I posted this on the massive DLC thread on steam but I was wondering what people thought of my ideas- well, the second one to be precise. I think most people would instantly agree with any plan that involves a new major race so the second one is the one which is a bit more complex
Okay- so I was just playing the mercenary expansion and I had a thought. I really like the new elements the mercs add to the game and I feel like the two "new" races are a lot of fun. But I had two thoughts.
First is quick and painless. Since the Korx are making all this money- can we PLEASE see them return as a major race in either a DLC or later expansion? They look super cool in this expansion and I would kill for a Korx DLC. I mean, the korx are evil- but they are evil traders. That is really rather interesting and fills a niche that the other evil races don't. I know technically the irridian corp are the new traders- but they are more pragmatic. They will make a good deal but they won't be going out of their way to rip you off. Meanwhile the Korx seem like the sort of people to profiteer from both sides of the war- to purposely help whichever side of a conflict is losing just to keep it going for longer so they can make bank. I just feel the gameplay implications of such a race would be.. interesting. They don't care about lives, they care about profit.
Anyway- my second thought I wrote up during a game and will copy-paste as is. It has to do with making minor races more interesting and involved with the game world.
"Minor races "grow"
It makes very little sense to me that minor races for some reason are just "not as ambitious" as your own races and thus stay on one world. Moreover, it makes little sense that they all start at your level of technology. My suggestion is a change to this system which would make them a much more interesting and dynamic part of gameplay. My suggestion is that each minor race starts "pre-warp" so to speak- in that they don't have high levels of technology. A set number of minor races would start at spawn- each with their own world and turn timer for how long it will be until they are able to be contacted. Minor races would also have a small chance to spawn on any uninhabited high class world (12+) with a very long turn timer (due to them starting out at the stone age). Before the UP forms- these planets could be left alone or conquered at will. The longer a minor race was alive on a planet the more population it would have (and thus the harder to take over)... but eventually a minor race would reach space and be contactable. When this happens their stating diplomacy level with you will be based on if you left them alone, attacked (and failed) to conquer them or somehow indirectly positively uplifted/effected their development. The UP would have new laws which could be passed to protect this development. Players could vote for "No change"- which would let them conquer minor races at will, "Cultural Protection" which would make attacking or funding minors illegal, "Universal uplift"; attacking a minor is illegal and any major races with contact with this minor would be forced to pay a percentage of their economy to helping the minor race reach full status faster, or "Local uplift" minors are still defended from attacks, but the only race which needs to pay a percentage of their economy are those whose area of influence overlaps their world.
When a minor "matures" it will make diplomatic ties based on who did what. If no one paid any money to uplift the minor- then the minor will be neutral to everyone. If people did, then the minor will like people based on how much they paid to uplift. If someone attacks them (and fails to conquer them) then naturally that minor will hate them. If one race has done a LOT to uplift the minor (such as through the local uplift option) then the minor may offer to join that empire. "