Devlog 24.32

It has been about two weeks since my last devlog.

Since I sketched out Factions "from top to bottom" I decided to implement Factions "from top to bottom," and I did that by setting aside the work I had just done to look at Trade Mains again.

Using the handy percentiles function "f(x) = log(x) * 3.3 + 1," I turn the number of star systems in a sector into an arbitrary number of percentile groups. I evaluate the trade routes in the sector and sum the value of those routes for each star system. Then I collect star systems into contiguous "trade mains," evaluate them, and sort the mains into the aforementioned percentile groups.

Once I find about 6 mains of equivalent size, I assign them to "empires."

Now these empires will have their own armies & fleets, their resources & strategies, and so forth. I'm using Twilight Imperium as a jumping-off point but rather than using the board game for its rules, I'm using a simulation of the game to serve as background for Rogue Souls. You will, as player, be able to select the empire, world, and service record you want as your character's "background."

This background will be "playable" in a choose-your-own-adventure sort of way. I will try to make it granular enough that it feels like a minigame but short & abstract enough that it feels more like a short story or prologue to the game you play *as* your character once you leave said service. Not all characters will require a space-military background, but Classic Traveller is a huge inspiration behind Rogue Souls and I would be remiss if I didn't include military service as a background option.

So you'll get your homeworld, the bases where you trained or were stationed, any ships you served on, any campaigns you fought in, comrades you fought by, hostiles you fought against, promotions or medals you earned, weird secret experiments that were performed on you, and so forth. The idea is that your service record shapes who you are at the start of the game but you decide what to make of your experience after that. Along the way, I might develop scenarios where you can continue your military service but we'll have to see.

Anyway, you'll have the option to create your background from the "recent" history of empires whereas the game will take place during a "contemporary" situation that plays out over the course of months and years in-game. Smaller factions will fight over the scraps left by the "big boys" that clash on the grander, interstellar scale.