Rather then the Hero mystery draw, I suggest a change to the dynamic of heroes in general.



Rather then putting them back into a pool of random heroes that you draw blindly from, Heroes get recruited by factions directly from the pool.



Heroes have a set amount of Dust minimum they will be hired for. During the turn, factions can bid on heroes. At the end of the turn, heroes go to the faction that bid the most on said hero, and bids are refunded to the losing factions at the end of the turn.



This helps the Horatio, who are kneecapped if they have a bad start, due to ridiculous 50 turn hero income. This system will alleviate the "HERPDERP THREE CORP/ADMIN. I WIN FOREVER." games, as heroes are massive game changers, especially to the Horatio and Sowers. It removes the pointless randomness of heroes, and makes it another strategic layer to contemplate. Do you pick the Corp/Admin, or the Admin/Adventurer or the Admin/Fleet, Etc, etc...



I suggest that instead of lowering the time heroes drop into your hero pool, I think techs that affect that should instead increase the effectiveness of bids. that way they aren't weaker techs, and give a slight advantage to people who tech down the society tree.

Nice idea. But some questions appear: since when player will be able to use bids? - after he sign agreements with other factions? And what will happen with faction that will choose to declare war to all factions?

I would imagine endless war doesn't effect bidding either way since it doesn't affect hero draws, and Bidding can go on throughout the whole turn starting when the turn starts. It would be processed at the end of the turn, like research.

An interesting concept. Perhaps along with said bid and increasing research, a rarity system gets implemented; whereas in the beginning a player starts with a couple common and an uncommon hero. Then as tech progresses the opportunity to receive more powerful "rare" heroes increases. I've noticed as the game progresses, a player can hire what I assume are heroes that other factions have had and later fired for whatever reason resulting in the hiring of lvl 10 heroes. For those that can understand this skitzophrenic rambling, perhaps the bid system starts with a base amount in dust. Technology adds a bonus to the amount of dust, or bid count. bid counts might receive their initial amount by the amount of systems owned, or by population. I know this jabber is in several directions, but i guess thats how great ideas start, maybe? lol

Ill take anything that doesnt throw random junk heroes at me like ES does now...



+1

Junk heroes?



They are all useful, just some more then others.

Igncom1 wrote:
I would love to see this not be added, instead I would like there to be a major advantage to not using heroes at all.



Take that majority!

You just go down the line posting random crap huh? 1989 uses posts from Ingcom1 and counting.

This isn't even in the same thread.



And no, i mean what i said.

I think Heroes are over powerful. I think you should be able to have more but each of the Heros are more specialized.

More Types of Hero - How about entertainers (who can make a planet happier), scientists, explorers.

Culture effects the types of heros -I think different cultures should evolve different types of heroes, for example if you are research based race why have more scientists.

Events could create heroes - For example a hero maybe created in a space battle or a ground battle.

ericbrooke wrote:
I think Heroes are over powerful. I think you should be able to have more but each of the Heros are more specialized.

More Types of Hero - How about entertainers (who can make a planet happier), scientists, explorers.

Culture effects the types of heros -I think different cultures should evolve different types of heroes, for example if you are research based race why have more scientists.

Events could create heroes - For example a hero maybe created in a space battle or a ground battle.

Kind of like in Rome: Total War? Where the field commander of a patrol successfully ambushes a larger force and you let him marry your daughter to become a member of your family.



Or one of your sons is slightly mad, but only in that he believes spiders are working with the enemy and to learn their secrets drowns them in absinthe. This one helped the happiness but reduced productivity. I remember that one cause he became the head of the family.



Great now i want to play rome total war...



you know, if they made an alt version of the game that was slightly more like total war, i would throw more money at amplitude.

Dust centric races may have a bit of an advantage in this respect. I think heroes should have some kind of faction affinity and loyality that increases as turns go by, and potentially increases your chance of keeping them on and increases the cost for them to get hired by other factions.



Specific heroes could even have a list of things they really like doing to speed up affinity gain.

There's been something quite similar for MP just at the start of the game: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/11649-suggestion-mp-hero-auction-at-start-of-the-game

However, this suggestion goes even further. What would you do with all the techs decreasing time til the next hero arrives, though? It would just arrive at the common pool to be snatched away by whoever pays most and has free academy space?