If you prefer to create your own space faring civilization, to play the game your own way, you can do so by picking every trait that will be part of your people's DNA.



What defines a faction? A visual, an affinity and a list of traits.



The affinity is a very strong orientation for a faction; which will give one powerful Ability and a unique Tech Tree (modifying the main tech tree).



Regarding the Traits you have 80 points to spend. Each Trait is declined in several versions, the more powerful they are, the more they cost.

Some Traits have a negative version of themselves, giving a malus to the player. By choosing it, you will get extra points to spend on other Traits.



Obviously the list as you see below is subject to changes, especially concerning cost and effect

Affinity Traits

One trait in this list must be chosen for each created faction (and only one). Each of our 8 factions will have its own affinity trait (and only one).

Affinity traits have no cost; they should all be balanced between them (and with affinity techs)





Malus

• All traits with a * have a “malus” version.

• A player can’t select a bonus and its corresponding malus on the same faction.



For some technologies, transforming the positive effects into negative ones won’t suffice. We’ll have to re-write its description and effects (should it be considered as a new trait entirely negative).



Starting Technologies

NB: All traits below that have a * after their name can be also negative to gain some points to invest elsewhere. See the malus section for more details.



Economy





Population





Science





Building





Ships and Fleets





Space Battle





Defense





Diplomacy





Heroes

Is there a limit to the number of negative points you can invest in your custom race?

Boygor wrote:
Is there a limit to the number of negative points you can invest in your custom race?

-226 I presume...

I mean there is no reason to get all of them. If you check the points for them you get only somewhere from around half to 2/3s the points for a drawback of the same magnitude that you get an advantage.



There will ofcourse be lots of ways to abuse this and ill be performing some sort of optimisation-calculation on this soon enough since some values are bound to be more important than others.



One ability I recon will be in almost every build I make is the Tolerant one assuming the %-age isnt too big.

This looks pretty cool, quite a variety to choose your faction make up. Nice!

I like the idea of building a super industrial race!



So what if the ships I build won't be as good as that of the other races and will thus get blown into pieces, I will just build more!



"Quantity is a quality in its own right"



-Josef Stalin



I am going to be the Josef Stalin of the space era!

Alderbranch wrote:
-226 I presume...

I mean there is no reason to get all of them. If you check the points for them you get only somewhere from around half to 2/3s the points for a drawback of the same magnitude that you get an advantage.



There will ofcourse be lots of ways to abuse this and ill be performing some sort of optimisation-calculation on this soon enough since some values are bound to be more important than others.



One ability I recon will be in almost every build I make is the Tolerant one assuming the %-age isnt too big.

That could lead to some interesting races! I like very much the idea of having a huge variety of races out there. It'll make multiplayer much more interesting.

I'm someone who loves designing his own races/factions/empires. There's just something about that personal touch that makes a big difference to me during gameplay. It's nice to see we'll have so many options.



Typically I like to overwhelm my enemies with science and technology.

Usually I create my race. But in the actual beta of Fallen Enchantress (which is already good) I'm finding myself playing with the races offered by the devs O_o. So I really think that if the races really play differently, then I'll try them. They have to be truly different. In one thread, the devs from Fallen Enchantress said that differentiation was not about a race can do but also what they can't : for instance one race can't use bows. You really have to rethink your strategy with that. Another race can bribe units while they fight. Another one have spells that cost more (magic is so important that such a race must be played differently), etc.

I'm sure such a recipe can be used with ES.

I've always liked the idea of creating your own empire/faction, and always use when I can. It's great to see this option is being implemented.

I don't understand : creating race and/or civilisations must be there say that we can create new skills only on the strain of the eight "civilisation's world" already created ?

So we aren't really created race, but our future gameplay, in a defined context... Well, I'm probably a little bit too ambitious.

But I can't decently criticize without talking about the amount of the possible "Traits".



It is giving me a new idea :

Is it unthinkable create a mod-creator which is usable by gamers to create a real new story, whith real skills, new ideas, new ways to play, new ways to think if we imagine civilisations really good designed ? Then there would be a kind oh museum of all the new "civilisations" designed by the gamers, who can voted for their favorite. One which have a wonderful context, another which would be extremely nice to play with... So each gamer is able to vote one and only time, for one and only "civilisation". (This vote can be changed later).



And all of this bring to my proposition :

Regularly (once per semester is possible), the team of Amplitude work on create a playable equivalent of the "civilisation" who received the most important amount of votes.



So, too ambitious, or good idea ?

Doing this, we approach the idea of Nadeo, another French independent studio which give an important part of his games to the creativity of his gamers.

Just a little request for an update on the sophon affinity trait in the table in this section.

Nosferatiel wrote:
Just a little request for an update on the sophon affinity trait in the table in this section.

+1 for this

Tenebryon wrote:
I don't understand : creating race and/or civilisations must be there say that we can create new skills only on the strain of the eight "civilisation's world" already created ?

So we aren't really created race, but our future gameplay, in a defined context... Well, I'm probably a little bit too ambitious.

But I can't decently criticize without talking about the amount of the possible "Traits".



It is giving me a new idea :

Is it unthinkable create a mod-creator which is usable by gamers to create a real new story, whith real skills, new ideas, new ways to play, new ways to think if we imagine civilisations really good designed ? Then there would be a kind oh museum of all the new "civilisations" designed by the gamers, who can voted for their favorite. One which have a wonderful context, another which would be extremely nice to play with... So each gamer is able to vote one and only time, for one and only "civilisation". (This vote can be changed later).



And all of this bring to my proposition :

Regularly (once per semester is possible), the team of Amplitude work on create a playable equivalent of the "civilisation" who received the most important amount of votes.



So, too ambitious, or good idea ?

Doing this, we approach the idea of Nadeo, another French independent studio which give an important part of his games to the creativity of his gamers.

It would be hard to create such a "faction-creator" because there's always the limit of things that are hard-coded.

Looking at that list I feel as it stands is good enough, however, I am not really a fan of the idea of "pick your own negatives".



Let me give an extremely basic example.



ex1. Person A is a introvert.



Positive: likes being alone, can handle solitary tasks.



Negative: Can't handle unfamiliar situations, and is awkward in the public venue.



this is how real negative traits occur, they are the part of what makes a trait positive.





So how does this work in game? (My apologizes quick history lesson for people who may not know)



Lets take Businessmen, and merchants. This doesn't effectively explain true economic policy.



In the 1500s through 1800s was the rise of a particular style of economic policy called Mercantilism.



This effectively was high tariffs on incoming goods from foreign markets and the expansion of exploitation based in rural locations for resources to be processed in major population centers.



Businessmen (is more akin to the 1900s-modern day and the rise of the free trade agreements between nations.) Basically, free trade agreements spread prosperity between locations or spheres instead of condensing the wealth in a single location. However, because of that high population /wealth areas are forced out of production as production costs rise and thus move to rural locations.



So here is how it would look.



Mercantilism: +dusk (or to all FIDS) to top 1 - 5 populous star systems, + slight Approval bonus in capital and top 2 populous star systems, - approval bonus to below top 5 populous star systems, negative dust growth or total dust X% of trade between star systems.



Free Trade: + dust to trade between star systems, negative dust in high population or dust (or FIDS) systems, + to dust (or FIDS) in low population and low dust systems, + to population growth in lowest populous system and population growth bonus slows at 1/4 1/3 1/2 2/3 3/4.



(I hope that all makes sense)



The negative is within the trait itself.

I'm not an expert, but shouldn't "Eternal War" be a negative trait?

These traits will add some amazing customization to an already incredible (alpha) game, though I'm curious as to how detailed the visual customization of races will be...

Monarch wrote:
I'm not an expert, but shouldn't "Eternal War" be a negative trait?

It is. Just look at the price : -10. The "positive" is a typo.

I'd like to see a race who relies on extensive dust usage - actually, evolved by/with the Dust. Maybe even Dust being their food source. Not some form of Dust-addicts however.



They would possess all positive bonuses of the Dust, but they cannot colonize every planet, and suffer heavy population growth penalties. About planets, I don't know how we get Dust (whether or not it is a Resource being gathered on planets I mean), but if Dust is being accumulated from the planets as a resource, this could be their colonization rule aswell. They cannot colonize any planet without a dust source. Their farms provide dust, with some buildings to boost dust production by a percentage to level it out with other races (where they build +food buildings and such, this race builds more +dust buildings, but since dust is used for other stuff aswell, they have access to +dust% buildings aswell).



Also, they are closest to the Endless race. They evolved after the Endless, but worship them as gods, as they think Dust is their creation, and thus, they are their creation (since they evolved by/with the Dust). They are bipedal humanoids with 2 arms and 2 legs, their face resembles squids, with short & multiple tentacles (facial hair?) and they have yellowish & light brownish skintones. Their ships and such looks like living space "animals", and research wise, they make extensive use of biology/organic stuff, while have nearly no interest in complex technologies like AI and such. They have access to special Dust related researches, where they can apply it extensively to their ship platings, weapons and such. They are mostly primitive compared to other races; however their unique and extensive Dust knowledge & applications brings them to the same level with others.



The problem is, I don't have the alpha yet. So, I don't know what Dust is used for, and how much do you get, compared to other resources, a la food. Just trying to come up with a special race, being played completely differently