It's so interesting to see people focusing in on their characters in the future patch. Aside from needing a small locus for things to materialize around, I never thought of the PC as anything more than one cog (albeit an important founding cog) in a growing machine.
For me, the fleet itself quickly became the character. The individual ships became the character traits. My character - Lieutenant Kora - slowly faded away, replaced by the fleet's needs, wants and whims. I grew attached to ships that had been in the fleet a long time, and to the officers that commanded them. Those ships and crews got my loyalty, and the newer additions had to continually prove their worth.
Eventually, as the game carried on and I settled my first worlds, the fleet stopped being the character. The character became the worlds of my newly minted collective and my goals were their individual needs and wants.
Hannamire - the capital - suffered greatly under Pather terror, and had been the subject of a crusade. It nursed a very dark grudge that informed all further relations with anything Lud. Feramire - a lonely jungle world - had been resettled, and was in the process of reintegrating a decivilized sub population. It needed the collective to bring enlightenment to every fallen world. And so it went.
It was fascinating to watch this play out. Kora, my character, defacto no longer exists. She was but one part of a greater machine. Her contributions one of the [many] founders is history. This is now far, far greater than one woman.
Has anyone else had this sort of experience? Anyone else wish they could retire characters and roll (or have rolled for them, depending on how your fleet/empire works) new ones in vanilla?
