I love the current battle system. For future developments, I would like to imagine the game as some sort of fun yet detailed card game more so than it is at the moment. Let me discuss what I think about the game design of the current battle card system.





Larger Battle Card Variety

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I would definitely like to see a larger variety of battle cards. I could easily see new battle cards being attached onto current tech. Not only on the right hand tech tree, but attached to tech that just makes sense. Hmmm, a long shot example could be one of the lonely weapons techs with only 1 thing unlocked (most techs seem full when they unlock 2 things on their tooltips), where it could be unique attack abilities.



For example, a particular weapon tech could be understood as an advanced development in a weapon's synergy or coordination, and a corresponding battle card could be the ability to fire in more effective barrages, fire projectiles with unique properties (homing missiles which bypass all accuracy deficits, increased piercing kinetics for a phase, ionized lasers that drain a percentage effectiveness of enemy shields, etc.). Another example of a battle card that could be attached to something on the upper left tech tree could be a deceptive tech that offensively disrupts/uncoordinates weapon bank firing (not all projectiles fired in a salvo), or perhaps to encourage the synergy of multiple battle cards across multiple phases something that slows down enemy weapons tracking in the long range phase could be played, then the retreat card played in the middle phase could allow for players who are unsure of their certainty of winning a battle but want to try out the long range phase to judge how their fleet fares, that's just a random example I made up.





A quick example of the above could be a more effective EMP card associated with one of the improved magnetics techs in the upper weapon tech tree, or one of the more advanced radioactive strategic resources on the right (i.e. more effective nuclear-based EMPs). Could make for some interesting mid-late game battles Haha, ignore the captions on the picture, just something random I made a while ago.







Race-Specific Battle Cards[HR][/HR]

Furthermore, race-specific cards would be an excellent addition, and add a little to the game's lore/backstory. Just making up quick examples without much thought, but a battle card could be stronger defensive cards for the more passive races, hero survivability for the Horatio when expecting to be defeated in a battle, guaranteed retreat cards without damage for weaponless ships for the Amoebas (complements their faction trait), Cravers could consume ships pending destruction in phases to heal their other ships in combat, evasive maneuvers for the Hissho due to their superior piloting skills, crazy Endless battle cards for the Pilgrims due to their experience researching the lost race.



The race-specific cards and their presence on the tech tree could even be tied to traits to allow for custom races now to benefit from them.



I know the above examples aren't that great, and definitely need some balancing for a few of them, but don't you think this would be a great addition to the game? Customization and replayability go hand-in-hand I sure would love to look forward to trying out new custom races and seeing how their particular set of battle cards fare against the enemy. Of course visual effects and balancing would take a long time to implement.







Let me know what you think.

I think race specific cards would make it ima since well each race would have its strong point against specific other races. But i do think more cards would be better but currently the only card set i really use is barrier (blocks a ton of damage) then reapir (incase barrier fails or some attacks get through i repair all my damages) then offense (to finish off an enemy)



I must admit some cards doo need nerfin

First: Please post suggestions only in the proposals section.

Second: More cards for the current combat system have already been proposed here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12076-more-combat-cards-phase-specific-ones-and-card-chaining

This thread has been linked to the former and is moved to the archives.