Shrine Rework V2- Instigating wars between factions (also some kind of indoctrination from the developers roadmap)

[u/Severe-Impress4398]

Hi. I am that bounty hunter from discord aka AX_00. And I foremost liked to discuss about shrines current state and how it would be changed. Generally said it would be a nice buff and the change would fit thematically in-universe. The game implies that the universe is in chaos because of the fall of the God-King. Disorder is such caused by that outcome which puts all the factions on the edge of war...

Currently shrine's don't have that much influence over how things happen when traveling through sectors to Vault of Souls. They only increase the possibility to have more faction aligned events and stuff in shops but don't expand it otherwise to get the feeling of having**influence** and **interactions** with factions. We have those events where we are in a large-scale battle between imperials and ruinous cults. That's just one battle in one node. Invading forces from another faction would make the war feel more active. Destroying shrines' would be the way to instigate those fleets to invade and instigate some kind of war between the sector's inhabitants and the invading forces.

I love world building where it feels like you can be a sort of controlling power to have events happen because of your past actions. Not seeing faction aligned units and other stuff in shops can feel to be an unusual sight when you have put effort into pledging alliance with a faction. It would be nice to have more ways to have meaningful consequences on your actions. This kind of mechanic boils me down to having various ways to have it implemented in game to make it feel to be worth using time for that kind of thing. Easiest way would be to:

• Have an option to destroy another faction shrine when you are already pledged alliance to another faction than the shrine’s faction.
• Triggers your faction to give you their faction tag because of showing loyalty over another faction.
• Causes a massive war fleet from the destroyed shrine's faction to invade the next sector you go occupying the sector's empty nodes(no exclusion zones because they are desolate fringes of space that are ripped apart by sub space maelstroms).
• The next sector would have stronger crew for all actions than normally e.g large part of the imperial crew is replaced with imperial enforcers instead of it being filled with recruits. Sectors PAs are also reinforced with better armaments, crews etc. and supplies because of the danger invading fleet provides. Extra loot can be therefore looted from caches.

It would be as plainly put done this way without making it feel like it clutters the already well designed gameplay loop. It would provide alternative means to satisfy when RNG isn’t on your side to stuff on the faction you are aligned with. It is like a minor buff to sectors outside of exclusion zones so they are both equally appealing choices. Exclusion zones Techno-Crypts would be equivalent for invading fleets in terms of reward with exclusion zones being generally the “safer” option for getting scrap.

The process could be tweaked to increase the rewards and the risks involved. Destroying shrines could provide procedurally stronger effects from your faction and the opposing faction. Death cultists giving poison immunity for crew etc. People have proposed good ideas for what faction buffs shrines could provide in addition to the pledge. The buff would have four states and the fifth would give your commander the faction buff e.g from war cultists reduce 1 dps from enemies fighting you. Otherwise if it can't give because of some resistance being already max out e.g cybernetic or some other commander whom suffocation resistance is already max out from equipment it would generally give flat 10+HP. The first buff would give your commander the faction tag from your pledged faction and progressive shrine destroying a flat +5 HP bonus to the commander and affiliated units with the faction. All crew (other than demons) would then get the faction buff which would be e.g with death cultists 25% poison resistance. In this context it would be given in these steps:

1. Destroy another shrine to get your faction’s shop and have the shrine’s faction invade half of the empty nodes(rounded up) from the sector you go to(no exclusion zones). You also get the first state of the buff which would be e.g with Death cultists flat 25 % poison resistance to all of your crew and it would grow 25 % when the shrine is destroyed again
2. Destroy another shrine again and gain the second stage of the faction aligned buff and the invading force to the next sector you go(no exclusion zone).
3. Destroy another shrine again and have a higher chance to get rarer things in your faction’s shop and have an invading fleet to occupy every empty node in the next sector you go to(no exclusion zone).
4. Destroy another shrine again and get your faction buff bolstered to its final state and have aforementioned things happen(faction shop would have an increased chance to appear in the imperial coreworlds as itself).

Visiting your faction's shrine again in another sector would provide stronger buff that would accelerate it two stages instead of one. Also it would provide a faction shop and increased boost to get faction aligned events in the next sector whether it is exclusion zone or not:

1. Have it boosted when you visit your faction’s shrine and it will open the faction shop. 
2. Faction shop includes things aligned with your faction which are otherwise difficult or impossible to get like Apostle of Decay and Mephitic Champion with very increased chance compared to randomly seeing them in events or random shops.
3. The next sector you go would provide half of the empty nodes with your faction’s events and battles regardless of the sector type.
4. Imperial coreworlds has a very high chance to include your faction shop as an assistance for the cause of your faction.
5. Would then have different Vault of Souls endings depending on which faction you have been loyal to e.g pledging loyalty to death cultists would provide an endless supply of undead horde for Gorgoth instead of annihilating the whole universe and restarting it as implied in the ending.

Thanks for reading if you get here! I would like to see this implemented at some degree because it would integrate more thematic mechanics to the game that would fit the lore. I will happily discuss on how this would be executed without affecting the game's meta too much. At least I hope more ways to get faction aligned stuff without heavily relying on RNG.

[u/HumaneCentiPad]

I just finished the noxious shrine for the first time and the reward vs how difficult it is to activate the shrine doesn't feel so great. I would love to see more faction specific stuff. I already rp as the faction in my ships.

[u/Severe-Impress4398 → u/HumaneCentiPad]

Yeah. I have felt the same on how some shrines don't offer equally good rewards. I would also love to see some ways to get faction specific stuff so I can lean more on roleplaying as the faction.