As I ponder thoughts for new server projects, my success with in-game map editing during Econ War convinces me I could try to do something interesting with how the Cartel and Empire maps interact with each other. If, that is, I alter my editing source code to alter things automatically based upon a hard-wired set of rules. It would only take seconds during a nightly database clean.
(I did this for the neutral hex econ in Econ Wars, and it indeed took only seconds. Installing and removing player-designated trade routes and Tortugas manually was what pushed my edit time up to an hour or so each night. To do that sort of thing again, I'll either alter the edit code to mak the job easier, or I'll hire some cheap help
)
But the question remains, what short of interaction SHOULD the pirate and Empire maps have?
The default Taldren behaviour was for Imperial space to have no effects upon Cartel space, but to make it impossible for Empires to boost their own DV unless an allied cartel held the same hex. To most (including me) this was unacceptable.
The current patched behaviour is for Cartel and Empire maps to have no effect upone on each other at all, except for mission offerings. This is better, but boring. It means that an area of space overrun with pirates has very little effect upon the host empire, though you'd think they'd feel a bite from this.
One idea I had was for Imperial space Econ to have a base value assigned, (rather than DV) but this value would be reduced by one for every DV that the cartel has. Cartel econ, on their map, would start at zero econ and zero DV, and their econ would increase by 1 for every DV they gain.
To protect their econ, I'd have to allow each empire to have an allied pirate race they could log into. Or I could replace a cartel's ship list with police and small military ships from the empire. This would represent the empire pulling units from line duty to protect infrastructure. You missions would not affect the DV of the empire hex since your missions would not be considered to be against military resources of the Imperial enemy.
I'd have to do such a server with a limited number of races. otherwise al the empires would eat up all the cartel slots for police duty, and there'd be no cartel slots left for piracy.
There are some technical issues, of course. Since the shipyard engine builds ships for empires and cartels based upon the same hex econ number, I'd likely reduce the econ for the empires as the Cartels gain a foothold on their layer, and add econ to some reserved, off-limits hexs to let the Cartels gain econ for their actions.
But these are technical issues which I am confident I can solve with my editing code. The question I want feedback on is
concept.
What SHOULD the intereaction be between empire and cartel on the map? Is this idea a good one? Do you have other ideas? Don't worry about what will or won't "work". If it can be made to work, I'll do some coding to make it work if I like the idea. Instead, worry about what you'd like.
-S'Cipio
Topic: What should the Empire/Cartel map interaction be? (Read 1921 times)