1/10 feels way too common, especially if there's multiple species per planet, which there probably will be. I think 1/100 or greater would be better to avoid sapience overload in systems.
Here is how I think sapient creatures should be-
- Four types of intelligent life.
- Primitive. They haven't yet had an industrial revolution, and live in varying societies from early mud hut towns to castles and such. They probably aren't yet learned enough to use computers, but you could probably still hire them as mercenaries and buy non-ship things from them. May treat the player as a god figure if their race has a "religious" variable or something set, and offer you things.
- Modern. They are similar to humans as they currently are. They have modern cities, and have minimal ship technology. They have few ships, most of which are probably unarmed. They may have small off world colonies on nearby planets or moons (if moons are ever added). They are willing to pay high prices for ship technology, as they have very little. Sell most things, but ship parts are more expensive. They can be hired as mercenaries or as computer operators, but as operators they are probably not quite as good as the current humans in game. Probably too scared of your more advanced technology to be hostile, but they may be.
- Advanced. Like the humans in game, they are a space faring race. Fleets of their ships roam their home systems, and can be a force to be reckoned with. On par with a player made faction in multiplayer. They control numerous planets, and have stations set up throughout space. If they are friendly, they can be traded with, and be hired to work on board or as mercenaries.
- Humans. Basically an Advanced, there can be various human empires also scattered throughout the stars.
Here is how I think alien ships should work. A large collection of ships are designed by the players, and approved by devs or dev chosen members of the community. Alien races choose from a random selection for their ships. For example, an advanced race pulls 3 fighters, 2 corvettes, and a battleship as their ships. They would be more likely to choose less expensive ships when spawning in. Each species has a limited number of credits worth of ships they will deploy at each time. They will try to have at least one of each ship they pull active. Ships would have a randomly selected color scheme for their hulls. For example, one race has black and green as their main colors. When a ship is pulled from the "Alien Ship Catalog", its hull colors are changed to the correct colors. So, when the black and green species decides on a fighter with blue and white hull,the blue is replaced with black, and the white with green. All ships owned by this black and green species would be similarly color corrected. Things like the light color and crystal type could also be modified.
Species should have randomized hostility levels.
There could be
friendly races, which will automatically try to ally you on discovery by a member of your faction. These can be denied, and the race could take it with varying levels of anger, from turning hostile to simply becoming neutral.
There could be
neutral races, which can be sent ally requests or declarations of war. Attacking them will make them automatically become hostile to your faction/person if you are factionless. They may decline ally requests at first, but if you trade with them or attack their enemies, they may become more likely to accept.
There could also be
hostile races. Hostiles are probably really xenophobic, and attack on sight. These would be rarer, but would be something to fear. Hostile races would continually try to expand their "empire" and take over other planets and stations nearby. In some cases, they could spread to other systems. When encountering other species, they will probably attempt to destroy them. It would be nigh-impossible to get them to ally you, but you might be able to get rid of some of their hostility and make them neutral to you by destroying other species they are hostile to.
