3) Artwork/Visuals/Other

3.1) Planet Items

• Is it possible to have some planet items concatenate their text names? As example, if the planet name is “Galatea” and a civic university or military research base is built there – can the text name automatically display “Galatea Civic University” or “Galatea Military Research Base”? If component stacking is going to be blocked then this would help with the visuals. Plus, it’d be nice for modding too!

5) Modding (minor factions)

5.1) Observations (so far)

• Culture will work for minor factions. I hope this remains a moddable feature even if the default minor factions don’t make use of it. In my case, I gave the Aluxian Resurgence trade ports the ability to generate culture as well as a couple broadcast centers on their homeworld. Due to their player color it’s difficult to see
  
  
• Simple planet tracks overrides any planet tracks info you set. Deleting “simple planet tracks” makes the game too sad to work so long as the NPC field requires it. For modding, it’d be nice if the game overwrites the “simple planet tracks” with anything populated under “planet types”. For example:
  
  Ideally, the “planet track” info defined for desert planet types on the left would override the “simple planet tracks” for “desert” planets; and only desert planets. Simple planet tracks would still be the default for the other planet types as long as they haven’t been defined. I hope this is a feasible request for modding; I can also try to elaborate more if needed too.
• Starbase, ship & (almost never) planet components will get populated. Note I gave the minor factions custom components that didn’t require exotics + the ability to build their own components. Note that you will need to make a new planet component unique to the minor factions, as the influence/auction items from them contain the “is_finite” field, which will limit them to 1 overall.
  
  

5.2) What doesn’t work:

• We don’t see planet elevators or city lights on the dark side of the planets – we can add in planet tracks and max them out for this effect, but it would be nice if the simple planet tracks just defaulted to max. I did add this to the Aluxian Resurgence player file but it doesn’t seem to have had any effect (note that I did not add any planet track info, so the simple planet tracks doesn’t appear connected to this):
  
• You can’t start minor factions off with Starbases. You end up getting a ‘cannot place’ type of error when loading the map (even the default Pranast is supposed to start with 2, but they don’t appear – nor does the error message for them either thou..). They can eventually build them, but they only seem inclined to build them if an enemy is adjacent to them. (In my test, the Aluxians didn’t bother to build any anywhere until a player was adjacent to them. Pranast meanwhile didn’t build any ever, even after I gave them a bunch of starting resources. Also, I did create a unit with no exotics costs for the AI to use.
• Minor Faction garrison units aren’t limited to their home planet – they seem to behave like normal fleet supply instead (possible, need to double check. I know from a previous build that giving pirates a garrison resulted in them launching that garrison with their raids)
• Minor factions currently don’t research. They don’t seem to use research tiers either. (I gave the TEC minor factions simplified research trees and nothing was researched over several hours). I didn’t think they would (capability wasn’t given to them yet) but it’d be nice to make them grow as a game progresses
• Insurgents don’t seem to spawn from minor faction culture. I haven't had much chance to check this, but based on 2 enemy player worlds being under aluxian culture for about 20min, they never spawned.

5.3) Comments

• Can’t really post much about the AI as it’s still placeholder. I wanted to get the aluxians to build more than a couple turrets at their captured worlds. They would only build exotic factories if I let them. Once I gave their trade ports exotic factories they’d build those up to the limit I set. They only built Starbases once they discovered an adjacent hostile power (as opposed to fortify
• I'd guess the Aluxian Resurgence is using a limited version of the aggressive AI? It prioritizes ships first.
• It’d be cool if Pranast United would get modeled after the defensive AI and instead focused on fortifying it’s homeworld
• The UI that hides the planet item slots as well as the planet tracks may be hardcoded. Exploring the hud_planet_window gui didn't indicate any conditions for those windows displaying. So either that's controlled elsewhere or it's locked within the game itself. Hopefully that becomes something moddable (if it is locked) as I like to make my minor factions resemble players & feature their unique components.

At a very high level, my goals are to:

• Lobby for more depth to the "Exploration" idea behind the 4X. I want see the minor factions as something more than a menu with a random planet "somewhere out there" that I'd never want to look at. I'd like to encourage players to visit minor faction worlds and click on things to see what is possible
• Submit requests that I think would add to the base-game experience that also contribute to modding capabilities.

There's a couple of reasons behind this.

1. Gameplay Awareness:
   ~Some of the minor faction items are hidden behind auctions (which is a good thing); some of which I didn't know existed until I was peaking at the game files. By having minor faction units/planets equip their own unique items it makes it possible to see what the minor factions have to offer while-in game.
   ~This is part of why I'm requesting that pirate ships have "looting crew" as a passive ability for their ships (TEC Rebel players that buy pirate units would then have access to it as well); if Pirate Ships have that ability then I wonder if I, as a player, can either acquire those ships or can acquire that ability - which I can as a capital ship component.
   ~Basically, I'd like to see these as hints that there are paths to acquiring these components/abilities.
2. An extension of exploration:
   ~I want to encourage curiosity. I expect most people would be interacting with the minor factions via the top pop-up menu rather than from the minor faction's planet itself. Those who click on the minor faction planet would be able to see the planet items, as would players who click on the minor faction capital ships & starbases.
   ~Note that the most recent build actually hides all of the minor faction planet component slots & planet tracks from view - I like that this is possible but I'd prefer that it is only applied to militia-owned planets instead of minor factions, as it's impossible to see the minor faction planet components with the current UI - even though you can still give minor factions planet components on their homeworlds and the simple planet track components will at least allow them to slot in non-buildable items
3. Spectacle:
   To me, minor factions featuring their own unique attributes is something cool. This is akin to the civilization 6 city states being able to build their unique improvements. Sure, it's technically useless from a MP/competitive perspective. Still, I think it benefits single-players like me who love to click on a bunch of things to see if any details or easter eggs are present. This is how I notice that there's no research being done to unlock abilities.

The reasons behind these are:

1. Expand minor faction behaviors (modding perspective):
   I can't add new systems to the game. That might change when the modding tools come out later but for now I'm assuming that if it capabilities aren't already in the game then they can't be added later
   ~such as minor factions being able to research things slowly as the game progresses
   ~such as minor factions being able to research/complete planet tracks slowly as the game progresses
   ~such as minor factions being able to build starbases/structures (via script or with the default AI)
   ~minor faction/minor faction diplomacy, such as them fighting amongst themselves (the mods I hope to make would be added as minor factions - it'd be cool to make them hostile to each other while set them as default allies to everyone else)
2. Expand minor faction behaviors (art perspective):
   If the TEC Rebels, Tec Loyalists, Vasari Exodus & Vasari Alliance are the major factions, then I'd expect:
   ~Pranast United & the Aluxian Resurgence to have basic similarities to the TEC, although per the lore Pranast probably has more in common with TEC Loyalists meanwhile the Aluxians more closely resemble the TEC Rebels
   ~Jiskun Expeditionary Force & Viturak Transport Cabal to have basic similarities to the Vasari, although per the lore they probably have more in common with the Vasari Alliance
   ~Pranast United is the one behind the TEC starbase; this makes me assume they're defensive. So, why don't they spend the game slowly researching improvements to their hull/armor/gauss/shields? They don't build any starbases either, or build defensive structures
   ~I was surprised that the Aluxians didn't add the autocannon to their Gardas. I was also surprised that they weren't building Trade Ports on each planet they conquered. They were the de-facto leader of the Trade Order right? So isn't their reason for  expanding to find more worlds they can establish trade with? I was also surprised that they didn't use the TEC PSIDAR to monitor the space near them
   ~The Jiskun Expeditionary force seems inclined to survey; but they can't research phase jump immunity for their scouts? As Vasari, wouldn't they be traveling around with vasari colony capital ships?
   ~The Viturak looked research/mobility focused to me, so wouldn't they be using the Antorak Marauders (faster movement) while building orbital labs (for aesthetic purposes, to lean into their research appearance). 
3. Reduce how static the minor factions appear:
   We call them minor factions, not militia. So I'd expect them to try and build themselves up as the game progresses while they move around. Sure, they can't "win" but them just sitting in place for the duration of the game is... unnatural. It makes them look like props on a stage instead of being a local power.
   ~Not every minor faction needs to be on a rampage like the Aluxians either; something small such as having the minor faction AI slowly patrol around their homeworld in a circle would help tons.
   ~It'd be cool to have a minor faction go around building starbases (via the starbase component) on all worlds it deems friendly and then upgrade them. It wouldn't impact confrontations between the players, but I imagine it might make a player less inclined to randomly attack that minor faction in the late game
   ~It'd be cool to see minor faction fleets exploring the system and engaging one another. As is players can fight each other over minor faction worlds but you never get to see minor factions fighting each other over player worlds.

For a summary, I want the minor factions to give hints about what they can do. Players can click on each others units to see what's equipped to get an idea of what's possible for one another. Minor factions are supposed to be limited versions of players, right? Otherwise we'd have just called them militia, right?

I do want to reemphasize that I want to hide the planet components & planet tracks of militia-owned planets from the UI. I just don't want that to also be the case when I look at minor faction planets. Also, there are no militia-owned planets in Sins2 right now. Sometimes in Sins1 you would find a planet owned by the militia guarding it - I've been hoping/assuming that will make a return in Sins2. For a visual:

1. Players Factions are fully fleshed out
2. Minor Factions are mini players; the can use the same systems as the players can but are quite limited and thus not a threat in terms of victory conditions. Players can make use of them through their abilities and through their auctions.
3. Militia Factions would be non-players that just hang around until conquered.

I play single player on the big maps; so the minor factions are one of the things I'd like to use to make the game feel more alive. I tend to lean more into the 4X aspect of sins while enjoying the RTS-like ship combat it has. I see them as the wild cards

Sorry if this was longer than you wanted Ramma, my requests usually aren't just based on a single reason. But if I were to oversimply everything down to a single reason I could say this: "Because it's cool!"