• Story is a tree with player choices at nodes. Leaf nodes - end of game.
• Knowledge unlocks (like in Stories) reach particular leaf branch in story to get a card\perk that unlocks you new option in the story tree.
• Randomize starting conditions of story tree - i.e. some sub trees are unavailable. One branching point is your country decision, and another one for enemy.
• Its a tree - there is no point in making it loop or merge anywhere
• Starting at different root - there is no sense in just starting higher or lover on the tree, or to the side. Entire new tree. Or if you wish first branch is random
• Story can be released by sub trees, you just need all branching points to be there, but with one option only

There is no point in doing knowledge unlocks on middle of the game nodes - it just regular branching.

Branching mechanics:

• Dialog based branching - you presented with explicit choice - dialog with NPC request
• Persona like branching - you actually free to move every where, but as soon as you start doing something your choice is locked in.
• Space based story branching - as soon you choose where to go, your choice is locked in and you can not go back - map based - destination to fly our ship. Can you have some free destinations? I.e. that you can move forward and backward between each other? Probably yes, if flight is short, or more specifically you do not take your ship with you! That is even better!

• I.e you can approach transportation device and it will open map - if you use ship - it is a branch selection, but if you use like car on public transport - you open same map but it is not a branching point.

Score combos can be used here as well - if you do revisit farming activities - you get "crew is focused bonus".

Having mix of them all is the best. Like you need to discover some branches your self, especially if you need unlock for it. And if you were paying attention - you will know exactly what is that option for you.

But like - 3 choices per node 5 choices - it gives us what? 243 leafs? That's not fucking feasible!

Ok, some branches may be shortened so its maybe half of that, 120? Still not feasible! But 2 choices 5 times with shortening is like 16 ending which is great!

But what about secrete choices? Well if they all form a line - in a sense its own sub tree only - merging back into the tree other wise, than its ok - sort of true ending route.

Do we actually want true ending? Yea sort of. For sure locked endings should be better for your protagonist. They can be longer as well.

If we have 2 branching points not controlled by player - then you need all knowledge unlocks and true ending be in each case - i.e. 4 copies of each.

This randomization of tree can be - decision made by your command very first node, next node may be your choice, but after that id enemies choice.

Battle is a node, with 2 edges - win and loose. Loose edge once a leads you back with "it was a dream" trope.

We need to actually decide on minimal amounts of battles we want.

• How many does high fleet has? > 100
• How many does FTL has? ~60
• How many into the breach has? 14 - 28
• How many Hades has? 25 - 29
• Colony wars: 25 - 27

5 branch points may be not enough.

No "builds", no power up choices to have!

Power up is discreet - no levels and 2% bonuses and grounded in reality - i.e. no magic \ energies or shields.

You do not change your ship during game. But we can have original ship design to be "nerfed" on game start - damage or sanctions.

We can power up via:

• Acquiring better ammo and better fuel
• Promotion of officers
• Upgrading weapons and other modules of the ship
• Acquiring personal armor and gear

Upgrades are unlocked by other upgrades - powering up helps you power up.

To make it work in story world we need:

1. Choices of different difficulty
2. Presence of unlimited number of encounters (or other kind of unlimited sources) so people can actually choose between going into hard choices or farming and growing their strength before doing so

We can actually copy Final fantasy 8 - in this regard! Marry it to presona style choices!

Well you can not have infinite number of enemies do you?

• Training
• Raiding
• Physical exercise mini-game
• Studying mini-game
• Hunting
• Salvaging

Question is: does it clashes with ship design part? No, the better your ship design the less you have to grind.

Does it clashes with "rouge like" session to session power growth?

• Unlocking new modules does not as well as unlocking new npcs.
• Unlocking new path sort of does - you need like 3 options on choice node, which blows up the story tree:
  • Easy
  • Difficult
  • Secret

Right at the start, before designing your ship you are presented with environment in which you will go through the game

• Enemy type: i.e. what set of ships we will be fighting against. Ideally we should have at least 3
• Climate (time of the year)? Cold? Hot? I.e you need to add cooling or heating, or both to some extent. Cooling is working with engines. So you may need no cooling for fast ship, if its cold or way to much cooling if the weather is hot. Heat seekers in hot weather can be bad, and tracking may be worse in cold weather.

Show stats that can be used to challenge your self, but do not produce any rewards.

Well showing timer for regular players is just not great. That may be some setting... Well then what the point of doing it?

Score is interesting in this regard - it is not punishing in any sense. And using combo mechanics you can punish those how try to trade time for performance!

Optional restrictions - transistor like? That would require some resource progression that can be affected by modifiers. That is only score? Do we really need to focus people on score?

Combos will help the game. High fleet has score actually! But it is limited to round only, not entire game.

Scoring may be used to decide if you getting your reward in the failed run. Or may be even used directly to buy modules i.e. - at the end of the run you are presented with reward screen - where you have 3 random modules with their cost in scores. If you performed exceptionally well you can buy all 3, if you did ok, you for sure can buy one.

Selling modules as cool - add medal like icons to represent module stats.

Having wide range of interaction with the ship is like playing with a toy. It's necessary to have non game play interactions - so you can just admire your creation.

• Flying and shooting, landing
• Repairs, upgrading
• Interacting with modules: doors, guns, engines
• Emergencies: putting out fire
• Relaxing: washing, painting, photo mode