I've formatted this kind of lengthily, just to really make sure we're all on the same page, but you can just skip to the 3rd part for my suggestions.
If you're in full tl;dr mode, I've bolded what is the simplest and most crucial fix.
1. What happens:
After establishing a colony, rival factions will occasionally send expeditions to disrupt colony operations. If the attacker is repelled, through direct player action, colony defenses, or even random events (ie: losing to pirates in hyperspace), the player will receive a -5 penalty to relations with the aggressor faction.
2. Why it's a problem (and why it's not):
Tooltips like this imply the player will not suffer a reputation penalty for fighting the enemy fleet, which, while technically accurate (since the reputation penalty comes from the fleet losing for any reason), comes as a surprise to the player, who feels penalized without warning. The reputation hit also feels like the player has done something wrong while, as far as my own testing has confirmed, the only way to avoid the reputation loss is if the attack is successful, making the only player choice available to be to deliberately downgrade their defenses and suffer the disruption, which I'm pretty sure just isn't worth it. One is left with a sort of lose/lose dilemma and a feeling of unfairness.
Now, it's not a problem because it punishes the player for having a colony, I think to a degree the player should be pressured and challenged after establishing a colony. Rising tensions with other factions is a promising part of that. So, for me at least, I don't think simply removing the reputation penalty is an appropriate solution.
3. Suggestions:
The simplest fix is just to
update tooltip information so that the player is fully informed of what will happen. This prioritizes the options the player has regarding preventing the expedition from leaving in the first place. I'd be satisfied with this.
For a more in depth solution, I think the way the player is informed of a hostile expedition could be quite flavourfully updated. Instead of being warned of (what feels like) an impending unprovoked attack (through what is presumed to be your intelligence network but is sort of just player omniscience) the faction (or a specific officer from that faction) could send you a threatening demanding message. Currently, you can prevent an attack from occurring by spending reputation or money, and those same options would be available in this dialogue approach. This reframes and personalizes the hostility, so it feels less random, and this comes with a few additional options and benefits:
- If the problem is an Open Port, you could promise to change that policy in order to receive a discount on the money or reputation spent, with consequences for breaking that promise.
- Different factions could be made even more distinct from one another by the tone and demands of their messages.
- The rising tension of the messages could better convey the acceleration of hostilities, and narratively justify why deterring fleet repeatedly costs more and more.
- Threats could include things other than hostile fleets; including trade embargoes, bounties (increasing pirate activity against you) and anti-player propaganda campaigns (damaging relations across multiple factions)
- Demands could expanded too, like fulfilling specific missions (providing goods, bounties, surveys, etc). I like this because currently some players already seek out missions to make up for the -5 reputation loss, so offering a mission to prevent that loss kind of leads to the same actions from the player, but feels more intuitive and less gamified. (Would definitely feel frustrating if it occurred to much, but that's an issue present in the current build too)
- The current system of a completely unsanctioned sneak attack could occur, with the warning message sent by an ally, possibly in the form of an anonymous tip; Such as someone from within the faction if your general reputation with them is in the green, or could be from nearby factions you're on good terms with (particularly Independents, who are kind of everywhere and easy to befriend). This attack wouldn't come with the reputation penalty, which I said I didn't like as a solution but I do like it if it's not the only or most common method. The presence of directly addressed messages suddenly makes their absence more interesting.
I'd also enjoy a real possibility that the attack is executed fully without warning, because of bad luck and/or a lack of friendlies in the area. It'd be pretty bad to get disrupted without warning, so an addition to information on Free Port status and AI usage would include a blurb aboot "some factions don't like this and may launch attacks, even in secret" would be important. The threat of this would, psychologically, do more to deter players away from these very mechanically beneficial things and also to prioritize defenses. Though in practice these secret attacks wouldn't be likely to be particularly strong, and be repelled by decent defenses. To which, the addition of a message "While you were away, your defenders repelled an enemy ambush" would probably be very fun to hear like, "Good job folks, I knew your upkeep costs were worth it"
- It could convincingly lead into a more full scale campaign against the (usually very powerful) player. Including implying alliances between other factions to bring you down a peg.
- The individuals sending you messages could also become more memorable and distinct, so that your individual relationship has a bit more sway (Along the lines of classic StarSector knockoff Mount & Blade
(a joke)) but going in depth on individual reputations is definitely a whole 'nother subject.
4. Conclusion
If you can tell by how easy it was for me to get carried away there, I think this warning message framework has a lot of potential to be expanded in a lot of directions. The first three of that list are like, genuine recommendations, beyond that is just optional hypotheticals, since I don't know how 4X-y the game will actually end up being. (I haven't actually tried the Nexerelin mod yet, I'll get around to it)
Anyways thanks for reading and considering my thoughts, I look forward to any input and in particular thanks to the dev for a game I'm still very much enjoying.
