Hi,



I don't know if this has been already considered / discussed, but the whole map seems to be designed as a land-grab between empires with the only hindrances besides direct confrontation being the capacity to build colony ships fast enough and managing the unhappiness within each empire.



Would there be a possibility to design "neutral" / non-major civilizations that would force, beyond pirates, players to lay siege to planets and or fight mini-wars with light space defence forces of these non-major empires? This could spice things up a bit when discovering systems as well as slowing down some speedy expansions if a few well-placed systems can defend themselves.



Maybe an alternative could be to have pirates-held systems, provided the game can support such a thing?

I like it, it would definitely change the tempo a bit having a few systems with defenses and infrastructure. It would be a great feature in the options list. An ability to turn it on or off, much like pirates.

If i'm reading this right they'd function similarly to city states in Civ 5, which is awesome.

Greyborea wrote:
Maybe an alternative could be to have pirates-held systems, provided the game can support such a thing?

Well in fact Pirate can held a system because they can invade a system owned by a faction.

But so far they cannot take a neutral system. But it is quite an interesting idea

They can hold it, yup, but I am not sure if they develop it or not.

From earlier games, I would say they do not develop the systems or use the output, which is a pity. Would make for great fun if they could begin to be really more than a nuisance.

Pikou wrote:
Well in fact Pirate can held a system because they can invade a system owned by a faction.

But so far they cannot take a neutral system. But it is quite an interesting idea

Pikou wrote:
Well in fact Pirate can held a system because they can invade a system owned by a faction.

But so far they cannot take a neutral system. But it is quite an interesting idea

Thanks for the response. As the others posters also mention, if the Pirates could exploit and effectively rule some systems that would be awesome