0.9 Draft Design: Rethinking the Station

Now that the character engine is working, it's time to take another look at the mechanics. I've never been happy with how station construction worked, but only recently came up with what I think is the answer:

This update will replace most of the construction system. The new one will start with less space, reduce micromanagement, and make your station important after the early game. It will also do away with the entire concept of "rooms," replacing them with "decks," which will have to be built out over time to accommodate your growing needs.

The full change log will probably look something like this:

Construction Rework

Rooms and floors will be replaced with decks, each with a different focus:

• The Pleasure Deck will be the destination for all things tourism and entertainment, like clubs, brothels, and hotels.

• The Servitor's Deck will have quarters and training infrastructure like the prison, college, gym, and spa.

• The Industrial Deck will host shipyards, the dairy, and medical structures like the pharmaceutical fabricator.

• The Palace Deck will be a more over-the-top version of the suite (rough draft shown above).

• The Administration Deck will contain citizen housing, and the new Ministries.

Your station will start much smaller, and you will have to expand it by building new sections as you need more space.

Most small furniture (outside of the palace deck) will be replaced with buildings, and you won't need as many of them.

Ministries

This update will also add the first two Ministries, administrative departments staffed by citizens and led by the Machiavellian Sera sisters. They will be necessary to maintain control of your empire.

Ministry of Thought

• The Ministry of Thought shapes the hearts and minds of your people.

• Disobedient systems cost money and a lot of control. Obedient systems produce money and cost less control.

• Led by Nova Sera, a power broker who uses her position as a news broadcaster to play an extremely high-stakes version of chess.

Ministry of Freedom

• Ministries of Freedom produce control, a new central resource for your empire.

• If you don't have enough control, you won't be able to hold worlds after you destroy their defenses.

• Led by Khanna Sera, a legendary oppressor-for-hire who isn't above flipping the board to gain an advantage.

Story

• Storylines for the Sera sisters (starting with a new tutorial).

• The Ministry of Thought's news broadcasts will give a different perspective on your actions over the course of the game.

• More events that give color to the territory you're holding, and its interactions with your empire.

Other

• A re-balance to introduce conquest faster, and have it turn into an all-consuming death ball slower.

• A new "Imperial Census" market that will let you drop in on random citizens of your empire once your influence is high enough.

• Citizens will move to your station reliably when you have housing and jobs for them, instead of being driven by vague prestige math.

• A huge optimization that will be an equally huge pain in the ass, but should provide the biggest boost to performance and stability since release.

• A bunch of normal optimization and quality of life stuff (I might even get around to a Rules Assistant rework this time, if the rest of it goes smoothly, but no promises).

Note:

I was seriously planning on doing a vote for this patch, but, after looking at the options, I realized that they all fit into one of two categories:

They're a major mechanics change that will need to be redone after this update (like non-placeholder fleet combat, pit fighting, or research),

Or:

They're extensions to the character engine (like the gender overhaul, clothing, or nonhumans), which would be fine, except that if I have to fix the blending on one more eye this month, I'm going to burn it all down and start herding goats.

So democracy is still off. Hopefully, the next update will have choices again.