A few days before the release of Shadow Empire: Republica DLC last week, we opened a written Q&A channel on our official Discord to collect questions from the community. We've collected all your questions until April 12th and below you’ll find the dev’s answers.
Q&A with the developer
Thanks for all the questions. I will try to do this more often. It’s a good sanity check for me and hopefully informative for the reader. In the answers I will be mentioning the “Militaria Module” quite a lot. This is basically the next feature set I will be working on. No promises on that, no ETA, it's just the next big thing in my current train of thought. Enough disclaimers. Let's go to the Q&A.
Inspiration
Could you explain the design philosophy behind the Virtus system introduced in Republica?
If we just look at game design then the Virtus system does two major things. First of all it ensures (when on Regular Political Difficulty or higher) that your Political System will degrade at some point and slip into its “Corrupted” form. It is not a good idea to keep low Virtus in the long term, so the eventual low Virtus pushes, gently at first, harder later, towards change of the Political System (orderly or radical) or even a Revolution. So Virtus allows you to cycle through the Political Systems. Many paths are possible, including the one from the ancient Anacyclosis theory that states that Monarchy will grow into Tyranny to be succeeded by an Aristocracy that will grow in to an Oligarchy to be succeeded by a Democracy that will grow into an Anarchy and then require a strong autocratic ruler to start the cycle once more. This cycling through the Political Systems allows you to pick your own unique route and collect a unique set of Political Regime Feats while doing it. So summing it up: Virtus allows for dynamism and a changing environment. Secondly the Virtus system acts as an anti snowball mechanic in two ways: (1) there are sizable Virtus penalties for “good times” and being the top dog, (2) but also through the fact that every Regime will at some point go through a lower Virtus phase, making it at least temporarily vulnerable, not least of all when hit with for example a Revolution.
What inspired you to go from ATG & DC > SE (sci-fi)?
I have had a passion for Military Sci-Fi for a long long time. Especially the more “pulpy” kind. But my core area of expertise is probably world war 2, so I merged these two things into Shadow Empire. Basically by lowering the Tech Level a bit to make it less Sci-Fi, while keeping the Sci-Fi vibe, if that makes sense? In many ways that is exactly what one of my favorite military Sci-Fi authors, Jerry Pournelle, tended to do. It just somehow clicks. By the way, a more well known author today is David Weber (Honorverse), he in many ways does the same thing.
What inspired you for the Lore of SE?
Difficult to say. I must have read a thousand Sci-Fi books during my life. So some inspiration comes from them. No fixed source though I would say, at least not one I am conscious of. For the “Shadow” part of the Lore especially also my personal existential universe got some spot light time. My metaphysics postulate that there is another dimension with “soul matter” , say what normal people would refer to as consciousness, that is interdimensionally attracted to the physical bodies in our dimension (like bees to flowers). For the Dissolution War Lore and the collapse of the Galactic Republic it is really based on my real world big fear that over complex and very specialized systems are vulnerable to system shock (like dinosaurs to meteorites for example). Thats why when you Roll the Dissolution War Phase in SE often more people die by starvation than by war.
Future Plans
Are you going to post an updated Road Map?
I hope to do so in the near future, yes. It has been 2 years since it has been updated and everybody deserves to know my current ideas. Let me just get Republica in calmer water first (post release work) and then I’ll get everybody updated on my concrete future plans. Should not be too long. In any case, take note of the fact that the last version:
https://www.vrdesigns.net/?p=2248
is really very much out of date.
With the naval rework, will players be able to actively wage naval warfare and “conquer the seas”?
There is a very high likelihood my next work on Shadow Empire will focus on the “Militaria Module”. A rough bunch of inter-related features. Including making Naval Models and actual Units.
Will this naval warfare leave space for Cargo Ships as well?
Of course.
Do you have plans to improve MTH interactions, making them more varied and less predictable in terms of decisions and outcomes?
Once we get to Navy Units the MTHs might get some on-map-Units of their own. But once Navy Units arrive the MTHs will probably become more similar to the role that the Private Economy and the Militia has. An initial system permitting you (in this case) to cross the Seas before you have your own Naval Infrastructure. That being said, I have some ideas for surprises up my sleeve here.
Are there plans to further integrate story modules with DLC systems (e.g. corporations, cults, Shadow mechanics)?
Those systems were originally added, especially the Crime Story Module (which is fully scripted and moddable through the S&S Editor) as examples for potential modders to make their own Story Modules with. However this never really materialized. It might just be too annoying or complex to do. It might not be the center of interest. As actual key parts of the Base Game I am not super happy with them. Probably after Militaria I will work on substituting them for something new and better. In many ways they clamor to be more integrated with the Leader SSFs added with Republica.
Are you planning to go towards something like EoFS is doing? Like with Planet Maps and Space Maps?
I would like to dream so yes. I think it would work. There is just one major thing I’ll need to do first and that is making full Delegation possible. Without that a multi-Planet empire would be way too micro-management to play. In many ways an SE in Space would be a very different beast from EoFS.
Are there plans to expand or deepen sentient alien mechanics (e.g. keeping their identity, unique units, long-term gameplay impact after integration)?
That would have to probably have to wait for something like SE in Space. So in the short term: No. In the long term: part of the dream.
Beyond Discord, are there any plans for more structured multiplayer features or in-game support (forums, matchmaking, etc.)?
I would like to have integration of PBEM play into the Shadow Empire Core Game done, come the time of Militaria Module. For the moment I would like to advice going to the War of the Worlds Discord though:
Is there any consideration for adding Liquid Energy as a resource for energy weapons?
It is an interesting idea. I will be looking into similar systems for the Militaria Module. Having mobile Supply Columns and Immobile Dumps that can both carry and/or store Items would be something that would allow extended operations, as well as at a price. Still requires a good long look though before I make any decisions here.
Republica DLC
What exactly does “feudal level” refer to in game terms?
It's aka or better known as Feudal Code Level. If it is present and at Level 1 or higher your Political System in an Aristocracy.
Are there plans to expand or clarify Republica-specific mechanics such as Hidden Tech, Economic Flexibility (privatization), and Syndic Computer behavior?
Many things always require clarifying in the Shadow Empire. I’ll do what I can. Hidden Techs are Techs that you can discover and research when you get the Regime Feat “Great Archives”. Economic Flexibility allows Privatization, which is just the reverse from Nationalization. The Syndic Computer is quite well documented in the new Republica Chapter of the Manual.
Will there be options to save or reuse generated planets, or create more specific setups (e.g. Dune-like worlds)?
With the “Militaria Module” I will explore in this direction. The idea behind “Militaria” is that after “Oceania” and “Republica” the Wargamers and more military-minded players deserve some development time as well. Something resembling “Scenarios” might be interesting to ponder upon.
Are there any plans to improve or expose combat calculation clarity (e.g. total soft attack values)?
In the Combat Prepare Popup the simple red arrow on the left side and the simple blue arrow on the right side show a value that is very similar, but probably more pertinent.
Is there any update on technical aspects like multi-monitor support?
No sorry, I never seem to get around to this.
Why do the first 2 regime feats of autocracy give extra recruitment, is recruitment more difficult now?
Yes recruitment has been nerfed a tiny bit recently, but more importantly Low Virtus <70 really impacts it a lot. Furthermore there are quite a lot of Laws that could decrease recruitment.
Gameplay, engine, scenario & customization
Are you playing the game wrong when you play on Beginner difficulty? What's your difficulty philosophy?
Yes and no. The most important thing is you have fun. Its perfectly okay. That being said I prefer “Regular” myself and using the History Classes to make the Planet friendlier (and easier) or harsher (and harder).
Self-learning AI, using AI for improving AI strategy & tactics
I will be doing some exploring for this the coming year. I believe revisiting some form of scripting and analytics sharing about AI script results could lead to some limited but serious machine learning capability. Like real machine learning where an LLM or similar thing plays the game completely to learn how to play it. I don't believe that will work. We already tried this with a scientific experiment with the ATG engine, and it turned out the game was a bit too complex for machine learning. What could be fun is if players would have a way to mod the personality and play style of an AI Regime.
Localisation plans? At least to support fan-made localization?
It is complicated. Shadow Empire’s text is spread across code, databases, UI, reports, and procedural text generation, sometimes even multi-used as variable names and text at the same time, much of it assembled on the fly in ways that do not always work with languages that are structured differently. To make community translation or moddable language files possible, I would first need to build proper localization infrastructure and revisit a lot of old code, which is a significant technical project in itself for someone like me. Basically the game coding is really unorthodox and not originally designed (at all!) for clean localization. So in the short term: No. Best I can say is that it is on my wishlist too. With the advent of smaller LLMs like apps that can run locally, I think there might be some possibilities in a year or two by translating text on the fly on the rendering moment.
Any chance for an Earth Planet map? Will there be a Map Editor? Or more control over Planet-Gen?
Unlikely. It goes against the whole Planet Generation Flow. That being said between Planet Gen steps I might be able to allow some form of editing (instead of just having re-roll button) at some point in the future. Above I mention “scenarios” for Wargamers, once I start on that I will look again on the feasibility of this request while staying in the Generation Flow at the same time.
Closing Notes
We hope this Q&A has provided useful insight into the design and future plans for Shadow Empire and the new Republica DLC. We’ve also just released Patch v1.31h, fixing many bugs and improving the overall game experience. The changelog will be shared tomorrow.
Just a reminder: the current discount on the base game expires tomorrow. If you haven’t picked it up yet, you can get it at -50%, plus an additional -10% when purchasing the complete bundle.
For more insights on the new DLC, we recommend joining our official Discord and checking out the latest episode #3 of our Mechanics video series, which explores some of the new systems introduced in Republica: