So, I've been thinking, as much as I like the diversity in races, traits, governments and ethos there isn't really anything that fundamentally change the way you play the game. You explore, you build colonies, you research, you gather minerals, you war on your neighbours.
I guess there is some difference in how you do it, do you vassalise other empires and integrate them into your body mass, do you enslave entire alien civilisations and make them work your mines to feed your warmachine or do you build robots to do your dirtywork for you?
But ultimately, there is very little difference mechanically. The biggest I can think of is going full-robot where you stop sending out organic colonists and simply expand with synthetics, replacing your need for food with more energy.
But how different could it be? The game I've played the most that is the closest to Stellaris is Endless Space, in which each race has an affinity, that crucially shapes how they play the game. Some are that they get more money and can buy stuff cheaper, some get more research, but some have larger differences.
Among them are the Cravers, this race is in a state of perpetual war against everyone else, never rising above "Cold War" and when they take over a planet they get a huge bonus to resouce output, but after some time, this bonus disappears, to be replaced with a malus as the race devours everything on the planet. Sure, you still play according to the same rules, but in a different way.
So I was considering starting a project for traits, governments and custom races for these different kinds of play. Of course I will hope to not make them too unbalanced, to the good or bad, but the primary motivation here is to create different experiences and races.
Initial ideas are
1) Organic builders: don't use minerals to build, but instead grow buildings, pops and ships with food. Construction ships are cheap, but one-use.
2) Cravers: As described above, huge resource boost on newly conquered planets, gets bonus food or new pops from purging aliens, no resettlement cost.
3) Feudalists: Don't have sectors, but instead create vassals, think CK II in space.
4) Pirate States: Don't care about borders, can build asteroid bases capable of making corvettes almost everywhere, gains minerals and energy from destroying enemy ships and debris.
I guess there is some difference in how you do it, do you vassalise other empires and integrate them into your body mass, do you enslave entire alien civilisations and make them work your mines to feed your warmachine or do you build robots to do your dirtywork for you?
But ultimately, there is very little difference mechanically. The biggest I can think of is going full-robot where you stop sending out organic colonists and simply expand with synthetics, replacing your need for food with more energy.
But how different could it be? The game I've played the most that is the closest to Stellaris is Endless Space, in which each race has an affinity, that crucially shapes how they play the game. Some are that they get more money and can buy stuff cheaper, some get more research, but some have larger differences.
Among them are the Cravers, this race is in a state of perpetual war against everyone else, never rising above "Cold War" and when they take over a planet they get a huge bonus to resouce output, but after some time, this bonus disappears, to be replaced with a malus as the race devours everything on the planet. Sure, you still play according to the same rules, but in a different way.
So I was considering starting a project for traits, governments and custom races for these different kinds of play. Of course I will hope to not make them too unbalanced, to the good or bad, but the primary motivation here is to create different experiences and races.
Initial ideas are
1) Organic builders: don't use minerals to build, but instead grow buildings, pops and ships with food. Construction ships are cheap, but one-use.
2) Cravers: As described above, huge resource boost on newly conquered planets, gets bonus food or new pops from purging aliens, no resettlement cost.
3) Feudalists: Don't have sectors, but instead create vassals, think CK II in space.
4) Pirate States: Don't care about borders, can build asteroid bases capable of making corvettes almost everywhere, gains minerals and energy from destroying enemy ships and debris.
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