0027336: Ark Sidekick Player Type - Arcen Idea Tracker (Bugs and Features)

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0027336	AI War 2	Suggestion		May 13, 2022 10:03 am	Jan 23, 2023 5:42 pm

Reporter	Mac	Assigned To	BadgerBadger
Status	resolved	Resolution	fixed
Fixed in Version	5.536 Extended Sidekicks

Summary	0027336: Ark Sidekick Player Type
Description	Various people on discord have come up with ideas of ways to play as an ark in multiplayer, without having to deal with ark empire and taking one planet (and never any further than that). Basically: think of it as playing as the Helper player type in Classic, with Alt Champ Progress enabled. They get an ark, and maybe even let them be gifted a fleet or something from other players if that seems too little. The points that Ushgarak made on discord point to having big multiplayer games, Ark Empire is a must, as if you had say 6 regular human empires, and each one captures a single planet at the start of the game, you would likely be in a pretty bad situation.
Tags	No tags attached.

Ushgarak May 13, 2022 10:14 am reporter ~0066756 Last edited: May 13, 2022 10:34 am	Thanks for this! Just laying out my position here: - in single player, ark empires are basically a risk/reward style where you trade defence for offence, and effectively make the game harder - In multiplayer they are very different. Ark empires, which can run well on just their own production and one system, allow the group to reduce the footprint of the human empires, which is important in multiplayer, (as Mac describes above) and to focus on offence whilst human empire players play defence. It's also a good way for newer players to learn a lot about the game without having to cope with the logistics of running their empire as well - The issue is, particularly in multiplayer, it is not at all practical to use the arks to do anything other than hang back at home; the instant game over if they got lost is too big a risk. What the ark player ends up doing is transferring all their fleet lines to a transport flagship and using that. If the ark player couldn't lose (just like sidekick players), the Arks would actually get used, which is very much in keeping with the thematic point of the faction - This would not be overpowered. For a start, a Necromancer sidekick, which already cannot lose, is harder to play than an ark empire but more powerful if done right. Ark empires have a significant drawback in starting with no battlestation or support factory. Arks empires also tend to be poor industrially and a wipeout would be significant drawback to them; this is not any form of unbeatable invincibility - In any case, in multiplayer, the optimal ark empire strategy is to hide the ark behind someone else's home command defences- so they effectively already only lose when an empire player loses anyway. This option would just make them more fun and let the game run more smoothly. My group would really appreciate any mod or similar which lets ark players play like this in multiplayer.

BadgerBadger Aug 21, 2022 12:40 am manager ~0067161	If someone was interested in adding another player type, doing this first would teach the principles. This would be quite simple (insofar as any player type is simple)

BadgerBadger Jan 23, 2023 5:42 pm manager ~0067432	This has been added

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
May 13, 2022 10:03 am	Mac	New Issue
May 13, 2022 10:14 am	Ushgarak	Note Added: 0066756
May 13, 2022 10:34 am	Ushgarak	Note Edited: 0066756
May 21, 2022 10:16 pm	Daniexpert	Status	new => considering
Aug 21, 2022 12:40 am	BadgerBadger	Note Added: 0067161
Aug 21, 2022 3:26 am	BadgerBadger	Relationship added	related to 0027027
Jan 23, 2023 5:42 pm	BadgerBadger	Assigned To	=> BadgerBadger
Jan 23, 2023 5:42 pm	BadgerBadger	Status	considering => resolved
Jan 23, 2023 5:42 pm	BadgerBadger	Resolution	open => fixed
Jan 23, 2023 5:42 pm	BadgerBadger	Fixed in Version	=> 5.536 Extended Sidekicks
Jan 23, 2023 5:42 pm	BadgerBadger	Note Added: 0067432