Benefactor

Alert

Invasion

Resource

Type

Power of Altruism

Gains Bases from Resupplies

Whenever another alien receives their first resupply, use this power to establish a base on any planet in that alien’s system.

Whenever you receive a resupply, use this power to revive all of your ships from the warp.

Legacy: Whenever an alien receives a resupply, that alien may also free all of their ships from the warp.

When you’ve got an organization as massive as the Federation, someone’s got to back it financially. The Benefactors fund the resupplies that other aliens happily gobble up. All they ask is for a few simple buildings constructed in their honor.

Any: Any
Any: Any

Mandatory

Wild Flare

When reviving ship(s) from the warp, you may discharge this flare to establish a base in your home system with those ships.

Any: Any

Super Flare

At the start of any orientation, you may discharge this flare and choose any alien. That alien must scrap one pod in their cache.

Any: Orientation

Modifications

The original alien is named Relic, with the power to “awaken.” I wanted to change the theming to something less abstract, and “awaken” clashes with the power name of my Leviathan.
I added the restriction that Benefactor only gains a base from each alien’s first resupply, restricting its power to activate once per alien. With aliens like Porcupine, Barbarian, and Perfectionist, I concluded that this power is too polarizing to leave in its original state. With this change, Benefactor can’t gain a free win by another alien like Perfectionist intentionally dumping its pods and receiving 5 free resupplies in the first invasion.
Benefactor’s legacy gives all aliens its ship-freeing aspect when it comes to resupplies. I imagine it’s an extra bit of generosity written in the Benefactor’s will. Warpish and Zombie loathe this legacy. Aliens like Deuce and Merchant who can dump their cache faster can appreciate this one. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

One strategy Benefactor can use to exhaust its opponent’s cache is through negotiation. In this way, Benefactor can gain a foreign base without winning an encounter, while also gaining some encounter pods.
On the other hand, gaining too many pods will prevent Benefactor from using the other aspect of its power, but this can also give it some protection against compensation tactics if it has many ships in the warp.
Expect more aliens to use lucre for pod gain than other purposes if Benefactor is involved.
Against Benefactor, an alien has some recourse if they run out of pods and don’t want to request a resupply. They can’t gain compensation due to no negotiate pods, but they can try to get some lucre from backer bonuses as an emergency means of obtaining pods. If acting as a leader, they will have to decide if a near-guaranteed loss is worth giving Benefactor a base.

Development Notes

For this power, I wanted to have the effects reflect what is happening in-game. I never understood what exactly Relic was doing to gain bases when someone got a new cache, but I liked the sleekness of the power mechanically. Since resupplies are donations from the Federation in my Cosmic, the idea that came to mind was an alien who financially supports those resupplies. Much like someone donating lots of money to a college, they get a building named after them in their honor. In Cosmic terms, that means dominion. It’s that nice blend of generosity and insidiousness that we love to see from aliens like Pacifist and Philanthropist.
Barbarian is another power that has to tread carefully with Benefactor around. If using its power on anyone except Benefactor, it will grant Benefactor a potential free base unless they keep fighting with no pods. What I do like about this dynamic is that the base granted isn’t immediate, meaning Barbarian isn’t forced into a shared win with Benefactor if invading someone when both need one more base.
Ultimately, I concluded that there are too many aliens that appreciate gaining resupplies for Benefactor to get free bases from each one. If each alien could only grant one free base from this power, it would still be quite potent and scale with the number of other aliens. I originally had the idea of Benefactor only gaining a base if it doesn’t already have a base in the system, but there isn’t much that links winning as the invader and another alien running out of pods. Instead, I chose to limit it to the first resupply per alien. This means that if Benefactor is zapped from the first resupply, that alien cannot grant Benefactor any dominion, since the first resupply has already happened. To avoid having to remember past information, I could have an in-game UI marker to make it clear how many resupplies each alien has used. When Benefactor is in the match, the first resupply could have a glow around it that goes away when used.
Benefactor is yet another alien that makes me wonder if Cosmic aliens should be individuals or entire races. Are there an army of rich donators leading this group, or is it just one rich guy? There are advantages to both ideas, and I need to consider which is preferable.
One of the unavoidable issues with this sort of automatic power is that it cannot stop bad actors from throwing the run if they fit the power dynamic. For instance, Porcupine throwing away its cache every time it participates in an encounter and immediately requesting a resupply. While other aliens can identify what is happening and cut off Porcupine from sponsorship, they can’t stop it from giving Benefactor the win when it needs only 1 base unless they zap it or someone else wins first. My limitation to Benefactor will stop one alien from throwing a match to force Benefactor to win.
Benefactor made me consider the possibility of gaining resupplies being an option, rather than a mandate. Originally, the purpose of making it an option was to remove the automatic loss mechanic as a result of running out of encounter pods. While that doesn’t necessitate the ability to refuse resupplies, it also potentially nerfs Lich and Monk if everyone can ignore having to request resupplies. Making aliens choose between giving Benefactor a win and taking an automatic loss doesn’t seem very fun, so I ultimately came up with the stooge mechanic to allow encounters to play out without encounter pods.