After some feedback on my last message and some time outside earlier today, I've refined my Putting Agora in Space idea. The biggest "complaint" on that was that it was too broad and too much like the land system which is likely about to be repealed. So, I've thought about it a bit, and here is the new idea.
This system will be largely its own system, but will be interlinked with the Politics system (assuming that passes). Its main focus will be on space battles. This was something that I hesitated to have in the original idea; however, when Aris suggested narrowing down the idea to one main system, that was what e mentioned. I don't think e was specifically suggesting that and instead using it more as a suggestion, but I actually thought it could work. E also suggested having several smaller economic systems linked together as opposed to one main one, so I decided to make this work along those lines. Planets will likely still be a thing, however they won't be nearly as influential and important as they were going to be originally. Instead of being owned directly by players, planets are owned by political parties. Players can gain Favours with parties by defending the party's planets from invaders. There will probably be a fixed number of planets. (This part is debatable) There may be a select few planets owned by Agora instead of a party which are where players must travel to perform certain game actions, such as voting, making proposals, etc. This could create an interesting dynamic, but could also be annoying and too much of a hassle. Each player has a Spaceship. This is what allows em to travel around the galaxy, and is used to fight space battles. Upgrades can be bought for Spaceships to increase things like their fuel capacity, speed, attack strength, etc. There may be a limit to how many upgrades a Spaceship can have, causing players to either specialize in a particular thing, or have more of a "jack of all trades" Spaceship. There are also some non-player controlled Spaceships that will roam around the galaxy. There are friendly ships called Merchants; players can trade with these to sell unneeded things and potentially buy things at a lower price than normal, or even buy special things only available through Merchants. On the other end of the spectrum, there are Pirates which will try to attack Merchants, players, and Planets. Every player has a Fame switch. When a player's Fame is above a particular threshold, e is considered Famous; when eir Fame is below a particular negative threshold, e is considered Infamous. Fame is increased by doing good deeds such as trading with Merchants, helping players by giving them things or helping repair their ships, defeating Pirates, or even defeating Infamous players. Fame is decreased mainly by attacking Merchants and other players. Both fame and infamy can have rewards, so players can choose either path. I haven't actually thought much about how space battles will actually work. I imagine it will be some sort of turn-based thing, where once a player engages in a battle, e and the other ship will take turns attacking (or defending) until one is defeated or retreats. Another thing I'm unsure about is how one will actually encounter other ships. Some battles will take place near a planet, but I imagine most will occur in interplanetary space. I'm not really too thrilled about having a big space map, as we just got done with having a map. Of course, it would be very different then that was, but I feel like there's some better way. I think this is the main bulk of the idea at the moment. One other idea I had is political parties giving players "side-quests" that they can perform, such as transporting goods between planets. This could give players another thing to specialize in. Again, as always, thoughts greatly appreciated. I think I'm liking the direction this is heading, though.
