I love 4x type games, particularly if they are based on building interstellar empires, and they are TURN BASED (I don’t know what it is, but a real time empire game somehow seems too ‘toy-like’ to me, even if there is a pause feature). Anyway, in all these games there seems to be great moments of nail biting suspense when you tackle a foe that is your military equal or even more powerful. Fleets clash, and planets burn as you fight for domination or survival. The war goes back and forth until you have taken enough of their planets that they really can’t mount an effective counter offensive. The great war stagnates, and devolves into a mop up operation.

Although it would be extremely unrealistic (as far as non-relativistic interstellar empire games are considered ‘realistic’ ) wouldn’t it be cool if on an AI opponent you had the option of giving this race a ‘Will to Power’? The Will to Power represents the ability of that race to exhibit its finest qualities when under considerable duress (such as extinction). For all AI opponents, whenever they are at war with any foe that is more powerful than them (however that term is actually cashed out) they would over time become more intelligent (i.e. be playing at a higher AI rating) in a manner that was proportional to the difference between these power levels. Thus if a very strong opponent attacks a much weaker opponent, the AI for the weaker opponent would ramp up much more quickly than if the foes were more evenly matched. As one opponent continued to stomp on another, the AI would continue to ramp up until they were eliminated, or they were no longer at war with any more powerful foes. Once no such war exists, the AI rating would overtime diminish until it was at the initial game settings.

This rating would extend the ‘Tooth-and-nail’ struggles that make 4X games so memorable, and would inhibit the possibility of one superpower emerging early on and eliminating all the other opponents, thus making the game a tedious ‘slug-a-thon’ between you and that sole superpower. The Will to Power would only be available for AI opponents (although I suppose a case could be made for something similar being devised for Human players as well).

Just throwing it out there

Dano