LegacyWorlds Beta 6

In Beta 5, alliances are only groups of players who have chosen to play together. There isn’t much which can be done at the alliance level. For instance the type of alliance government has an influence limited to the leader’s election; being a member of an alliance or another has no real effect on the player’s empire, except through decisions made by the other members and implemented manually: for example sharing knowledge or resources is only achieved through gifts or sales.

Beta 6 will add many more possibilities to the alliance system. These features would have an actual in-game effect instead of being reflected only by the actions and strategies of the alliance’s members.

The first major change is the introduction of alliance assets. Alliance assets are items (planets, resources, tech points, space structures, fleets, etc.) which are the property of the alliance itself and are managed by alliance members with a specific rank. This addition will create a need for cooperative management of alliance assets; moreover it provides the means for alliances to have an influence on their members: help smaller members with gifts from the alliance without resorting to the good will of some members, provide advantages to the ruling body of the alliance by exploiting other members, etc.

The examples provided suggest some very different alliance management styles which are in a way reflected through alliance government systems. The existing government systems in Beta 5 are quite limited, both in numbers (only 2) and in effects (leader elections and that’s it). The idea in Beta 6 is to add others and link these government types with the way alliances actually work.

A dictatorship is an alliance where the leader is defined once and for all and where all alliance rules are defined by the leader and members with a specific rank. A democracy is an alliance where the leader is elected and where alliance rules can be subjected to votes. A communist alliance is an alliance where all of the members’ resources are pooled and then dispatched among members according to a set of rules defined by members who are allowed to do so. Finally, a corporation is an alliance where rank (including leadership) and alliance rules are based on the number of shares each member holds.

But what could these alliance rules be? Along with what we already have (mainly forum access), these rules will include the use of alliance assets, the collection of alliance assets (through taxes on money, natural resources, fleets, research points, etc.).

Another important alliance feature we wish to include is to increase the influence of the alliance on its members’ empires. The first way to do so is by calculating an alliance-wise set of game parameters such as happiness, corruption, alignment and so on, based on the values of the composing empires. In turn, these alliance level values influence these various parameters for each member of the alliance.

The second way is through diplomacy: agreements, treaties and relationships between alliances can be defined in-game. Declaring an official state of war, peace treaty, non aggression pact and so on provides the involved alliances with bonuses and penalties which are applied to all alliance members.

What do you think of this increased influence of the alliance notion in game?

Do you have ideas of other government types?

Do you think there should be a limit to the type of assets an alliance can own? a limit to the amount of assets it can control?

Do you consider having the ability to manage treaties and alliance relationships in game can bring something interesting to the game?

What kind of treaties do you think should be managed in game? What kind of bonuses and penalties would you attach to them?