Friend and freedom (mock dev diary)

[tanny]

Hi! I'm tanny. The (mock) project manager of this (mock) update called "friend and freedom" This update gonna be about protecting friend and freedom.


Fe fixes
There is a problem that all FE authorities are random. And all title they have is "emperor or empress" This is strange. in this patch we gonna add a "preference" system. They'll be allowed to take any form of authority. But they'll prefer one over the other based on their lore.
Xenophile-Democratic
Materialist-Oligarchy
Xenophobe-Dictatorial
Spiritualist-Imperial
I'm not sure if anyone can find a better name. But all I can is sticking to these name. I know it sound crappie. Please suggest a better name for me.
Democratic will get a title of "grand representative"
Oligarchy will get a title of "grand manager"
Dictatorial will get a title of "grand overlord"
And Imperial will get a title of "grand emperor/grand empress

Hive FEs
Another problem with FE is that they lacked hive mind. It seems that we haven't had enough time for this little feature in "Utopia" expansion. So we've decided that we'll add a hive FE. In order to fill the circle of FEs.

Hive FE is called the "natural conservationist". And they awakes into "revenger of nature" their goal is to protect the natural evolution and biodiversity. They hates terraforming planets and genetic modifications. And will take action after awakening. Their special subject called "seedling" will be prohibited from those two actions. Their species got a special trait called "super-adaptive" which costs zero but is exclusive to them. They'll be 100% habitable to every kind of planets.

Unbidden fix
It seems that the unbidden lacks an extra mechanic. And doesn't do anything to the shroud. And this is unfair toward robotic path for the risk of contingency So here we got to add a little bit of a mechanic while remaining not so cruel. Every time a shroud incursion occurs. An unbidden fleet of random faction whose portal exists in the galaxy will spawn instead of shroud avatar. And the cost to enter the shroud will be doubled.

Merge federation
We simply feels limited to a level of friendship with others once we've got a federation and they got theirs. So we've decided to add a new mechanic called " merge federation" which must be agreed by both federations. Also sometimes AI empires will leave federation to join a more favorable one if merging is not an option. To balance this, it's harder to form a federation with difference in ethics.

Democratic crusaders
It seems that democratic empires are a little too weak compared to other authorities that they're dependent on either expansion or exploit. And since it seems there would be no easy fix for mandate exploit strategy. We've removed the mandate system entirely. And instead added the democratic crusaders back. As a fully developed civics. Also, it's that we want to add them to the list of the "purifier" which currently includes fanatical purifier, determined exterminator, devouring swarm, and now democratic crusader. But they'll be the moat kind of this list

Only available for democratic empires(That's a common sense right?)
+50 relationship with other democratic and libertarian empires. And can't war with them.
Can't conduct diplomacy with undemocratic empires(not democratic or libertarian).
Can use "Democratize" war demand for 50 warscores. The empire will be forced to change to "Democratic" (since libertarian is a special ethics that can't be changed into) and lose 250 influences as a cost. Their civics and ethos that requires undemocratic authority will be changed to a random one

+10% fire rate

Why they do this? They're lonely and they only seek friend with freedom. So they only love other democracies and libertarians. Please take note that they don't really hate mega-corperations or something like that. But they will just leave those kinds alone. However, the authoritarian with slaves are the one the really hates.




And that's it. Next time we gonna talk about true libertarian empires and why they don't have FE. As a preview, they're empires with almost no government. They gonna fight in the "deregulation" side. Since the individualist etho is removed. It seems that we lacked capitalism. So we've decided to add this as a solution. The libertarians are in fact really a whole bunch of new mechanics and we can't afford to develop this whole program so they'll be included in the unannounced dlc.




P.S.:
Hi! This is the first time I posted something. Do you want this update to be real?

 

[Jorrhast]

They hates terraforming planets

Even barren worlds?

which must be agreed by both federations

In other words, which will never hapen.

Also sometimes AI empires will leave federation to join a more favorable one if merging is not an option

This should've been in vanilla from the start.

 

[Little Red]

Fallen empires are, in fact, not always imperial. The default ruler title for the "Stagnant Ascendancy" government they all have is Emperor/Empress, but if you hover over it you'll see they can have any of the four main authority types.

 

[tanny]

Even barren worlds?
In other words, which will never hapen.
This should've been in vanilla from the start.

OK, I'll share my game experience.
Number 1:even barren world?
That would be the exception of course
Number 2-3: No. That's what's happened to my game once. In that game. I've had a problem with border so I delayed my exploration to the other side. And formed a federation of around four. Finally got rid of those guys and explored the galaxy behind. Then I found out that they've formed a federation. And I left my federation once to join theirs. But no matter how I tried. I could never merge these 2 federations. I tried to invite their member into our federation.
But the only thing holding me back is that they've already joined a federation. And they'll never leave easily for this reason. The only reason someone will leave is that the empire is not benefitting from the federation. We're in a federation of around four. They're in a federation of around six or seven. And we're all friendly toward each other. I know most of the time it will take gigantic effort to do so. But this way you can win without fighting by uniting the whole galaxy into a single federation. And maybe add few new late game techs which will help you.

 

[tanny]

Fallen empires are, in fact, not always imperial. The default ruler title for the "Stagnant Ascendancy" government they all have is Emperor/Empress, but if you hover over it you'll see they can have any of the four main authority types.

OK, I'll edit that. But that preference will not change

 

[tanny]

I'm not perfect. I respects every comments. But please take "agree" if you agree with most of my content. For that democracy mandate removal. I got it from Aspec's video about abusing democracy for influence.

 

[Jorrhast]

I wouldn't call it "abusing". Yes, you can metagame to get 200 influence (which shouldn't be 200 judging by tooltip but whatever). But if you want a specific president you'll end up using 50-150 of that amount because for some obscure reason current president always ends up at the end of the list, even if every single citizen is super happy and current mandate was fulfilled.

 

[tanny]

I wouldn't call it "abusing". Yes, you can metagame to get 200 influence (which shouldn't be 200 judging by tooltip but whatever). But if you want a specific president you'll end up using 50-150 of that amount because for some obscure reason current president always ends up at the end of the list, even if every single citizen is super happy and current mandate was fulfilled.

Well then you can always prepare for whatever mandate available since RNG seems to only work as a tiebreaker. Or if vote share is very close. It's not about whether you call it "abusing" or "meta". It's still an odd thing.

 

[RedPearlA]

Do you want this update to be real?

No!

The hive FE targets the biological and pionic ascension paths and ignores the synthetic path. This would reduce interesting choices.

 

[Jorrhast]

I agree that it is kinda cheesy but there's no need to remove mandates. Just make them work fair by making station counter "global", i.e. if you destroy one station after completing mandate you won't lose influence but next president will start with -1 on their counter. Obviously, it should be 2 different counters for science/mining stations. Then you'll have meaningful choice between rushing stations for resources or stalling them for influence.

 

[tanny]

I agree that it is kinda cheesy but there's no need to remove mandates. Just make them work fair by making station counter "global", i.e. if you destroy one station after completing mandate you won't lose influence but next president will start with -1 on their counter. Obviously, it should be 2 different counters for science/mining stations. Then you'll have meaningful choice between rushing stations for resources or stalling them for influence.

Then you go wars and let them approach. Or you can at least exploit half the mandate. And the next term just skip it. Or you can stop these things but instead those recently blown by wars would get massively penalized. Anyway all option above seems unrealistic and stupid. Even for a fictional standard.

 

[tanny]

No!

The hive FE targets the biological and pionic ascension paths and ignores the synthetic path. This would reduce interesting choices.

What's wrong with psionic? Synthetic path loves terraforming worlds into machine world. I know that the synthetic path is being targeted but They're normally the strongest. Shroud events are usually unreliable. And at most psionic path terraforms equally as much as everyone else. And while they've said there are 3 main paths. I'd suggest there are 4. The fourth one being those who skips out all 3 paths to rush out megastructure(also forced option for every hive synth). I want to take those guys into account while balancing.

 

[RedPearlA]

What's wrong with psionic? Synthetic path loves terraforming worlds into machine world. I know that the synthetic path is being targeted but They're normally the strongest. Shroud events are usually unreliable. And at most psionic path terraforms equally as much as everyone else. And while they've said there are 3 main paths. I'd suggest there are 4. The fourth one being those who skips out all 3 paths to rush out megastructure(also forced option for every hive synth). I want to take those guys into account while balancing.

I don't know if you are trolling me or not. If not then you should that machine worlds are for machine empires (there are in the patch notes). So with that in mind your hive FE would not be targeting synths.

+50 relationship with other democratic and libertarian empires. And can't war with them.

A fanatic purifier can have democratic authority. So as democratic crusaders you would not be able to declare war FANATIC PURIFIERS that have democratic authority.

 

[CrowScape]

First: Why this annoying format?

FE fixes: Who cares? And--to be blunt--is slapping the word "grand" in front of everything really an idea worth proposing? It's okay (and actually preferable) to just say "give them appropriate leader titles for their ethics," and as an added bonus you don't have to show off how terrible you are at coming up with them.

Hive FEs: "In this proposed expansion to preserve freedom, here's an FE that will actively curtail it."

Unbidden fix: Why? The Shroud's mechanics are interesting and flavorful, but most of the time it's spend 5k energy to have something bad happen to your empire. It doesn't need to be balanced out. Just because one ascension path has a particular drawback does not mean that drawback must be mirrored onto the others to make them all the same.

Merge Federation: Why? If the problem is that empires don't leave federations, then the fix is to make it so empires leave federations. If you can get AI empires to all agree to vote to merge with another federation, you can much more easily get them to switch on an individual level.

Democratic Crusaders: You realize that mandate fulfillment is effectively granting 2 influence per month right out of the gate? It's not weak. Early game, that's incredibly powerful. Don't say "but late game!" because we all know how early game benefits snowball into late game. Also, since when is "reliant on expansion" something unique to democracies? Many fanatic purifiers playing tall?

Libertarian FE: This makes zero sense. They have all, individually, decided that they aren't interested in doing anything in the galaxy? The cats just herd themselves, apparently.

 

[tanny]

I don't know if you are trolling me or not. If not then you should that machine worlds are for machine empires (there are in the patch notes). So with that in mind your hive FE would not be targeting synths.



A fanatic purifier can have democratic authority. So as democratic crusaders you would not be able to declare war FANATIC PURIFIERS that have democratic authority.

First: Why this annoying format?

FE fixes: Who cares? And--to be blunt--is slapping the word "grand" in front of everything really an idea worth proposing? It's okay (and actually preferable) to just say "give them appropriate leader titles for their ethics," and as an added bonus you don't have to show off how terrible you are at coming up with them.

Hive FEs: "In this proposed expansion to preserve freedom, here's an FE that will actively curtail it."

Unbidden fix: Why? The Shroud's mechanics are interesting and flavorful, but most of the time it's spend 5k energy to have something bad happen to your empire. It doesn't need to be balanced out. Just because one ascension path has a particular drawback does not mean that drawback must be mirrored onto the others to make them all the same.

Merge Federation: Why? If the problem is that empires don't leave federations, then the fix is to make it so empires leave federations. If you can get AI empires to all agree to vote to merge with another federation, you can much more easily get them to switch on an individual level.

Democratic Crusaders: You realize that mandate fulfillment is effectively granting 2 influence per month right out of the gate? It's not weak. Early game, that's incredibly powerful. Don't say "but late game!" because we all know how early game benefits snowball into late game. Also, since when is "reliant on expansion" something unique to democracies? Many fanatic purifiers playing tall?

Libertarian FE: This makes zero sense. They have all, individually, decided that they aren't interested in doing anything in the galaxy? The cats just herd themselves, apparently.

I said there will be no libertarian FE since they're all gone. They all ascended into the 4th dimension or whatever.
And yes, this patch is supposed to be about preserving freedom. But how to make that interesting if there is no regulator to fight?

Fe names: sorry I have no better idea but they have a gigantic world and a gigantic fleet. Wouldn't it be better to add "grand" in front of "emperor"?

Fanatical purifier (Democratic): You can't because there is no reason for your species to war. But you can come to a defend with alliance and defensive pact.

Democratic advantage snowballing into late game: That's even worse! Players would start off as a democratic empire then change into other authority in late game. Possibly while adding the 3rd civic. And that strategy wouldn't be used by AI so they would be indirectly nerfed. This patch is about preserving freedom throughout the entire game. In fact this patch will also try to address "doomstack" and stalemate(already purposed one strategy by uniting "friends"). But that wouldn't be flashy enough.
And what about freedom? Wait until you meet libertarian empires and you'll be shocked. They can't even go through 3 main ascension path since they all violates individual right. And a whole ascension path crafted to compensate for this.

Oh! And I forgot about synth ascension. Yeah so they don't. But they're already being attacked by spiritualist FE and contingency. Isn't that enough?

 

[RedPearlA]

Oh! And I forgot about synth ascension. Yeah so they don't. But they're already being attacked by spiritualist FE and contingency. Isn't that enough?

I don't know much about the contingency because I don't want to be spoiled. As for the spiritualist FE that is A good point. I usually destroy the spiritualist FE before 100 years have past (1.5 - 1.7 patch).

Democratic advantage snowballing into late game: That's even worse! Players would start off as a democratic empire then change into other authority in late game.

I have been playing poorly I should swap out of democracy. That being said though democracy is cooler.

And what about freedom? Wait until you meet libertarian empires and you'll be shocked. They can't even go through 3 main ascension path since they all violates individual right. And a whole ascension path crafted to compensate for this.

Libertarian empire seem like a contradiction. Why can't a libertarian nation go down the psionic path?

 

[tanny]

I don't know much about the contingency because I don't want to be spoiled. As for the spiritualist FE that is A good point. I usually destroy the spiritualist FE before 100 years have past (1.5 - 1.7 patch).




I have been playing poorly I should swap out of democracy. That being said though democracy is cooler.



Libertarian empire seem like a contradiction. Why can't a libertarian nation go down the psionic path?

Because psionic path usually form a covenant without consent. For example eater of world kills pops. It's like someone is putting your life at risk without your consent.

And yeah if you want to terraform or genemod. You're going to beat that hive FE fast. And almost everyone will do that late game. So you don't have to worry. Psionic is already unreliable so I don't want to put much threat to them more than difficulty and a little risk getting into the shroud.

"Democracy is cooler" Yeah I agree so let's fix it a little so we can use that practically.

 

[tanny]

The debate have become serious in a matter of day. I should post a second thread soon. Also, please find a good title for my FE leaders. I agree all I've done is slapping "grand" in front of every title but can you find a better name? If you can please help.

 

[Jorrhast]

For example eater of world kills pops. It's like someone is putting your life at risk without your consent.

Even playing as fan.egal. empire you still can move people around each planet by millions. Doesn't seem egalitarian to me, people should choose for themselves where they work. For that matter, they should also choose what to build, not you

 

[CrowScape]

Also, please find a good title for my FE leaders. I agree all I've done is slapping "grand" in front of every title but can you find a better name? If you can please help.

The thing with proposing suggestions is that you give the broad strokes and leave the details to the devs. When you propose, for example, a new weapon systems, you will describe what niche it fills, what makes it distinct from others, but you don't do a module by module list of cost, damage, and power consumption. There are several reasons for this, but the one that's probably most important for your needs is that you aren't getting people that like the general idea but are hitting the "respectfully disagree" button because your stats would one-shot a Titan from the other side of the system.