Highlights: -Add space defenses for player -Create a faction registry and factory. -Ships from faction registry aren't actually spawned but warp in to help base defenses. -Creates a resource sink without spawning tons of ships. -Uses or builds upon existing mechanics -Adds action, spontaneity, and purpose to late game. Anyone that has gotten to the point of building a strong CV or base has likely had the same question: Now what? You have all the resources you need, you can take on any enemy, there is no clear objective for what to do next, and you have all that you need. Sure, first few playthroughs you can experiment with building ships and such, or genocide the Zirax, but this is an issue that a lot players have, especially experienced ones because we've already done or don't care about that stuff. To make it worse, it starts feeling repetitive. There is very little spontaneity, no surprises. It can feel very empty at times. Newer players may not have gotten to this point, but people that have put in a lot of time will know what I am talking about. I know this post will be lengthy, but if you read through I think most will agree this could be a good solution to a lot of Empyrion's problems, all while only using assets already in game (with some changes of course). Most of this will mainly improve space, which is a lot of the end game. The Factory: Like the player, the faction will have a factory. Some key differences however are you do not have to have a blueprint selected to deposit materials. The factory is also shared between players in the faction. You can throw in whatever you like, however, the factory will have a limit. You can increase this limit as you grow your faction (explained later). If you exceed this limit you will lose materials you deposit. For example, lets say the factory lets you store 10,000 of each resource. You are at the limit for iron and deposit a device. All the resources that would normally get added still do, with the exception of iron. If you were full on iron and copper, you would get all resources added normally except iron and copper, and so on. Another important thing to add is you can deposit fuel (could be converted to promethium) and o2/water (converted to ice?). This will be important as explained in the Faction paragraph. Faction Spawning: Every player in the faction will have access to the factory. Everything spawned from the factory can be set to faction or public ownership, but not private so no one hogs all the ships. You can spawn bases and HVs normally, but there will be two options for SVs and CVs. First option for ships is again spawning normally. The second option however, will be adding the ship to your "Fleet" (also explained later). For example, you select a ship you have enough resources for. You add it to your faction's fleet. The resources are removed from the faction factory but you do not actually spawn the ship. Instead, the ship will warp in to defend your bases. Space Defense: If you create a faction base in space, depending on your faction level (again, later), base size, and relationship with NPC factions, there is a chance of it being attacked. For people who make bases in space so they don't have to deal with attacks, this applies to faction not private. This is where the Fleet comes in handy, as some of your ships will warp in (controlled by AI) to help defend the base. Once the defense is over, the ships will warp back out. Much like how the AI does. After warping out, any resources needed to repair the ship are taken from the faction factory. If there is not enough in the factory, either the ship is not repaired or you can spend credits to repair it. So you could get say 3 enemy CVs attacking and 2 of your ships reinforcing. This is likely the maximum amount of ships that would spawn in a defense, but the higher your faction level, the better the ships that attack you. The Fleet: Finally! The Fleet is much like the registry. Except the ships only exist in name (or space defenses). You add a ship to the fleet after creating it in the faction factory. Then you can assign which ships defend which bases. Each base will have a limit to ships that can be assigned to it for performance reasons. The Faction: The more bases you have, the larger your faction level. At certain intervals of time, credits are deposited to each player in the faction. The larger the faction, the more credits. However, the larger your faction the more resources you consume. On the same interval of time, promethium and ice are deducted from the factory to represent spending fuel and o2. If you run out of either, no ships will reinforce in a space defense because you would not have either fuel for the ships or o2 for the AI crew. Also, at faction level 1 there should be no space defenses. This is so you can get your faction started without worry of being attacked right away, and also for players who build in space to avoid attacks. Multiplayer: You can set a rank in a faction you need to be to spawn ships. So on servers you don't have a new recruit stealing your resources. Anyone in the faction can contribute to its factory. Advanced Options: Everything above is the base mechanics. These options may be a bit more complicated, but if added in will improve the base mechanics. If there are any suggestion I will also likely add them to this section. Fleet: -Add an option to any spawned ship to be added to the fleet. Of course, no one could be in the ship, and no ships could be docked to it. Once added to the fleet, the ship warps out. This way players could still use any ships in the fleet, or modify them (the ships template would be updated once added or re added to the fleet). -You can also call in a fleet ship, but under AI control. This way you could get reinforcements in combat. The ship will stay in the same area it was called in until the player sends it back. I did not include anything for ground combat because there is already a base defense for that, plus not sure things like AI controlled HVs are even possible, so not sure how a faction could improve ground. I was very tired while writing this so I'm sure I made some errors or was unclear on some things. If you have any suggestions or ideas please comment!
Sandbox games very often have no "End Game". Empyrion is still developing and growing. If you've played out the SP missions, you do reach a point where you've done all you can do, but there is still a lot of untold story, simply because the material hasn't been written into the game yet. Where we are right now is maybe, maybe to Mid-Game. For Mutliplayer, depending on your scenario, there neither is any kind of End Game, nor should their be. Imagine logging in to a server for the first time, just in time to see the closing credits roll, because someone was right there at the real End Game as you were joining. Your experience would then suck. So rather than obsess over this notion of End Game, especially where the MP experience is concerned, ask the more important question: "What I can I to contribute to the game?" I often find myself returning to the starter worlds, to help new players by defending their efforts to build bases while Drones Attack, provide rare materials to help them along, or taxi them around to trading stations. It's a great way to meet new people, contribute to their experience, and even make a virtual friend.
