While 2.2 is widely regarded as a significant upgrade to Stellaris, the new economy did come with a casualty: Tiles. While the actual gameplay of tiles few people miss, there are several features of them whose loss is much more keenly felt: artwork and individuality of planets. While much of the artwork (and lots new artwork) still exists, it's buried under the planetary features menu, a place where it is rarely seen. Planets are now differentiated solely by the number of districts they have (small colored squares), and the buildings built there. Considering that many people tend to build the same buildings on their planets, a lot of the individuality of having a unique tile set up is lost.
The goals for my suggestion is as follows:
The basic premise is that what is currently features will be changed to the new tiles. Things like Ore-rich caverns, green hills, hot springs, etc. Districts are then built directly on top of them. Features would have to be changed or added that give the option to build different types of districts, so there is a decision to be made if a particular district would be devoted to, say, mining or agriculture (like the old tile system could have a tile with both food and minerals). Unlike the old system however, districts MUST be built on a tile which supports it.
Since all features would be changed to tiles, rare resource extractors now become districts. This includes Betharian Stone and Alien Pets. All that would need to be changed would be to add some housing to them, and perhaps adjust cost and upkeep to be more in-line with normal districts. The odd factory and other similar things would also become special districts.
The interface for placing districts would be very simple and intuitive. Clicking on an open tile would bring up a menu showing the different types of districts that could be built there. Clicking the various district types at the top (there would be a summary similar to the current district view) would highlight which tiles could build that district, with a click on one of those tiles building it. Shift click would allow placing multiple districts quickly this way.
One of the benefits of this system is that it would easily allow the addition of new district types. If alloy/cg production was moved to a district it would fit in with this as well.
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Expanding the system:
While above is just translating the current system over to one which uses tiles, there would several things that could be done to expand on the premise and add more details and complexity. The first is making some tiles "rich" (equivalent to previously having some tiles with more then just the base 1 deposit). These deposits would grant an extra job of their resource if the proper district is built there. More could definitely be done with other buildings being converted into districts, or new district types added, but I don't think it's necessary.
The goals for my suggestion is as follows:
- Add back in the artwork and uniqueness of the Tile system
- Keep districts, buildings, and jobs as they are.
- Keep the system overall simple and intuitive.
The basic premise is that what is currently features will be changed to the new tiles. Things like Ore-rich caverns, green hills, hot springs, etc. Districts are then built directly on top of them. Features would have to be changed or added that give the option to build different types of districts, so there is a decision to be made if a particular district would be devoted to, say, mining or agriculture (like the old tile system could have a tile with both food and minerals). Unlike the old system however, districts MUST be built on a tile which supports it.
Since all features would be changed to tiles, rare resource extractors now become districts. This includes Betharian Stone and Alien Pets. All that would need to be changed would be to add some housing to them, and perhaps adjust cost and upkeep to be more in-line with normal districts. The odd factory and other similar things would also become special districts.
The interface for placing districts would be very simple and intuitive. Clicking on an open tile would bring up a menu showing the different types of districts that could be built there. Clicking the various district types at the top (there would be a summary similar to the current district view) would highlight which tiles could build that district, with a click on one of those tiles building it. Shift click would allow placing multiple districts quickly this way.
One of the benefits of this system is that it would easily allow the addition of new district types. If alloy/cg production was moved to a district it would fit in with this as well.
----
Expanding the system:
While above is just translating the current system over to one which uses tiles, there would several things that could be done to expand on the premise and add more details and complexity. The first is making some tiles "rich" (equivalent to previously having some tiles with more then just the base 1 deposit). These deposits would grant an extra job of their resource if the proper district is built there. More could definitely be done with other buildings being converted into districts, or new district types added, but I don't think it's necessary.
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