Erebus6937

Join Date 05/2025

+23

SitReps - Balance and Bug Fixes

Everything I write here is intended to be a suggestion/idea – please don’t read this as if it’s a list of demands. My aim is to provide feedback in a constructive tone, which can be difficult via text.

I’m not sure if you’ll want any sit-reps like this after release, so I’ll try to encompass everything as of this update.

The new mechanics, systems and the especially the pronounced asymmetry of the major factions has greatly improved the game. I do miss the militia & random events systems from Sins1 though. I also miss the artifacts and the expanded diplomacy from Sins1 too.

Sins 2 should explore the “exploitation” aspect of 4X a bit more. Allowing planet bonuses to be improved differently from the various playable faction research topics, allowing planet bonuses to permanently apply buffs to units built at their locations and/or allowing planet bonuses to unlock hidden units (*looks at the derelicts). The research artifact could be used to reveal a hidden research tree. Exploitation of other players could be explored as well in the form of pacts (sins1 style) and/or in the form of hidden research topics being revealed based on the active pacts/alliances. Such interactions could allow for mixing/matching of turrets, shields or abilities. All this said, I do think it would be best for this to be a game-setting toggle – I doubt competitive games want to see the randomness of games increase.

On the art side of things, I do wish that some minor factions and especially militia units could have reused models from the previous game like the Kodiak Cruiser, the removed capital ships and some of the old skins. Idea is to double as both an easter egg of Sins1 units and as a way of showing the advancements of the playable factions that no longer use the old/archaic designs.

1) Gameplay

1.1) Minor Factions

To help with getting the roaming fleets (Pirates & Aluxians), is it possible to have them research fleet supply as the game progresses? When exploring the smaller maps, these factions can be much closer to players at game start. I don’t want their total fleet supply to get lowered into nothingness, but I also don’t want to see players get knocked out early because they can’t engage these large starting fleets.
- My goal is for them to ramp up as the game progresses alongside players rather than starting with end-game fleets right at game initialization – using the fleet supply research of the playable factions seems like a good way to do this. This would give them a chance to scale a little bit with larger maps without overrunning the smaller maps.
Novalith spam is knocking out some of the minor factions (homeworld kills)
- Thoughts on tweaking the Pirates homeworld bonus to give planet HP regeneration & a bombing damage reduction?
- Thoughts on giving Aluxians a Starbase with planetary shields? Or, preferably, letting them research/build those themselves?
Viturak Transport Cabal - Setting a mapwide limit to the phase gates has a very jarring/random feel
- it doesn’t really make any sense considering the nature of the minor faction (their abilities feature scouting & map awareness, so I’d expect them to want to propagate as far as possible)
- I really only play on 10 player maps and with the limit I’d just never waste influence on unlocking/using the final ability (I’m not interested in adding the micro of deleting & rebuilding the phase gates just to maybe have the option of moving from one side of my empire to another)
- As alternative ideas for this faction specifically, instead of using a mapwide cap,
  - Impose a phase jump speed nerf on ships not owned by the minor faction (it’s scouts should be able to jump around unhindered)
  - Impose an economic penalty for using the minor factions gate (a toll of metal/crystal per ship; ships cannot jump until toll is paid – and yes, trade ships/garrisons should be impacted by these tolls as well)
Aluxian Resurgence
- I still argue that the Aluxian Resurgence should be building trade ports at worlds they capture. (they are trying to rebuild the trade order)
I am not against finite limits overall. For example, having a set number of “charges” per game for minor faction military fleets could be interesting – their forces are far more limited than player forces after all. (Pirate/mercenary type factions should not have limited fleet charges)
Overall, it’d be nice to have repercussions to using minor faction abilities too. Having some of them be benevolent vassal states is fine, but I’d like to see some of them behave as more of a trade-off than only ever being giant non-unit abilities. In terms of what this could be, having some abilities eat into income for a duration, giving minor factions extra fleet supply/defensive structures, or by improving the research level of them
Minor Faction player wishlist:
- Scrapyard type minor faction (ideally with fx of destroyed ships & debris in orbit)
  - Sells off ship components (auctions) to the highest bidder exotic market – purchasing instead of selling
  - abilities related to generating credits/metal/crystal/exotics from destroying enemy ships in particular gravity wells? Idea is that it could be used by an attacking player or by a defending player to reduce resources lost from ship destruction
- Mercenary type minor faction (ideally multi-faction, like Vasari/TEC, TEC/Advent, Advent/Vasari, TEC/Pirate, Vasari/Pirate, Advent/Pirate..)
  - Sells their allegiance (auctions). Will attack players hostile to auction winner (no grav jump limitation, but will never colonize planets) and will send attack waves until the next auction is won
  - Unlike the other minor factions, this type would not offer abilities (just to mix things up)
Minor Faction gameplay interactions wishlist: (these don’t need to be standalone minor factions themselves)
- Research oriented minor faction (something similar to the derelict guardians?)
- Abilities can offer units/components that increase research speed
  - Auctions would be related to timed research boosts, based off of the market monopolies
- Manufacturing oriented minor factions
  - Can be varied around ship classes, structures, components & exotics
  - Abilities would like boost
- Having more lore-connected ones would be great. Pranast is a great example, but what about the other major members of/from the trade order?
  - Odds of a unqiue minor faction based off of the Exodus that has no planet & slowly travels around eating 1 planet at a time?
  - Odds of minor factions comprising off mini alliances? Basically, is it possible to build minor factions that model/depict various playstyles?
  - Is it possible to build the minor factions as easter eggs of faction designs that were considered at one point but later abandoned for whatever development reasons?
It’d be nice to have multiple minor faction markets as options instead of the 1/each we get currently on the largest maps. Last I checked (modded game, about 2 updates ago), only 1 metal market will “work” per game even if more than 1 minor faction with one spawned in.

1.2) Abilities/Components

It’d be nice to see an expansion of abilities to the rank-n-file units. Note that I’m looking for the nature of these abilities to be “soft” rather than “hard”. For example, the Dunov’s ability to straight up disable enemy abilities for a duration is something I’d consider “hard”. Meanwhile the Sins1 ability “interference” which increased ability costs/cooldowns is something I’d consider “soft”
I’d like to see abilities added that synergize with one another within a faction
- For example, a variation of the magnetic singularity that forces a specific class/type of enemy unit to cluster together as a set-up for AoE abilities such as Flak Burst or Missile Barrages
I’d like to see some abilities in-game have their mirrors present too, within a faction or mirrored between the subfactions
- The Antorak Marauder has the gravity distortion field giving allied ships a boost to movement. It’d be nice to see rank & file ships, such as the carriers, emit a variation of that gravity distortion field that slows enemy strikecraft & missiles
- Temporarily suppress a phase lane (inverse of the Vasari ability to create one)
- Inverse to Warpath, where enemy units experience a stacking decrease in offensive capability (a nod to war weariness, basically) – most likely advent?

1.3) Components

Almost all of the components are strictly-positive, as in they don’t have trade-offs. Volatile Accelerants is the only exception that comes to mind. I’m in the minority but I find the “only positives” approach to be odd/jarring
I see components as faction-generic abilities at this point because they can’t stack. This severely limits the customization in my opinion. I get that balance needs to be maintained, a lot of the balancing issues came from the fact the components gave without ever taking. This is just a difference in design philosophy though – I’m an engineer so managing tradeoffs for me is often fun/natural/expected
Will the Allied Metal Market & Allied Crystal Market components return? Is it possible to see them return as planet bonuses

1.4) UI

It would be nice to see planet bombing damage on the unit tooltips, even if it only appears while holding “alt”
When hiding the UI (CNTL+SHFT+Z), can you modify it so that the star icon isn’t hidden along with everything else? Was attempting to take a screenshot with it peeking from behind a planet and discovered that wasn’t going to work.

1.5) Influence

Thoughts on having some influence dependant on whether or not the player has a homeworld? The research upgrades go 2>5>9, limiting the 2 & 5 influence points to upgrading the homeworld bonus I think would be a bit more thematic. The final 4 earned from research would be the “floating influence” type
- From a lore perspective, I’d expect a factions influence to drop a bit if they lose their homeworld. Thoughts on having the first 3-5 influence points being tied to the homeworld again with the remainder floating from the empire or from components?
- As for the Vasari Exodus, abandoning their homeworld to go fully mobile would imply that they’re done playing politics and have restarted their planet-eating ways. I’d see them as being the least interactive when it comes to minor factions. As alternative, allowing the [mobile empire labs] to earn 1 influence each (unlocked at “enhanced mobile influence”) could alleviate that while still playing into the exodus image of being mobile.

1.6) Vasari

Crystal can be painfully difficult to get if you don’t happen to get an ice planet and don’t find the two market minor factions early on. Is there a chance that asteroid crystal mining can see some small increases?
Thoughts on Vasari research labs being given Distort Gravity?
- The goal is to give a parallel to the TEC with the PSIDAR. Distort gravity has a neat sfx effect in game, only reason for the suggestion
Exodus
- Would you consider the following changes to the mobile labs, after researching [Enhanced Mobile Research]? If that would cause issues too soon, then about adding them in at [Advanced Mobile Research]?
  - Mobile Empire Lab – gives +1 influence points or gives +100 antimatter
  - Mobile Warfare Lab – gives +5 Armor strength or gives +50 Hull points

sins of a solar empire ii

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2) Balance

(Preface: I don’t play Sins2 in the competitive sense. I still have a ton of lingering habits from sins1 I’m ‘updating’ still)

2.1) It’s weird that garrison units don’t give XP when killed but can grant XP to allies with their kills.

2.2) Defensive structures (non-starbase) feel very weak vs ships

Feel-wise, they are mostly a waste of time/resources
- On the TEC side, I do use the Gauss Defense Platforms, as they deal damage & have some range. I pretty much never use the autocannon defense structure though; I don’t know what it’s intended to be used for
- On the Vasari side, neither of the options seems worthwhile. The phase missile platform rarely connects (PD is doing good things) meanwhile the pulse gun defense doesn’t seem to deal much damage. TEC strikecraft easily overwhelm both
I have mixed feelings here, as one on hand a capital ship with a couple of support cruisers seems to outlast, outtank and outdamage the static defenses. On the other hand, I actually want capital ships to be good for punching through static defenses
- If the static defenses are intended to be deterrents instead of being lethal, then that’s fine but in exchange can we give the turrets some kind of utility?
- Abilities that decrease enemy firing rates/reloads, increase ability antimatter costs/cooldowns or that increase the sustain of the static defense
- Perhaps something like passive repair rates are always active for these structures, unlike ships/Starbases?
- Maybe allow the structures to make use of the shield burst mechanic too by giving them shields?
- The goal is to buy enough time to cross from one end of the map to the other – because ships have very slow move & phase jump speeds I’d like some method to slow the enemy advances. If thinning their numbers isn’t an option then slowing their movement/damage is the next approach that comes to mind. Once I get a second fleet up and running I’m less vulnerable, but getting to that point can be an issue in FFA. Some of this may just be me being stubborn and not adapting to the new game, though there is a deal of frustration when several worlds with maxed out defenses melt away in a couple of min. The only thing slowing the enemy down is a planet’s health pool. It takes quite some time to move a fleet 4-5 jumps.

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3) Artwork/Visuals/Other

3.1) They’re looking great! After the updates it looks like most of the icons are ready

3.2) Pirates minor faction

Their structures are in need of having pirate skins
I’d argue their scout ships should be left as-is; something inconspicuous being used to look for targets
Still looking for pirates to get their capital ship

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4) Bugs, Typos, Goofs

4.1) Finding a colonized Aluxian minor faction planet does not count as revealing them

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5) Requests

5.1) Expand the pre-game lobby text to feature the differences between TEC, Advent & Vasari. For rough mock-ups:

Vasari

TEC

5.2) Artifacts

Manifest Domain – Thoughts on controlling this allowing militia to spawn randomly on your worlds and then travel to enemy territory. I really miss the militia mechanic from Sins1. Since none of the factions saw them return, I figured tying them to this artifact may be a realistic vehicle for their return
I’d also like artifacts to be more than just global buffs. Changes to the UI, changes to the sfx in-game or to the sounds/notifications are other opportunities. Having them unlock unique units, hidden researches or even spawn the militia like I requested above could be options. Idea is to make them look/seem more impactful. In sins1, we only had the yellow icon denoting their presence

5.3) AI

I'll break the AI into their own post, it'll be a bit easier that way I think

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Appendix) Previous requests compilation:

The following have already been submitted in previous sitreps, but I still think they would be beneficial to the game. This is just me being a squeaky wheel.

Art, Factions:

Vasari Alliance
- Create a Starbase component version of [Xeno Relations Center]. This component would act as a pseudo-tradeport, allowing allied TEC players trade ships to see this Starbase as a destination. The Vasari Alliance would get a credits income while the minor faction/TEC player would see +1 metal & +1 crystal trade export points from that Starbase
  - Goal is to give an in-game visual of the Alliance integrating into the local worlds by having trade ships come and go from Starbases with this component equipped
  - Vasari minor factions with trade capability would have a Starbase with this component as well; ideally it’d be rebuildable too if the minor faction survives an attack and can rebuild
- Would have a variation of the [Dark Fleet Tower] (Alliance Tower?) where they can summon an ensemble of TEC, Advent & Vasari ships to help defend themselves
  - Goal is to give another in-game visual of the Alliance integrating into the local worlds and having non-vasari allies

Art, Planets:

Planet Bonus visuals
- Allow planetary bonuses apply art effects on the planet and/or the gravity well. Some ideas:
  - Stable Debris Field – displays debris & derelict ships from previous Vasari/Trade Order/Advent battles adrift in orbit
  - Chaotic Weather - creates massive storm fronts on the host planet with lightning sprites in the clouds
  - Death World – disables city-lights on the dark side of planets. Hides all planet elevators, or maybe only leaves 3 total?
  - Automated Factories – Adds an assortment of structures at the same height as planet elevators and reduces their model size to a “mini” version. This could reuse the TEC exotic refinery, the TEC Heavy Factory & the TEC Light Factory models (this is just reusing assets for visuals). Setting it to display a pre-set amount would probably be best, but allowing it to scale with planet development like planet elevators do would be nice from a modding perspective
- Planet bonus that creates rings
Minor Factions
- Allow Minor faction planets to look developed with planet elevators (wherever they’d normally spawn) and city-lights. The ‘simple planet track’ does not trigger these to display by default.
Planet Name overrides
- In the player file, under “home_planet”, allow for text overrides of planet names. For example, this would allow a custom faction to rename its starting planet from the default list to the text value entered in the player file?
Planet Skin overrides
- Allow player entity files to override the city-lights of a developed planet to a particular color/transparency
  - I’m thinking of this as a RGB value to control; not sure if that would work though
  - TEC would use current yellow scheme
  - Advent could use a blue scheme
  - Vasari could use a red scheme
  - Also want ability to stop these from displaying
Allow player entity files to override if planet elevators do or don’t display (pretty sure this is already possible)

Art, UI & Effects:

Artifacts
- Allow artifacts to modify the UI and in-game effects. Using the Sins1 artifacts as examples:
  - Data Archive - Adds visual effects to the research-trees. Maybe something related to the derelicts we find floating around?
  - Relativistic Factories – Adds visual effects to the build-ships pop-up. Maybe something related to the derelicts we find?
  - Planetary AI – Adds visual effect to the planet pop-up menus. Maybe something related to the derelicts we find?
  - Kinetic Intensifier – Allows player to build a unique ship. Maybe something related to the derelicts we find?
  - Phase Accelerator – Overrides the default phase-jump effect for a unique one, so long as control over the artifact is maintained
  - Manifest Domain – Doubles the number of planet elevators on planets that have them?
  - Ion Field Generator – Owned planets gain a unique shield effect at bombing impacts. Small, but there if one is looking
Research
- Envoy Outreach, Ambassador Relations & Embassy Establishment
  - Allow the influence oriented researches to modify the minor faction menu’s appearance as they are completed
  - Thoughts on having each player in a game spawn a unique “elevator” on minor faction homeworlds once Embassy Establishment is researched?
Crippled units
- Units in the crippled state would have the ship/starbase lights turn off (ship is crippled, so power issues). Note the engines would still be on (since they aren’t ever disabled)
Disabled units
- Ship lights are turned off. Engines would turn off too

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Appendix) Previous requests compilation: (cont.)

Gameplay:

Minor Factions
- Allow the minor factions to have their unique planet components equipped. For example:
  - Pranast United - would be able to build & equip the [Armored Citadel], [Bastion Module] & Unassailable Fortress components on their units & planets
  - Note that as-is, a separate component would have to be created for the minor factions to be able to build them. Having components with no costs at game start results in a single instance of the component being given to them as opposed to them being able to build for no cost/no time
- Allow minor factions to “apply” their unique abilities to themselves, perhaps as a homeworld bonus. For Example:
  - Viturak Transport Cabal - “Tachyon Boost” is always active in their gravity well
  - Jiskun Expeditionary Force – They will use “Phase Space Raid” against their enemies
  - Pranast United – They can use “Protection Fleet” on their own world if under attack
- Allow minor factions to build capital ships
- Allow minor faction fleets to travel around and engage each other over player/neutral planets
Elliptical Orbits
Random maps
- Master toggle for “Competitive – Fair” (presumably what the game would be balanced for)
  - Toggle to allow/disallow planet bonuses/artifact spawns (would use the default settings)
  - Toggle to allow/disallow minor faction spawns (would use the default settings)
  - Toggle to allow/disallow planet orbits (no speed control for the orbits here, though)
  - <presumably a couple other QoL type options that the MP crowd would have more accurate thoughts. My only goal with these is that they’d be simple and not too numerous.
- Other Gameplay Options, that would be adjustable if the competitive toggle is off. These would ideally all use a slider
  - Research Rates
  - Ship Build Rates
  - Income Rates
  - Health Points
  - Armor Points
  - Shield Points
  - Antimatter Points
  - Ability Cooldowns
  - Movement speed
- Map Details options, these would also use a slider
  - Orbiting Planet Speed
  - Planet Bonus/Artifact density [0%,100%]. If the game is capable of permitting more than 2 planet bonuses/planet then the upper limit could be raised to w/e the limit of the game is
- Map Details Options (this would only appear for random maps), this would be more of a checklist
  - Enemy militia faction - only one option could be chosen. It’d be cool if additional options could be modded in later
    - Random
    - TEC (this is the default militia)
    - Vasari
    - Advent
    - Pirate
  - Minor Faction pool – this would be a checklist type thing where only the selected ones can/will spawn. Ideally you could also set the number of minor factions permitted to spawn
  - Planet Composition - this would be checklist type thing. Only selected types can spawn. It’d be cool if additional options could be modded in later. Default setting would use the guidelines set in each random scenario
    - Default
    - Volcanic - [ ] - #%
    - Ferrous - [ ] - #%
    - Ice - [ ] - #%
    - Desert - [ ] - #%
    - Terran - [ ] - #%
    - Asteroid - [ ] - #%
    - Moon - [ ] - #%

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Appendix) Previous requests compilation: (cont.)

Modding Capabilities:

Minor Factions
- Allow to preset minor faction alliance states by player entity file. Concepts:
  
  "start_allied_to_playable_players": false,
  
  {
  
  "whitelist": [
  
  "trader_loyalist"
  
  ]
  
  },
  
  "start_allied_to_other_npc_players": true,
  
  {
  
  "blacklist": [
  
  "viturak_cabal_npc",
  
  "jiskun_force_npc"
  
  ]
  
  },
- Allow planet tracks to override the NPC’s “Simple Planet Tracks” for modded minor factions if present. As-is, the simple planet track values override the values set in the planet track system used by players
  - For my purposes, I actually want to reuse the playable-faction AI & settings as much as possible. Not as full fledged players, but if the systems already exist then I figure we may as well use them. I prefer the minor factions to be more than just destructible props.
- Allow for minor factions to deploy Starbases at player-owned planets from standard minor faction behavior for shady minor factions
- Allow minor faction markets to have their costs/prices scale off of the minor factions current inventory of credits/metal/crystal. The goal is that minor factions that are well-off will be less useful and those that are in need will be more profitable. Factions would auction off surplus resources for credits (causing their resource inventories to change) or spend their resources on building structures/ships or by improving their research
Items
- allow item slots to be unlocked with research (ship/structure/planet). Concept:
  
  "items":
  
      {
  
          "levels": [
  
          {
  
              "max_ship_component_count": 1,
  
              "prerequisites": [
  
                          "trader_labor_negotiations"
  
              ]
  
          }]
  
      },
Planet bonus
- Allow planetary bonuses to apply abilities/bonuses/buffs to ship stats
  - Buffs (additive or scalar)
    - Hull Points
    - Crippled Hull
    - Armor Points
    - Armor Strength
    - Shield Points
    - Shield Burst
    - Antimatter Points
    - Unit Skins
  - Add abilities
- Allow planet bonuses to allow construction of unique ships
- Allow planet bonuses to interact with random events system (if it returns)
  - Frequent raiders planet bonus would periodically spawn up to 25 supply of militia
- New planet modifier types:
  - max_insurgency_supply (based on the max_garrison_supply)
Some ability types I think could find a place within the game:
- "Evasion” (allows weapons to miss units under this buff; it’s the old dice-roll on if damage occurs – preferably with artwork showing misses)
- “Taunts”
- “Decoys”
- “Friendly Fire”(force/enable friendly fire scenarios)

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Appendix) Previous requests compilation: (cont.)

Major Requests: (new systems)

Cloaking system
- I posted a mock-up for this a while back elsewhere on the forums. Not that it was the best approach, I just figured it’d be better than a “please do thing” post
Capture system
- I wasn’t able to put together any kind of example of how it could work. So far as desired end goals were concerned, it was to mix and match the following:
  - Option to override unit voice lines
  - Option to override unit skins
  - Option to override unit effects (like phase jump visuals)
  - Option to add a permanent buff (easier than trying to figure out if things have room for abilities)
- The issue was how to implement overrides, which don’t currently exist in any form from what I can tell. We can modify some things, but nothing seems to be capable of dynamically overriding things (as in, within a game) from what little I can see/understand. I had hoped to provide a mock-up like I did with the cloaking system, but nothing came to mind
Allow planet bonuses to receive upgrades from player research. Currently get a “crash-to-desktop” error. Concept:
{
"version": 0,
"item_type": "planet_bonus",
"hud_icon": "trader_mining_planet_bonus_hud_icon",
"tooltip_icon": "trader_mining_planet_bonus_hud_icon",
"name": "planet_bonus.trader_mining.name",
"description": "planet_bonus.trader_mining.desc",
"item_level_count": 3,
"item_level_source": "research_prerequisites_per_level",
"item_level_prerequisites": [

[

["trader_mining_track_metal_rate_0"]

],
[

["trader_mining_track_metal_rate_1"]

]
],
"planet_types": [

"asteroid",

"ferrous",

"terran",

"volcanic"

],
"required_excavation_level": [1, 2],
"planet_modifiers": [
{

"modifier_type": "mining_track_metal_income_rate",

"value_behavior": "additive",

"values": [1.0, 1.2, 1.4]

}]

}
Allow planet bonuses or planet items to have multiple research interactions. Currently get a “unused keys” error. Concept:
{
"version": 0,

"item_type": "planet_bonus",

"hud_icon": "ancient_arcology_planet_bonus_hud_icon",

"tooltip_icon": "ancient_arcology_planet_bonus_hud_icon",

"name": "planet_bonus.ancient_arcology.name",

"description": "planet_bonus.ancient_arcology.desc",

"planet_types": [

"desert",

"ferrous",

"ice",

"terran",

"volcanic"

],

"required_excavation_level": [1, 2],

"planet_modifiers": [

{

"modifier_type": "max_civilian_structure_slots",

"value_behavior": "additive",

"values": [4.0],

"prerequisites": [

["trader_labor_negotiations"]

]

},

{

"modifier_type": "factory_unit_build_time",

"value_behavior": "scalar",

"values": [-0.15],

"prerequisites": [

["vasari_enslaved_labor"]

]

}]

}
Allow components/planet bonuses to give visibility of the gravity well to specified player(s). For current build example, I’d give the Pirates NPC visibility of pirate mercenary bases. Concept:

"player_visibility_granted": [
{
["pirate_npc"]
}],
Add a codex/wiki within the game, accessible from the main menu
- Primary purpose is to expand on the history of the factions/lore within the sins universe, while also allowing for an overview to those new to SOASE
- While there is the online wiki, having an in-game one can be automatically tied to any balancing updates and would be viewable while traveling or without internet access
- Would be equivalent to the old booklets that used to come with games
- If desired, I can make an updated mock-up; the last one I made was using Tech Preview 2. It’s just time consuming as the original (editable) one I made is gone
For units/planets, adding a new hover-icon to provide flavor text. This can be used for flavor text mostly for bits of lore within the sins universe, but can also be used by modders to give credits for mod artists

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something I forgot to mention above..

Modding Capabilities:

Minor Faction UI
- Allow the player entity file to be used to show/hide aspects of the planet UI as shown in the rough mock-up below
  For a mock-up on the player file:
  
  "npc":
  {
  "planet_ui-settings":[
  [
  "name": "planet_component_slots",
  "display": "true"
  ],
  [
  "name": "planet_tracks",
  "display": "true"
  ],
  "visuals": [.....],
  },
- The reason I'm asking for is that I'd like the minor factions to have a range of appearances via the UI. The most "Advanced" of them would look like what is shown above. The ones that are just barely above 'militia status' could use the current setup (would not display components or planet tracks). Some, like the pirates, would only show planet components and some would only show planet tracks. This would also be a nice-to-have for some of the minor factions I'd like to create too

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mock-up image for above post (image broke):

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