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« on: August 18, 2022, 02:50:44 AM »
I second this idea. It's funny, I was considering such an idea myself, as I both enjoy those elements of time sensitivity and resource management, as well as the combat and ship building aspects of Starsector, and it would be a joy to see both of them working in tandem.
I have considered challenge runs with specific rules I set for myself: With the Nexerelin mod you can [SPOILERS]: start with the teleporter, and thus use gates you come across. Using that, I could, for instance, explore the outer worlds in an attempt to find gates, which would act as a rest stop, allowing me to return to a friendly system to restock on supplies and buy ships and weapons and hullmods, and in between each gate, scavenge and fight for resources and discoveries which would help me later, and, after a set number of gates, I would then attempt some "final boss" of a challenge: Maybe to invade some specific, tough system, which could then maybe lead into another challenge.
That's the thing that almost draws me away from Starsector, though the sheer enjoyment of the different mechanics still draws me in; There's no set goal. The only thing you could consider the objective is to conquer the galaxy, but even that is hardly a good goal; At some point you reach the peak of difficulty, and after that, it's a simple task of taking your massive amount of resources, and crushing the remaining 40% of the galaxy with it. Before then is interesting, as you're defending your systems against multiple factions, while attempting to invade and take their systems. But there's no showdown, no "final battle" you're preparing for.
Maybe, the closest thing would be the strongest invasion fleet they throw at you, before you are finally able to deliver that finishing blow to their main system, whichever faction you're fighting. But, it's hardly as climactic as something like the Rebel Flagship from FTL, though it's far more realistic for the hardest battle to be the one in the middle of a war.
Anyways, I'd imagine a true roguelike experience would require a Nexerelin amount of effort to make it happen. It is in essentiality an overhaul. It would require a complete redoing of how the factions interact with each other and the map, and you. It would require some level of scripting, like set pirate/enemy patrols and encounters and such, in order to give a somewhat consistent level of difficulty. And then, it would require an increasing level of difficulty, as you get closer to whatever goal is set. And then, many balance patches.
It's not impossible, but it would be a project, no doubt. It would require someone with talent, someone akin to the creator of Nexerelin, and someone with the desire to make such an idea a reality, no less. I would be very interested in such a project myself, and if I already had experience with modding I might take it up myself. But alas, that's quite the time sink, learning how to do such a thing.
I would not hope for such a project to ever be made. I would say, set up an interesting challenge for yourself. You can make your own faction with Nexerelin: Go ahead and try to defend its colonies for as long as possible after declaring war on the rest of the sector. Set yourself a time limit for eliminating every other faction. Make a trade convoy, and with the proceeds over some set time, make a warfleet that you'll attempt to take a system with. There's all sorts of different options and ideas for good challenges that might tickle that fancy we share for roguelikes. Maybe, you'll figure out an idea that's actually good. A good candidate for a good mod. And then maybe someone will pick that idea up, and make something of it.