This is an issue that has been a pet peeve of mine for as long as Stellaris as been publicly released. Species rights are extremely broad and bare-bones, and really only enable "egalitarian" or "generic slavers". The closest thing to caste-style Rights are the Battle-Thrall and Domestic Servitude forms of slavery, but even then they don't only *kinda* deliver on what they're meant to be. Pop culture groups like the T'au, the Covenant, Star Trek's Dominion, or any form of hive mind are impossible to properly represent as the game gives you very little actual control over job distribution, and the AI is utterly incapable of pretending to simulate that itself.
It's always irritated me that I couldn't allow my Prophet-analogues to abstain from military service once I had assimilated a suitable species to take the position, or that I couldn't Zerg my way into distinct biological castes for my swarm's drones. That machines tailor-made for a particular job couldn't be specifically used for that job, and that my Domestic Servants kept getting sent to the mines instead of the pleasure domes.
Stellaris is a game that describes itself as being a vehicle for various sci-fi tropes, and people most certainly use it to replicate their own favorite pop culture empires, so it very much irritates me that one of the most enduring traits of fictional cultures cannot be replicated as part of them.
My suggestion, thus, is to create an actual granular Caste System in the Species Rights tab allowing you to choose just how that kind of thing is handled in your empire, broken into three primary categories:
1. Broad Castes
These caste designations align directly with Strata as they currently exist - allowing you to confine a particular Pop to said Strata. A Menial Caste Pop can only work Menial jobs, a Specialist Caste Pop can only work Specialist Jobs, and a Leader Caste pop can only work Leader jobs. Unlike the current parts of the system that most closely emulate this idea, Pops cannot *demote* either, they are defined entirely by their Strata, except for a fourth "Not Menial" Caste. Primary Species can never be given a Broad Caste, except for Fanatic Authoritarians or Xenophobes, who can assign themselves as "Leader" or "Not Menial".
2. Narrow Castes
Rather than being defined by Strata, a Narrow Caste restricts a Pop by job *type*. Warrior Castes for example can become Soldiers or Enforcers, despite being different Strata, but unlike Battle-Thralls CANNOT become Menials. More esoteric, or broader, versions could exist like "Unity Castes" who can apply to any job that provides Unity, or Science Castes, etc. These could also be combined with Broad Castes or existing Species Rights systems to create more current-style cutoff points if one chooses. The crux of the suggestion is very much player-driven levels of granularity, rather than a developer choosing beforehand what the politics of my custom empire get to be.
3. Job Castes
For the min-maxer, or Dominion fans, this would allow a species to be relegated to a very specific profession. Soldiers and Enforcers as opposed to the Warrior group, dedicated Clerks, Entertainers, etc. This could also include a number of considerably more esoteric designations akin to Domestic Servitude, which preclude a Pop from taking a particular job but cause them to generate a particular buff instead. Livestock and Servants already provide a precedent, but things like Xenophobes designating a species for scientific experimentation or live fire drills, or Necrophages creating a dedicated breeding population to parasitize could be other examples.
Broad and Job Castes would largely only be available to enslaved species (or machine Pops without rights), Fanatic Authoritarians, or Gestalt Consciousnesses. Regular Authoritarians, Machine Pops with rights, and genetically engineered species outside of Egalitarian empires and would have access to Narrow Castes, representing a tendency towards efficiency in employment or a more subtle set of cultural tendencies rather than a strict system of mandated positions.
It's always irritated me that I couldn't allow my Prophet-analogues to abstain from military service once I had assimilated a suitable species to take the position, or that I couldn't Zerg my way into distinct biological castes for my swarm's drones. That machines tailor-made for a particular job couldn't be specifically used for that job, and that my Domestic Servants kept getting sent to the mines instead of the pleasure domes.
Stellaris is a game that describes itself as being a vehicle for various sci-fi tropes, and people most certainly use it to replicate their own favorite pop culture empires, so it very much irritates me that one of the most enduring traits of fictional cultures cannot be replicated as part of them.
My suggestion, thus, is to create an actual granular Caste System in the Species Rights tab allowing you to choose just how that kind of thing is handled in your empire, broken into three primary categories:
1. Broad Castes
These caste designations align directly with Strata as they currently exist - allowing you to confine a particular Pop to said Strata. A Menial Caste Pop can only work Menial jobs, a Specialist Caste Pop can only work Specialist Jobs, and a Leader Caste pop can only work Leader jobs. Unlike the current parts of the system that most closely emulate this idea, Pops cannot *demote* either, they are defined entirely by their Strata, except for a fourth "Not Menial" Caste. Primary Species can never be given a Broad Caste, except for Fanatic Authoritarians or Xenophobes, who can assign themselves as "Leader" or "Not Menial".
2. Narrow Castes
Rather than being defined by Strata, a Narrow Caste restricts a Pop by job *type*. Warrior Castes for example can become Soldiers or Enforcers, despite being different Strata, but unlike Battle-Thralls CANNOT become Menials. More esoteric, or broader, versions could exist like "Unity Castes" who can apply to any job that provides Unity, or Science Castes, etc. These could also be combined with Broad Castes or existing Species Rights systems to create more current-style cutoff points if one chooses. The crux of the suggestion is very much player-driven levels of granularity, rather than a developer choosing beforehand what the politics of my custom empire get to be.
3. Job Castes
For the min-maxer, or Dominion fans, this would allow a species to be relegated to a very specific profession. Soldiers and Enforcers as opposed to the Warrior group, dedicated Clerks, Entertainers, etc. This could also include a number of considerably more esoteric designations akin to Domestic Servitude, which preclude a Pop from taking a particular job but cause them to generate a particular buff instead. Livestock and Servants already provide a precedent, but things like Xenophobes designating a species for scientific experimentation or live fire drills, or Necrophages creating a dedicated breeding population to parasitize could be other examples.
Broad and Job Castes would largely only be available to enslaved species (or machine Pops without rights), Fanatic Authoritarians, or Gestalt Consciousnesses. Regular Authoritarians, Machine Pops with rights, and genetically engineered species outside of Egalitarian empires and would have access to Narrow Castes, representing a tendency towards efficiency in employment or a more subtle set of cultural tendencies rather than a strict system of mandated positions.
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