Trade Federation Role Play for Neutral non AI Player

[Gryphin]

Good point Geoschmo,

Optional Artificial Rules / Game Mechanics Section:
< See my post of “June 11, 2002, 14:48” >

<See Geoschmo’s post of “June 11, 2002, 15:46:” >

[Gryphin]

A controversial idea: (Spawned by the other threads on the subject)
Would players be allowed to “Surrender” or “Gift” their empires to the Trade Federation? This has a lot of implications.

[geoschmo]

I would think no, but I guess it would be something the players in the specific game should decide. That would be a way for empires to "bow out" without changing the balance of power tremendously for the remaining empires. The TF would of course be free to sell some of these planets to the attacking race who caused the race to surreder, or simply put them up on the open market. Doesn't really fit the TF profile though to keep them. Well maybe a few.

My impression of this is that the TF either has no real game winning objectives, or at least doesn't have the same objective as the other races. They are there to assist in making the game more interesting for the players, and hopefully interesting for the TF player. Like a "Dungeon Master" sort of, but with less control of course. Otherwise it will be tough to find people willing to do it. A lot will depend on the person and how well they can get "in character" of the TF and avoid taking a personal interest in the conflicts going on around them.

Geoschmo

[Gryphin]

Folks would say I have been role playing since, well let's not go there.

Have to put surrender options into the "Optional Rules" section.

Victory for me would be: "Too Have Fun"

[geoschmo]

Ok, well I finally found the original thread. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=23;t=005791

I think maybe I have missed the point with my Posts here. I was leaving out the factor of the scarcity of minerals. Is that to be a huge factor? That would require some modding to acomplsh, but not a tremendous amount. The settings.txt file contains the values for planets. You could very easily tweak that and then all planets would be scarce in minerals. Then simply make the resource converter a racial tech that only the TF has access to, and suddenly they control the means of production.

With my suggestions the TF would have what to offer? I guess later in the game it would be a source of technology. It could also be good for fast acquisition of funds or ships in case a war breaks out. Repayable at with interest of course. And a method of disposal for ships that are damaged, depleted and out of range of assistance. That would require time for TF to get it's infrastructure in place though.

They could also construct and sell various racial technology ships and planets that players may consider valuable.

And without modifying the resource model that does leave being hostile to the TF as an option. In the original idea that would be economic suicide as you could not build or support any ships without the minerals provided by the TF.

Geoschmo

[ June 11, 2002, 17:34: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[dmm]

Geoschmo,
I'm glad you "missed the point" with your earlier Posts. It allowed you to come up with some more good ideas. I never thought of giving the TF all of the racial traits. (So, they are what? empaths?) That opens a lot of possibilities. So you could buy ships (at a high price) with racial tech that you don't have. What a nice surprise for your opponent!

The scarce minerals idea was a way to force players to deal with the TF rather than just ignore them. If players don't deal with the TF on a regular basis, then the person playing the TF is going to get very bored.

[dmm]

I originally thought of the TF as an ancient race or as a multi-national trade conglomerate. So I had the game starting with the TF already spread out over the galaxy, one planet per system, with lots of storage III facilities. And I made them "non-attackable" to prevent people from getting pops of TFs, planets full of resources, planets with resource converters, etc. Especially if you start the TF out in one spot, you have to have something to prevent someone from taking them over right at the beginning. Perhaps with the upcoming patch you could give them race-specific weapons platforms, really cheap, with super bonuses.

[geoschmo]

(So, they are what? empaths?) That opens a lot of possibilities. So you could buy ships (at a high price) with racial tech that you don't have. What a nice surprise for your opponent!

Yep, and you could contract with the TF to build racial facilities on you planets. Temporal vacation facilities, organic gestation vats, psychic training facilities. Since these are all things that you cannot accquire the tech for unless you have that racial trait, they would provide a steady flow of trade bait for the TF.

Of course players can do that without the TF, but there isn't always an empire with that tech handy, and you may not be on good terms with them of course. A player might hesitate to provide these items to another that might turn on them later. But the TF would not have such political considerations, only whether or not it was a good deal.

I don't know what you would call the TF. Empaths is as good as any. Since for the most part they wouldn't be researching but accuiring technology through other means, you could just say they were master traders.

Geoschmo

[ June 11, 2002, 18:23: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by dmm:
I originally thought of the TF as an ancient race or as a multi-national trade conglomerate. So I had the game starting with the TF already spread out over the galaxy, one planet per system, with lots of storage III facilities. And I made them "non-attackable" to prevent people from getting pops of TFs, planets full of resources, planets with resource converters, etc. Especially if you start the TF out in one spot, you have to have something to prevent someone from taking them over right at the beginning. Perhaps with the upcoming patch you could give them race-specific weapons platforms, really cheap, with super bonuses.

Well, first of all, to answere your earlier question, capturing a planet with resource storage facilities does not give you the resources stored there so that's not really a problem. It only increases your empires storage capacity, and decreases the empires that lost the planet.

If the TF starts out as a low tech empire like the others, there is really no advantage to a player in jumping them quickly, and you would earn the wrath of the other players as a result. Lots of downside for little or no gain. Better to nurture the TF and attempt to benefit from it and position your self as it's "protector". But also be in a position to possibly control access to it, if done with care and subtlty.

But if someone does get uppity and decide to pop them, the game would just proceed normally without the TF. That is why the TF's objective is to spread as far and wide as quickly as possible. To ensure that no attack is a death blow and allow it to remain in the game and have an influence of some kind.

But if you want to give them race specific uber-platforms, that can be done now. No need to wait for the patch.

Geoschmo

[ June 11, 2002, 18:33: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[geoschmo]

Something else I just thought of. Even though I have the TF's inteligence characteristic at the minimum, that only affects the TF's research facilities. The TF would gain research points from any empire it has a T&R or better treaty with, and it gets a bouns to that becasuse of it's savvy characteristic. 4 or 5 T&R treaties ans all of a sudden the TF has more research points every turn than anybody else in the game, on top of any tech it accquires through more direct means. They should be sufficently advanced not too long into the game to defend itself if needed even considering the hefty combat penalties.

Geoschmo