TL:DNR version: Players should be able to talk to empires. Players should have to confront major Plot Events that force them to adjust their resources. The Space Empires need personality, goals and behaviors at Fleet, Colony and Empire levels.
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So, we're getting close to 1.0! This is super-exciting stuff, honestly; I've been writing critiques, game-design ideas, etc., for this game for quite some time now; it's great watching it reach a final form.
Starsector has evolved, over the years, into a game with:
1. Perhaps the most detailed take on "2D tactical 'smup" ever built, in terms of systems. I have various quibbles with balance, etc., but those are addressable through mods or changes, and none of them are truly game-wrecking.
2. Broad and deep modding support, so there's potentially endless variety of Content available, for players who are bored with Vanilla, and (potentially) a huge sales tail once the game's available to a wider audience through Steam / GoG / etc., rather than word-of-mouth.
I can see a modernized Ironclads, various forms of specific game (for example, a mod set entirely in one solar system, say a super-detailed version of Sol set in The Expanse's universe, for example) and other things working really nicely to boost visibility over time. I definitely think that we'll see some pretty amazing stuff happen as the game's core gets finalized and the API's stable.
3. Various structures that create endless missions; while most of these missions are still a little shallower than I'd prefer, as they're generally, "go here, kill this / click on this" at least they feel solid and there's enough variety. I particularly like how the current Named Bounties don't give us the direct location of our quarries; this encourages exploration in a fun way.
4. A potentially deep secondary game level, where players go from, "I'm an individual pilot" to "I'm a Space Admiral with my hearties roaming the black" to "I'm a Space Lord, here are my Space Fiefs".
It's that last part, where the game transitions to a Mount-And-Blade-like meta, that I largely want to talk about here, in part to avoid its problems (
it'll be interesting to see if Bannerlord fixes them, but after seeing Taleworld's blog posts about their economy design... I'm afraid they've largely screwed it up, again).
OK, so, in my analysis, the skeleton's reasonably solid; the economy, after a few dead ends, feels like it works, the UI for installing things into our Space Fiefs works well, etc.
When we get past that first layer, i.e. "Is setting up Space Fiefs working", I think the answer's also largely yes. I'm not entirely sold on having limited slots available to choose from, so that Colonies' economies are pigeon-holed; if I want to set up Mining on an inefficient rock, just to mess with local supplies, and am content with taking a loss, it seems reasonable I could do that. But let's presume that that feature's staying, because adding complexity to that UI would be annoying, and move on to what to do with those limited resources.
So, what would make this game feel feature-complete? Essentially... it's time to get past what the Exerelin / Vacuum projects did six years ago. But better!
We need empires that
behave dynamically,
have character, and whose
evolving story becomes a vital part of the player's experience- their behaviors should
become the canvas the player paints their experience upon.
OK, enough rambling at the edges.
How should this actually work?Diplomacy
Diplomacy is "war by other means", in the context of the Starsector universe. With limited resources, constant problems with Pirates and Pathers and [REDACTED] and so forth, the empires need to deal with one another constructively whenever possible, if they're going to survive. Of course, that depends on rational leaders who want the Sector to thrive, not just their own States, and States that set goals that ensure the survival of the Sector. Given that this is Starsector's dystopian universe... well, it might not work out in practice, lol.
How would Diplomacy work?
1. There's already a basic skeleton for AI-to-AI diplomacy. It could get fleshed out more, with the suggestions below, but essentially, it's already there, it just needs some tuning.
Where I'd tune it, to be frank, is in terms of dealing with time-scales and behaviors. First off, Faction wars ought to be Really Serious Events; for the most part Factions shouldn't actually be "at war" with one another, but instead are going to "be hostile". "Be hostile" should be a sliding slope; everything from, "we put Tariff barriers onto your commerce" to "if we encounter your fleets in our areas, we'll engage".
The current systems, where it feels like hostilities are binary on-off systems, should be refined, so that players get a sense of rising tensions, diplomatic incidents and minor hostilities, rather than constant warfare.
Actual all-out warfare between States should, imho, be a Plot Mover, forcing players to decide whose side (if any) they want to be on. If a player owns one or more Colonies, they should be contacted diplomatically, not just sent a little text blurb in the Intel tab.
Wars should have levels, as well: everything from Raids to Saturation Bombardments are all Acts of War. If two Factions have reached the point where they're actually using AM, that should become another Plot Mover; does the player act to prevent the destruction of the Sector, or sit out the carnage and pick up the carrion?
2. Player-to-AI diplomacy is the larger design concern here. Once players have established themselves as Space Lords, they need ways to talk to the other empires as Heads of State.
So, let's revisit the classics, starting with the greatest of them all, Master of Orion II. Yes, it's a 4X, but stay with me, folks; it's one of Starsector's obvious touchstones, and in this case, it's almost perfect as a model.
I really
love MOO II's diplomatic systems and the UI design. They're simple, easy-to-understand, and pretty well match what I'd like to see in a Starsector context. I feel like the system was very carefully thought-out and designed; there isn't any extra fluff, clicking or confusing mechanics. Every action feels meaningful; if you've agreed to something, or have spurned the advances of another empire, or have agreed to join an Ally in their war on another party... it all feels hefty; you actually feel the weight of your responsibilities as Space Emperor.
Like so many things in Master of Orion II, I feel like it was a brilliant bit of polish on what was already a great game design.
Let's look at how not to do it (imho):
I really dislike Stellaris's diplomatic systems. Note a few things:
1. It's visually busy, with all of the other elements behind it, drawing through it, etc. That by itself is a bit Yuck; it takes away from the gravity of "hey, I'm talking to the leadership of an empire here".
2. It's comparatively simplistic. This suits Stellaris, where, frankly, sooner or later the answer to all diplomatic problems is, "exterminate" or "devour". I don't think that's suitable for the Starsector universe's feel, where (personally) I think that if the player's nuked everybody else, they should probably lose to one of the Plot Mover events (but, ah, more on that later).
In general, while I feel that, other than the visual treatment, Stellaris's system is adequate for the game design it serves, it's less "how to do this right".
If we want to talk about more examples, I'm fine with that; I think these are two examples of UIs that demonstrate some key points:
1. I'm expecting David's art front-and-center here.
2. I want to see clarity of design; simplicity rather than busyness; something that says, "hey, this is serious business; we're talking about the fate of the Sector"
3. I want the actual gameplay mechanics to be pretty straight-forward, in terms of player choices, rather than a muddle of numbers, percentages, RNG or other obvious game mechanics. If those factors are absolutely necessary (for example, the percentage chance of being rebuffed when asking for lower Tariffs between empires) then it should be shown explicitly, rather than being hidden, as in MOO II; I think that is maybe my only real complaint about its design here- hidden (and in a couple of notable cases, buggy) mechanics aren't usually good mechanics.
OK, so that's it, in terms opening up Diplomacy and talking to the other empires. I'd suggest, pretty strongly, that Starsector borrow very heavily from MOO's base systems in terms of "when do we see the Diplomatic Window open because of events"- i.e., if you have an Ally and they've just decided to declare war, they're going to initiate contact; when players found their first Colony, they should expect to be contacted by the three nearest Factions and probably one more outlier, a weak Faction perhaps, that wants to become stronger by finding friends.
