Suggestion: Houses not Factions
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 2:25 pm
Factions in SMAC were really just expressions of the faction leader. This was back when Civ had you not only picking your nation but also which leader (Washington vs Abe Lincoln). I think the Faction identity only worked because SMAC had these developed character leaders the player would role play and mold their culture around. Pandora doesnt have these characters and so faction identity seems bland and missing something.
I would suggest scrapping it and replacing it with Houses/Family system (and really..people's reasons for joining a "faction" are going to change when they move to a different planet). Let the player choose 3 themes the House lives by, mottos or " house words" and a house symbol. The themes would take the place of the faction traits currently used. Have each faction start with two "generals/pricelings" that act like great generals in civ. They would be unkillable but capture and there could be a whole system around getting your captured prince back. The Princes would have names and pictures to give them identity and depth. They would be non combat and immortal but provide benefits to troops near them or maybe drain research from nearby cities. Princes(cesses) would have chance to spawn events around wherever they are. So your prince near an enemy city might fall in love with the price from that nation and you would have to get him back somehow. Or might be have some disaster blamed on them which leads to an instant declaration of war. These characters would be content generators.
Let the Faction identity be chosen by the player through the House motto/words and developed through the actions of the Princes. The player needs to be more invested in their faction beyond pink army with +25% to their wazitgizmos.
I would suggest scrapping it and replacing it with Houses/Family system (and really..people's reasons for joining a "faction" are going to change when they move to a different planet). Let the player choose 3 themes the House lives by, mottos or " house words" and a house symbol. The themes would take the place of the faction traits currently used. Have each faction start with two "generals/pricelings" that act like great generals in civ. They would be unkillable but capture and there could be a whole system around getting your captured prince back. The Princes would have names and pictures to give them identity and depth. They would be non combat and immortal but provide benefits to troops near them or maybe drain research from nearby cities. Princes(cesses) would have chance to spawn events around wherever they are. So your prince near an enemy city might fall in love with the price from that nation and you would have to get him back somehow. Or might be have some disaster blamed on them which leads to an instant declaration of war. These characters would be content generators.
Let the Faction identity be chosen by the player through the House motto/words and developed through the actions of the Princes. The player needs to be more invested in their faction beyond pink army with +25% to their wazitgizmos.