Re: bombardments etc -
It's not a symmetrical situation, so mechanical symmetry as a default would be strange. Imagine if everyone became hostile to the Hegemony because they stamped out a slightly-bigger-than-usual nest of pirates somewhere out on the fringes.
It might make sense in some cases - say if it were possible for you to take over a core planet, and then *that* got bombarded - or if you became really well established, with a huge colony - but those seem like a good fit for special cases and not the base mechanics.
In any case, gameplay easily beats out other considerations here. This isn't a 4x, right, so I'm not working with an assumption of parity between the player and other factions. I get that if you're coming from that place, asymmetry would feel wrong, but that's not the way I'm looking at this, so this is probably a mismatch between our assumptions.
And speaking of gameplay, the nice thing about the threat of a bombardment is it really raises the stakes. Of course, it'd have to be something that's clearly signalled and built up to; an "oops, your colony just got bombarded" message with no advance warning would not be good.
Speaking of pulse spam, if reputation between factions will no longer be static, I like to see them inflict a bunch of -1s to their reputation with other factions they ping, or if not, at least player gets no penalty when his fleets pulse spam in systems the player controls.
Come on now, that seems a bit petty
Accessibility increases both imports and exports, yes? I am a bit unsure how imports work now.
Right! Colonies just get stuff, without it being from a specific source, up to the maximum production of the biggest exporter.
Checking for release on a daily basis
I'm so excited for this update! I've been looking forward to this sorta thing from this game for like 7 years and here we are!! My studies are going to suffer so much when it does come out hahah.
I've been looking forward to getting this stuff in the game for about as long
Just a quick thought - shouldn't "Global Market Value" be "Sector Market Value"?
Hmm - that might technically be more accurate, but "global" seems more immediately clear.
The reason I think this is preferable is because you can make factions more unique if they can do things that the player can't do (at least not easily), and you'd have to consider the different points of each. "Oh, gotta be careful about competing with this faction, can't simply just make some fuel and get a quick buck without some severe consequences."
Yep, definitely. If the Diktat is more dangerous to annoy than, say, the Hegemony, then that's an interesting wrinkle.