I know the devs are really busy right now with AVWW, so I guess this is really just for the community's input on some of my ideas.
They haven't really said much about their plans for the next expansion, other than that they do have some. They've mentioned several times briefly that we may get to find out what the AI is doing on the other side of those exo-galaxy wormholes, and where Core ships come from.
Anyway, I wanted to emphasize that I really hope they don't add another race to the game. So far I think there's a really good balance between the Neinzul, Zenith, and Spire Starships. The Neinzul being the cheap, spammable, zerg swarm that we all know and love. The Spire having extremely low cap, extremely expensive, and extremely powerful ships that are, in many cases, practically indistinguishable from starships. And the Zenith being somewhat similar to the human designs, with an emphasis on utility (Polarizers, Acid Sprayers, Paralyzers, Mirrors, Autobombs, etc.).
The stories for these 3 races could be so much more developed than they are, without the need to add any new factions to the game. I'm actually very curious to know more about them than the little information that we've been given. So I hope in the next expansion, they can emphasize developing the story and hopefully distinguishing the unique races even more than they are.
Having said that, I've come up with a total of 10 new bonus ship types (some for each race) that I think will really help add to their flavor, and diversify the game as well. I'll number each one to make it easier to respond.
The Spire:
1. Spire Carrier - As the name suggests, the Spire Carrier can house a small number of allied ships, healing them quickly, and sending them back out into battle. The Carrier is expensive and has a low ship cap. It can only hold a small number of ships (25) and automatically ejects them when they are fully healed (like the Neinzul Regeneration Chamber Structure). It only has moderate health and is a big investment, so you have to defend it properly. In addition to its healing properties, it fires powerful long-range missiles that are good against enemy Starships and Guardians. It is ideal for long-range raids into enemy territory, to keep your fleet healthy and your army moving.
2. Spire Merciless - The Spire Merciless is an a very unique ship type. Very expensive, fragile, and with a low ship cap, it produces an extremely powerful, never-ending beam weapon that slices through most enemy ships with ease. However, in order to maintain its devastating beam weapon, it has to constantly eat friendly ships to power itself. It can't eat allied starships and friendly ships that are immune to being devoured for obvious reasons. The Merciless takes constant attrition damage when not in low-power mode, and can not be repaired. When firing its powerful weapon, it hurts itself as well. In order to heal itself, it must consume a healthy diet of nearby allied ships. The amount healed is based on an allied ship's cost, not its total health, so you can't just feed it cheap but durable ships; keeping its beam going is an investment (as well as the ship itself).
3. Spire Scrambler - This bonus ship type is probably the most radical of all the ideas I'll be presenting; it's a huge departure from classical mechanics. Only 1 can be built per Mark, these ships are designed to be "off" until its time to use them. Unbelievably expensive, extremely slow moving, and fragile - it costs 100,000 energy just to activate. When activated, these ships emit a powerful scrambling signal in a moderate range that causes AI ships in its radius to enter into a "bezerker" state. The ships affected by this scrambled state begin attacking targets at random, including ships on their own team, but will attack your ships randomly as well. Some AI units are immune to the "scrambler" effect. AI Units will go out of their way to attack the Spire Scrambler if possible. If a Spire Scrambler is killed or scrapped, it raises the AI Progress by 5. Higher Mark levels of the ship increase its health and the range of the scrambling effect.
The Neinzul:
4. Neinzul Contagion - The Contagion is similar to a standard Neinzul fleet ship in most ways, except that it is significantly more expensive, and has half of the normal attrition time (so 2 minutes instead of 4). The Contagion attacks by colliding itself into an enemy ship, which kills itself, but also inflicts a certain amount of (rising by Mark) "Virus Damage". Virus damage does no actual harm to the target's health-bar, it instead marks the target for conversion. Once the "Virus Damage" a ship has taken becomes equal to its current health, the virus activates, and the enemy ship is temporarily converted to your side (5 minutes). The aspect that makes this conversion technique unique, is that it works on Starships and Guardians. Converted ships can not be repaired, and return to the AI's control after 5 minutes.
Use: The Contagion is a powerful Anti-Starship and Guardian unit. Though it is expensive for a Neinzul ship, is much more fragile than normal, and has an even faster attrition time, if microed correctly it can be used to commandeer powerful enemy weaponry. Unlike most Neinzul ship types, you can't simply mass produce/FRD these into an enemy system, as they will be killed extremely quickly. They must be sufficiently micromanaged during their short lives to hit specific targets, and reach the specific amount of "Virus Damage" they need to inflict in order to temporarily capture the enemy ship. The conversion effect also works on smaller fleet ships, but in general, it's not worth the investment to do so. The "converted ships" are fully under your control for the duration of the ability. The conversion does not work like a normal Parasite - it doesn't happen after an enemy dies, it's not permanent, and you can't repair a ship that's been converted.
5. Neinzul Broodmother - The Broodmother is similar to the Spire Maw in that it's expensive, has a low ship cap, and eats enemy ships. However, it "eats" new ships at a much slower rate than the Maw, but digests them much faster. When the Broodmother has fully digested an enemy ship, it releases a swarm of powerful Neinzul Broods that automatically go out and attack the nearest enemy targets (they aren't under your control). It releases a new swarm of Broods for every ship digested. The Broodmother's meal of enemy fleet ships also slowly heals her as well, and counters her natural attrition damage.
6. Neinzul Titan - The Titan is an unusual Neinzul ship in that it has double the normal attrition time (8 minutes instead of 4), is somewhat durable, and moves quite slowly (instead of the incredible speed we're used to). It has a small range and takes a long time to reach its target, but if these little critters can get in range they do massive damage with every shot and are effective against most ship types.
The Zenith:
7. Zenith Vindicator - The Vindicator is a short-ranged fighter/bomber that starts out doing very minimal damage, but is temporarily empowered with the death of each allied unit in a system. The more allied ships that die, the more powerful the Vindicator(s) become. If there have been a massive amount of casualties on your side, the Vindictator begins to do crazy damage. There is a cap to how much damage it can actually do. Scrapped ships do not count towards the Vindicator's power level (which is over 9000, obviously).
8. Zenith Retaliator - A durable ship type with a relatively low ship cap (say 9), the Retaliator does no damage on its own. However, when it has taken half of its maximum health in enemy damage, this Zenith ship retaliates with an extremely powerful multi-beam attack (think Warbird Starship or Heavy Beam Cannon) that is powerful against most ship types. This feature makes it an ideal tank and frontliner unit, but you must have healers around to reach maximum effectiveness with it. It is expensive and relatively slow (44 speed).
9. Zenith Vanguard - Similar to the Munitions Booster and Armor Booster, the Zenith Vanguard simply increases the ranged of affected allied ships in its radius. A powerful frigate on its own, it increases nearby allied ships' range by a significant amount as well. The range increase is 20/30/40/50% for MK Levels 1 through 4, respectively (Core gives 60% range increase).
10. Zenith Hero - The Hero does very little damage on its own (seeing a pattern here?), however, as more enemy ships enter the area, its damage increases. When surrounded by a huge number of enemy ships, the Hero does massive damage with each attack. There is no cap to how much damage it can do. This makes it ideal for defending wormholes or against enemy waves. It has a short-ranged multiple shell attack.
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Thanks for reading guys, that's it. I hope you enjoyed some of my ideas. If you have any questions or want clarifications just let me know!
