Do you think high diversity is gonna be a reasonable playstyle?

[Knotz]

I wanna be a fanatic individualist for my first playthrough and I wanna make thematically appropriate decisions, like picking the "Encourage Free Thought" edict and (usually) avoiding ones that lower ethics divergence. So do you think I'm gonna be spending the majority of my time quashing rebellions or will cosmopolitan empires be a valid approach?

 

[cold warpgates]

I think it will be possible, you'll just have to build your empire with in mind. Focusing on happiness could hopefully keep everyone in line without forcing them to conform.

One trait that might be really good for this kind of thing is Charismatic - alien pops get +1 happiness for each pop of your species on a planet.

 

[Asiak]

Yes. I think the diversity of the pops will be a strength if managed correctly.

And there will probably be more then enough tools in our disposal between the ethos, the governments, the techs, the events to try and make them happy. I think you'll just have to choose happy a bit more.

I could especially see it working with a tall empire. Or a tallish empire with very specialized sectors.

I think the question I would ask myself when playing diversity is free migration or tighter control on migration / resettlement? It's going to be tough because tight control could lead to some amazing micro management with diverse pops, but diverse pops with certain ethos might not like being told where to live.

 

[Number 7]

with a lot of divergence you'll probably have more factions to deal with. But i see no reason why it wouldn't be feasible. Divergent pops might have trouble making threatening numbers too (ie - pop on new colony becomes xenophobic, but due to high ethics divergence not that many xenophobe pops end up growing there and the rest are neutral or xenophile and dont mind the aliens on the planet. Of course the reverse is possible too, fanatic xenophobes really turning the faction to overdrive)

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

Yeah... I think a high drift in ethos might get you lots of faction but most of them will be weak since there are rarely a common cause for them to rally around.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this works.

 

[EvilTom]

Well if your factions demand independence, it'll be similar to the Basque or Scottish referendums...

You could grant them independence or vassalise or start a federation. That means that you still get some measure of power, but it's even more "free"

 

[Fuu]

I hope it will be viable and am planning a similar approach with my first multiplayer game. I won't go all-out for ethos diversity, trying instead Individualist/Pacifist/Xenophile for a mix of ethos and species diversity. I'm hoping that if factions want to be independent, it will be possible to give them independence and keep good relations, to become allies with our awkward cousins across the space-pond.

You might consider:
- Individualist ethos to increase ethos diversity
- Spiritualist ethos for happiness
- Communal trait for happiness
- Moral Democracy government for happiness (needs Pacifism ethos, no Collectivism ethos)

Also, if you are counting species diversity as well as ethos diversity:
- Xenophile ethos for reduced species diversity malus
- Charismatic trait for reduced species diversity malus

 

[Finnway]

Think about it this way. An empire with many species that each specialize in different things will be stronger than an empire with only one species that specializes in only one thing. A multi-ethnic, multi-ideology empire is definitely a valid playstyle. The trick will be keeping all your POPs united

For government form, may I suggest Moral Democracy +10% Happiness?

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

Think about it this way. An empire with many species that each specialize in different things will be stronger than an empire with only one species that specializes in only one thing. A multi-ethnic, multi-ideology empire is definitely a valid playstyle. The trick will be keeping all your POPs united

For government form, may I suggest Moral Democracy +10% Happiness?

Yes, you will get pops that get production bonuses where you need them, that is definitely something to desire.

 

[TheBeautifulVoid2]

Yes. I think the diversity of the pops will be a strength if managed correctly.

And there will probably be more then enough tools in our disposal between the ethos, the governments, the techs, the events to try and make them happy. I think you'll just have to choose happy a bit more.

This is also going to be my plan in my first game. Diversity of ethoses means that I'll be able to specialise individual planets and even individual pops. Are you a pacifist? Become a farmer! Are you a materialist? Become a scientist!

Diversity allows specialism, and specialism is strength. It will require me to push happiness harder than I would usually, though.

 

[Surimi]

Think about it this way. An empire with many species that each specialize in different things will be stronger than an empire with only one species that specializes in only one thing. A multi-ethnic, multi-ideology empire is definitely a valid playstyle. The trick will be keeping all your POPs united

Yeah, this thought occured to me recently.

I mean, I tend to focus heavily on stability in grand strategy games, so naturally the spiritualist "max ethics convergence" playstyle appealed to me instantly, but the more I think about it the more I think there will be a significant risk/reward thing to ethics divergence. The trick, as you say, will be managing the risk to try and prevent the whole thing flying apart. Also, I imagine policies will be harder to manage because some people are always going to complain no matter what you do.

Moral democracy definitely seems like a strong way to go.

 

[EvilTom]

This is also going to be my plan in my first game. Diversity of ethoses means that I'll be able to specialise individual planets and even individual pops. Are you a pacifist? Become a farmer! Are you a materialist? Become a scientist!

Diversity allows specialism, and specialism is strength. It will require me to push happiness harder than I would usually, though.

I was thinking of playing a kind of "elders" from the new Xcom series where you conquer or modify species to use as troops, farmers, scientists etc, but in a less evil way.

 

[TomosCaerllion]

Well, I'm going to be going down this route anyway. It might not be the most min-max build, but it'll certainly have its strengths. It's probably slightly harder to control than a slaver empire, since you'll let your pops have minds of their own, but I imagine it'll be less prone to breakdowns than a massive slaver empire. I'd imagine that if using alien pops to colonise different worlds will be a very common strategy, and maybe including them in your system as equal citizens could diffuse a lot of tension, as opposed to having them all enslaved and having to contend with slave rebellions and democratic crusaders.

 

[TheBeautifulVoid2]

Well, I'm going to be going down this route anyway. It might not be the most min-max build, but it'll certainly have its strengths. It's probably slightly harder to control than a slaver empire, since you'll let your pops have minds of their own, but I imagine it'll be less prone to breakdowns than a massive slaver empire. I'd imagine that if using alien pops to colonise different worlds will be a very common strategy, and maybe including them in your system as equal citizens could diffuse a lot of tension, as opposed to having them all enslaved and having to contend with slave rebellions and democratic crusaders.

I agree: I think it'll have a significant amount of day-to-day dysfunction but will be less fragile than a slavocracy.

I think the power of this approach will especially come through in the late game, since you'll have accumulated more species and diverged your ethoses further by then. You may struggle in the early game though.

 

[Daetrin]

I think a diverse empire would make an excellent Tall empire. Consider - you could colonize almost any planet with 80%ish happiness. There are seven types of habitable worlds, so if your initial Tall empire grabs five worlds of your homeworld type, then as you fill out your diversity you can get ~30 total worlds in that five-world border, assuming average distributions. Along with edicts and policies that boost happiness/productivity/etc for diversity (charisma is a trait, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were other things) you could offset divergence through tolerance happiness, and you'd have a stronger, more defensible core than a sprawling empire that, because it only has one or two species, can only colonize a third of habitable planets.

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

This tactic sort of hinges on you being able to have alien races migrating into your empire. Especially if you are a pacifistic empire and don't like to start wars just to integrate your neighbors.

I'm going to aim for a modestly diverse society where spreading democracy, social justice and prosperity will be my number one goal.

Basically I will not start wars of conquest and I will only liberate empire planets who are either a threat or otherwise morally decadent. But the goal will be to incorporate aliens mainly by migration, uplifting or enlightenment.

 

[Daetrin]

This tactic sort of hinges on you being able to have alien races migrating into your empire. Especially if you are a pacifistic empire and don't like to start wars just to integrate your neighbors.

I'm going to aim for a modestly diverse society where spreading democracy, social justice and prosperity will be my number one goal.

Basically I will not start wars of conquest and I will only liberate empire planets who are either a threat or otherwise morally decadent. But the goal will be to incorporate aliens mainly by migration, uplifting or enlightenment.

Yup, primitives, pre-sentients, and OPMs that you vassalize and then annex.