, the ones for bid in the beginning are higher rated heroes, while once the game start the Academy functions as normal, with three initial with a new one ever X amount of turns?

I like this, it's a neat way of starting off the game with some strategy.

FinalStrigon wrote:
Perhaps, though, the ones for bid in the beginning are higher rated heroes, while once the game start the Academy functions as normal, with three initial with a new one ever X amount of turns?

Exactly, those in the auction could already be on level 3 or 4.

Aquiller wrote:
Exactly, those in the auction could already be on level 3 or 4.

Ah, maybe not a higher level, as with Hero Upkeep costs, that could quickly ruin a player's start, even with bonus Dust to start with. A level 1 hero, I believe already has an upkeep of 22 D. If their starting position is less than ideal, they probably won't be able to generate enough Dust to avoid bankruptcy seven or eight turns in.



I'd say they're simply bidding on rarer heroes, or ones with unique starting abilities that set them apart from the ones that will show up normally in the academy.

The amount of dust received for not winning / bidding would have to be substantially higher, more like 1000 - 5000.



No heroes for 50 turns?







Ouch.

it always confused me why some games I get three, and other none for 50 turns. lol

4x_Fan wrote:
The amount of dust received for not winning / bidding would have to be substantially higher, more like 1000 - 5000.



No heroes for 50 turns?







Ouch.

Why no heroes for 50 turns? After the start of the game players can recruit 'normal' ones like in every other game.

Slar wrote:
it always confused me why some games I get three, and other none for 50 turns. lol

That was a bug ~ now fixed.

Aquiller wrote:
Why no heroes for 50 turns? After the start of the game players can recruit 'normal' ones like in every other game.

Then... really not getting the point of the suggestion. Unless you're playing Horatio, it'll be a long time before you get >3 slots for heroes. Added to this, if the selection is random [whichitis], there's no way to tell if you're bidding your precious resources just to start the game... with the same hero available to you.





So ~ not sure why this adds anything to MP.

I see your point.



It could be done by adjusting the time when a player is able to recruit a hero in a normal way - let's say give the bidders the headstart for 20 turns?



OR



Make the heroes in Auction actually better than those in the normal game. It could be higher level, lesser upkeep OR a possibilty that with a Hero comes a ship (Additional Colony for Adm/Corp; Scout for Adventurer; Military for Pilot/Commander)?

Along these same lines, there could be a shared pool of Heroes for hire and an auction could be triggered whenever 2 people try to hire the same Hero in the same turn. Obviously, the number of Heroes for hire would have to be tweaked in multiplayer.

FinalStrigon wrote:
Ah, maybe not a higher level, as with Hero Upkeep costs, that could quickly ruin a player's start, even with bonus Dust to start with. A level 1 hero, I believe already has an upkeep of 22 D.

A level 1 hero costs 22 dust to hire initially, but only 1 dust per turn as upkeep. So no, it won't ruin a player's start. :P

Slar wrote:
it always confused me why some games I get three, and other none for 50 turns. lol

Bug. Starting multiple games on a single game launch. Quit and restart the game. Being worked on, iirc. Mebbe gone with this update I'm waiting on the dl for ;]

the idea is great but a bit unbalanced imo, but with work this could be awesome!

I would prefer not to see this in MP. While I think the suggestion itself is ok, it needs a lot of tweaking and I don't want to start an MP game with betting on who gets which heroes. The way it is now random luck is already able to make to much of an difference and this suggestion wouldn't exactly help there. If it would be tweaked to decrease the effect of luck I'd probably have a different view.

But a lot of people seem to like this suggestion, I'd be fine if it would be implemented into the game, as long as you have an option to turn it off.