Since its first release internal politics in Stellaris has been improved, but despite developers' efforts it remains quite a shallow thing. It is not only a matter of gameplay but also of immersion, I think: even in the most machiavellian government system (like, for example, a monarchy with cutthroat politics civic) the State sovereign power works totally undisturbed from special interests groups (aside from a couple of easy-to-deal-with political factions). So, here is my proposal: EXTRA-STATAL ENTITIES
These extra-statal entities are powerful organizations that share a cospicuous fraction of wealth and power inside the empire. There are four types of such entities:
-corporations: planetwide rich enterprises that control an important fraction of the market
-families: aristocratic dynasties whose authority and respect are second only to that of monarch
-chuches: vast spiritual hierarchies that oversee the righteousness of their believers
-institutions: important scientific or policy-making organizations
Chance to spawn, for each type, depends on ethics and civics of empire. So, for example, families will appear only if authority is oligarchic or imperial and more often if aristocracy civic has been picked. Churches will never spawn in materialist empires and rarely appears unless large swaths of population become spiritualist and so on.
Usually a given empire starts with a couple of these entities and during the game other will spawn. There is no hard limit but the odds should be calibrated so that no more than a dozen of these exist in late game for large empires. The total number should depend on the extension of empire as well on the level of political fragmentation. Moreover, these entities are not "immortal", so a corporation can disappear after 6-7 decades if not properly financed and a family can be estingushed after sufficient dispossessions and assassinations.
Being more specific, each entity has:
-a leader (not drawn from the standard leader pool)
-a leaning ethic (though most of these entities are very pragmatic in respect of their objectives)
-a specific level of relation with government (0-100)
-a specific level of strength (0-100) (when reach 0 disappears, when high the entity becomes more and more bully with the government)
-controls* some assets (stations, planets, slave pops etc...) inside the empire
-can be contacted separately from the official government by another empire (this is a very important point, as introduce a mechanic totally nonexistent today in the game: covered sabotage or influence of another empire)
*Not a sector-like control. The player actually has full and direct control over entities' properties. For example, a planet controlled by a noble family is flagged as controlled and, if things don't go bad, nothing change in respect with a normal "crown-controlled" planet.
The idea is not entirely dissimilar of that behind the vassals in CK2 or the estates in EU4. If you give them control over an asset they provide a bonus (e.g. giving a spaceport to a corporation grants bonuses for the ships produced here -less cost or plus x% in HP or something similar-) but force the player to maintain an high enough level of relation with said entity. Such relations go up when players meets the extemporaneous requests of entities (in form of small quests or an event where one can choose to give or not some resources) or bestow control over more assets and go down otherwise.
Every type of entity can be divided in subtypes on the basis of area of interest.
Corporations:
shipbuilding
desire: spaceports and mining stations
bonus: bonus to ships built in their spaceports
possible quests: building a given ship, building a given module on their spaceports ecc...
if angered: sudden slowered (halted in worst case) ship production, can surrender spaceports to an enemy empire given a proper offer (remember that entities can be contacted by foreign empires!)
mining
desire: mining stations and mining networks/power plants on planets
bonus: no maintenance costs for their assets or increased productivity, private colony ships are free and near-istantaneously available but building on colonized planets become a property of the corporation
possible quest: obtain other strategic resources, expand the empire to a given star system
if angered: can reduce production, in worst cases can seize control of their planets and cede them to the best offer
private military
desire: fleets and armies
bonus: reduced upkeep, special combat bonuses
possible quest: aggressive actions against other empires
if angered: can increase (instead of reducing) fleets and armies upkeep, can seize control of controlled fleets and armies (in the second case, can seize control of a planets) and cede them to the best offer
Families:
feudal
desire: hydroponic farms and mining networks on planets
bonus: reduced upkeep for buildings, reduced consumer goods consumed
possible quest: pick a certain protege as leader, activate a given planetary edict
if angered: can try a coup d'etat to seize the crown using their planet-demesne
mercantile
desire: mining stations and fleets
bonus: a strategic resource, reduced upkeep for fleets
possible quest: establish trade routes with other empires, ammass a given value of wealth
if angered: can sell their minerary products to the best offer
slaver
desire: slaves on planets
bonus: increased slave production and lowered unrest
possible quest: strip citizenship rights to a given species, enslave a given non-FTL species
if angered: can sell slave armies to enemies
Institutions:
scientific
desire: reserach stations, research labs on planets
bonus: increased scientific output
possible quest: investigate a given anomaly, research a given technology
if angered: halt labs and research stations, sell techs to enemy empires
policy-making
desire: unity-output buildings and administrative buildings on planets
bonus: increased unity or influence generation
possible quest: obtain a given migration treaty, adopt a given policy, activate a given edict
if angered: drain influence and unity (instead of producing them), can sell the election of a given faction to enemy empires
charitable
desire: hydroponic farms, power plants on planets
bonus: increased happiness, reduced consumer goods consumed
possible quest: allow a given refugee pop to reside, offer donations to lesser empires
if angered: decreased happiness and increased unrest, until revolution and creation of an independent empire
Churches:
They function in a different way: there are no fixed subtypes, instead every church represent a specific religion. Spiritualist pops can adhere to a church (in a fashion inversely proportional of happiness -so adhering to a church is not automatic as adhere to a faction-) and every church give a special bonus. On the other hand, chuches have similar quests (including realize a special type of building -Temple- that do not produce anything aside increasing relations with the church that has requested it) and satisfying a church immediately dissatisfies the others (if more than one is present). This should create an interesting mechanism for spiritualist emipires, that now must defend their "main" church against thee heresy representedd by other possible churches. So, spiritualism and religion cease to be a vague concept and become solid political matter.
Other important things related:
-aside from the possible quests suggested above, it should be added a flood of events that model interactions with entities
-an entity can trascend the borders of its home empire: neighbouring empires can give some assets to a foreign entity to obtain a favor from it (generally some sort of damage to the host government) but the destiny of bestowed assets will depend on the relations between said entity and its sovereign government... so it is a gamble that can be twisted around such a foreign empire)
-the leaning ethic of a entity has some influence in relation with the home government and other governments (so is very unlikely that an egalitarian charitable istitution will cooperate with an authoritarian slave foreign empire) but should be considerd that entities are not political parties and have a very pragmatic course of action
-desires of entities are somewhat overlapped, so in many situations favoring an entity will displease at least another entity
-an empire can have multiple entities of the same type and this is possible because every kind of entity allows for different bonuses (each shipbuilding corporations give a particular bonus to ship built in their respective spaceports! Obviously, in the galaxy can be somewhere another shipbuiling corp with the same bonus...)
These extra-statal entities are powerful organizations that share a cospicuous fraction of wealth and power inside the empire. There are four types of such entities:
-corporations: planetwide rich enterprises that control an important fraction of the market
-families: aristocratic dynasties whose authority and respect are second only to that of monarch
-chuches: vast spiritual hierarchies that oversee the righteousness of their believers
-institutions: important scientific or policy-making organizations
Chance to spawn, for each type, depends on ethics and civics of empire. So, for example, families will appear only if authority is oligarchic or imperial and more often if aristocracy civic has been picked. Churches will never spawn in materialist empires and rarely appears unless large swaths of population become spiritualist and so on.
Usually a given empire starts with a couple of these entities and during the game other will spawn. There is no hard limit but the odds should be calibrated so that no more than a dozen of these exist in late game for large empires. The total number should depend on the extension of empire as well on the level of political fragmentation. Moreover, these entities are not "immortal", so a corporation can disappear after 6-7 decades if not properly financed and a family can be estingushed after sufficient dispossessions and assassinations.
Being more specific, each entity has:
-a leader (not drawn from the standard leader pool)
-a leaning ethic (though most of these entities are very pragmatic in respect of their objectives)
-a specific level of relation with government (0-100)
-a specific level of strength (0-100) (when reach 0 disappears, when high the entity becomes more and more bully with the government)
-controls* some assets (stations, planets, slave pops etc...) inside the empire
-can be contacted separately from the official government by another empire (this is a very important point, as introduce a mechanic totally nonexistent today in the game: covered sabotage or influence of another empire)
*Not a sector-like control. The player actually has full and direct control over entities' properties. For example, a planet controlled by a noble family is flagged as controlled and, if things don't go bad, nothing change in respect with a normal "crown-controlled" planet.
The idea is not entirely dissimilar of that behind the vassals in CK2 or the estates in EU4. If you give them control over an asset they provide a bonus (e.g. giving a spaceport to a corporation grants bonuses for the ships produced here -less cost or plus x% in HP or something similar-) but force the player to maintain an high enough level of relation with said entity. Such relations go up when players meets the extemporaneous requests of entities (in form of small quests or an event where one can choose to give or not some resources) or bestow control over more assets and go down otherwise.
Every type of entity can be divided in subtypes on the basis of area of interest.
Corporations:
shipbuilding
desire: spaceports and mining stations
bonus: bonus to ships built in their spaceports
possible quests: building a given ship, building a given module on their spaceports ecc...
if angered: sudden slowered (halted in worst case) ship production, can surrender spaceports to an enemy empire given a proper offer (remember that entities can be contacted by foreign empires!)
mining
desire: mining stations and mining networks/power plants on planets
bonus: no maintenance costs for their assets or increased productivity, private colony ships are free and near-istantaneously available but building on colonized planets become a property of the corporation
possible quest: obtain other strategic resources, expand the empire to a given star system
if angered: can reduce production, in worst cases can seize control of their planets and cede them to the best offer
private military
desire: fleets and armies
bonus: reduced upkeep, special combat bonuses
possible quest: aggressive actions against other empires
if angered: can increase (instead of reducing) fleets and armies upkeep, can seize control of controlled fleets and armies (in the second case, can seize control of a planets) and cede them to the best offer
Families:
feudal
desire: hydroponic farms and mining networks on planets
bonus: reduced upkeep for buildings, reduced consumer goods consumed
possible quest: pick a certain protege as leader, activate a given planetary edict
if angered: can try a coup d'etat to seize the crown using their planet-demesne
mercantile
desire: mining stations and fleets
bonus: a strategic resource, reduced upkeep for fleets
possible quest: establish trade routes with other empires, ammass a given value of wealth
if angered: can sell their minerary products to the best offer
slaver
desire: slaves on planets
bonus: increased slave production and lowered unrest
possible quest: strip citizenship rights to a given species, enslave a given non-FTL species
if angered: can sell slave armies to enemies
Institutions:
scientific
desire: reserach stations, research labs on planets
bonus: increased scientific output
possible quest: investigate a given anomaly, research a given technology
if angered: halt labs and research stations, sell techs to enemy empires
policy-making
desire: unity-output buildings and administrative buildings on planets
bonus: increased unity or influence generation
possible quest: obtain a given migration treaty, adopt a given policy, activate a given edict
if angered: drain influence and unity (instead of producing them), can sell the election of a given faction to enemy empires
charitable
desire: hydroponic farms, power plants on planets
bonus: increased happiness, reduced consumer goods consumed
possible quest: allow a given refugee pop to reside, offer donations to lesser empires
if angered: decreased happiness and increased unrest, until revolution and creation of an independent empire
Churches:
They function in a different way: there are no fixed subtypes, instead every church represent a specific religion. Spiritualist pops can adhere to a church (in a fashion inversely proportional of happiness -so adhering to a church is not automatic as adhere to a faction-) and every church give a special bonus. On the other hand, chuches have similar quests (including realize a special type of building -Temple- that do not produce anything aside increasing relations with the church that has requested it) and satisfying a church immediately dissatisfies the others (if more than one is present). This should create an interesting mechanism for spiritualist emipires, that now must defend their "main" church against thee heresy representedd by other possible churches. So, spiritualism and religion cease to be a vague concept and become solid political matter.
Other important things related:
-aside from the possible quests suggested above, it should be added a flood of events that model interactions with entities
-an entity can trascend the borders of its home empire: neighbouring empires can give some assets to a foreign entity to obtain a favor from it (generally some sort of damage to the host government) but the destiny of bestowed assets will depend on the relations between said entity and its sovereign government... so it is a gamble that can be twisted around such a foreign empire)
-the leaning ethic of a entity has some influence in relation with the home government and other governments (so is very unlikely that an egalitarian charitable istitution will cooperate with an authoritarian slave foreign empire) but should be considerd that entities are not political parties and have a very pragmatic course of action
-desires of entities are somewhat overlapped, so in many situations favoring an entity will displease at least another entity
-an empire can have multiple entities of the same type and this is possible because every kind of entity allows for different bonuses (each shipbuilding corporations give a particular bonus to ship built in their respective spaceports! Obviously, in the galaxy can be somewhere another shipbuiling corp with the same bonus...)
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