This screen will allow players to interact with the neutral factions, mostly through the use of spies.
If some sort of neutral faction diplomacy gets implemented, it should be accessible from this screen as well.
More detailed explanation of various items follows.
Holdings:
The idea is that each faction starts with a certain number of votes(randomly assigned within some range), as well as controlling some provinces, most likely on Byzantium/homeworld-like planet.
To make use of spies to interact with each faction, players will have to plant(station) spies in one/all of the provinces specified.
It is possible that factions would be able to gain new holdings via Imperial Army's conquests, or gifts from players(a type of bribing).
Votes:
Votes can be:
-static, never changing throughout the game.
-Tied to the number of holdings:
- Only the highly populated(Old Empire descendant) provinces count(related idea of mainiac's: http://76.26.38.52/forum/index.php?topic=50.0).
- Only special provinces count - e.g.those with "palace"-like structures, effectively governing bodies of a planet. Could count for player-owned votes as well. [This is my preffered solution]
Could be combined with the previous idea, by allowing only certain planets to have that "palace" structure(developed, advanced planets; Old-Empire planets; very populous planets), while the rest is considered colonies, outposts, etc. - Every province held counts. Perhaps with partial votes contribution, depending on population.
Agenda:
This is the set of beliefs and ideals that this faction follows. It is generated randomly for each faction at the beginning of the game. Might change with random events.
Agenda is the determining factor for affiliation modification due to player actions not directly related to this faction(i.e.not spy actions).
E.g.: "Conquest" might cause affiliation towards players pursuing aggressive expansion to rise with each conqered province; "Luxury" might cause affiliation to rise if players harvest and trade with rare resources; "Xenophobia" might improve relations with players fighting aliens, etc.
Infiltration:
Each spy planted in a "holding" provides some "spying power"(depending on the level of technology of his house, and maybe some other factors, or a set, static number).
Once a spy is planted, it takes some time for him to become fully operational - he starts with 0% effectiveness, and reaches 100% after e.g.5 turns or so. This progress is shown in the "infiltration status" bar(for all of the spies collectively). Removing a spy from the province resets his progress to 0%.
There should be some penalties for having high spy concentration in one holding, so that spreading one's spies, as well as killing off the enemy ones is needed.
The number on the left of the infilration status bar is the current total "spying strenght" of all player's spies.
This value is the basis of calculating sucess rate of covert actions.
Covert actions:
Players can use their spies to
-Bribe the faction - spending money/ceding provinces to increase faction's affiliation towards the acting house. If the affiliation reaches 100%, any further bribing decrases remaining houses' affiliation(equally). Low chance of being discovered.
-Assassinate senator - kills one of the abstracted neutral faction's senators = all affiliation values(for all houses) move towards the default 50% mark, by a fraction dependent on number of faction's votes. If a faction possesses 4 votes, then each assassination attempt moves affiliation by (100%/4=25%) towards the default. High chance of being discovered.
-Assassinate enemy spy - attempts to kill off one of the enemy spies.
-Probe - two possible functions. One is to attempt to ascertain how many enemy spies have been planted within the faction(might be simply relegated to automatic "stealth" rolls, by comparing each houses' infiltration rates). The other function could be to find out the values for faction's affiliation towards other players - providing that such information will not be made public(question of clarity vs uncertainity during elections). Some risk of losing a spy/spies should be associated.
-Smear - expend money to lower faction's affiliation towards one of the houses specifically.(might be a bit redundant)
-Some other actions?
"Show enemy presence" presents the active player with assessment of other player's infiltration level(how many spies in each holding). Accuracy increases with active player's infiltration strenght, and/or probing actions.
This system considerably empowers the Imperial Eye(or the eventual equivalent), as it could provide the controlling player with a number of high quality spies, already planted and at full efficiency.
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Topic: Echoes of Imperium (4X Strategy Game)[Not Dead] (Read 36874 times)