My select few wishes regarding content generally and factions specifically in Sins 2>
first of all, i would not mind the current six factions from Rebellion to remain. OFC i would expect them to be further improved and their differences to be made even more profound via adding more cool new technologies, making their ships more unique (if only visually), etc...
Bottom line, aside few notable exceptions, which could perhaps use overhaul/major improvement, like diplomacy, mines or exploration part of the game, i would prefer, if the content of Rebellion was there in its entirety more or less. Dont substract anything please, just because its a new game. I absolutely loved how Rebellion took all the previous Sins games and built upon them instead of dumping half of their content. And i absolutely hated how for example Dawn of War 2 took completely another route by getting rid half of the factions from original DoW.
Anyway, if certain race/faction related mumbo jumbo/realignment was about to take place, if only to refresh things a bit or move the story forward, personally i could see/ would love to see following changes>
- I could see TEC Loyalists and Vasari Rebels to merge into a single, new faction, with completely new ship/structure design of their own. Additionally they would keep major traits and techs of the parent factions, like orientation toward economy, defenses, nanotech, VR diplomatic stuff like shared networks,...they would keep dual bases, jumping bases, phase stabilisers (even though maybe somewhat gimped in contrast with main Vasari faction)...obviously they would lose access to things like Insurgency and Returning Armada. Could have brand new Titan or perhaps stick to either Kultorask or Ankylon. Doctrine-wise their goal would be to make a stand against the nemesis by use of TEC´s expertise in defense and their knowledge of local space.
- TEC faction, based off TEC Rebels. Still aggressive, xenophobic, even more oriented toward cooperation with pirates and various insurgents. Basically TEC Rebels with all their current ship/structure line-up, keeping iconic things like Akkan, Kol, Marza, Sova, Argonev, Ogrov etc... with hopefully few additional bells and whistles, if the devs can come with something. I would give them Novalith Deregulation, since they feel more like using it than the other joint TL/VR faction. Definitely keeping the RAGNAROV in all its beauty, just with higher polygon count and rotating gauss cannons. This goes generally for all the original vessels in the game, keep the basic design, improve on polys, textures, details. The current ship models (especially all the capships, Titans and stations, alongside few notable smaller ships and structures) are good enough for any scifi show on TV, dont scrap them just because!
- old/new Advent faction, being the merge of AL and AR with all their unique stuff. Perhaps you could see, as the only faction in the game, choose a technological pathway between the original AR and AL doctrine, leading up to choice between Coronata and Eradica as your Titan. This would probably require certain re-design of current tech-trees to allow such branching. Once again i would like their iconic stuff (both visually and functionally) to be kept. And since i always considered the Advent factions in Rebellion to be weakest in design, they could use some new stuff as well. Since we recently talked about cloaking around here, how about give them access to that? Or in general, build their game more around superior ability to gain/fake information, cloaking being one part of that.
- Vasari faction - basically Vasari Loyalists in all their glory. Someone might say, they have technically no place ingame, since they left the TEC space lore-wise. But i cant see it, since they are so cool and their gameplay can be so unique, they definitely have to stay. Once again, i cant stress enough, they need to keep their current capital ship line-up, Orkulus as it is, and VORASTRA, with all its menacing looks, teleporting, ship summoning and devouring...additionally they need to keep hold of things like phase stabilisers, civilian evacuations, mobile rulership, shipboard labs, dark fleet beacon and STTC. One change i was thinking about, was perhaps making them fully mobile faction by default, starting with a un-armed, heavily upgrade-able Vorastra instead of capital planet. Not really sure if this would be a good solution though, since it would kinda pigeon-hole the player into a single strategy. Currently you have a choice of going fully mobile or not, this way that choice would be taken away from you. Might make for more interesting gameplay, but ultimately less varied.
Finally, a completely new faction, or maybe even 2. I am probably one of the few, but i would prefer this facton not to be the Vasari nemesis. There i said it. Would prefer something else, like a race, which Vasari Loyalists encountered on their move away from the TEC territories, basically some kind of TEC neighbours. Could be some kind of Galactic Republic, or Council, some kind of alliance of more smaller races. God knows. Just not the nemesis. This should still become in the backstory and slowly unveiling itself, but never completely. The mystery shall be preserved.
