I want to raise some concerns about a change mentioned very briefy in Dev Diary #238, and offer a different suggestion.
Summary
The tentative 3.3 change to Citizen Service would be a dramatic departure from the spirit of the civic, and is not internally consistent as ship crews and armies do not get any starting level bonus. Furthermore, the civic would be made (partially) objectively stronger than two other Militarist civics.
However, the Unity Rework presents an opportunity for Citizen Service to evolve and represent its distinct society better than ever before, and to simultaneously address the conspicuous absence of military "administrator" and ruler jobs. Adding Officer and Commander jobs would both resolve that issue and allow us to update Citizen Service to reflect its Heinleinian inspirations better than ever before, as well as better represent other types of thoroughly militarized societies.
Having added Officer and Commander jobs, Citizen Service could replace some Politicians with Commanders and (some?) Bureaucrats with Officers, and give a +1 Unity bonus to those jobs (in this aspect it would be comparable to the Exalted Priesthood civic). Citizen Service would become incompatible with Aristocratic Elite, Exalted Priesthood, Merchant Guilds and Technocracy, and could instead become available for autocratic regimes (where the civic might have slightly different "lore implications"). Citizen Service would evolve and become the Militarist civic that represents a thoroughly militarized society, organized along military lines, as per the current description of Citizen Stratocracy:
The spirit of Citizen Service
Citizen Service has been my single most picked civic since I first bought Stellaris. The reason why I have played with this C-tier civic so much is not because of the +15% Naval Capacity bonus but because of what the civic represented, as embodied through the +2 Unity bonus. It was the idea of the society putting duty before power; the idea that every leader and ruler would have gone through the same trials, demonstrated a greater sense of personal responsibility, and proven their ability to put the common good first. The idea of a society where all citizens were united in a more common cause, through their shared experiences and personal efforts in service of all.
Some quotes from Starship Troopers, the book most associated with the civic:
And while the civic is somewhat derived from Starship Troopers, it also echoes Sweden's history and the birth of its modern democracy:
A Unity bonus was a good fit for what the civic represents, though the implementation was debatable. The old design would only give a Unity bonus if Soldier jobs were present, which would often only happen on dedicated Fortress Worlds. The Unity bonus would have seemed more appropriate in pops with positions of leadership, as it would be their job to decide, lead and unite others while pops with Soldier jobs are busy doing what soldiers do.
Still, the civic was about the unifying effect on society. The tentative 3.3 change makes the civic into something else.
Civic balance and consistency issues
With the tentative 3.3 change, the roles of Nationalistic Zeal and Distinguished Admiralty are diminished. Citizen Service would give more resilience against War Exhaustion than Nationalistic Zeal. Citizen Service would also produce much better admirals (+2 starting levels) than Distinguished Admiralty (+1 level cap, a bonus so common it can be ignored - besides the issue of mortality).
It is also not immediately apparent why Citizen Service should give leaders more starting xp (levels). Firstly, from a military perspective the concept of requiring military service for citizenship leans more towards getting large quantities of volunteers for military service, rather than producing elite soldiers. Secondly, it is strange (and even further removed from the spirit of the civic) to not give armies and ship crews the same xp (level) bonus that is given to leaders.
The lack of military administrators
Now that we are finally getting a unified approach to a grand Unity system, thinking about Citizen Service made me realize something. We currently do not just lack military jobs above the worker-level Soldier job (not counting the space gladiators provided by Warrior Culture), but we also lack any sort of administrator-type job for the military. This while we have specialist-level jobs for bureaucrats, managers, priests, death priests, death chroniclers, and culture workers (though limited), plus other Unity-generating specialist jobs, and while we have ruler-level jobs for politicians (administrators), priests, scientists, aristocrats, merchants and corporations. That means 2-3 types of Spiritualist "administrators" and 2 types of "business" ruler jobs, while there are 0 types of military leader jobs. In an epic space opera grand strategy game where military conflict and warfare is as unavoidable as in Stellaris, this is something that can be difficult to unsee once you are aware of it, especially when you consider that some of the societies represented in Stellaris are supposed to be rather thoroughly militarized.
Adding such jobs would not just resolve this thematic issue and offer interesting new possibilities, but also facilitate a reimagined Citizen Service that is not just appropriately integrated into the new Unity Rework system, but also more true to its spirit than any previous version of the civic.
"Commander"
A reimagined Citizen Service
This would entail the civic giving a Unity bonus to the Officer and Commander jobs (suggested above) and replacing some Politicians with Commanders and some Bureaucrats with Officers, similar to how Exalted Priesthood gives a Unity bonus to the Priest and High Priest jobs and replaces some Politicians with High Priests. As a consequence, this civic would necessarily get new restrictions against other civics. To compensate for that, the current restriction against non-democratic government types can be removed.
Citizen Service would be the Militarist civic that represents a thoroughly militarized society, organized along military lines, as per the current description of Citizen Stratocracy:
The old Citizen Service has these effects:
** It is currently possibe for species to not get Full Citizenship despite doing military service (as "Soldiers Only"), which goes against the description of the civic. There are several ways this could be resolved, such as blocking it in the presence of Egalitarian or Xenophile ethics, or restricting it to Xenophobes, or extending the Full Citizenship requirement to Soldiers Only, or to completely block Soldiers Only for empires with Citizen Service, or to restrict Soldiers Only to enslaved species, or other variants of these. Should Stellaris allow "Space Sparta" (Citizen Service + Warrior Culture + auxiliary slave troops)?
Summary
The tentative 3.3 change to Citizen Service would be a dramatic departure from the spirit of the civic, and is not internally consistent as ship crews and armies do not get any starting level bonus. Furthermore, the civic would be made (partially) objectively stronger than two other Militarist civics.
However, the Unity Rework presents an opportunity for Citizen Service to evolve and represent its distinct society better than ever before, and to simultaneously address the conspicuous absence of military "administrator" and ruler jobs. Adding Officer and Commander jobs would both resolve that issue and allow us to update Citizen Service to reflect its Heinleinian inspirations better than ever before, as well as better represent other types of thoroughly militarized societies.
Having added Officer and Commander jobs, Citizen Service could replace some Politicians with Commanders and (some?) Bureaucrats with Officers, and give a +1 Unity bonus to those jobs (in this aspect it would be comparable to the Exalted Priesthood civic). Citizen Service would become incompatible with Aristocratic Elite, Exalted Priesthood, Merchant Guilds and Technocracy, and could instead become available for autocratic regimes (where the civic might have slightly different "lore implications"). Citizen Service would evolve and become the Militarist civic that represents a thoroughly militarized society, organized along military lines, as per the current description of Citizen Stratocracy:
The spirit of Citizen Service
Citizen Service has been my single most picked civic since I first bought Stellaris. The reason why I have played with this C-tier civic so much is not because of the +15% Naval Capacity bonus but because of what the civic represented, as embodied through the +2 Unity bonus. It was the idea of the society putting duty before power; the idea that every leader and ruler would have gone through the same trials, demonstrated a greater sense of personal responsibility, and proven their ability to put the common good first. The idea of a society where all citizens were united in a more common cause, through their shared experiences and personal efforts in service of all.
Some quotes from Starship Troopers, the book most associated with the civic:
And while the civic is somewhat derived from Starship Troopers, it also echoes Sweden's history and the birth of its modern democracy:
A Unity bonus was a good fit for what the civic represents, though the implementation was debatable. The old design would only give a Unity bonus if Soldier jobs were present, which would often only happen on dedicated Fortress Worlds. The Unity bonus would have seemed more appropriate in pops with positions of leadership, as it would be their job to decide, lead and unite others while pops with Soldier jobs are busy doing what soldiers do.
Still, the civic was about the unifying effect on society. The tentative 3.3 change makes the civic into something else.
Civic balance and consistency issues
With the tentative 3.3 change, the roles of Nationalistic Zeal and Distinguished Admiralty are diminished. Citizen Service would give more resilience against War Exhaustion than Nationalistic Zeal. Citizen Service would also produce much better admirals (+2 starting levels) than Distinguished Admiralty (+1 level cap, a bonus so common it can be ignored - besides the issue of mortality).
It is also not immediately apparent why Citizen Service should give leaders more starting xp (levels). Firstly, from a military perspective the concept of requiring military service for citizenship leans more towards getting large quantities of volunteers for military service, rather than producing elite soldiers. Secondly, it is strange (and even further removed from the spirit of the civic) to not give armies and ship crews the same xp (level) bonus that is given to leaders.
The lack of military administrators
Now that we are finally getting a unified approach to a grand Unity system, thinking about Citizen Service made me realize something. We currently do not just lack military jobs above the worker-level Soldier job (not counting the space gladiators provided by Warrior Culture), but we also lack any sort of administrator-type job for the military. This while we have specialist-level jobs for bureaucrats, managers, priests, death priests, death chroniclers, and culture workers (though limited), plus other Unity-generating specialist jobs, and while we have ruler-level jobs for politicians (administrators), priests, scientists, aristocrats, merchants and corporations. That means 2-3 types of Spiritualist "administrators" and 2 types of "business" ruler jobs, while there are 0 types of military leader jobs. In an epic space opera grand strategy game where military conflict and warfare is as unavoidable as in Stellaris, this is something that can be difficult to unsee once you are aware of it, especially when you consider that some of the societies represented in Stellaris are supposed to be rather thoroughly militarized.
Adding such jobs would not just resolve this thematic issue and offer interesting new possibilities, but also facilitate a reimagined Citizen Service that is not just appropriately integrated into the new Unity Rework system, but also more true to its spirit than any previous version of the civic.
"Commander"
- Ruler job
- 1 Commander job added by a new building, "Ministry of Defense"
- Produces Unity, Amenities, Naval Capacity, Defense Armies (possibly also Society Research)
- Restricted to pops with Full Military Service
- Specialist job
- 2 Officer jobs added by the existing building Military Academy (instead of the current 2 Soldier jobs, which can still be added by a Stronghold anyway)
- Produces Unity, Amenities, Naval Capacity, Defense Armies (possibly also Society Research)
- Uses 2 alloys rather than the 2 consumer goods used by Priests, Culture Workers et cetera
- Restricted to pops with Full Military Service
A reimagined Citizen Service
With the Unity Rework, times are changing and so must Citizen Service. However, rather than losing its unique identity by encroaching on the roles of other Militarist civics, this can be an opportunity for Citizen Service to evolve and represent its spirit, its distinct society, better than ever before.
This would entail the civic giving a Unity bonus to the Officer and Commander jobs (suggested above) and replacing some Politicians with Commanders and some Bureaucrats with Officers, similar to how Exalted Priesthood gives a Unity bonus to the Priest and High Priest jobs and replaces some Politicians with High Priests. As a consequence, this civic would necessarily get new restrictions against other civics. To compensate for that, the current restriction against non-democratic government types can be removed.
Citizen Service would be the Militarist civic that represents a thoroughly militarized society, organized along military lines, as per the current description of Citizen Stratocracy:
While the civic represents the Heinleinian volunteering ideal in democracies, and possibly also in oligarchies, in autocracies it could rather represent that the government forces all citizens to do their part. The appropriate dictatorship and imperial forms of government could presumably be the regular Military Dictatorship and Star Empire.
The old Citizen Service has these effects:
- +2 Unity from Soldiers
- +15% Naval Capacity
- Full Citizenship pops must have Full Military Service and vice versa
- Requires Militarist or Fanatic Militarist ethics
- Requires Democratic or Oligarchic government type
- Can not be combined with Fanatic Xenophile ethics
- Can not be combined with Reanimators civic
- +1 Unity from Officers and Commanders
- Capital buildings replace some Politician jobs with Commander jobs*
- Administrative Offices/Parks replace (some?) Bureaucrat jobs with Officer jobs*
- Full Citizenship pops must have Full Military Service and vice versa**
- Requires Militarist or Fanatic Militarist ethics
- Can not be combined with any of the following civics: Reanimators, Aristocratic Elite, Exalted Priesthood, Merchant Guilds, Technocracy
** It is currently possibe for species to not get Full Citizenship despite doing military service (as "Soldiers Only"), which goes against the description of the civic. There are several ways this could be resolved, such as blocking it in the presence of Egalitarian or Xenophile ethics, or restricting it to Xenophobes, or extending the Full Citizenship requirement to Soldiers Only, or to completely block Soldiers Only for empires with Citizen Service, or to restrict Soldiers Only to enslaved species, or other variants of these. Should Stellaris allow "Space Sparta" (Citizen Service + Warrior Culture + auxiliary slave troops)?
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