Stellaris Dev Diary #201: Galactic Imperium

[Alexfr36]

So much potential, so much possibilities... I like it ^^
But I wish to know if there will be new traits and civics with this new extension.

 

[Arthrodira]

I'm confused, does this mean that democratic regimes cannot form the Galactic Empire? Because they absolutely should be able to. This is basically paralleling the IRL rise of the (democratic) Athenian Empire by transforming the non-Athenian states of the Delian League from allies to subjects. But ignoring that, let's not forget that the British, French, Dutch, and Belgian Empires were all ruled by elected governments! Not to mention the Carthaginian and Roman Empires (at least up to Caesar).

 

[LogicMage]

I'm going to add my own voice here to those wanting a little more variety. I think forcing fanatic authoritarian is a bit much. Like others, I think that a Fanatic Materialist Militarist Technocracy would be sufficiently centralized to form the Imperium.

 

[Silversweeeper]

Like has been already mentioned, the action of taking such power is intrinsically incredibly authoritarian.

Are the consequences of passing the Galactic Imperium resolution (forced name change, forced ethics shift, forced authority shift, and disbanding of all federations in the Galactic Imperium) moddable? The second and third one in particular seem rather likely to be disruptive to both roleplaying and general gameplay, seeing as you're reasonably likely to lose at least one civic you might be attached to (e.g. a Spiritualist-Authoritarian-Militarist empire shifting towards Fan. Authoritarian can't keep both Warrior Culture and Imperial Cult, seeing as they'll lose either Spiritualist or Militarist, a Dictatorial empire going Imperial would lose Shadow Council, and a Technocracy will likely be shifted away from Fan. Materialist and thus lose that civic), and the fourth one makes it hard for the leader of a large anti-Imperial federation that narrowly lost the vote to try to overthrow (or secede from) the Galactic Imperium right away.

 

[Pancakelord]

and the fourth one makes it hard for the leader of a large anti-Imperial federation that narrowly lost the vote to try to overthrow (or secede from) the Galactic Imperium right away.

As someone else suggested, just leave the GC before the vote finishes, if it looks like the Nays will lose lol

 

[alex5050]

I AM THE SENATE !!!

 

[M@ni@c]

As someone else suggested, just leave the GC before the vote finishes, if it looks like the Nays will loose lol

That's indeed an option. Downsides though are:
1) the AI won't be scripted to do this.
2) if you leave, but no one else does, you won't be a part of the potential Rebel Alliance/federation that wants to take down the Imperium.

 

[NoahKGreen]

I hope these new mechanics don’t undercut the effectiveness and power of the “Hegemony” Federation Type - that Federation has many aspect similar to this.

Two suggestions: if the Founder of the Galactic Imperium is also President of a Hegemony Federation, that Hegemony does not get removed. It provides an extra level of power and organization to the Galactic Imperium.

Also, if there is a Rebellion, the Loyalists Federation should be a Hegemony type (if the player has the appropriate DLC.)

 

[Pale Blue]

The idea sounds nice on paper, but there are several hurdles that the dev diary didnt cover.


Some of them in no particular oder are:

There should be a way to refuse and not join the Imperium. eg if you voted against the creation. It takes hundreds of years to reach max federation level. Even if you directly start to undermine the imperium and start a rebellion you will start with a lv 1 federation again. Hundreds years of progress shouldnt just make poof and disappear. (On a side note the same shouldnt happen if you change the federation type. Make it an appropiate large hit to cohesion and drop a lv or something like that but not reset the entire progress)

The emperor gets a nice civic thats a reason why you want to become emperor, but it doesnt seem there is a reason why i should support another empire in becoming emperor. In a hegemony federation i get among other things a 15% production bonus to all resources if i am not the leader. The Imperium also needs a reason why i should want to vote for its creation.

As a Megacorp you lose the unique trade law if you previously were in a trade league, even if you are now emperor. Similar you lose all the federation benefits. There should be a way to keep them or reenable them.

Even if you get a status quo as the rebells you are stuck with a lv 1 federation and probably several different ethics and the resulting large penalty to cohesion. You also dont get any bonus effects from the GC anymore, while the Imperium regains theirs. There should be an event chain that creates a counter GC/recreates the GC while the Imperium still exists and it should inherit the laws from the original GC before it became an empire. Otherwise the rebells are just at a severe disadvantage, which they probably are anyway.

This seems like a post-endgame feature after the crisis. It should be possible to create the Imperium a lot earlier if enough empires vote for it/want a custodian.

Overall it seems like it is more of a single player rp fantasy than actually a diplomatic feature. We have a lot of those in the game already, from a thing that plays so heavy with diplomacy i expect an actual diplomacy mechanic that enriches the expirience if you use it in multiplayer. Currently i cant see how it does that. Except for the one player that becomes emporer, but you need to be dominating the GC for it because no one will vote for you because they others wont gain anything from it.

 

[Shadowstrike]

Man I hope you guys don't get sued by Disney for copyright reasons...

That said, these things really seem like they should be something you can do within each independent federation as well as the larger Galactic Community which would be a weaker, but larger body.

 

[Mímisbrunnr]

Well if we're talking about galactic politics - certainly, but the authoritarian ethic has a lot of internal politics implications, like locking out certain living standards and allowing slavery. By forcing the ethic like that onto an Imperium it doesn't take into account a ton of preexisting policies and stances.

This is true. What if I wanted to make myself Galactic Emperor to **FORCE** through certain reforms [such as antislavery, social welfare, etc.] that other nations would not voluntarily consent to if still independent, or that the galaxy would not democratically vote for - but I could push through this way through my diplomatic weight. While Galactic Community sounds like it could do it, they can just leave the galactic community if they want to keep being slavers, while they don't have their choice if they're in the imperium.

Basically, what if I wanted to be a genuinely benevolent dictator for the galaxy?

 

[Lorenerd11]

I'm confused, does this mean that democratic regimes cannot form the Galactic Empire? Because they absolutely should be able to. This is basically paralleling the IRL rise of the (democratic) Athenian Empire by transforming the non-Athenian states of the Delian League from allies to subjects. But ignoring that, let's not forget that the British, French, Dutch, and Belgian Empires were all ruled by elected governments! Not to mention the Carthaginian and Roman Empires (at least up to Caesar).

From my understanding, they can, they will just no longer be democratic.

 

[Pancakelord]

the AI won't be scripted to do this.

It could be, there's no reason why it couldn't be done. If it isn't done, it's only because of a design decision not to do it (as it exacerbates a weakness in the system I guess - but gives you more targets for crusades...)

on_remove_community_member = {
    events = {
        galcom.61
        galcom.62
    }
}

There's already this on_action. It should be easy enough to add a listen event that fires if someone leaves the GC when that specific vote is going on, triggering a mass exodus of any empire currently voting NO.

Sure it'd be player driven mostly (unless an AI randomly decides to leave, triggering that) but that still covers like half the cases.

Something more robust could be created via pulsed events,

edit: empires that like you could be convinced to leave instead, via events+favours, too.

 

[Ovan]

Like has been already mentioned, the action of taking such power is intrinsically incredibly authoritarian.

I could see an argument for spiritualists or other ethics doing this out of other causes honestly. I get where it's coming from but I'm never on the side of making the player's options a one way alley should they decide something like this.

That being said, this is easily my favorite Stellaris dev diary ever. You've taken the "I am the Senate" joke and made it into one of the coolest mechanics I think Stellaris will ever see, this an espionage are truly things to be very excited for.

 

[DrNukeLear]

Can the Imperial State take the crisis ascension perk AFTER it has taken the Imperial throne.

 

[Mímisbrunnr]

This is a good point - its possible for an empire to rule itself internal as a democracy, oligarchy, or as a constitutional monarchy, but still rule its subjects like an empire - indeed, being an empire in all senses except not officially having an emperor.

EDIT: That said, I could see the argument for a transformation to the empire on the grounds that the new imperial citizens who are outside the Imperial Core otherwise voting to leave the empire immediately in a Democracy [especially if you only won because of the Diplomatic Weight formulas in the galactic community heavily favoring your empire even if the actually citizens in the galactic populace wouldn't support you]. In that case, even if one had the goals of ethics shifting back to a democracy, you may need a few decades for the new generation to grow up under you benevolent empire before the people would stop being hostile to you continuing to rule. Though I admit that I still kind of wish we could handle it like the Delian League.

 

[Silversweeeper]

As someone else suggested, just leave the GC before the vote finishes, if it looks like the Nays will loose lol

I expect to be the Custodian turning into the Emperor, so my interest in keeping federations around is related to wanting a reasonable challenge rather than wanting to use them to disrupt the AI.

 

[Kikaider]

Who will be your Nemesis?

The release date! I keep sending operations to gain intelligence levels but my assets fail constantly! The release date is truly a dangerous foe (to my wallet).

 

[Pale Blue]

Another side note, do rebells benefit from the defenders of the galaxy ascension perk while at war with the imperum?

 

[LystAP]

So what happens if your a Scion? Do you stop being the favorite child of your Fallen/Awakened Empire, or would they use this opportunity to puppet the galaxy through you?