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Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
11/19/2015
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Someone on Reddit saw our posts and game and mentioned that it was similar to an old dying game called "Imperium Nova". That game was more like a space opera. Your "Player" was actually a house or dynasty of descendants that all had varying stats, could get married, find religion etc. You can send them to different These descendants would be placed around your empire and assigned to different task such as Factories, politics or combat duties kind of like commanders of other games. They all grow old and die and there is a system of hierarchy and ascension.
This is also similar to a board game I have called "Blood Royale" which was a simple war-game with resources in Europe. But you played that countries "Dynasty" which was King/queen which had children and simple stats which played out in a similar way.
I am considering implementing something like this in Barons of the Galaxy. Currently the idea is that you, the player, has an "Avatar" that represents you. Instead we can make it so you start off with a "Character" which you can of course still name and upload an image for but your character has a few simple stats or bonuses that affect your entire game. Perhaps its combat bonuses, political advantages or bonuses to certain kinds of industry or situations. Greater combat bonus when DEFENDING, does better with industry when less competition is nearby etc.
I'm thinking we key the number of descendants you have to your corporation level 1-10. That means when you level up your corporation you will get another descendant showing up very soon after. I don't think its a good idea to implement a "marriage" system as that involves the other players and such and can lead to exhausting your dynasty and other problem. Instead though I think that these descendants are chosen randomly and are related in some way to one of your current characters in the dynasty. "Marriages" would be abstract and spouses are not necessarily characters in the dynasty, perhaps they are bastard children or newly discovered relatives.
For example your first descendant at level two could be a brother, sister, wife, son, daughter maybe even cousin of your first character. Then at level 3 the system will randomly make another brother sister spouse, daughter, son etc. for either character with more chances of currently married descendants having children as opposed to another sibling showing up. A system like that makes for unique looking family trees that are ever changing and cannot be exhausted since there is no strict and necessary "Marriages". The system would replenish descendants when they die due to old age or assassination and would insure that if you are, say, level 6 then there 6 characters in your dynasty. There is always one leader of the dynasty and that characters stats affect your entire game in addition to the location he is at. Ascension would be done like a medieval hierarchy.
When creating your corporation Perhaps you can set a few option which dictate the general type of characters you want to see in your dynasty (Combat oriented, political etc.) doesn't mean you will get descendants exactly like that but the system can enforce a pretty narrow randomizer which can guarantee that, say, at least two thirds of your dynasty would be those kinds of characters. You would also be able to "Level Up" your characters like any other unit in the game for bigger bonuses, make them a bigger military unit or cybernize them to extend their lives etc.
Your dynasty characters would probably be represented by military units like everything else. a medium sized ship that can be given order to move around and maybe apply themselves to an area or structure, maybe even dock with another ship the way fighter and bombe units attach to carriers. which means he or she is on that ship and his bonuses apply to whatever combat that ship gets into. It would also mean that ship can be destroyed and that character killed.
This sounds like a fun and workable mechanic and we're seriously considering implementing something along these lines, just not now as we want to remain on schedule. Perhaps as an expansion to the game if it goes well.
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Jazzek Posts: 57
6/21/2016
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One of the main benefits of having dynasty members is they are a great tool to RP with. On Imperium Nova one of my characters is 'of unsound mind' and happens to also be the regent of the empire. He hosted a war crimes tribunal after a civil war between the emperor & people who thought he was a usurper. Everyone was required to either enter the security checkpoint naked & be provided robes, or submit to a full body search... for security reasons. You can rp your dynasty members with all sorts of personality traits, people or things they particularly like or dislike, have internal arguments between them etc.
It adds a lot of possibilities for RP aside from the regular make money, kill other people thing.
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Masdus Posts: 68
6/21/2016
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I tried Imperium Nova years ago, but could never get into it. That aside Dynasties if done right add atmosphere, history and visible ties between corporate families through marriage. It would be an interesting addition, but I agree it is best left to after launch.
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Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
6/21/2016
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I would love to do stuff like that. I promised myself I would get all the "boring" mechanical aspects of the game working first. The Spreadsheets in space, bean counting, upgrade progress type of stuff. Then when that's moving smoothly I would get into Events and "quests" which some would say is the "fun" part. I wanted the game to have both sides to it. The mathematical business side and a space opera roleplaying side.. Through the voting system and the power being fluid depending on what the event is, theres a lot of opportunity to do some fun political things with or against the other players.
.. just need more TIME! =)
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+1
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Vulpex Posts: 390
6/27/2017
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I just wanted to highlight this again as we have a big crop of new players since launch who might like to consider this idea.
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Tahujoe Posts: 25
7/1/2017
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Main thing that comes to mind when looking at this suggestion is that the player entity is set out in the opening of the game as a corporation rather than a feudal dynasty. Not arguing against this, exactly, just pointing out that it leans more towards nepotism than the more modern idea of meritocracy.
So a few things to help with this: Firstly, structure the available positions like a board of directors, with the CEO at the top alongside the CFO and COO at early levels, perhaps with the early level positions having heavier weights on their bonuses.
Secondly, and this is the big one: Don't automatically fill positions on the Board as they become available. I'd like to see at least two options pop up: A more familial tie to the CEO with a much more random bonus available and a company man who ostensibly rose through the ranks to get to where they are now, with bonuses determined by the company's current research spread.
A touch of auxiliary suggestions on the side because of a less set in stone system: Retiring board members (perhaps with a pension penalty for a certain number of turns over the 100-turn limit of research changes), potentially hiring on the family members of other guild mates, Japanese-style business-oriented adoptions (more for flavor than anything else).
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I swear I'm not trying to break things.
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Hutton Posts: 276
7/1/2017
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I hadn't seen this thread before Vulpex bumped it, but I had actually been thinking of suggesting a board of directors for purely role playing purposes. The idea there was just that you would be able to add some additional portraits with names and titles to your corporate profile, and then have the option of displaying one of them instead of your corporate logo in Comms. I haven't bothered to push that because it seemed unimportant compared to gameplay mechanics, but I hope that could be worked into the Dynasty mechanic if you ever get around to working it in.
The mechanic described in the first post reminds me of Emperor of the Fading Suns, one of my favorite games in theory if it wasn't completely broken. (When I came across Barons of the Galaxy, Emperor of the Fading Suns is what it most reminded me of and that's why I jumped on the Kickstarter. There is was a ministry mechanic that I've been meaning to suggest as a feature to enhance the power of rulerships, but I'll post that elsewhere). Emperor of the Fading Suns gave each Great House five Noble units. They were powerfull in combat, but you only had five and couldn't win the game by claiming the throne if they all died out. Perma-death of your nobles wouldn't work as well in a game like Barons of the Galaxy because it's not supposed to end after a finite number of turns. I'd sugggest a mechanic where your HQ creates one every 1000 turn up to a cap, then if you lose any you have to wait for them to come back. (Remind me how much in game time is supposed to have elapsed in 1000 turns. Was it a year?)
You could perhaps level them up like ships with either military or civilian skills. Or maybe they are born with those skills. (Check out the game Massive Chalice for a really deep example of a game based on breeding noble families). You specify above that you would only give a combat bonus to DEFENSE, which I assume is out caution for unit balance, but there are other potential military bonuses, like speed or upkeep. Maybe even cargo capacity. A noble could act as a unit and lend a bonus to other units that are grouped with it. Perhaps allow multiple nobles in the same group, but not allow their bonuses to be cumulative if they have the same ones. You just get the larger bonus and lose the smaller one. Or, better yet, you just get the smaller bonus to represent that two nobles with the same skills are going to be rivals and not work well together.
One point that might undermine the usefulness of civilian skills is that there isn't much incentive right now to occupy multiple cities unless you are focusing on Tier 1 products or have a remote research base-unless you are going to allow multiple nobles to occupy and buff the same city. Or give them something useful to do in cities you don't occupy, like whip up votes based on the population.
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