I've been through the forums, but I have not seen this suggestion. If it was already mentioned/suggested, I apologize for a double post.

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I've been a player of the RTS genre for many years.

Endless Space has a striking similarity with Masters of Orion, which is not a bad thing at all - MOO was an amazing game/franchise, and I did a little girl dance when I saw this game, and the absolutely amazing potential it has.

If executed well, and it seems like the devs definitely are on their way, it may reach the pedestal of StarCraft.



There is one critical element, however, that I strongly feel is missing from the game and the current suggestions list: Story.



The thing that made StarCraft truly great was presence of Single Player storylines. They pulled the Player into the world, slowly introducing more and more gameplay elements, the universe becoming more and more complex, finally leading to all those learned skills to be used in Multiplayer. And, there is a great platform to make that happen.

Everything can be scripted -

-- surprise attack of that "first encounter" with the Cravers which forces you to rethink your peace-faring ways -- teaching you the intricacies of the combat system;

-- that accidentally-uncovered plot for your currently employed "ex-"Horatio heroes to stage a coup -- teaching you to keep a close eye of your resources/production/etc (can also be tied into the espionage system, which is in the works);

-- that stray Sower fleet that found its way into your space and started turning all your planets into floating proto-orchid-covered "space balls" eliminating all other resources from the planets (which, if you don't stop, you won't get your daily dose of Siderite) -- teaching you to react to a direct threat in different ways (hey, maybe you WANT a few proto-orchids in your Empire).



These are but a few examples off the top of my head, but they all tie into the idea of progressive, story-driven gameplay.



Now, I understand that writing comprehensive mission scripting for nine+ races is Incredibly resource and time intensive.

However, I'm Know there are players that would love to get their hands dirty and help out with that.



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So, there it is, my suggestion. Feel more than free to violently disagree =]

Yes, this suggestions has already be made but not in a own thread I guess. Many members would love to see this happen (there is already a fanfiction Forum) and would love to help. The factions already have such a nice story, why not expanding this in a single-player or even coop campain? That would be something new I guess. A coop campaign for a 4x game.

Campaigns for the 4X genre are usually very bad, for there to even be a hint of a campaign mode there would need to be serious considerations with how to deal with players moving from mission to mission (Possibly like in star wars empire at war) with more stars appearing and expanding from the different missions.



I just don't think it can be done in a fun way that is even remotely close to how actual es plays.

I know the devs have ruled that they simply don't see a campaign of any sorts working for the game. As awesome as it would be, I just don't see it working with the was that ES is designed.



I mean...what would you do? Game play is actually really simple and straight forward. I don't see anywhere that narrative could be formed. The things you've suggested sound to be more fitting as random event-like happenings--as you play the game, depending on how things develop, you get certain messages about something that just happened (first contact, system strikes, etc). At the same time, because everyone has their own play style, these can't go into too much dept with detail either, or you might be told your empire is doing something that you don't want them doing.

Well I fear that it is complicated, too. But nevertheless it's nice speculating. A way could be to start on a small map with stars and systems set and popups for every story-interesting system you need, while the goal is allways something like reaching a special tech, reaching a diplomacy or superiority status (without war against a designated faction) or invading a special system - with these fixed conditions ending the "campaign-mission" when reached (with the AI behaving normaly or modified to do something fixed like always stay at war with you or the main object to invade your homesystem. Things that the AI would do anyway without much manipulation of the programming).



popups and little movies could tell the story, like when you reach a set system with fixed Planets and anomalies/artifacts you trigger those events. I think it could be possible and with some more storywriting/moviemaking, you could actually tell a really cool story.

but right now the Dev-Team focuses on special Systems and multiple choice event-pop-ups, which should embed some more story and fluff in the random-game.



These things interest me very much since I find the backround of ES very interessting and nicely told by the starting-vids for the factions. Every additional improvement to tell the story would be welcome. And perhaps there could be a tool/mod later on to build your own campaign?

Codename_Veers wrote:
... A way could be to start on a small map with stars and systems set and popups for every story-interesting system you need, while the goal is allways something like reaching a special tech, reaching a diplomacy or superiority status (without war against a designated faction) or invading a special system - with these fixed conditions ending the "campaign-mission" when reached (with the AI behaving normaly or modified to do something fixed like always stay at war with you or the main object to invade your homesystem. Things that the AI would do anyway without much manipulation of the programming).



popups and little movies could tell the story, like when you reach a set system with fixed Planets and anomalies/artifacts you trigger those events. I think it could be possible and with some more storywriting/moviemaking, you could actually tell a really cool story.

...

And perhaps there could be a tool/mod later on to build your own campaign?

I think you've pretty much hit it on the head with this.



And, I do think event popups with differing choices that affect the universe are definitely a good step in the right direction.

However, if the Devs manage to tie the events into something resembling of an epic story (after all, the universe is nothing but) it would be absolutely fantastic.



One way to do that, I think, is to create random event categories.

So, when events from group A happen, there is a higher chance of events from group B happening, then group C, and so on... leading to progressive, and yet still random, events.

Something along the lines of: ||The script determines it is time for a random event || : [A] -> [A-x,B] -> [A-x*n1,B-y,C] -> etc.

Where A, B, C, etc are initially at high probability, but as events of that category happen, have a lesser chance of occurring (decreased by x, y, etc).



Thoughts?

The idea is awesome LunarAvatar! it seems you could look at my thread (started it in Alpha) it's pretty much about events that escalate, maybe drop a few suggestions there?

here's the link: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12521-suggestion-escalating-events

LunarAvatar wrote:
I think you've pretty much hit it on the head with this.



And, I do think event popups with differing choices that affect the universe are definitely a good step in the right direction.

However, if the Devs manage to tie the events into something resembling of an epic story (after all, the universe is nothing but) it would be absolutely fantastic.



One way to do that, I think, is to create random event categories.

So, when events from group A happen, there is a higher chance of events from group B happening, then group C, and so on... leading to progressive, and yet still random, events.

Something along the lines of: ||The script determines it is time for a random event || : [A] -> [A-x,B] -> [A-x*n1,B-y,C] -> etc.

Where A, B, C, etc are initially at high probability, but as events of that category happen, have a lesser chance of occurring (decreased by x, y, etc).



Thoughts?

Are you a programmer or math-head? Yeah, nice. That could work. If I had the time, the permission and the support of some programmers, I would work on it myself as a free mod. Perhaps if someone else is leading such a project I could start in reading more about the backround and design some events and storys for pop-ups...

Wenchbane wrote:
The idea is awesome LunarAvatar! it seems you could look at my thread (started it in Alpha) it's pretty much about events that escalate, maybe drop a few suggestions there?

here's the link: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12521-suggestion-escalating-events

Have read it and found it very tempting. Same here as above: If someone would leed on such a concept I would participate as free author with pleasure. Since I study media and theater science and aim for a career as director, I surely would have some nice ideas to add. Constructing scenarios and storys is my hobby anyways...(Just saying: Roleplayinggames RULE, Baby!!!)

@ Codename_Veers I would appreciate any input from another person at this point, the thread is almost full of just my ideas, can get quite stagnant.



With the current G2G vote up maybe it could help give the Devs some additional ideas in the direction they take with the events vote if it succeeds or later on if it doesn't.

Also as a side note if the idea kicks some serious a** it could make the game =)



Also this idea is quite good with where it starts off with the events (Group A, B and C events all leading into each other and keeping some form of consistency and variety) hopefully it helps the Devs out! So excited for the end of this month xD



On a side note, I used to work in a 40K hobby shop, Sometimes I would make some really cool scenarios for people there when they couldn't come up with a scene or reason for the game they're playing. Would also love making stories and scenarios for heroes and characters, loved the idea of progressive hero stories when people played campaigns.

Well, I could surely make a little list of possible Events and Storys, but It would take me sometime now, since I'm not at home and need to write some work for university...

But sure I will help in your discussion as well, when I'm back home. ^^

The events like "first contact", new ship classes, advanced planet type colonization, etc. already kinda give the bones of a story of your progression, but they could definitely be fleshed out into more than just popups. A major requirement for any sort of "campaign" would be finite goals and some sort of tech/expansion limitation - in addition to likely a slower base rate of progression. The "best" method which comes to mind to me based on the current features in the game already is to have a single enormous galaxy, start with very limited tech available to research, and have the game speed at slow. The starting area of your galaxy would have a single other faction in it, and you would have some goals to meet. For example, getting your starting system some basic capabilities (n-way, population at least 6, etc) would "unlock" the colonizer module. Then you would have the goals to say, settle a second system, meet another species, etc, each goal unlocking another tier of tech to research. As you progressed, the appearance of a new "unknown" faction through a wormhole could spin the campaign off into another direction, unlocking Casimir research after say, either defeating their fleet which has appeared (it would have to be more than just a scout, something that was a decent "threat") or having made peace with them (basically, "discovering" the equipment on their ships in some way which allowed them to make use of the wormhole in the first place, and then "reverse engineering" it to give yourself the same capability).



In short, it would be possible to do a decent campaign, with story elements in popups/cinematics, even using the existing game elements - but it would require proper triggers (a popular request in any respect) to control the AI and the unlocking of tech, as well as a LOT of work to do this for each faction (the starting goals could be mostly similar, but past the very early goals they would be dramatically different for each faction).