Space City/Government/Empire

Before any one responds to this, let me begin by saying that I know this is the Beta and not everything in the final game is in this. With that said, I feel that there is some discussion/issues that should/could be addressed about the "civilian" side of the game.


1. More Space infrastructure
-As it stands now, it feels like there are enough space structures that you can build in orbit around a planet, but it steel feels like there are a couple missing or something, or possibly some very useful ones that should be added. Sometimes when I build orbitals it reminds me of Sim City, but more like Space City since they're in orbit. Here's where part of my problem lies. Positioning of orbitals doesn't really matter, to the point where there's an option to remove placing things yourself, and then when you build these orbitals, it feels like you just keep building the same thing around every planet.
It's cool how you can see a planet develop, and even when you zoom in you can hear the ships whizzing about the surface, and then when you build refineries and trade ports ships buzz about picking and delivering goods, but the space part just doesn't feel like there's enough life to it.

I'd like to see: Missile launchers that shoot down enemy fighters, factories that help increase production of everything in orbit of the planet, police patrols checking for pirates, possibly a type of station that reduces upkeep etc etc.

2. Government/Empire aspect
-Feels like there isn't enough empire/governing aspects to the game "Sins of a Solar Empire." I was playing a game today where I just kept coming up short on credits, and I realized why don't I just turn up the taxes to get more money and I realized there was no way to turn up the taxes. I know that there are other ways to get credits but I don't often feel like I'm governing a wide sweeping Empire. I'm not asking for the disaster that MOO3 was, but at least the option to tax my citizens more or less and consequences based on that taxation.

The other thing that is needed is some type of break down of how much money you're making, where it's coming from, how your government is coming along etc. I'm not talking something huge like Gal Civ II where there are pages to scroll through of intelligence reports (as awesome as they are) but just one page that's a summary of what is going on in your domain. A list that said how many credits you're making from your citizens, your population growth, the total that asteroid mining is bringing in, the upkeep of your fleets and facilities etc etc. I have no idea how much I make from trade, let alone how much I make from trade with my ally, or how much I make for establishing a wide sweeping network of broadcast facilities.

As extras, it would also be useful to have a governor feature. Assigning someone to place and build structures on extra large maps, because it gets really repetitive to build up 75 different systems with orbitals. Another cool feature might be forms of government, but probably not necessary.

Final cool thing I think could be added: rebellions. If half of your government decided to rebel and all of a sudden you had a war on two fronts and had to put down the movement. Or for that matter your enemies empire split into two causing a civil war in which you had to take sides, or maybe part of their empire breaks off to join you or vice versa. I guess this falls under random events, which is an entirely different post.
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Reply #1 Top
Nearly all of the points you have addressed have been brought up in other threads already, most of which appear to have been given lip service, overlooked or simply considered not relevant to the thread topic. I suggest starting a different thread for each idea and building it fully however. This would be so things are properly documented and the discussions can be focused on the topic.
Reply #2 Top
Taxes and revolts seem a bit much. There's quite enough to do already, and what would be the point of a morale/tax system? People would just tax as heavily as they could without their systems revolting, which is something you might as well automate, so it might as well just be what we have already.


. I'm not talking something huge like Gal Civ II where there are pages to scroll through of intelligence reports (as awesome as they are) but just one page that's a summary of what is going on in your domain. A list that said how many credits you're making from your citizens, your population growth, the total that asteroid mining is bringing in, the upkeep of your fleets and facilities etc etc.

Don't the top mouseovers do this pretty well?

Reply #3 Top

Taxes and revolts seem a bit much. There's quite enough to do already, and what would be the point of a morale/tax system? People would just tax as heavily as they could without their systems revolting, which is something you might as well automate, so it might as well just be what we have already.


. I'm not talking something huge like Gal Civ II where there are pages to scroll through of intelligence reports (as awesome as they are) but just one page that's a summary of what is going on in your domain. A list that said how many credits you're making from your citizens, your population growth, the total that asteroid mining is bringing in, the upkeep of your fleets and facilities etc etc.

Don't the top mouseovers do this pretty well?




Then what your saying is it should be an RTS game, not an RTS4X? Because that's all it would be. It would just be Starcraft with ships. I want an RTS emipre building game, and you can't have an empire builer without taxes.
Reply #4 Top
Right now I'm not making enough credits, and if I'm supposedly Emperor over the domain of all that I see, why can't I shake my fist and demand more money from the people?


Right now can you honestly tell me you know where your money is coming from?

I upgrade all of my planets, I have trade ports making cash, I've got trade alliances with some players, and I have mines built on asteroids.

Which one is most effectively bringing in money?

No one knew that broadcast centers also created money until a developer said it.

I would argue that as it is, there isn't enough to do. I keep researching the same things on the research tree every game, I build the same structures around every planet, and build a mixed combination of ships to attack the enemy. I'm sure if you mixed in two other races then things would get crazy, but it just doesn't feel like there's a lot of depth to the game.

I'm not trying to bash the game, I just feel that there is some area for improvement on the government side of things.
Reply #5 Top
This is just an idea that might appear inappropiate, but I believe a concept similar to the government-sliders from Europa Universalis 2 would do very well in Sins and would immensly improve the governing-element of the game.

I'll sum the concept up in a few sentences:
Your style of government is broken down into a couple of attributes. Socialistic versus capitalistic. Liberal versus conservative. Religious versus humanistic. Militaristic versus pacifistic. etc.
In EU2 you were allowed to change one of these attributes by a tenth of their range each couple of ingame-years. In SoaSE you could perhaps set a direction for one slider and the slider would continuously move into that direction until you changed it.
Each setting has certain advantages and disadvantages. A militaristic government has no problems to justify expenses for more units, but it can't shift a lot of the balance into research. In EU2 this was implemented with boni and mali.
That means you choose a style of government that supports you in your strategy, but also limits you since you can't just pull of a complete 180. It gives your faction a face.
Reply #6 Top
Wow. That actually sounds pretty good. Simple, elegant, streamlined. Sounds like potential.
Reply #7 Top
@Vain - I was thinking the same thing but more in tune with EU3 given the special resources you can find in the game. I think such a system would be a major selling point of the game. Custom governments as well as races and ships. Now if they tack on leaders and governors as well as weapon design, we would have the entire ball of wax and an automatic classic to be sure.
Reply #8 Top
I like those ideas, it would add a lot of possibilities/variations to the game.
Especially being able to assign leaders to fleets, or governors to planets.