Stellaris Dev Diary #201: Galactic Imperium

[Libertine Angel]

The Emperor's clone would The Emperor would flee to a provisional capital or something, same as any other ruler. If their entire country is destroyed, however, the Imperium would revert back to the Community.

Is it just business as usual from then on, or are there lingering remnants of Imperial support? I'd like to see succession wars, pretenders vying to rebuild the throne for themselves, that kind of thing - bringing down the Imperial Core would leave a huge power vacuum, it'd be great to get some stories out of that.

On another note, I really hope the new Imperial government type is a sign that government types are actually going to matter some time soon, rather than just being minor flavour that can be largely ignored.

Also, as others have said +6 Influence is pretty huge, especially in late-game when there's not much use for it in expansion (which I'd imagine is when Imperium would come into effect), I hope we're at least getting a raised cap to accommodate it.

 

[Firentis]

Ah, the irony of a democratic "liberation" war and calling yourself the "champion of democracy"... Have we learned nothing from Iraq?

Supporting a people trying to liberate themselves from autocratic rule is championing democracy. Invading a stable country to "liberate" them from their ruler means YOU are being autocratic towards that people. The notion that every culture everywhere wants democracy (or a specific religion or even religious freedom) is bonkers and diminishes a people's rich history and sense of identity to values YOU care about.

That's why it's on quotes, I was being sarcastic. I don't see how you can create a galactic republic without getting rid of empires with other ethics, like authoritarians, which ironically defeats the purpose of a galactic republic in the first place. The best I can think of is to either reinforce or create resolutions that favor peace and trade, while making sanctions for war heavier. Basically, increase what the galactic community is supposed to be.

 

[adil3tr]

It seems like your prior ethics don't really matter when you do this, which sounds a bit like this will be the same every time.

 

[Mímisbrunnr]

A thought I had which could be a logical power for a Galactic Emperor - if the nations that make up the empire revolt and I beat them, can I have the option to execute their current leaders for treason against the Galactic Imperium?

 

[Nocx]

How will this work for people who don't have Federations?

 

[Mímisbrunnr]

Galactic Community is a base game feature. Only the higher level features are locked behind Federations. Also, commonly when a new DLC would need a feature that was in a prior DLC, they just make both DLCs unlock it.

 

[TolHydra]

I see that you have added quite a few ways to ensure security and continuing stability. Very helpful. It's with great reluctance that I shall agree to this calling.

I rate it Peace, Freedom, Justice, and Security/10

 

[Arithmetician]

Well, the Galactic Community pretty much already is a Galactic Republic, given that you can pass binding laws for the entire galaxy (under the penalty of sanction for breaking them), with a far greater degree of authority over member nations than say, the real world U.N. Even in Star Wars, the Galactic Republic was essentially a large federation (or more accurately, a supranational body on an even higher level than a federation, just like the in-game Galactic Community is, as you had a number of other blocs operating within it that were effectively federations in their own right, such as the aptly named Trade Federation). Each member world of the Galactic Republic had significant freedom for self-governance (and often very different systems of government at that), but was bound by certain common laws. The Galactic Community's governing body is even referred to as the Senate, just like the Galactic Republic.

The appointment of a Custodian begins the process of centralizing the Galactic Community into a state ruled by a single executive, with a correspondingly greater degree of emergency powers, including the establishment of the "Galactic Defense Force", not really all that different from the Republic Navy that served alongside the Grand Army of the Republic. And then the Declaration of a Galactic Imperium is exactly what it says on the tin, with the Galactic Community / Old Republic being swept away.

 

[Purussaurus]

What if my civilization doesn't agree with the formation of the Empire? There should be an option to start as a rebellious nation, against which the Empire would immediately declare war.

 

[Mímisbrunnr]

What if my civilization doesn't agree with the formation of the Empire? There should be an option to start as a rebellious nation, against which the Empire would immediately declare war.

You just leave the Galactic Community before half the vote time has elapsed (so that the Custodian isn't able to force the vote to end early before you leave) if the formation of the Imperium looks to be inevitable.

 

[str00n]

Hype! Unlimited hype!

 

[King Harkinian]

You just leave the Galactic Community before half the vote time has elapsed (so that the Custodian isn't able to force the vote to end early before you leave) if the formation of the Imperium looks to be inevitable.

I'm a bit worried that this will be very game-able in that everyone will just leave the community before the resolution can be forced. AIs won't be programmed to do that though, so it only really applies to games with a lot of human players.

 

[Zetesofos]

Hey so...all these cool country management and rebellion mechanics...any chance we can eventually see them implemented at the empire level?

 

[Tharundil]

This has been fixed.


That is more or less the Custodian, where you can act as a benevolent defender of the Community. But declaring yourself the ruler of the galaxy is a fairly authoritarian thing to do.

I don't like this. I can't see my fanatic Egalitarian empire appointing a custodian. The entire dictator system is what led to the Roman Empire--I want a way to be opposed to it and still strengthen the Galactic Community.

 

[Purussaurus]

From an RP perspective - this is perfect. In an ideal world, this would be a great feature.
But, all my games are pretty much over way before this would even have a chance to happen. Typically, if players don't move the end game crisis date earlier, their game will be technically won before the crisis even happens. Even if you do move the end date closer, the crisis itself tends to be the final enemy, and while fighting it, all other AI empires are pathetically weak anyway. How would they even rebel after this point? You need all the stars in the multiverse to align perfectly for those new end game mechanics to happen as envisioned. In real situation, you will end up as the top one empire and defacto the Crisis and Galactic Imperium all in one, before all those new mechanics have a chance to fire. What's the point of playing if all the galaxy united can't win against you, and that is even before the crisis happens. And then, this mechanics is supposed to happen after the Crisis and Custodian mechanics? Unless you are bringing some MAJOR changes to how AI plays, it's easy to guess the outcome and how often we will see this happen.

It should be possible to create more powerful empires already in the editor, giving an initial technological or resource advantage, for example. With that we could increase the chances of them becoming the crisis or the galactic empire.

 

[AllenY]

Not a big fan of the changes it forces. Why can't you have a divinely inspired theological galactic empire? Or an enforced utopic communist galactic regime? It seems very silly that a country, no matter how diverse its ethos and government, instantly abandons everything it held dear because it became more powerful and able to enforce its will over the galaxy. Would really appreciate more approaches to this, or at least an egalitarian way to balance out the authoritarian, though as a general concept it's cool.

 

[Nerdy Nordic]

This looks brilliant. How early might we be able to see the Galactic Imperium in game? 2350, maybe, after the Khan crisis? Or will it not appear until the endgame crises?

 

[Arithmetician]

Well, probably not the answer that satisfies people asking the question, but the Egalitarian way to go about this would seem to just be the Custodian, and make your term permanent, without actually declaring yourself Galactic Emperor. You still nominally respect the democratic process and sovereignty of other nations, though you likely have enough diplomatic weight to outvote most/all of them by that point, and that, paired with the Custodian's emergency powers, effectively makes you the ruler of the galaxy already.

But unless you get other nations to willingly vote for you as Emperor, you effectively trample their sovereignty and silence their self-determination in the very act of establishing the Galactic Imperium, itself an usurpation of absolute power that betrays whatever egalitarian ideals that your government may have previously professed to believe in.

I for one don't mind the Ethos shift. In-game, it's often quite difficult to change from Egalitarianism to Authoritarianism, because of how powerful Egalitarianism' ethos attraction is. The built-in shift toward authoritarianism helps my RP when I want to go from republic to empire immensely. Beforehand, I would pretty much rely on the Divine Sovereign event as the easiest way to shift to authoritarian ethics in a reasonable amount of time, making it much harder to accomplish if I didn't start with Spiritualist as one of my ethics. Granted, I often would start with spiritualist to RP the Jedi in the Galactic Republic, but that's besides the point.

 

[Nocx]

I don't like this. I can't see my fanatic Egalitarian empire appointing a custodian. The entire dictator system is what led to the Roman Empire--I want a way to be opposed to it and still strengthen the Galactic Community.

The Roman dictator system actually worked correctly several times.

 

[TheGrinningMan]

Oh this is gonna be good...
*Laughs in Authoritarian/Xenophile*