One thing many people have commented on is that the "exploration" part of the 4X in the game is very weak. There are a number of well-written anomalies; but there is nothing "unknown" that you ever find. Based on TC mods I have done for other games, there are several parts of this which seem possible today, but several parts which need a game enhancement to do.



The goal of this post is to describe how something like "endless treasuries" could be implemented. These are individual ships, or planets or systems, with leftover artifacts from the Endless. This fits the game background but it lets us put in just about anything.



1. Modify xml to add powerful techs, modules, buildings, and anomalies.



This is possible today.



2. Modify galaxy generator to generate a certain number of special systems, containing the buildings, anomalies and ships built with the modules.



This may be possible today. I am unclear exactly where in the flow buildings and ships can be added, but certainly a program could read a turn 0 save and add these. Possibly the galaxy generator can be modified to do this.



3. The added objects need to have "event triggers".



This is not possible today. There are random events, but they are triggered globally on certain turns. We need to add an event which can be triggered upon:



a. Any player entering a specific system

b. Any player successfully destroying a certain ship

c. Any player successfully invading a certain planet



Other triggers would be nice too, but this is a minimum set.



4. Events need to be able to "give" objects like ships or techs.



This is not possible today. Today an event has a global or per-faction scope, so it can globally change visibility, movement, FIDS rates, etc. I want to be able to grant the following things:



a. Simple: lump sum of cash or research

b. A ship (example: you enter a system and find a fully operational endless scoutship)

c. A unique tech (example: ruins found on a planet reveal how to build xxx module or building)

d. A unique building, which can produce something but cannot be built (example: an incomprehensible factory which produces xxx module)

Triggered events are definitely on our improve list. We are aware of how valuable it would be to add some, especially for modders. It does take quite a lot of development time however.



About d), as of now, some random events do "give" objects. One event creates a ship at the last system where you've created one. However, they're super specific events, hardcoded.



When we start refactoring the whole random event system, you'll be able to have much more fun.

LoiCus- wrote:
About d), as of now, some random events do "give" objects. One event creates a ship at the last system where you've created one. However, they're super specific events, hardcoded.

I wondered about that event. As far as I can tell it doesn't do anything. At least I have never noticed any new ship appearing after this event. I look forward to the refactoring.

I had a colony ship appear once due to this affect. "due to the unknown mysteries of FTL travel a complete copy of last ship to travel to this planet has appeared..." or something to that nature and I had a new colony ship for free on turn 8?

Oh, you are right. The colony ship I have received. There is another event which has to do with discovering a mysterious, heavily armored ship.