One new aspect to the game that is being worked on is an expansion of the random events into larger missions for players to undertake if they chose. Rather than having random events be just disasters that harm you they would allow you to respond. By responding you could alter the outcome. If a plague of Andorian Shingles breaks out on Spazmot Four you could send a hospital ship and recover productivity for your empire from the Spazmotic system. Q could show up and you have to solve some riddle to prevent disaster. What would you have to figure out in time and what happens if you do not?

Can you suggest other Missions to associate with our Random Events or events we have not considered yet?

Here is the work that has gone before.

I think i said before, It would be cool if we could have a rome total war / MTW type system where the local council or whatever gives you a task which you have to complete over a certain amount of turns, say conquer x civilisaition, or explore x area, or colonize x planet.

I'am sure others could come up with a better set of events

Regards Wolfe

My randoms are still merely conjecture until Mike actually creates an editor that allows all these randoms to be put in the game. Still, variable outcomes based on user decisions would definitely enhance the gameplay and make it more fun. I'm sure Mike will ask for input when the time comes.

If we could implement scenarios that would be great. It would be even better if we could implement some kind of triggers like the command and conquer games use.....enter said group of sectors and it could trigger a scenario one way or the other. I dont know how hard that would be to do from a programming aspect..?? but we might even be able to learn something from the map editor fro that series...Granted our games are turn based but it would add more depth and surprised.

A more interactive map would be nice (with which to do missions on). For instance having the option of exploring a nebula in greater depth, or studying a black hole that was found. Depending on the map feature a player could build stations to observe or send research vessels for a short mission. in this way, having a more interactive map gives more reason to explore than just expansion, as well as giving a reason to build ships that aren't just meant for war, or colonization. Who knows what weird things could be floating in space. Alien life forms? A dyson sphere? Having features like these would give more of a Star Fleet feel, I believe, as their main purpose is to explore everything.

I also think that a total war mission-like feel is not a bad idea. It gives short term goals to keep the game moving along. Each empire has an agenda that it likes to see furthered and having a mission system like this could be a good way to keep the player in racial character.
This could also be used as a device that leads to the incorporation of minor races (ie for the Chalnoth to wish to join a player, they have to prove that they can be aggressive), and perhaps could vary depending on how much the minor race likes the major race/have similar ideals as the major race.

Some good sound Ideas, I do believe a few have already been hatched... and some like the dyson sphere would take the form of random events

Interactive maps as you suggest will sort-of be in the game. You'll be able to scan systems to perform research, but you'll also be able to do it against enemies such as the Crystalline Entity. You'll be able to build research stations near to stellar phenomena to increase your research output as well.

I can also say that we have big plans for the random events. The problem with those plans is their implementation, because we still don't know what will actually be possible in the game. In the mean time though, we've been writing a list of events that *could* be in the game. Whilst I admit I haven't really touched the randoms since Demcember, I can confirm we already have the Dyson Sphere in as an event. We have quite a few "alien" events too, including;

• The Borg
• Sphere Builders
• Species 8472
• Giant Amoeba
• Gomtuu
• Jellyfish (From TNG Ep. 1/2)
• Crystalline Entity
• Doomsday Machine
• Husnock
• Calamarain
• Echo Papa 607
• Cytoplasmic being/void
• Q
• Space Pirates
• The Alien Shipyard (From Enterprise)

Feel free to suggest additions to the list. Have a look at the full list Here.

We also have a small number of random events where immediate player interaction is required. These random events could be considered as "missions". These include the Alien Shipyard (Where your ships can be repaired - in exchange for resources and some of your crew, which could potentially have serious morale implications), or Encounter the Omega Particle (Where you can choose to destroy it, or perform research and run the risk of collapsing subspace). We also have another system that we haven't really announced yet...