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[Gothars]

I've been playing a lot of Battle Brothers lately, and the game has an "ambition" mechanic that I really like and that would fit very well for Starsector. It really works wonders to make the (open-world) game flow smoothly.

It would work like this: From time to time you can choose what your captain's next ambition should be. You can choose from a handful of semi-randomly selected options, or you can ignore the system and chose non at all. If you fulfill an ambition you get a small to medium bonus, if you cancel the ambition you get a small penalty. The clue is that every ambition is something that helps you understand the game's mechanics or explore the game's options and locations. These ambitions are supposed to:

1)Be a continuous (non-handholding) tutorial

2)Encourage you to experience parts of the game that you might otherwise not

3)Keep you from ever feeling lost and without goal, which can easily happen in a game that offers as much freedom as Starsector.


I wrote ambitions are only semi-random because some progression and pre-selection should be involved, depending on your level and what you already archived. Your ambitions grow with you.
It could start with something like "gain a contact", "buy your first combat-destroyer", "recruit an officer", "discover lost ruins" and "raid a market", and escalate to stuff like "get your first capital ship", "exploit a shortage", "intercept a trading fleet", "defeat a remnant station" or "discover one of the lost wonders of the Domain".

Rewards could be simply bonus XP, a small reputation gain with all factions or the occasional rare weapon or hull.

[Alex]

That's a really neat way to frame missions! It lets you have mission goals be things that would conceptually be a bit tricky to present as a mission otherwise, and the internal-narrative-creating aspect is good stuff, too.

I'm kind of wary of stuffing too many miscellaneous not-exactly-core things into the game, if that makes sense, but I'm glad you mentioned this, it's just a very cool design thing. I really ought to play Battle Brothers at some point!

[Gothars]

I'm kind of wary of stuffing too many miscellaneous not-exactly-core things into the game, if that makes sense

Yeah, makes total sense. To do ambitions in Starsector properly the existing guidance mechanics would probably have to be reworked and integrated. Starsector already has multiple ways to guide the player, like exploration-missions, the domain probes, the tutorial system and the whole Galatia quest line. BB has nothing like these, its all combat missions and ambitions. In a way that makes it definitely more tidy and easier to have well paced gameplay-loop, but also less... grant? More gamey, surely.


I guess about six years ago would have been a good time to suggest this for Starsector

I really ought to play Battle Brothers at some point!

It really is well designed and, in the best way, addictive! Took me two tries to get into it though, it's challenging and doesn't like to explain itself.

[Alex]

Yeah, I can see how that might be more gamey, but also like... maybe more board-gamey? That sort of thing can actually be a good thing as far as the ability to tell yourself a story of your playthrough, I think. If the game mechanics are clearly divorced from "realism" then one might let the imagination go more freely.

Adding it to my short-list of games to try! And, Ill consider myself duly warned about the explaining itself

[xenoargh]

I like this idea, too. Would give a bit more structure, and for a Steam release (if that ever happens) it's perfect for Achievements.

[Sendrien]

I also like this idea. I think it would add a lot to Starsector.

[TheLaughingDead]

Yes! Battle Brothers has a lot of awesome mechanics and the similarities of the two games (sandbox merc fleet/band with individual loadouts/builds, slowly ramping better equipment + enemies, rep/fame systems allowing for mission progression, etc) allows for some awesome inspiration to be taken. +1 on the Ambitions system!

[Ragnarok101]

I very much like this idea. Being able to pick, in-game, something to work towards, would be quite nice.