Hi everyone!
In this new dev diary, we propose to discuss Leaders in Project Space Sector.
In our view, Leaders were one of the key ingredients that made Master of Orion 2 great and stand out from other space 4X games. Having officers commanding your ships and system governors managing your colonies gave the task of ruling a space empire much more flavor and character while enhancing the RPG elements of the game.
Of course, Leaders will return in Project Space Sector, and this time their impact in the game will be even more meaningful.
Hope you agree, and please enjoy this dev diary.
Leaders
There are ship leaders and colony leaders. Ship leaders can be assigned to individual ships, while colony leaders can be assigned to systems, and therefore oversee all the colonies that may exist in that system.
Each leader will have a history and backstory and can have a nickname. Both their name and nickname can be edited.
Leaders have both an initial hiring cost and an ongoing salary. How much money a leader demands will vary and can even change during a game.
Primary Skills
Ship leaders have the following primary skills:
- Command (better stats allows commanding bigger ship classes)
- Operations (adds to the empire’s ship support, helping field more ships while reducing maintenance costs)
- Attack (ship attack modifier - affects all fleet)
- Defense (ship defense modifier - affects all fleet)
- Initiative (a factor on determining which side in battle moves first)
Colony leaders have the following primary skills:
- Administration (tax bonus)
- Labor (production bonus)
- Research (research bonus)
- Corporate (bonus to system exploitation revenue, offworld mining operations, trade income)
- Warfare (bonus to troops defending from invasions)
Secondary Skills
In addition to the primary skills, the leaders also have other skills, which we call secondary skills. These range from Smuggler, Pirate, Navigator, Explorer, Spiritual Leader, Scientist, among many others.
These skills will evolve as the leader gains more experience. Each skill experience starts with "Basic" knowledge, upgrades to "Advanced" and finally to "Expert", for increased benefits as the leader levels up.
Note that colony leaders only acquire colony-oriented skills while ship leaders only acquire ship-combat oriented skills.
Some secondary skills though can appear in both Colony and Ship leaders, these are the (shared) “empire-wide” skills. An example of a shared skill is “Commando”, which provides bonus to both troops defending planets as for marines on board of ships during boarding actions.
Leveling up skills
As the leader gains enough experience (for instance, when a construction is completed on a colony they manage, a battle is won or a ruin is explored), the leader levels up and the player may choose to increase one primary skill further.
In addition to increasing the primary skill, the leader will also be able to learn a new secondary skill or enhance an existing one from a choice of two.
Traits
In addition to having primary and secondary skills, which reflect more the leader's abilities, what they are capable of doing, the leader may also have traits.
Traits are the characteristics of the leader that reflect their differences in personality, which may be inherited or acquired during the game.
Traits affect mostly the things that may happen with respect to the leaders themselves, their relation with the empire (leaders may defect, revolt or become double agents) and the interactions among themselves.
Examples of currently implemented traits include Trusting (the leader is less likely to revolt, to defect and/or of conducting sabotage), Genius (can level up primary skills twice per level up), Uncreative (cannot choose between two secondary skills to learn or improve by level up), Empathic (more morale on colony) and Lone wolf (combat penalties per additional ship in the fleet). And there are many others currently designed but not yet implemented.
Desires
Leaders may also have desires, which can pop up from time to time due to the current game's circumstances. These can be personal ambitions or a reflection of the wishes of the people they lead.
Meeting or not the leader's desires will have consequences, which may translate into boosting the leader's skills, acquiring a new trait or the decrease of their opinion towards the empire in case of desire unfulfillment.
Desires can be fulfilled through concrete gameplay actions, like building, researching or improving something, or by some diplomatic action, combat or exploration mission.
The player will have to evaluate if meeting the leader’s wishes is advantageous with respect to the empire's current agenda.
Along with ingame events, desires may influence the traits that emerge and vice versa. For example, a greedy leader may demand a raise, while fulfilling a leader's desire may turn other leader envious by not fulfilling theirs (even more serious if it was the same desire!).
Leader Opinion
As mentioned above, leaders have an opinion about the empire (the value at the top right). Low opinion increases the chances of the leader revolting, defecting, or of conducting sabotage / acting as a double agent (all not implemented yet).
Not fulfilling the leaders desires can also lower their opinion towards the empire, while fulfilling them may raise it.
Hope you like what we have in stock for you regarding Leaders, and thanks for reading. Most of what's described is already implemented and now it will be just a question of adding more content to the game (more leaders, desires, secondary skills, traits).
Now please let us know your impressions on the official forum thread for this post (or here if you prefer), as for what your ideas and suggestions for improvement may be.
Thank you all!
Project Space Sector is a spiritual successor to Master of Orion 2, the turn-based space 4X strategy game from the 90's that we love so much. This will be a faithful successor, that is true in spirit to the series. We believe that by sticking to its fundamentals we will please the fans who want to feel the atmosphere and that “feeling” of Master of Orion 2, but also want to experience something new and fresh, with all the complexity and depth of a big and complex 4X game. Pre-orders with instant access should open to the public this summer. You can join the discussions here.
Note on SpaceSector.com (the site)
The plan is for Project Space Sector (the game) to branch off onto its own website very soon, and SpaceSector.com, as it is, will be shut down (effectively stop being updated).
In the meantime, we suggest that you look for other sites that have been doing, and are doing a great job covering space & sci-fi strategy games, and 4X games, like Explorminate.net, SpaceGameJunkie.com and SpaceSimCentral.com for your news and reviews fix. You’ll be in good hands with these folks.
We are very happy with what SpaceSector.com (the site) managed to achieve over the years. However, we felt that we were ready for a new adventure, that we hope you want to share with us! :)
Subscribe RSS
5 Comments
Related Articles:
- Distant Worlds Legends Preview
- Project Space Sector Dev Diary #3: Research
- Interstellar Space: Genesis – Dev Diary #8: Pre-Alpha 10 Features Preview
- Interstellar Space: Genesis – Dev Diary #6: Ground Combat and Bombardment
- Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide Expansion News
Loading ...
wonderful getting better and better !! =)
HI, i love the way this proyect are taking. Can you add to ship leader, with laaaaaarge combat experience, the “Elite” and “Ultra Elite” title (obviously increasing more the hero stats)? Thanks.
We’re going to have Crew Experience on top of the leader experience, which gives bonus to a ship in combat, irrespective if they have leaders commanding or not. There you will have your Elite and Ultra Elite experience levels :)
Thanks for your response Adam, i was one of the most “diehard” fans of MoO2, and never a x4 space game have come close to that game. I really think that your proyect will hit the target and bring us this piece of jewel that all of us are waiting for… more than two decades… wow..that is a lot of time..
Well, finally, i was dreaming with an ultimate level of the ship crew (or the entire ship) something like the “flagship of the empire” with slightly better stats than the common one, and a bit more luck factor, like was the USS Enterprise with some modificator to population happiness or somehitng more when the ship finally is built. Thanks for all your efforts in this amazing proyect!
Thanks for the kinds words. Soon, you’ll be able to pre-order and play the current build and I hope that you’ll join the forums for the discussions about the game so that together we can make a worthy spiritual successor to Master of Orion 2 that also offers something new.
I liked your idea of having a “flagship” that may provide bonus to population morale, or other bonuses when stationed on the system. I took note of it and will consider it for inclusion in the game. Thanks!