i know that the universe is too big for factions and territory to mean much... but i think if you reintroduced sectors and have a few settings and limit their size...it would work. now i don't mean limit the MAIN universe...that can stay as is. unlimited. ONE, SECTORS. the sectors however have fewer star systems and planets. with a configurable max space. this is where the territories and wars are fought. the sector's planets can not be modified by players. only server admins. this will be explained below. with NPC's think of the territories as arenas. TWO. FACTIONS factions are player made and ran by players. the factions can have alliances or not, based on the server settings. THREE, TERRITORY USES. territories are used to gain rare resources. the resources are slowly gained over time and sometimes run out. when they run out there is a configurable amount of time for the resources to grow back OR change into something else. i suggest they take at least a full real world day to do so. sometimes they will not grow back and you must wait another day for the chance at resources. each territory has only one resource type. and it is random which is put out. this is to encourage wars. FOUR, LOW PLAYER BASE SOLUTIONS INCLUDING SINGLE PLAYER. for it to work for any server, there needs to be small scale server settings as well as large. for smaller servers that do not get very many players, the owner can set NPC faction members that only function in territories. single player should work the same. Any ideas to improve this?
FTL shields! A way to limit FTL travel: from your current star system, you select another star system, and spend a specific amount of materials to halt travel between the two star systems. Pros: a balanced cost means that it is difficult to dominate the entire sector, and having to be at one of the star systems means you have some form of risk at any time. Cons: Like wiring, it gets messy fast. Metagame: hole-hunting. You repeatedly attempt to FTL to a particular star system from several others, until success. Counter: spending the necessary resources to block off every path to the star system. Drawbacks: You can't leave the system if you do so, and nobody can enter either. Workaround: built a complex line of un-shielded systems to travel to a specific system. Now I hear you complaining about the shield never dying off and such, but the shield will die! After 48 hours. Watch those thields, and keep on hole-hopping! I think I had another idea, but alas, I have forgotten.
