The first thing to mention is that we are still working on the game and this isn’t an area we’re really prepared to talk about in final terms yet. But it is something we’ve been asked about a lot, so here’s some basics.
As we’ve revealed so far, there are three factions in the game: the British Dominion of Mars, the Ceres Workers Collective, and the Federated Lagrangian Colonies. Each of them contributed a number of ships, resources, and people to the expedition, and while they’re all trying to survive with each other, they also have their own goals and aspirations that they’re trying to achieve.
In order to keep the fleet operating and improve their ability to survive and/or fight back, a steady influx of resources is needed, and the fleet is running low on resources.
The fleet has been running for a while now, blind jumping to try and throw off the pursuing fleet, but every time they’ve stopped, the alien fleet has managed to find them. Now, there’s no option but to stop and try and gather as many resources as they can before the aliens arrive. At most, there’ll be 48 hours to gather resources before the alien fleet arrives and the human fleet will need to leave as soon as possible or risk losing fleet elements.
The faction that gathers the most resources will have the most sway over fleet development and strategies. If you control access to the resources, you can control how they’re used as well.
So with that in mind, the focus of most games will be gathering resources for the fleet to use. Of course, the same resources that the fleet can use can also be used for upgrading your equipment, so you do have to decide whether to prioritise your equipment or your faction goals.
The situations the players arrive in will be varied. You might need to go EVA and mine asteroids, or explore toxic forests to find resources. There will be native lifeforms to encounter, lost civilisations and technologies to unearth, and of course the alien fleet chasing you.
Of course, you might also end up in PvP situations where one faction decides its easier to steal the resources another faction has acquired than it is to gather them themselves. There are two main areas of PvP we’re looking to promote at the moment: faction vs. faction, and group vs. faction. The first case is pretty simple: BDM vs. FLC vs. CWC. The second one is a bit more subtle. We’re not saying that a player group should directly be antagonising their faction, but it is appropriate for player groups to vie for control of a faction, and to keep resources back for themselves rather than giving everything to the faction pool.
High-risk, low-combat is the vague pitch we’re aiming at the moment. When combat happens, it’ll be pretty deadly, but most of the time the risk will probably be environmental rather than because aliens are trying to kill you. Of course, when the alien fleet does show up, they will be trying to kill you without warning or preamble.
Talking of the alien fleet, and assuming you’ve made it this far, it’s becoming a little cumbersome to not have a name for them. We have a name we use to describe them and talk about them within the team, but that’s more something we use based on what we know about who they are. What we could use is some kind of nickname or term that the human protagonists refer to them as, so if you have any ideas on that subject, let us know. If we use your contribution, you will be credited.