I know its way early to talk about future DLC content, especially since we've got at least 1 story dlc before the next (hopefully diplomacy) big one. But this idea popped into my head while watching Wiz and Daniel talk about the future of Stellaris.
To preface this the mechanic I most dislike is 'Assist Research'. Its basically a placeholder because Science Ships run out of things to do after everything's been surveyed. When Stellaris was first announced my dream for it was to basically be a 4x version of Star Trek. I loved the idea of sending out science ships to explore, finding anomalies and dealing with events. The early part of Stellaris is awesome. I send out a fleet of Science Ships to explore and find anomalies. But from the mid game on they basically just sit on top of my worlds 'assisting research' and occasionally going out to research debris from some poor schmucks I blew up. So what can be done to make this better?
In Star Trek there are a few types of missions they go out on. Exploring new areas and surveying them is one, and diplomatic missions are another. So how would we integrate this into Stellaris? I think it would actually fit in quite well with a Diplomacy expansion! It could even tie in to espionage. Science Ships seem like the perfect vessel for this, after all science ships must be equipped to meet new aliens, they are the ones on the frontier who are going to be making first contact.
Basically you could send a Science Ship to another empire's world on a diplomatic mission, there would probably be a cooldown of a year or so before you can do another mission in that empire. The way I imagine it when your ship arrives an event occurs giving some choices of how to proceed, then the ship will be occupied for a while carrying out the mission. The event would be based off what kind of world you are visiting, urban worlds and capital focusing on diplomacy, forge/generator/agri/etc worlds focus more on economy.
For example: If you send a science ship to the capital of an Imperial civilization you might get an event 'Attend the Emperor's Birthmonth celebrations' (its a month cause those crazy Lizards know how to party!). You get a choice of what gift to bring (with some ethic themed options of course).
Option 1 - (100 Energy Credits) Bring a modest gift for the Emperor.
Option 2 - (500 Energy Credits) Bring a lavish gift for the Emperor.
Option 3 (Materialists) - Bring the best gift of all, the gift of knowledge! (costs 3 months of Physics Research)
Option 3 (Spiritualists) - Bring the gift of the Gods (increases spiritualist attraction in their empire for 1 year, costs 3 months of unity)
Option 3 (Xenophobe) - Bring the gift of a superior species' presence.
Option 4 - (200 Food) Bring a gift for his people.
Each option would have different weights for different outcomes. Bringing a lavish gift is more likely to make the Emperor happy (and thus increasing relations with them), but if they are spiritualist then maybe they'll enjoy debating Theology and the nature of the universe with fellow Spiritualists. Obviously going with the xenophobe option is unlikely to have a positive outcome.
On the other hand visiting a Forge world might instead focus on exchanging manufacturing techniques (with results ranging from improved Foundry output on both your worlds for 5 years, to an industrial accident that damages relations). I like the idea of giving bonus' beyond diplomacy so even if you don't really need the diplomacy boost from this empire you are still encouraged to send diplomatic missions there.
This would also be the perfect way to facilitate espionage. Your envoy is visiting their homeworld, allegedly to compare notes on the best ways you both oppress the filthy peasants, but in reality he is leaving behind a listening device to learn more about their research plans for a Titan!
Science Ships would need to be much faster to get this to really work well (otherwise they're just spending a year moving around between your neighbors which isn't terribly fun) and you should probably only be allowed to perform 1 diplomatic mission per empire per year (otherwise you'd end up just sitting over one world endlessly doing diplo missions, and that would barely be an improvement over 'Assist Research').
What do you guys think?
To preface this the mechanic I most dislike is 'Assist Research'. Its basically a placeholder because Science Ships run out of things to do after everything's been surveyed. When Stellaris was first announced my dream for it was to basically be a 4x version of Star Trek. I loved the idea of sending out science ships to explore, finding anomalies and dealing with events. The early part of Stellaris is awesome. I send out a fleet of Science Ships to explore and find anomalies. But from the mid game on they basically just sit on top of my worlds 'assisting research' and occasionally going out to research debris from some poor schmucks I blew up. So what can be done to make this better?
In Star Trek there are a few types of missions they go out on. Exploring new areas and surveying them is one, and diplomatic missions are another. So how would we integrate this into Stellaris? I think it would actually fit in quite well with a Diplomacy expansion! It could even tie in to espionage. Science Ships seem like the perfect vessel for this, after all science ships must be equipped to meet new aliens, they are the ones on the frontier who are going to be making first contact.
Basically you could send a Science Ship to another empire's world on a diplomatic mission, there would probably be a cooldown of a year or so before you can do another mission in that empire. The way I imagine it when your ship arrives an event occurs giving some choices of how to proceed, then the ship will be occupied for a while carrying out the mission. The event would be based off what kind of world you are visiting, urban worlds and capital focusing on diplomacy, forge/generator/agri/etc worlds focus more on economy.
For example: If you send a science ship to the capital of an Imperial civilization you might get an event 'Attend the Emperor's Birthmonth celebrations' (its a month cause those crazy Lizards know how to party!). You get a choice of what gift to bring (with some ethic themed options of course).
Option 1 - (100 Energy Credits) Bring a modest gift for the Emperor.
Option 2 - (500 Energy Credits) Bring a lavish gift for the Emperor.
Option 3 (Materialists) - Bring the best gift of all, the gift of knowledge! (costs 3 months of Physics Research)
Option 3 (Spiritualists) - Bring the gift of the Gods (increases spiritualist attraction in their empire for 1 year, costs 3 months of unity)
Option 3 (Xenophobe) - Bring the gift of a superior species' presence.
Option 4 - (200 Food) Bring a gift for his people.
Each option would have different weights for different outcomes. Bringing a lavish gift is more likely to make the Emperor happy (and thus increasing relations with them), but if they are spiritualist then maybe they'll enjoy debating Theology and the nature of the universe with fellow Spiritualists. Obviously going with the xenophobe option is unlikely to have a positive outcome.
On the other hand visiting a Forge world might instead focus on exchanging manufacturing techniques (with results ranging from improved Foundry output on both your worlds for 5 years, to an industrial accident that damages relations). I like the idea of giving bonus' beyond diplomacy so even if you don't really need the diplomacy boost from this empire you are still encouraged to send diplomatic missions there.
This would also be the perfect way to facilitate espionage. Your envoy is visiting their homeworld, allegedly to compare notes on the best ways you both oppress the filthy peasants, but in reality he is leaving behind a listening device to learn more about their research plans for a Titan!
Science Ships would need to be much faster to get this to really work well (otherwise they're just spending a year moving around between your neighbors which isn't terribly fun) and you should probably only be allowed to perform 1 diplomatic mission per empire per year (otherwise you'd end up just sitting over one world endlessly doing diplo missions, and that would barely be an improvement over 'Assist Research').
What do you guys think?