Best way to RP a Dune-inspired feudal empire?

[Bezborg]

Hi all.

As the title says... not sure how to approach it.

I want to do a humans-alone-in-the-galaxy playthrough, a bit inspired by Dune. Of course one can’t completely eject Foundation and 40k, but nvm that...

So first I have to populate the galaxy slowly, and will most likely go for genetic engineering for some environentally-thematic sub-species.

I can forget the navigator guild, what can you do...

When the time comes to release sectors and call them “House This or That”... how to go about it?

Release them as vassals and keep them like that -OR- release them conpletely, let the galactic community form, start a hegemony and call it the imperium... but then I can’t form the galactic empire as that will cancel my hegemony?

Not sure how proclaiming the empire works in general tbh. I know how to do it, but how does it work mechanically?

Open for advice, tips and your experiences.

 

[Bezborg]

Just a fast observation right from the start - for sure, a feudal empire should be an origin and not a civic. It needs to have a whole backstory of how such a society could even survive into the space age, and it should have so many different mechanics. Oh well.

 

[Me_]

I don't think there's much hope for success.

Obviously, having Feudal society would be a good idea for a nation with tons of vassals, but the Imperium sounds more fitting mechanic-wise (having a sort of Landsraad in the community). You can even declare an imperial charter on a corporation for something to play the role of the Guild or CHOAM.
EDIT: You'd also have Imperial Legion (Sardaukar?)

Someone's probably going to suggest going Psionics, but I'm not convinced, because its very very heavily Warhammer-themed and basically not at all Dune themed.

 

[Bezborg]

I don't think there's much hope for success.

Obviously, having Feudal society would be a good idea for a nation with tons of vassals, but the Imperium sounds more fitting mechanic-wise (having a sort of Landsraad in the community). You can even declare an imperial charter on a corporation for something to play the role of the Guild or CHOAM.

Someone's probably going to suggest going Psionics, but I'm not convinced, because its very very heavily Warhammer-themed and basically not at all Dune themed.

To the effect of the imperial charter... I wish I can define the govt type of the vassals I create

 

[Me_]

To the effect of the imperial charter... I wish I can define the govt type of the vassals I create

I think you'd need to star with another AI nation in the game (a corporation) and quickly find and contain them. If you use forced predefined nation with humans as the main species, it should work fine.

 

[Bezborg]

I think you'd need to star with another AI nation in the game (a corporation) and quickly find and contain them. If you use forced predefined nation with humans as the main species, it should work fine.

Not a bad approach, thank you.

Or maybe I use cheats to switch nations, change the govt type, and switch back... Don't know if one can do that, it was possible in every other pdx game

 

[Dragatus]

You can host a multiplayer game with yourself as the only player. That will allow you to choose which empire to play every time you load the game.

 

[Bezborg]

You can host a multiplayer game with yourself as the only player. That will allow you to choose which empire to play every time you load the game.

Now that's a pro tip. Thank you my good man

 

[Bezborg]

Question: if 2 sectors interlock, i.e. if there's a system that is within 4 jumps from both sector capitals... can we choose which sector gets it, or it's automatic? Is it random?

If it's automatic, do I need to manipulate it by deleting the connecting systems, control which sector gets the system, and then connect my territory again, and the sector just stays according to whom got it first?

 

[Lykus Cerebros]

Question: if 2 sectors interlock, i.e. if there's a system that is within 4 jumps from both sector capitals... can we choose which sector gets it, or it's automatic? Is it random?

If it's automatic, do I need to manipulate it by deleting the connecting systems, control which sector gets the system, and then connect my territory again, and the sector just stays according to whom got it first?

I think it should be the sector you create first that will get the system.

There is no way to manually control it without mods.

 

[Lykus Cerebros]

Also you could forcespawn in some empires.
For the navigators the only Empire I could think of is voidborne megacorp. It's not a perfect fit but would result in them establishing branch offices so they could be present on every planet.

You know about the trick with using the same species portrait and name making the game recognize it as the same species right?

Are you planning on proclaiming the Imperium? Because I feel like that would be a better fit that feudal society. Shame you can't start with that.

 

[Bezborg]

Also you could forcespawn in some empires.
For the navigators the only Empire I could think of is voidborne megacorp. It's not a perfect fit but would result in them establishing branch offices so they could be present on every planet.

You know about the trick with using the same species portrait and name making the game recognize it as the same species right?

Are you planning on proclaiming the Imperium? Because I feel like that would be a better fit that feudal society. Shame you can't start with that.

Thank you for that tip, I did not know that.

Yep, will proclaim the imperium. So i guess I don't have to bother with a hegemony federation first.

My plan is to divide the galaxy into sectors, and automate them. Once the galaxy is populated by sectors, I will release them all as vassals, call them after different houses.
Then i will simply let them "play" and see how it goes, with AI aggression set on high.

Damn shame the game has zero ways to make vassals cooperate and unite against the master. Stellaris is quite a primitive game in this regard, still.

 

[Lykus Cerebros]

Thank you for that tip, I did not know that.

Yep, will proclaim the imperium. So i guess I don't have to bother with a hegemony federation first.

My plan is to divide the galaxy into sectors, and automate them. Once the galaxy is populated by sectors, I will release them all as vassals, call them after different houses.
Then i will simply let them "play" and see how it goes, with AI aggression set on high.

Damn shame the game has zero ways to make vassals cooperate and unite against the master. Stellaris is quite a primitive game in this regard, still.

Yeah make sure it's the same portrait and both singular and plural names are identical and the game will make subspecies. You can even assign different traits and habitabilities.

Hegemony start works of course but I hate that you can't customize your two federation members.

You could make the great houses as pre-made empires and then have a bunch of smaller that you release as vassals / free empires. That way you could have the power difference.


If you modify the save you could have the grey tempest spawn as a kind of butlerian jihad crisis and roleplay it.


You are definitely right about customizations. I am not good enough to make a mod for this but there would be so much potential (start with Imperium, timed robot uprisings, have one invading Empire in the L-Cluster...).

 

[Bezborg]

Here's a little update to anyone who's reading...

So, this playstyle is really ridiculous, and the only reason for that is that the game has little to no feudal mechanics support whatsoever. To say Stellaris is simplistic is an understatement. It's beyond me why they would introduce so many layers of complications around pop growth, but completely ignore diplomatic basics such as a working vassalage...


Anyway, this is what I have to do, in steps:

1) Colonize a planet
2) make a sector
3) release it as a vassal
4) release the vassal from my control and make it independent
5) open up the console and put "debugtooltip"
6) see the player ID of my former vassal
7) use the "play -ID_" code to switch to playing as the vassal
8) change the title and reform the government as I see fit (why in the world I can't do this while releasing the vassal is beyond me)
9) offer tribute to myself
10) use the console again to transfer back to myself, and accept the tributary offer


And I have to do this for each and every vassal I release, because I can't simply customize the vassal I release from my own sector, and tailor their nomenclature so I don't create 100 emperors as my vassals.

Laughable for a 2021 grand strategy, come on people.

 

[Me_]

The game was never meant to be played that way. It's like asking "why can't I use Mars map instead of Earth in Europa Universalis IV".

With modding, you can set up whatever you want (including playing On Mars in EU4), but the core gameplay was always about your own empire, not the created vassals, which are only present for the sake of minority players that use them.

 

[Bezborg]

The game was never meant to be played that way. It's like asking "why can't I use Mars map instead of Earth in Europa Universalis IV".

With modding, you can set up whatever you want (including playing On Mars in EU4), but the core gameplay was always about your own empire, not the created vassals, which are only present for the sake of minority players that use them.

That’s a matter of opinion, but sure. I mean how difficult is it to just give us more things to select once we press that “create vassal” button. Looks really simple to me.

 

[Bezborg]

Another update...

How lovely! Neither tributaries nor vassals may sign any treaties of any sort So forget having a mechant guild vassal or tributary servicing your feudal empire. Ugh, just forget it, this is a complete fail.

 

[Surimi]

Honestly, at this point I would consider making a mod. It would be kind of cool to have scenario mods using prebuilt empires with canonical histories. Use the galactic empire mechanics rather than the vassalage mechanics so you can still have a degree of conflict, and add some event-based challenges. Maybe the empire is going through a period of instability and a lot of the Imperial interactions are locked out until the Emperor reasserts control. Maybe add a few scripted wars to let minor powers become strong enough to overthrow the empire, and/or maybe a super early crisis. It could be fun I think.

 

[Dragatus]

Hmmm. Galactic Imperium origin mod ...

 

[Bezborg]

Currently I’m just restarting the whole thing, and making factions with the same species, calling then House Atreides etc.

I’ll forget the vassal and tributary mechanics entirely, and just act as if the galactic community is the landsraad.

Paradox should take note and allow a feudal empire and its subjects to sign commercial treaties, or sonething else to allow branch offices within a feudal structure, not to mention semi-internal strife between vassals