Apologies if this is posted in the wrong section.
I'm working on a space exploration game where players can establish bases on planets and trade routes with each other while working towards their own individual goals assigned at game start.
I'm good with most of the mechanics I've come up with thus far, but am struggling with a good way to implement one thing, Interaction with Alien factions.
When travelling between zones on the board, players can "discover" a planet there, and then through another mechanic, determine what type of planet it is, if it is inhabited, and if so, by which faction.
I'm going to have three independent factions, but maybe will whittle it down to two, depending how complicated things become. One faction will be pirates, which you can't interact with so it doesn't matter.
I've thought of having a rating system, where you can do tasks for these factions to gain favour with them. Depending on your favour determines what you can trade with them. That sounds a bit complicated to set up though.
The other way to do it is to just automatically be able to trade with them. But if I do this, I'd like to have a changing turn by turn supply demand list for these alien factions.
This could be as simple as a a table with two columns, with each resources listed on either side. When determining supply for Faction "A", roll a die and place a chit on that corresponding resource. Roll again for the demand side of the table for that race.
This mean you could end up supplying 4 units of food to Faction A, and in return they'd give you
1 fighter which you can assign to defend a planet.
Of course, before you trade with anyone, you have to have a trade route established between that planet and one of your own, which will be indicated by chits on the board.
Any thoughts/Ideas you can throw in, I'd be happy to hear!
I really like the idea of this mechanic.
It reminds me of power grid, or small world, in which you can buy things farther down the line at a higher price. Not sure I like the buying part for this game's purposes though, so read below and see what you think of it.
I could use a card system like you said, by laying say cards down side by side. It could be determined by how many human players are in the game, that way each player has the opportunity to trade once per turn with an alien race. If there are two alien races discovered, and four players, then two trading cards per alien race would be available to players to choose from.
Each turn (one full circle around the board) the cards will be reshuffled, and a new 4 cards ( if there were 4 human players ) will be dealt out.
Turn order can be shifted to the right by one person so as to have someone different picking first every turn. You could also have certain cards that trigger events rather than have trading opportunities.
Couple of examples:
1)Faction A will allow you to establish a route with them for 4 food and 1 alloy.
2)A pirate fleet has appeared near one of your planets. (this card would obviously be left until last, unless a pirate event is favourable to them, such as spawning it near an opposing team's planet. Event cards have to be picked up, whereas a player can pass on trading if no favourable opportunities are available.)
Players will still need to pick up a trading/event card on their turn even if they don't want to trade, but they may discard it immediately. Other players may barter with them to leave that card in the lineup if they want it and are next in line. Either way, all trading/event cards dealt out that turn MUST be gone by the end of the turn.