Objective: Make armies feel more connected with population, without compromising KISS principle (too much).
Side effects: In my opinion implementation of this sugestion will lead to more EU4-ish feeling. It will force some UI changes.
TLDR:
Every army has its parent pop, and every pop is supporting two armies: one garrison force, one expeditionary force.
BASICS:
There are three basic types of armies, available to (almost) every empire from the game beginning: garrison, defensive army and assault army. In this thread I will call them citizen militia army(CMA), citizen defensive army (CDA) and citizen expeditionary army(CEA), primarily because it sounds cooler. There are also special armies, that become available when proper tech is researched. I will iterate through them later.
Garrison forces
Garrison forces are the ones responsible for protecting planet from external (and sometimes internal) treads. They are not able to move from planet (unless you resettle whole POP) and slighty inferior when compared with basic assault armies, but also cheaper. Sectors often build them on their own. Their strength comes from the fact that whenever enemy inwasion begin, they are there to fight as first and often last line of defense.
Every POP have some number of 'garrison force slots' (for now, let's say its 1 of them). That slots are by default filled with Citizen Militia Unit, a bunch of citizens that, hearing your friendly purifier next door is knocking to their home gates, decided to take up arms and fight. Citizen Militia Armies are free of maintenance and creation cost (because they are not 'created' at all, just autospawned), but they have low statistics and cannot supress unrest. They also no longer auto-heal after winning defensive battle, nor are they of primary species (instead, you get healhty mix based on planet population).
Every Citizen Militia Army can be upgraded to Citizen Defensive Army. When compared to militia, they are well-organised, standing armies with heavy equipment. They have better stats (through slighty lower than assault armies, for gameplay reasons). They need minerals both for creation and maintenance. If CDA is destroyed, it will free slot is was locking, making it possible to spawn militia instead. Of course that militia can then be upgraded to defensive army.
Expeditionary forces
Expeditionary forces are your field army, young men and women (and, if you are really unlucky, blorg) that fly to your de jure territories and make them your de facto territories. Basic form of expeditionary force is Citizen Expeditionary Army, which is the hero of both your empire and this paragraph. They can be used to reinforce your planet defense, but unless some edge cases its just not worth it.
Every POP have some number of 'expeditionary force slots' (for now, let's say its 1 of them). Unlike garrison force slot, that slot is not filled by default. Instead, you can fill it with CEA for proper amount of minerals and time (generally twice as much as for defensive army).
Manpower and health
Every garrison or expeditionary force slot (yes, slot, not POP nor army) has its manpower value. Generally speaking manpower is more or less the same that health, even if they have different values (in case of manpower maximum is 1000 units, when health can have any value; thats because max health works as army defensive stat, when manpower have to be equal for all types of armies). If army lost 10% of health, slot it fills lost 10% of manpower. When slot regenerate 5% of manpower, army regenerate 5% of health. Manpower regeneration is always done at slot level (i.e. you cannot move manpower from one slot to another, especially from garrison force slot to expeditionary or vice versa). Manpower regeneration rate is decided at POP level and can be theoretically changed by traits, policies and other modifiers.
ADVANCED:
Slaves:
Slaves do not have any army slots, because no sane emperor would ever give guns to ten millions people that have very good reason to hate him. Instead, every POP that own either slave or robot, gets +1 garrison force slot and +1 expeditionary force slot. The logic is that if someone is working instead of you, you have more time for Motherland. Think of it like spartans-helots, or knight-peasant relation. Of course battle thralls are exception - they work like every other military-allowed pop.
Robots:
Rules are simple: sapient robot with citizen rights will have force slots like every other POP. All other robot POPs works like slaves. AI-empires robots are exception - they have 1 garrison force slot that will spawn robot militia in case of emergency. Robot citizen armies should not be confused with robot/droid armies.
Happiness and morale:
Army max morale is modified by parent POP happiness (of course parent POP is the owner of slot locked by army). Its generally better to use soldiers that like your country.
Hive minds:
If parent POP doesn't use happiness mechanics (for example because its hive mind drone, or upgraded blorg), army made of it doesn't use morale mechanics and is literally unbreakable.
Sector interaction - draft:
As long as you have enough minerals, you can demand your sector to create given amount of expeditionary forces. You can demand any number of any type of forces (even if it is actually impossible, for example because you are demanding more armies that available slots; they will just be pushed into queue). If army use citizen army system, sector will prioritize battle thralls before everything, high-happiness POPs before low-happiness, and strong ones before weak ones.
Elite forces limit:
Well, every simple and fast suggestion has a point at which it stops being simple and fast, and here we are.
Some formations accept only bests of the bests of the bests. Naturally their manpower pool is much smaller that regular forces. To represent that, some types of armies have special 'elite' trait (which does nothing). You can have only limited number of elite armies, equal to about 1/25th of your population. Elite forces are expeditionary forces and take expeditionary force slot. Basic form of elite force is guard army, available to any playable empire from the start of the game.
APPENDIX: Special armies
With citizen army system most special armies become obsolete flavor-wise. I would suggest rewriting them into something like that:
Slave army - absolutely no idea.
Clone army - remove. Instead, POP that works on Clone Vats will get +10 expeditionary force slots. Clone Vats are the way to push your army size over what you are demographically able.
Robotic/Android defense armies - remove. They do not work well with the concept of citizen garrison forces. Instead, for AI-empires robots will spawn robot militia in case of emergency.
Robotic/Android (assault) armies - think of Trade Federation droids of Naboo war. They are expensive to build, expensive to maintain, and still believe that napoleonic-style battlelines are good idea in the age of bomber aircrafts and artillery. Their abilities are lower than defensive armies. But they do not use army slots, meaning you can spawn as many of them as your economy allows you.
Xenomorph army - no idea. They should probably be 'like droid armies, but actually good'.
Psionic army - with Utopia, available only to psionic ascension empires (without, to anyone with proper tech). They are not just armies of psionic citizens, they are made of best psionics possible, with best powers (military-wise) and best psionic training. If you watched Toaru Majutsu no Index, say 'hi' to Accelerators. Psionic armies can be made only from POPs with 'latent psionic' or 'psionic' trait. They are elite.
Gene warriors - units of genetically modified soldiers. They are available to everybody with proper tech. Elite. They do not inherit POP traits, because they are so badass genetically that best possible traits are already calculated into their base statistics.
ADDITIONAL CHANGES:
Suggestions written here are not part of citizen army system, but I think would work with it nicely.
Land battle (EU4-style) combat width - for now, invader can bring any number of troops to invasion, when defender can use only amount equal to planet size. With combat width, at any given time only number of armies equal to planet size is fighting (per side). Next army can engage only when one of already fighting was destroyed. It will make elite forces slighty better, droid armies slighty worse, planet invasions slighty longer and more expensive.
Additional benefit is that it allow small simplification to militias: instead of them spawning during invasion, they can be considered standing armies for all mechanic purposes (after all theres no mechanical difference between militia existing from times immemorial, and militia spawned just for battle). For now its impossible, because every planet have limit to num of armies it can contains, so standing militias would block space for expeditionary forces. With CW, that limit can be either removed or (even better) set only for expeditionary forces, with garrison forces being already limited by number of POPs.
Remove Health, introduce Tactics - Tactics is parameter from EU4. All damage taken are divided by tactics (which value is between 0.5 and 3.5). Having 100 health and 0.8 tactics is equal to having 80 health and 1 tactics. So base value will be 1 for defensive armies, and 1.15 for expeditionary. Militia gets 0.75. Psionic army gets 3.5, Avatar 14 etc.
Benefits are twofold. First, it will make manpower system slighty simplier (instead of loosing 23 hp, which is equal to 100 manpower, you lose 100 manpower). Second, it will make land battle system more similar to EU4 one, making it easier to transit between Stellaris and EU4.
Terrain expertise:
Small feature just to end with more shiny stuff. Every army created from POP that have any of standard hability traits, or tomb world habitability, will get special trait called 'X expertise'. Whenever army is fighting in planet of X climate, it gets +5% tactics.
Thoughts?
Side effects: In my opinion implementation of this sugestion will lead to more EU4-ish feeling. It will force some UI changes.
TLDR:
Every army has its parent pop, and every pop is supporting two armies: one garrison force, one expeditionary force.
BASICS:
There are three basic types of armies, available to (almost) every empire from the game beginning: garrison, defensive army and assault army. In this thread I will call them citizen militia army(CMA), citizen defensive army (CDA) and citizen expeditionary army(CEA), primarily because it sounds cooler. There are also special armies, that become available when proper tech is researched. I will iterate through them later.
Garrison forces
Garrison forces are the ones responsible for protecting planet from external (and sometimes internal) treads. They are not able to move from planet (unless you resettle whole POP) and slighty inferior when compared with basic assault armies, but also cheaper. Sectors often build them on their own. Their strength comes from the fact that whenever enemy inwasion begin, they are there to fight as first and often last line of defense.
Every POP have some number of 'garrison force slots' (for now, let's say its 1 of them). That slots are by default filled with Citizen Militia Unit, a bunch of citizens that, hearing your friendly purifier next door is knocking to their home gates, decided to take up arms and fight. Citizen Militia Armies are free of maintenance and creation cost (because they are not 'created' at all, just autospawned), but they have low statistics and cannot supress unrest. They also no longer auto-heal after winning defensive battle, nor are they of primary species (instead, you get healhty mix based on planet population).
Every Citizen Militia Army can be upgraded to Citizen Defensive Army. When compared to militia, they are well-organised, standing armies with heavy equipment. They have better stats (through slighty lower than assault armies, for gameplay reasons). They need minerals both for creation and maintenance. If CDA is destroyed, it will free slot is was locking, making it possible to spawn militia instead. Of course that militia can then be upgraded to defensive army.
Expeditionary forces
Expeditionary forces are your field army, young men and women (and, if you are really unlucky, blorg) that fly to your de jure territories and make them your de facto territories. Basic form of expeditionary force is Citizen Expeditionary Army, which is the hero of both your empire and this paragraph. They can be used to reinforce your planet defense, but unless some edge cases its just not worth it.
Every POP have some number of 'expeditionary force slots' (for now, let's say its 1 of them). Unlike garrison force slot, that slot is not filled by default. Instead, you can fill it with CEA for proper amount of minerals and time (generally twice as much as for defensive army).
Manpower and health
Every garrison or expeditionary force slot (yes, slot, not POP nor army) has its manpower value. Generally speaking manpower is more or less the same that health, even if they have different values (in case of manpower maximum is 1000 units, when health can have any value; thats because max health works as army defensive stat, when manpower have to be equal for all types of armies). If army lost 10% of health, slot it fills lost 10% of manpower. When slot regenerate 5% of manpower, army regenerate 5% of health. Manpower regeneration is always done at slot level (i.e. you cannot move manpower from one slot to another, especially from garrison force slot to expeditionary or vice versa). Manpower regeneration rate is decided at POP level and can be theoretically changed by traits, policies and other modifiers.
ADVANCED:
Slaves:
Slaves do not have any army slots, because no sane emperor would ever give guns to ten millions people that have very good reason to hate him. Instead, every POP that own either slave or robot, gets +1 garrison force slot and +1 expeditionary force slot. The logic is that if someone is working instead of you, you have more time for Motherland. Think of it like spartans-helots, or knight-peasant relation. Of course battle thralls are exception - they work like every other military-allowed pop.
Robots:
Rules are simple: sapient robot with citizen rights will have force slots like every other POP. All other robot POPs works like slaves. AI-empires robots are exception - they have 1 garrison force slot that will spawn robot militia in case of emergency. Robot citizen armies should not be confused with robot/droid armies.
Happiness and morale:
Army max morale is modified by parent POP happiness (of course parent POP is the owner of slot locked by army). Its generally better to use soldiers that like your country.
Hive minds:
If parent POP doesn't use happiness mechanics (for example because its hive mind drone, or upgraded blorg), army made of it doesn't use morale mechanics and is literally unbreakable.
Sector interaction - draft:
As long as you have enough minerals, you can demand your sector to create given amount of expeditionary forces. You can demand any number of any type of forces (even if it is actually impossible, for example because you are demanding more armies that available slots; they will just be pushed into queue). If army use citizen army system, sector will prioritize battle thralls before everything, high-happiness POPs before low-happiness, and strong ones before weak ones.
Elite forces limit:
Well, every simple and fast suggestion has a point at which it stops being simple and fast, and here we are.
Some formations accept only bests of the bests of the bests. Naturally their manpower pool is much smaller that regular forces. To represent that, some types of armies have special 'elite' trait (which does nothing). You can have only limited number of elite armies, equal to about 1/25th of your population. Elite forces are expeditionary forces and take expeditionary force slot. Basic form of elite force is guard army, available to any playable empire from the start of the game.
APPENDIX: Special armies
With citizen army system most special armies become obsolete flavor-wise. I would suggest rewriting them into something like that:
Slave army - absolutely no idea.
Clone army - remove. Instead, POP that works on Clone Vats will get +10 expeditionary force slots. Clone Vats are the way to push your army size over what you are demographically able.
Robotic/Android defense armies - remove. They do not work well with the concept of citizen garrison forces. Instead, for AI-empires robots will spawn robot militia in case of emergency.
Robotic/Android (assault) armies - think of Trade Federation droids of Naboo war. They are expensive to build, expensive to maintain, and still believe that napoleonic-style battlelines are good idea in the age of bomber aircrafts and artillery. Their abilities are lower than defensive armies. But they do not use army slots, meaning you can spawn as many of them as your economy allows you.
Xenomorph army - no idea. They should probably be 'like droid armies, but actually good'.
Psionic army - with Utopia, available only to psionic ascension empires (without, to anyone with proper tech). They are not just armies of psionic citizens, they are made of best psionics possible, with best powers (military-wise) and best psionic training. If you watched Toaru Majutsu no Index, say 'hi' to Accelerators. Psionic armies can be made only from POPs with 'latent psionic' or 'psionic' trait. They are elite.
Gene warriors - units of genetically modified soldiers. They are available to everybody with proper tech. Elite. They do not inherit POP traits, because they are so badass genetically that best possible traits are already calculated into their base statistics.
ADDITIONAL CHANGES:
Suggestions written here are not part of citizen army system, but I think would work with it nicely.
Land battle (EU4-style) combat width - for now, invader can bring any number of troops to invasion, when defender can use only amount equal to planet size. With combat width, at any given time only number of armies equal to planet size is fighting (per side). Next army can engage only when one of already fighting was destroyed. It will make elite forces slighty better, droid armies slighty worse, planet invasions slighty longer and more expensive.
Additional benefit is that it allow small simplification to militias: instead of them spawning during invasion, they can be considered standing armies for all mechanic purposes (after all theres no mechanical difference between militia existing from times immemorial, and militia spawned just for battle). For now its impossible, because every planet have limit to num of armies it can contains, so standing militias would block space for expeditionary forces. With CW, that limit can be either removed or (even better) set only for expeditionary forces, with garrison forces being already limited by number of POPs.
Remove Health, introduce Tactics - Tactics is parameter from EU4. All damage taken are divided by tactics (which value is between 0.5 and 3.5). Having 100 health and 0.8 tactics is equal to having 80 health and 1 tactics. So base value will be 1 for defensive armies, and 1.15 for expeditionary. Militia gets 0.75. Psionic army gets 3.5, Avatar 14 etc.
Benefits are twofold. First, it will make manpower system slighty simplier (instead of loosing 23 hp, which is equal to 100 manpower, you lose 100 manpower). Second, it will make land battle system more similar to EU4 one, making it easier to transit between Stellaris and EU4.
Terrain expertise:
Small feature just to end with more shiny stuff. Every army created from POP that have any of standard hability traits, or tomb world habitability, will get special trait called 'X expertise'. Whenever army is fighting in planet of X climate, it gets +5% tactics.
Thoughts?
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