Here is an idea I have for an additional feature. It consist of several parts.
The first part is the addition of resources.Each player has a certain amount of resources which they can spend on several things (see below) and each player has some income of resources. They way players gain resources can be implemented in several ways:
- every star owned by the player produces x resources per x seconds (optionally: there is a diminishing returns on production per star as the player captures more stars) (optionally: (individual) stars can produce either ships or resources. Players choice)
- the periodic income is the same for every player and
- this amount is fixed during the match (but may vary depending on time limit, galaxy size and player count)
- this amount increases steadily over time (linearly or not, with or without a cap)
- this amount is tied to the percentage of the galaxy that has been captured by all players combined (or rather 1 - (neutral star count/galaxy size))
- players gain resources for every ship they kill (introduces the need to determine the killer of a ship in a battle in which 3 or more players are involved)
- or any combination of the above
Whatever the choice of implementation of resource income, it must be chosen to reestablish the balance in the game after adding the features below. This will require some experimenting.
The second part is adding upgrades.These might include things like upgrading a star to increase it's ship/resource production or upgrading a link allowing more ships to pass per second and cost resources to buy. There is also the option to add temporary versions of these upgrades or existing abilities. However, I think that any temporary effects should be inferior to abilities.
A star or a link can be upgraded 3 or 4 times and upon losing control of a star its upgrade level is set back by 1. So if a star is upgraded to lvl 4 (regarding lvl 0 as un-upgraded) and it becomes neutral its lvl will become 3. This means that when a star repeatedly changes its owner all the upgrades will be gone. This introduces an incentive to put more effort in capturing and holding a star at the front right away as there is something valueable to be gained even though it won't be a max. lvl star. At the same time it lowers the consequences of unexpectedly loosing a star somewhere in your empire due to Strike Team or Back Door. If the enemy captures a star in the middle of your empire using Strike Team they won't instantly gain a max. level star which would be too powerful. On the other hand, if you manage to recapture the star you won't have lost all the upgrades, just 1 or 2 levels at most.
A link can be upgraded as well and increases the number of your ships as well as those of other players that can pass per second in both directions. A link does not downgrade when either of its stars become neutral. Instead, players can pay resources, at a price equal to or higher than the upgrade price, to manually downgrade a link. A player must control at least one star at either end of a link to upgrade or downgrade it.
The third part is paying resources to use abilitiesThis can be done in again one of several ways. It can be designed so that:
- players have to pay resources to use abilities (at every activation) at all.
- players have to pay resources to use some abilities (at every activation).
- players can choose to pay resources to reduce the cooldown of an ability (every time you pay you reduce the time by x second but it only counts for 1 activation, after that the regular cooldown time is in effect and you can choose to pay again).
What this adds is that the player has to choose between investing in upgrades and using his abilities early on. It adds some more depth to the game depending on the choice of implementation.
Feel free to ask any questions you have, point out mistakes or post suggestions/additions.
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