I also had a rework for experts in mind.
My vision was 3 level of experts:
- Base level experts : boost production for specific recipes
- Company level experts : boost production for specific buildings
- Corporation level experts : boost production for a specific industries
That was what I was thinking at first.
However, here’s the issue. Ideally, Prun would have the following properties:
- It would reward long term planning. Meaning that a player commiting to produce one thing for longer should be more productive.
- It should discourage self-sufficiency, encouraging trade between players
- Players should still have a feeling of freedom. Freedom to change their base, to do something else. If they can’t change when they want to, they’ll just quit the game.
Furthermore, we must take into account that there will be players with 30-40 bases. Currently, it’s possible to stay entirely within a faction. However, if I had to specialize in ressource extraction, I would have to operate in the 4 factions at the same time, which would be an issue by itself. This should be kept in mind, a permit rework might be necessary along side it.
I would also remind that one base perfectly feeding another is very enjoyable (FRM feeding INC, CHP feeding POL, etc), it would be a shame for players to not experience that anymore. To do large scale complex supply chain is the most regular goal I see new players coming with. It MUST stay achievable.
Quite honestly, human interaction can be tiring. To produce and sell on the market without feeling the need to interact constantly with humans to stay efficient, is something nice about prun.
All in All, I believe that the game is fine as is. Yes late game player can way too easily do vertical integration, but to do that, they needed capital, a ton of it. IMO, this is a privilege that is earned. In the ADI, I tried to convince someone that self-sufficiency is a very bad idea early on. I won’t explain the whole argument but players need cash, which only happens when selling things to the CX.
I also fear that any meaningful change would make the game far less enjoyable for many of us. PLEASE be very careful with it.
My suggestion would be the following : Try to make it harder to do vertical intergration early on, but keep the late game exactly the same.
Here’s an idea that could implement that : First, we keep experts as they currently are. Second, Players can unlock new tiers of building over time. They start by only being able to build pioneer level for 2 industries, decided by the starting profession. Then, they get exp in the industry of what they are producing, unlocking SET level buildings, then TEC (etc) over time. New industry PIO capabilities would be earned by upgrading HQ.
This way :
- New players are encouraged to go tall early on
- TEC level of vertical intergration would remain possible
- SCI level of vertical integration would probably be impossible in short - medium term (but possible long term), encouraging people to cooperate for said supply chains (One person being able to do SCI building in each industry, at least)
I hope I was clear and that this will help in any small way.