With overlord coming out, we're almost ready for the next edition. Along with that, the patch will introduce the 'situations' system to allow more options for a bevy of internal (and hopefully future external) events.
One idea that I had recently is how it could maybe be used to deal with pirates. Right now, piracy is...annoying - not really much to worry about except the occasional group of angry fleets that destroy a few stations before you destroy them -- most of the time.
Now, piracy as a concept is cool, but the execution is lacking. Leaving the trade system aside (which has a couple other issues), I do think the piracy suppression system is great.
So, what think the biggest change is needed is to move piracy from something that happens infrequently and ultimately does little to instead turn it into a situation with a potentially much larger consequence (also, one that isn't inherently bad either).
The idea is this: As your piracy rate goes up, each system adds points to a new situation called something like "Empire Piracy" - and having ships stationed on trade routes and or patrolling helps to mitigate that situation going up.
Once the situation reaches several critical junctures though, important events start to happen:
Stage I is simply "Raiders" - and instead of having random convoys show up to attack that you have to micromanage, instead there is simply a degradation of trade routes and empire trade value production.
Stage II is "Arms Trafficking" - innocuous enough, but at this stage, your empire takes a penalty to its naval capacity and perhaps ship building speed, or other things like that.
Stage III "Pirate Enclave" - the last stage is the most fun. Rather than just a few random fleets, an entire system, or even MORE are formed out of your empire, and come loaded with a MAJOR fleet.
This new enclave would be similar to the newly announced military enclaves, with the exception that they have a starting NEGATIVE opinion against your empire, and probably a couple minor traits that increase piracy around their area of space.
At the same time, one can 'buy' them off, and not have to fight them, enlist them against their enemies, or... defeat them and reclaim the system.
The main point is that the 1st to penalties be obviously harmful, but no so bad that you are always wanting to dedicate time to fixing them. In fact, maybe there are some upsides to having a little low level of piracy in the empire (maybe piracy costs you money, but gives you access to new technology, or other random benefits) - something that might make the risk worth taking. Add a little bit of random chance and now you have a simple event that can really shake up the status quo in an empire.
ALSO - this make's arm privateers much more interesting - rather than just causing a random fleet to show up, make the operation increase the piracy across the empire, and watch that situation level tick up a whole bunch - and suddenly and empire finds itself with a new front on its borders.
Edit: Maybe some upsides of low piracy levels are that it impacts commercial pacts with your allies (either harming theirs, or increasing your ratio) as the pirates are raiding their ships.
One idea that I had recently is how it could maybe be used to deal with pirates. Right now, piracy is...annoying - not really much to worry about except the occasional group of angry fleets that destroy a few stations before you destroy them -- most of the time.
Now, piracy as a concept is cool, but the execution is lacking. Leaving the trade system aside (which has a couple other issues), I do think the piracy suppression system is great.
So, what think the biggest change is needed is to move piracy from something that happens infrequently and ultimately does little to instead turn it into a situation with a potentially much larger consequence (also, one that isn't inherently bad either).
The idea is this: As your piracy rate goes up, each system adds points to a new situation called something like "Empire Piracy" - and having ships stationed on trade routes and or patrolling helps to mitigate that situation going up.
Once the situation reaches several critical junctures though, important events start to happen:
Stage I is simply "Raiders" - and instead of having random convoys show up to attack that you have to micromanage, instead there is simply a degradation of trade routes and empire trade value production.
Stage II is "Arms Trafficking" - innocuous enough, but at this stage, your empire takes a penalty to its naval capacity and perhaps ship building speed, or other things like that.
Stage III "Pirate Enclave" - the last stage is the most fun. Rather than just a few random fleets, an entire system, or even MORE are formed out of your empire, and come loaded with a MAJOR fleet.
This new enclave would be similar to the newly announced military enclaves, with the exception that they have a starting NEGATIVE opinion against your empire, and probably a couple minor traits that increase piracy around their area of space.
At the same time, one can 'buy' them off, and not have to fight them, enlist them against their enemies, or... defeat them and reclaim the system.
The main point is that the 1st to penalties be obviously harmful, but no so bad that you are always wanting to dedicate time to fixing them. In fact, maybe there are some upsides to having a little low level of piracy in the empire (maybe piracy costs you money, but gives you access to new technology, or other random benefits) - something that might make the risk worth taking. Add a little bit of random chance and now you have a simple event that can really shake up the status quo in an empire.
ALSO - this make's arm privateers much more interesting - rather than just causing a random fleet to show up, make the operation increase the piracy across the empire, and watch that situation level tick up a whole bunch - and suddenly and empire finds itself with a new front on its borders.
Edit: Maybe some upsides of low piracy levels are that it impacts commercial pacts with your allies (either harming theirs, or increasing your ratio) as the pirates are raiding their ships.
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