Intro #
Change of pace: This is a written devlog. I think it makes it easier to understand.
This time, I want to talk about aliens and factions in the game.
Aliens and Humans #
If you have followed some of the links in the previous ones, you know that the universe of Trade Anchor is unlike most, maybe even unlike any you have seen before, in books, movies or games.
In this universe, humans are not the galaxy-spanning empire dominating everything with a few aliens here and there just to remind you that they exist. Quite the contrary: Humans are a weak, minor race in the galaxy. Mostly restricted to galactic regions other races don’t like or avoid. Technologically inferior in many ways. My novel Intergalactic explores this concept.
For the game it means that while there is always guaranteed to be one human faction (more on factions below) on the map, most of the time it will be a minor player in local politics. And if you want better ships and trade, you have to leave it and deal with the aliens.
So far, I have defined 7 alien races for the game. I plan to about double that over time, for more variety. All of these races are in some way superior to humans. Most of them in several ways. All but one are more technologically advanced.
All of this serves a purpose: To support the emotional core game concept of “underdog carving out a niche”. Trade Anchor is not a game of empire building. Not even in the sense of economical/management dominance. Its victory condition is not crushing all other traders and creating a trade monopoly. Far, very far from it. But to make having a moderate amount of freighters and having established a small number of profitable trade routes feel like a victory, the setting must establish that it is. That even just trading with some of the aliens at all is already a milestone.
However, again unlike most SciFi, aliens are not any more a homogenous mass than us humans are. So the political entity of the game is not “race X”, but factions:
Factions #
A faction in Trade Anchor is the generic term for a political entity on the map. It could be a galactic empire or a local alliance of planets, or even a loose federation of the like-minded. Since this is not about politics, the game does not go into details about the political structure of factions.
Factions represent diversity. There can be multiple factions of the same alien race on the map, and they can have different stances on humans, other aliens, freedom of trade and other issues affecting the game.
They can even have different levels of technological advancement.
At this time, there are three important attributes of each faction:
- tech level
- trade policy
- information policy
Tech Level #
Determines which ships or upgrades to ships are available, as well as the supply and demand of some trade goods. It also determines whether this faction is able to build hyperspace lanes or wormholes, both of which offer faster travel.
Trade Policy #
Determines the conditions for conducting business in a faction’s territory. At the moment, there are four possible trade policies:
- Free Trade - means just that. No restrictions on trade.
- Tariffs - means that while trade is unrestricted, crossing the border may require import (or sometimes export) taxes to be paid.
- License - this is where it starts getting interesting. These factions allow only licensed traders to operate. Acquiring a license requires a good standing with this faction. See below at [[Reputation and More]] for more details on that.
- Limited - allows foreign traders only at specific exchange markets, and only if they have a good reputation. Which unlike the license is checked every time.
This gives more depth but also opportunities. More restrictive factions will also have less trade with their neighbours, and a player who manages to open them up can exploit that for profit.
Information Policy #
One of the most important parts of the game is information. What good is a price if you can’t compare it to prices elsewhere? How much more risky is it to fly somewhere without knowing what goods they buy and sell? How many systems do you want to check for shipyards when you want to buy a new freighter?
The information policy of a faction determines how transparent they are with all of these things. I am still fleshing this out so I’ll not write too many details until that’s done, but the basic idea is that some factions believe in free information sharing, and you can look at their markets even from abroad, while some are more secretive.
Again, there are up- and downsides to this. More restricted information flow creates a risk for the player, but also greater profits if taking the risk pays off.
Reputation and More #
Finally, factions have relations to each other and the player has a reputation with each faction. This is one of the more complex parts of the game, in fact. Because trading with one alien faction can influence not just your reputation with them, but also with their allies and enemies. Depending on information flow, secrecy, distance and several other factors.
This again adds more depth to the gameplay. Sure, faction A right now has so interesting opportunities for trade, but you are working towards a trade license of faction B, which is hostile to A and trading with A would reduce your reputation with B, making that trade license more difficult to acquire…
Choices. It is all about choices. The danger of trading games is always that there is one best trade and the best strategy is to do that trade over and over and over. Adding multiple layers, including a complex economy affected by trades conducted but also a political layer of reputation and rewards, makes these decisions meaningful. It allows for gameplay where the numerically best trade may not actually be the best due to side effects it causes. You can still do it, but the decision is no longer purely mathematical and automatic.
And with these words I leave you for now. I hope that you gained a glimpse into the gameplay and possibilities. Much of these things are still in active development and may change over time, so stay tuned.
The best way to do that is to wishlist Trade Anchor on Steam. I also post to my social media channels most of the time I publish something on the game: