The use of Heroes is the key to success, but they're so powerfull they have been drastically limited in number. What about adding some "weaker" heroes; they would be called workers/characters, such as doctors, architects, different types of engineers, army men, politicians, pilots, explorers,...?



Some ideas/suggestions around these workers:

- They would be cheaper than heroes and/or available for a limited time

- They would give less powerfull bonuses than heroes (still to be defined)

- They should be bound to a single planet, and would only be able to move across the system (from a planet to another)

- Some techs would increase the number of workers to be hired simultaneously

- Some type of workers could be hired only if the specific tech has been discovered

- Every turn the list of workers to be hired would be updated. Only the players having the specific techs would be able to hire certain types of workers. All players would then bet "dust" on them, the higher bet would get the worker at the end of the turn.



So, sounds exciting or useless?

Sounds in parts like the CIV Specialists feature in CIV cities. I think this kind of thing is abstracted already in the type of Exploit you have constructed on each of your planets in a system.



Having some sort of Mercenary Hero style Bidding screen sounds interesting too, sort of linked in with suggestions about how the Pirates are used on other threads.



I do like the idea of minor Heroes linked to the Academy Feature, that features definitely needs alot more development than what it is currently at, Alpha or not there is some good potential in it.

I'd prefer more types of heroes rather than having "mini heroes". Or alternatively nerfing heroes as they are now and make them more numerous in an empire (say 6 instead of 3 to start with) but all less "powerful".



This would make fleets and systems more specialized (well suited with the specialists thing) - you'd be able to pool a hero to just about every fleet you own and allow each fleet to feel more distinct.