Ok, first off, tbh, I feel like I'm thinking waaaay ahead of the future of Cosmoteer when I thought about the idea of factions. Like, in the current state of Cosmoteer and it not being on Steam yet, will the dev ever think about this? lol
I'm not going to write formally...
Anyways, so far we only have the bounty hunter mode, where the player goes around and pew pew ships to claim bounties. What I am proposing is like a new game mode. This doesn't necessarily need to be a complete different game mode, it can combine with the bounty hunter mode to create the one singleplayer mode.
IDEA: FACTIONS
The idea is to have various factions in space, like the MMO game EVE Online. I'm going to first summarize EVE Online briefly about factions: a universe set in space territory called New Eden where 4 different factions exists, each having unique characteristics and beliefs. So far in bounty hunter mode, there's the bounty hunter (the player) and the hunted (AI's). The only problem with bounty hunter mode (no mods) is once the player plays enough, things get repetitive (or for some, it doesn't :p). The solution is to introduce the concept of factions. How about having a galactic empire as the government of space with pirates (the hunted bounties) roaming around? Or two warring factions (Imperial Army vs Stormcloaks kappa) where the player gets to decide to stay out of their cause or join them? Maybe more factions? Those are just a few ideas, but by adding factions we get a sense of role play rather than a pure build-your-ship-then-go-pew-pew, ie main concept of Cosmoteer. But let's extend that main concept...
If the dev does indeed choose to add factions, it's up to him how many more factions to add (duh he's the creator).
Each faction can be unique
Each faction can have their own unique characteristics (and beliefs??) like the factions of EVE Online. Well, how are we going to do that? We can introduce the topic of role play, but let's set that aside and concentrate on what we have now: ship creation. Let's say a new version of Cosmoteer is released with 4 factions, two warring factions RED and BLU (kappa), the hunted bounties, and a minor faction Rebels (kappa, also they're at war against RED). RED may have light, fast, and maneuverable ships that utilizes laser weapons whereas BLU are heavily armored ships that focuses on projectile weapons. The hunted bounty ships can just be the ones we currently have now, and the Rebels may have poorly designed laser based ships (ez to kill) but are allied with BLU. Yikes, I subconsciously added the idea of diplomacy, we'll talk about it later.
The Relation between Factions and Role Playing
Now, let's say role play has been introduced to Cosmoteer. This is where dialogue may appear, with the player being able to communicate with faction leaders or just simply its people (I wonder if dev needs to backtrack his code extensively to add this). The player may learn the different culture and beliefs certain factions have, may they be similar or not. Quests/missions may be given to the player, and completing them can reward the player with an increased standing with the faction (bad standing with faction makes them hunt you down as a bounty), a free ship, or just plain money (my ideas with this ran out quickly). What missions will there be? Tbh, idk, up to dev lol. The player may choose to enlist in a faction's navy, which would automatically put the player at war with the opposing faction, but the player may reap benefits such as an ever increasing wage, rise up the ranks and become admiral of the navy, participate in galactic level diplomacy, and missions exclusive to the enlisted player (Mission: Take out enemy convoy at this system lel). The dev may decide whether the player will strictly use the military ships provided by the faction, the player just uses his own, or both (if player picks military ship, he or she cannot break it up, sell parts, and earn money to buff his/her own ship; cheating). I doubt the dev will go with the first option because the main concept of Cosmoteer is: SPACESHIP ARCHITECT AND COMMANDER.
Diplomacy
I feel like there's no need to explain this one.
Anyhow, diplomacy may exist between factions and maybe even the player himself. Factions can declare war, make peace, create treaties, etc. Dev can also add where factions can make their reasoning for their judgement? (Kingdom of Swadia considers it stolen territory and claims it's rightfully theirs kappa)
END
I'm going to end my post here. Not 100% satisfied with the way I structured everything in this Ideas and Suggestions post, but hey, I gotta output my idea eventually. I wonder if I missed anything...
I practically combined three different ideas into one post by describing how they can relate with each other. Those three can be independent of each other. Let's say dev likes the idea of role play but no faction or diplomacy. Or maybe just add factions but no role play or missions (just enlist in faction to fight for them, simply, or something I haven't thought of). Or maybe the dev won't consider my ideas at all, he just wants it to simply be SPACESHIP ARCHITECT AND COMMANDER, a pure sandbox game. Or maybe at this time it's too soon to add these ideas into the real copy of the game, will add in the future once Cosmoteer develop further? Lol, the amount of code that needs to be added if these ideas are to be implemented, not to forget how far does dev need to backtrack his core code to add those if he needs to (or maybe my experience with planning programming projects was just terrible and it'll just be fine for dev kappa).
