"Dynamic Borders"

[Aury]

Instead of a dynamic topology (ie, one that changes from game to game), since for my particular setup, it would be a bit undesirable and not player friendly, so I decided that "dynamic borders" could be an interesting substitution.

In dynamic borders, a certain government (or none at all) controls a particular system. Now, who controls a certain system can change from time to time, especially along border systems.

I'm planning to do this via a "system fortress" station in every system. For the player to attack one (especially early on) is generally not a good idea. As a matter of fact, it's a suicidal idea. It will be heavily gaurded and be very hard to kill (impossible for a stock player ship- even the centauran one will require some good upgrades to kill). However, from time to time (depending on the systems position to enemy states) an enemy attack group may come in and attempt to destroy it.
I'll set it up so that the attack army usually does not succeed but in the end just provides a really big show (and possibly nice salvage, if you can beat the salvagers (it's not just slow, clunky nomads now, but now personal freighters and gunships like yourself wanting to cash in on the conflict)). Sometimes however, one government will triumph over the other and replace the old station with a new one.
Not all systems will be homogeneous- that would look boring.

For example, take 3 systems- one deep in CW territory (a), a CW one on the CW/Ares border (b), and an ares one on the CW/Ares border (c).

Obviously, B and C will have attack groups attacking the fortress.
A will not- that would be illogical. (the st.k attack by the ares is logically set up- don't worry).
B and C will also have some opposing stations in them, though often near their fringes.

Now, say in system B, you suddenly see a bunch of ares ships gate in, they are on their way to attack the fortress. They are met with a few centurions and aquilas at the fortress, and a large mass of CW reinforcements gates in shortly. The reinforcements, gaurds and fortress guns work over the attackers pretty quickly.

In system C, a bunch of aquilas and aquila MkII's as well as some centurion and aruchos support gate in and attack the ares fortress. They successfully destroy the fortress despite the gaurds, it's guns and the reinforcements. Soon, a well-gaurded heavy scarab gates in and plops a new CW fortress to replace the dead ares one.

I'll probably have some kind of stupidly elaborate system that'll accomplish the simple task of determining the allegiance of neighboring systems to see if the new fortress should be attacked with relative frequency or if at all...

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I'm still thinking about what will happen if the player kills a fortress... should it go to the player's govt, or should it go to the player him/herself?

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So tell me what you think of this idea and how it can be improved.

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FYI- the trans-x universe is much more hostile (and far larger) than the current one- sure, you start out in the CW's fringe to the galactic north where only centaurians and (nerfed) mauraders roam, but travel outwards about 10 systems to the south and you'll bump into House of Charon or Ares territory. To the west there are the solarites. To the north, there are the lawless barrens (and Sol, hidden away out there). To the east is the only consistently friendly territory, containing only the Ranx Empire's tip and a thin band of Canis Industries systems.
Outside the quarantine zone, the Azarian Union (comprised of the allied Azarian Empire, the United Danthorian Republic, the 4 CAHSNAAH states, and the Sentinels) dominates the north west. The Barrens of the Ancients occupies much of the east, several small, fractured warring states exist to the north east and south east. The Iocrym and Paedan states and their satellite states exist to the south, and the Oracanians (zealotical followers of oracus, like the order of penitence, but not human) fill up the remaining south west. I don't know how much I'll explore in making the outside of the quarantine zone however.

[F50]

I don't think that systems should be even mostly homogenous. The station's near the gates should have stations that belong to factions owning the borderzone (they want their freighters be able to travel through their systems without having to deal with a station). Also the stations very close to the star should belong to the faction "controlling" the system. All other stations should be as they are now, and factions should generate attacks from these stations. This will make the universe a bit more dynamic than monoculture/dualculture.

IMO, the player should be completely unable to destroy fortresses except if sigificantly out-of-depth. The player should have midgame (sung, dwarg, etc.) weapons to take out early-game (Charon, outlaw) fortresses, and should have access to endgame weapons to take out mid-range fortresses (sung dwarg etc.). There may be special "strong" stations guarding the gates that the player is capable of destroying with the current weapons (but with significant danger) however, and the ownership of the station should belong to the nearest sovereign with the most power in the system (some function would have to relate distance to sovereign-system-power) to take it over and not be player-related at all.

[Aury]

I don't think that systems should be even mostly homogenous. The station's near the gates should have stations that belong to factions owning the borderzone (they want their freighters be able to travel through their systems without having to deal with a station). Also the stations very close to the star should belong to the faction "controlling" the system. All other stations should be as they are now, and factions should generate attacks from these stations. This will make the universe a bit more dynamic than monoculture/dualculture.

IMO, the player should be completely unable to destroy fortresses except if sigificantly out-of-depth. The player should have midgame (sung, dwarg, etc.) weapons to take out early-game (Charon, outlaw) fortresses, and should have access to endgame weapons to take out mid-range fortresses (sung dwarg etc.). There may be special "strong" stations guarding the gates that the player is capable of destroying with the current weapons (but with significant danger) however, and the ownership of the station should belong to the nearest sovereign with the most power in the system (some function would have to relate distance to sovereign-system-power) to take it over and not be player-related at all.

Oh, It won't be very homogeneous- just a bit layered. Even in st.k's, there will still be that good sized criminal band past that asteroid belt, or the equivalent for other capitols.

And yes, the player won't be able to destroy fortresses unless it's significantly out of depth... As stated.

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As to player involvement, I don't think empire-building really works well in transcendence, though I guess a number of factors can influence who takes over if it's killed by the player.

Maybe the neighboring factions would send in attack forces in a race to claim the system?

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Attacks won't be launched from stations since it would be

[Mutos]

Hi Wolfy,


Dynamic borders is one of the directions I investigated for my own Adventure Mod. The idea is great, but for now I'm still too newbie to tackle to something so huge. Maybe one day ^-^ I'll observe from far, learn from your experiments and try to help if possible.