Nakalim are still in a bad place, in my oppinion and i would wanna share my ideas of why that is and how you might wanna fix it.


In ES2 every problem you encounter is basically solved with science. I really like the idea to have a faction that doesnt progress science like other factions do but the way Nakalim handle science is just extremely unrewarding because you progress much much slower and, therefore arent able to deal with changing circumstances nearly as fast as other factions and thats basically what ES2 is all about.


My suggestions for a Nakalim-change that would make em fun and compatible (i feel they are neither fun nor compatible beyond the early game right now) while making em even more unique are as follows:


1. Remove Science completely for the Nakalim. The way it is now you just feel crippled and noone likes being crippled. Also remove the headstart of 2 inner rings. Relics should only be used for empire upgrades and heroes and not do anything when you keep em lying around in stock.


2. Instead give em devotion-points or whatever you wanna call it. My idea is that the Nakalim would gather DPs and when they reach a certain threshold they can "unleash" the power of their Faith and get into a stage where they are able to aquire technologies for a certain number of turns (Age of Faith).


3. Aquiring devotion points should be possible by a law of the religious party (so it would finally make sense to play Nakalim religious which isnt the case atm) and by building temples to the lost (currently temples half your income on the planet its on and therefore give you 10 influence per population; i would have the income on the planet halfed and grant a specific amount of devotion points per FIDSI lost).


4. The Age of Faith could be designed in a way that you have different threshholds where you could activate it. Basically the longer you wait and gather DPs the longer the AoF becomes. I am also imagining certain economic and military buffs while you are sitting on your DPs (more on that in 5.). Basically the more DPs you have but dont use by going into an AoF the bigger the bonuses are. As for aquiring tech i am thinking 1 turn per tech in first ring, 2 turns per tech in second ring, 3 turns per tech in 3rd ring and so on while an AoF is going on.


5. Since Nakalim wont have any science the research & exploration - tab needs a rework because all sience-buildings will be gone, obviously. My idea here would be to have a couple of special buildings that affect the AOF and the buffs you get from hoarding DPs. Like "+ 1 turn on AoF-length on empire could be a building you can build once per System. Another one could be "+5 industry per population on system while at DP-threshold 1 or above". I am sure you get what i mean. I would also suggest that you start on a short AoF of 2 - 5 turns so you can, at least pick a bit of techs to accommodate for your start before you are stranded for a while.


6. Ysander and the Academization-gameplay. Honestly: Screw it. I repurposed Temples to the lost above already and the amount of relics doesnt need to be as high as it needed to be before because you dont hoard them. You have plenty without getting em from Ysander (but i would absolutely keep em in the game in the way that you can pick em up on systems and improve empire and heroes). The 50-pop-collection-bonus for nakalim should be something related to DPs and AoF isntead (maybe "-1 turn to aquire a tech while in an AoF"). If you want to keep the Academy you could have it work as it does right now minus the relics Ysander gives to you because then you would have "too many" but i would completly scrap the Academy as a faction. Noone likes it. just scrap it, archive the achievements related to the "old gamestyle" and make new ones.


I think that this gameplay would be much more interesting and rewarding and would lift the Nakalim to a place where they stand shoulder to shoulder with the other factions in this game.



Now i realize ideas-section for ES2 has been closed and this is only G2G-related ideas but, as you can see i put some energy into this so i will post it anyway....