The outer Regions of the Galaxy

[Sir Charles]

Hey Leute,

 

this topic is about the outer regions of the galaxy. By that, i am talking of the "real" outer regions (those sectors behind the players spawn sector). There basically is a huge part of the galaxy not being used for anything 'cause the player is spawning closer to the center than these sectors are.

 

I would like to see those sectors having any other use than getting the exodus-item. So this thread is meant to collect some ideas on how to make the outer parts of the galaxy more interesting without destroying the idea of a stronger core.

[Sir Charles]

So these are my own ideas:

 

I want to refer to two points i think still are on the roadmap: Legendary bosses and Fast-Travelling-Points.

 

The first thing is obvious. There is a legend of that super strong alien invader ship in the outer regions of the galaxy that already wiped out billions of innocent people on hundrets of planets. The player can get a mission by hearing these rumors wich leads him to a devastated sector in the outer regions of the galaxy. After some research wich includes jumping through multiple close sectors the player finds the boss and beats the crap out of it (or the other way around  ;D).

 

The second idea leaves much more room for some creativity. E. g. there could be a very low chance of getting into some new kind of pirate ambush when using such a fast travelling point. The player is moved to a travelling point in the outer regions he had not discovered yet with a huge and somewhat strong pirate fleet waiting (no it's not illogical 'cause there is a travelling point right there :P)...

 

A third idea that could be quite cool would be the inclusion of let's say four more legendary bosses into the game. In each corner of the galaxy there is a space station with an insane amount of hull and shields, surrounded by a fleet of really strong guardians. The purpose of those stations is the keep-up of a strong force field or something like that around the whole galaxy to protect it from xotan-invaders coming from the outside. I don't know how this fits into the idea of a story the devs have, but in the end the destruction of every station will lead to a big increase in the power of all attacking xotan, making the game interesting again for players with super-overpowered battleships.

 

I am curious on feedback, critics and more suggestions :)

[Shrooblord]

Heh. Cool. Would players be punished by helping the Xsotan? I assume all other people in the Galaxy wouldn't take too kindly towards the one who endangered their lives more by breaking down the Legendary Barrier of Protection. And you know what they say: word travels fast in... interstellar... galactic civilisations... uh

What do you gain for taking down the Barrier? I can't imagine there are many players out there who would ethically want to take down their own galactic shield just because... it makes the game more intense? OK, maybe there would be, but just "it makes Xsotan stronger" can't be the be-all-and-end-all of it, right?

 

When you asked "what's in the Outer Rim?", my mind did immediately jump to "maybe visitors from Outside", coincidentally. Another cool idea is what Leia in the latest Star Wars movie references, that being allies scattered in the Outer Rim - civilisations like the ones from Operation Exodus who have fled the stage of galactic warfare, but are recuperating and slowly rebuilding forces until the day... that one day that brave Rebel Scum hails them and comes to get them to fight the Empire the Xsotan!

 

Perhaps there could be a lot more interesting stuff going on in the Outer Rim. It's a very underpopulated place, after all. Might be an excellent hiding spot for someone who wants to conduct business that is... less than perfectly legal. Perhaps this shady business practise has hidden Gates from all kinds of places in the Galaxy back to its Sector, so it can do trade and other business with these folks more easily.

[Sir Charles]

I like the idea of some punishment for disabling the force field, like EVERY faction becomes hatefull on you instantly or something like that... The Player should get to now that he just did something really bad.

I talked to some guys on a server and they made me aware of the fact that the xotan getting buffed would be a huge problem for newer players. However this could be avoided by the option to disable that in the world settings.

 

I also thought of giving some life to the project exodus story in the outer rim first of all, but i am lacking in ideas to do so. I think there should be some more background on those guys though. You could get a message from outside, telling you to put down the force field? But Why? Or you meet some Exodus guys, telling you they created the AI to defeat the xotan and trying to kill you 'cause you defeated it... So many possibilities XD

 

 

[Shrooblord]

Storyline spoilers ahead.

 

 

Personally, I'd love the Exodus story not to be over when you get that Xsotan Artefact off of them. They say something along the lines of "we fled to the outer Sectors to escape, but now our hyperdrives are down and we're stuck here - and now we're here. If someone could repair our hyperdrives..." or something like that. And I'm sat there looking at the screen saying "I have hyperdrives. I could help you repair your ship. And if not, I'm sure I could shuttle you lot to wherever you want, in batches of reasonable amounts of people. Heellloooo-ooo? I'm here, aren't I? Let me help you!" But they just sit there and accept their fate.

 

I think there's a lot of potential to be found in developing the story both beyond and before you find their ships. I guess the mystery of having solely Beacons and nothing to explain them is pretty cool, and upon finding them going like "oh what the hell is this", although some more seeds of that mystery spread throughout the Galaxy would also be neat.

But I think the largest area of development potential is in their future. What becomes of them after the player finds them? Can the player help them in any meaningful way? They should be able to, right? What if the player travels to the Galactic Core and becomes Space God? Shouldn't they be able to help them out after they obtain that precious Avorion? Or at least come back and say "hey, I did it, I made it. I'm making a decent headway in taking out that Xsotan scum - the Galaxy will be safe again - RIP, guys" and they'll be like "oh thank you thank you" or whatever. Something, at least.

 

 

[7-of-10]

I think that it would be cool if there was an entire faction just waiting for a leader. Like a bunch of warlords that have a piece of the faction, you kill the warlords, you get their stuff. Then each warlord would be a boss that you can defeat and eventually you get an entire faction, with its own economy and everything, just from exploring and fighting.

[Sir Charles]

I think that it would be cool if there was an entire faction just waiting for a leader. Like a bunch of warlords that have a piece of the faction, you kill the warlords, you get their stuff. Then each warlord would be a boss that you can defeat and eventually you get an entire faction, with its own economy and everything, just from exploring and fighting.

 

That's a pretty cool idea. Since that faction would be located in the outer regions, there wouldn't be the problem of deleting your stations for ressources. The only problem i see with this is multiplayer compatibility, but again if this was just optional and could be disabled in the world settings, it would male a great addition for the game and add more life to it!

[Shrooblord]

What if this was a viable way of a conquest mechanic? What if every Faction had a certain threshold of attacks and aggression performed on them after which they capitulate in their entirety, or in parts, to the aggressor? That'd be pretty cool. Diplomacy of strength rather than diplomacy of words.

[Burnthalo]

What if this was a viable way of a conquest mechanic? What if every Faction had a certain threshold of attacks and aggression performed on them after which they capitulate in their entirety, or in parts, to the aggressor? That'd be pretty cool. Diplomacy of strength rather than diplomacy of words.

 

I could definitely get behind an idea like this!

[Sir Charles]

This would be awesome, but i guess it couldn't be dealt with in terms of Multiplayer balance...

Another case of a singleplayer-only feature.

[Shrooblord]

Why not? Could you tell me the objections you have for this working in Multiplayer?

[Burnthalo]

it could work in multiplayer.  really not much different than some games allowing a guild to control an area of the map thru guild wars and such. am sure it would take time to work out the balance and such but it could be a very good addition

[Sir Charles]

Hey guys,

sorry for the late answer, i had to think about that a little. And I think I found a pretty good solution.

The first problem with multiplayer will be the fact, that if factions could be taken over, players will do so, leading to no factions at all but a galaxy controlled by let's say 30 players. While that would be great in terms of PvP, it would ruin the overall faction system.

My solution for this: Make alliances more like actual factions and allow factions to be taken over by alliances only. Make other factions attack the alliance sectors with war fleets, like they would attack other factions. Make conrolling territory harder the more sectors You control by that.

 

The other problem with multiplayer is the simulation of those sectors, because it is not possible to simulate multiple alliance territories with problably hundrets of sectors in total. For this one, random events could be triggered, like the attack of another faction. That attack would have some strength value, which could than be compared to a strengh value of the sector, generating some automatic kind of outcome for the battle if no player enters the sector in a set amount of time. If the sector is activated again, the already existing mechanic of out of sector simulation for sectors with no players in them would be used to update it. I still see many problems with that mechanic, but with this I think it should be possible... 

 

Mabye take a look on this and this topic for my thougts on a breathing galaxy and integrated alliances.

[Sir Charles]

as well as the other one, i want this to get some attention again... so up you go :)

[Kamo]

 

Personally' date=' I'd love the Exodus story not to be over when you get that Xsotan Artefact off of them. They say something along the lines of "we fled to the outer Sectors to escape, but now our hyperdrives are down and we're stuck here - and now we're here. If someone could repair our hyperdrives..." or something like that. And I'm sat there looking at the screen saying "I have hyperdrives. I could help you repair your ship. And if not, I'm sure I could shuttle you lot to wherever you want, in batches of reasonable amounts of people. *Heellloooo-ooo?* I'm here, aren't I? Let me help you!" But they just sit there and accept their fate.[/quote']

 

Yeah, poor Haati :-\. When I'll find them in Survival I'll build a Shipyard and a Repair Dock in the sector, symbolically.

Especially considering my Cuddle Idolatric Initative's mission is to bring everyone they can to the Core for the great galactic concert. They'd definitely hand off free hyperdrives, or at least, free seatings in their great chain of buses, macro-transferers and colony ships.