Preamble:
Let's talk governments:
They have stats, you have one, they provide minimal influence on your gameplay for 2/3rds of them, and none for the remaining 1/3rd.
With 1.5 we will be getting factions and a new take on Authoritarian vs Egalitarian, yet we are still stuck with fix government types that are hardcoded to only be avaible to ethic combination X.
But, as seen in many aspects, the spice of Stellaris is it's customizeability and the RP stemming from it.
Who would like to build his own government? Me would, and you probably, too. Let's get to it!
Current State:
Currently, Stellaris offers 15 explicitely defined government types, which are seperated in 3 categories related to their degree of Collectivist-vs-Individualist (or Authoritarian-vs-Egalitarian in 1.5). For each of these groups, there are 5 choices from which 4 are directly linked to specfic ethics.
Oh, and you can later on upgrade those 15 types to new 15 types with more fancy fluff and stats * 2.
But what impact, past some basic stat increases, do these governments offer?
Well, you have the election mechanics, which make you spend influence to gain a specific ruler and his individual stat advantages. On the short end of the stick, the collectivist governments simply have a over-simplified 'ruler-heir' system, which completely scraps elections and instead gives you a weird 'construct one unique X per leader' mechanic, which is not only boring, from a gameplay perspective, but actually means having short-lived rulers is good (and since usually long-lived leaders are desireable, this means it's counter-productive).
In the end, governments are just 'select another bonus to go with your chosen ethics'.
Concept:
For this rework, we'll dig deep into social science, philosophy and geometry! (Well, probably not the latter, but I ran out of fancy words.)
I intend to propose a concept which makes governments more flexible and more fun to both use and abuse, whilst keeping them in line with current gameplay. As such, we define the following requirements for this concept:
Suggestion:
First off, we abstract from reality what a government actually is and how it translates into Stellaris:
Usually, each government has some form of 'head', usually a single person (aka, the 'ruler'), but possibly a group of individuals. However, even if you take a look at democratic governments, they will have some form of representative at the very least (or more commonly, a president). Thus, again, a 'ruler' (albeit the powers of said ruler may vastly differ).
For that reason, we keep the current concept of Stellaris 'ruler' concept: There is always a single individual at the top of the government, which we dub 'ruler', but may have a fluff title ranging from 'President' to 'Warlord' to 'Queen'. This ruler represents the player, too (as the player directly controls the empire from the top). Arguably, it's more fitting to assume the player is some form of god-like entity mind-controlling all successive rulers of a species, but eh, that's going too far into a certain other Sci-Fi series.
Now, what else are real governments made up of: Government bodies. In the classic democracy, these 'bodies' are usually defined as 'Legislative', 'Judicative' and 'Executive' (probably a improper translation, but it should do). But since we kinda have none of these, even remotely, in Stellaris, we can't abstract from that.
We can, however, abstract from the idea that a single central government is not very well able to control a large nation/empire. There need to be some form of 'sub-governments' or 'bodies' which 'take care' of specific tasks handed to them by the central government, or represent ways the empire is internally structured which are not strictly elements of a govermnent. To match those 'tasks' to Stellaris' mechanics, we define new bodies we dub 'Political', 'Economical' and 'External'.
The 'Social Body' represents anything related to internal politics, legislature, public work, media, traditions, beliefs and so on.
'Economical Body' is related to industry, research, productivity, logistics and (once implemented, if ever) trade.
The third is the 'External Body', which (for a lack of a better name) takes care of military, expansion and diplomacy.
Lastly, we have to consider that the government above those 'government bodies' may also differ from empire to empire, regardless of the fact they all have a central ruling individual, thuse we define a 'Ruling Body' as a block right below the ruler (thus in between the ruler and the three government bodies).
With this 'framework', we now have the structure to design our new governments from: Each government consists of a Ruling Body, a Social Body, an Economical Body and an External Body. For each body, a player can chose a variety of different variants depending on his ethics, technology and species traits (but mostly ethics). The different bodies provide different stats, gameplay mechanics and interactions.
Changing your government will no longer be a 'spend 250 influence and turn your Moral Democracy into a Divine Mandate', but instead allow single changes to a single body every X years, abstracting the slow change an established government may undergo (outside of rebellions and 'liberations'.
I.e. changing the ruling body would cost 500 Influence (as it represents a significant governmental shift), changing the other bodies would cost 200 Influence. The changed body is locked for 50 years, the other bodies for 20 (thus you could only adapt your government in small steps). Additionally, we could have factions or events try to alter the governing bodies to their liking.
This framework would easily be translated into a GUI representation, accesibble via some hortkey or tab or button from the government interface.
At the top, you would have the current ruler, followed by boxes representing the various government bodies. These boxes would include name of the current body, it's status effect, possibly some fluff text and any kind of displays or interaction possibilities (sliders/buttons) for the specific game mechanics associated with them.
Examples:
Of course, what makes or breaks this concept is the variety and usefulness of the bodies we come up with. Let's start with the default of having 'no' bodies. Of course, instead of actually having 'no bodies', a Stellaris government would then consist of bodies 'replaced' by the ruler's direct control:
This, however, is just the one extreme side of the spectrum, with 'no' government bodies whatsoever.
Instead of assuming direct control (hah!) of the ruling body, a ruler could, instead, have some form of divided power, with some examples here:
'Nobles' are a new mechanic which can occur with certain government body constellations. Per default, the 'Noble Pop Percentage' is 0, implying there is no system of nobility. However, if specific government bodies increase that value, Noble pops are automatically generated to match the required ratio, on a per-planet basis (i.e. a planet with 17 pops and a empire Noble Pop Percentage of 10 will have 2 Nobles). Additionally, if the Noble Pop Percentage is larger then 0, the Capital World gains a planetary +1 Noble Pop Percentage for each further planet in the empire).
Noble Pops are the inverse of Slaves, but share the same mechanics, i.e. that they are specially flagged 'normal Pop's. Naturally, Noble Pops cannot be enslaved, nor can Slaves be made Nobles. Nor can Nobles be resettled or purged and do not migrate.
Noble Pops produce -75% food and minerals, and -25% energy/research. They come, however, with a +25% boost to Unity regeneration, and will 'desire' to be placed on such tiles that produce unity, suffering a -30 happiness penality whenever they are not working a Unity-generating tile, unless all Unity-producing tiles are occupied by nobles already.
All non-noble pops gain -5% happiness for each Noble Pop with a happiness lower then their own.
Nobles have a +100% desire to be in a faction and any faction gains +5% attraction per Noble Pop in it.
As a result, the existence of Nobles is both a boon and a bane, depending on whether the surplus of ressources (basically Unity, but can be extended upon with govermental bodies) they produce is worth the political threat they pose.
Yey, we're done.
With one of four bodies.
But, don't be afraid, only these 'ruling bodies' required this extensive of a description, since they contain a bit of explanatory background, the game effects and usually additional game mechanics. The following segments are usually more simple stat boosts to build your governments from.
As you noticed, the Authoritarian vs Egalitarian ethic axis was most important for forming the ruling body, but the other government bodies are filled from the other ethics. For this, I've decided to make each of the three remaining axis only affect two of the bodies, generating 7 possible choices (4 from the respective directions of the two acis for each body, and 2 default ones, plus the 'Direct Control' one).
So, let's move on to the 'Social Body':
Conclusion:
Overall, this concept would lead to far more diversified governments, simply based upon the various modular choices. Additionally, it would make governments able to shift around more during gameplay, instead of making sudden jumps between the fix government types currently in Stellaris.
I'm pretty sure at least someone will skip this line and complain about OP values, to which I would like to pre-emptively respond:
But whilst we wait for that to eventually happen, how about coming up with more governmental body ideas, maybe 'Tier 2' ones unlockable by tech, event or time?
If you enjoyed this concept, you might as well enjoy the previous and next entry of my series:
< Pen & Dagger - Diplomacy & Espionage <
> Ground Warfare & Mobilization >
Let's talk governments:
They have stats, you have one, they provide minimal influence on your gameplay for 2/3rds of them, and none for the remaining 1/3rd.
With 1.5 we will be getting factions and a new take on Authoritarian vs Egalitarian, yet we are still stuck with fix government types that are hardcoded to only be avaible to ethic combination X.
But, as seen in many aspects, the spice of Stellaris is it's customizeability and the RP stemming from it.
Who would like to build his own government? Me would, and you probably, too. Let's get to it!
Current State:
Currently, Stellaris offers 15 explicitely defined government types, which are seperated in 3 categories related to their degree of Collectivist-vs-Individualist (or Authoritarian-vs-Egalitarian in 1.5). For each of these groups, there are 5 choices from which 4 are directly linked to specfic ethics.
Oh, and you can later on upgrade those 15 types to new 15 types with more fancy fluff and stats * 2.
But what impact, past some basic stat increases, do these governments offer?
Well, you have the election mechanics, which make you spend influence to gain a specific ruler and his individual stat advantages. On the short end of the stick, the collectivist governments simply have a over-simplified 'ruler-heir' system, which completely scraps elections and instead gives you a weird 'construct one unique X per leader' mechanic, which is not only boring, from a gameplay perspective, but actually means having short-lived rulers is good (and since usually long-lived leaders are desireable, this means it's counter-productive).
In the end, governments are just 'select another bonus to go with your chosen ethics'.
Concept:
For this rework, we'll dig deep into social science, philosophy and geometry! (Well, probably not the latter, but I ran out of fancy words.)
I intend to propose a concept which makes governments more flexible and more fun to both use and abuse, whilst keeping them in line with current gameplay. As such, we define the following requirements for this concept:
- Governments need to be flexible and customizeable, both at empire creation and during gameplay
- Governments should be able to reflect every single 'possible empire' Stellaris can create, from Xeno-loving hippies to mass-murdering Hiveminds.
- Whilst preserving a focus on gameplay, the new government system should attempt to appear plausible and realistic. Or at the very least abstact these elements from reality.
- Additionally, all aspects of the new system must fit well into the current gameplay, by becoming a key element of internal empire management and substantially affecting, or enhancing, playstyles.
- Governments should be able to evolve with the game's advancing time and technology, unlocking more 'futuristic' elements as time goes on.
Suggestion:
First off, we abstract from reality what a government actually is and how it translates into Stellaris:
Usually, each government has some form of 'head', usually a single person (aka, the 'ruler'), but possibly a group of individuals. However, even if you take a look at democratic governments, they will have some form of representative at the very least (or more commonly, a president). Thus, again, a 'ruler' (albeit the powers of said ruler may vastly differ).
For that reason, we keep the current concept of Stellaris 'ruler' concept: There is always a single individual at the top of the government, which we dub 'ruler', but may have a fluff title ranging from 'President' to 'Warlord' to 'Queen'. This ruler represents the player, too (as the player directly controls the empire from the top). Arguably, it's more fitting to assume the player is some form of god-like entity mind-controlling all successive rulers of a species, but eh, that's going too far into a certain other Sci-Fi series.
Now, what else are real governments made up of: Government bodies. In the classic democracy, these 'bodies' are usually defined as 'Legislative', 'Judicative' and 'Executive' (probably a improper translation, but it should do). But since we kinda have none of these, even remotely, in Stellaris, we can't abstract from that.
We can, however, abstract from the idea that a single central government is not very well able to control a large nation/empire. There need to be some form of 'sub-governments' or 'bodies' which 'take care' of specific tasks handed to them by the central government, or represent ways the empire is internally structured which are not strictly elements of a govermnent. To match those 'tasks' to Stellaris' mechanics, we define new bodies we dub 'Political', 'Economical' and 'External'.
The 'Social Body' represents anything related to internal politics, legislature, public work, media, traditions, beliefs and so on.
'Economical Body' is related to industry, research, productivity, logistics and (once implemented, if ever) trade.
The third is the 'External Body', which (for a lack of a better name) takes care of military, expansion and diplomacy.
Lastly, we have to consider that the government above those 'government bodies' may also differ from empire to empire, regardless of the fact they all have a central ruling individual, thuse we define a 'Ruling Body' as a block right below the ruler (thus in between the ruler and the three government bodies).
With this 'framework', we now have the structure to design our new governments from: Each government consists of a Ruling Body, a Social Body, an Economical Body and an External Body. For each body, a player can chose a variety of different variants depending on his ethics, technology and species traits (but mostly ethics). The different bodies provide different stats, gameplay mechanics and interactions.
Changing your government will no longer be a 'spend 250 influence and turn your Moral Democracy into a Divine Mandate', but instead allow single changes to a single body every X years, abstracting the slow change an established government may undergo (outside of rebellions and 'liberations'.
I.e. changing the ruling body would cost 500 Influence (as it represents a significant governmental shift), changing the other bodies would cost 200 Influence. The changed body is locked for 50 years, the other bodies for 20 (thus you could only adapt your government in small steps). Additionally, we could have factions or events try to alter the governing bodies to their liking.
This framework would easily be translated into a GUI representation, accesibble via some hortkey or tab or button from the government interface.
At the top, you would have the current ruler, followed by boxes representing the various government bodies. These boxes would include name of the current body, it's status effect, possibly some fluff text and any kind of displays or interaction possibilities (sliders/buttons) for the specific game mechanics associated with them.
Examples:
Of course, what makes or breaks this concept is the variety and usefulness of the bodies we come up with. Let's start with the default of having 'no' bodies. Of course, instead of actually having 'no bodies', a Stellaris government would then consist of bodies 'replaced' by the ruler's direct control:
- Direct Control (only for Fanatic Authoritarian / Authoritarian+Conformist)
A full, 100% authoritarian, 'hivemind'-like regime, where there is literally no government but the ruler, who controls and manages every single aspect of the empire from top to bottom. Needless to say, this would lead to each area underperforming, since there is no single individual, not even the great Super-Xeno-Queen, who can actually manage all of the empire better then specificfally assigned groups of specialist. On the other hand, it cuts away a lot of possibilities for dissent or rebellion, as the entire power of the empire lies within the ruler's (and therefore the player's) hands, claws, tentacles or assorted.
Having the 'Direct Control' ruling body grants +2 Core Sector Systems, +100% Empire Ethic Attractiveness and -20 Unrest. Additionally, it grants -50% 'Faction Impact' (a stat explained below). However, it as well prevents the forming of sectors and forces the 'Direct Control' body variants for the three other slots (which will individually give pros and cons, but are mostly negative, see further below).
Thus, a full Hivemind regime will be very unified and with minimal rebellious activity, and a lot of direct player control, but suffer in every other respect due to the lacking flexibility and capabilities of the ruler. And, fittingly, has no other mechanics or elements of 'politics'.
As to be expected, all rulers rule for lifetime and their succession is unknown until the moment they die, in which case they are replaced with a new, randomly generated successor, instantly chosen by the consensus of the Hivemind.
This, however, is just the one extreme side of the spectrum, with 'no' government bodies whatsoever.
Instead of assuming direct control (hah!) of the ruling body, a ruler could, instead, have some form of divided power, with some examples here:
- Hand-picked Staff (only for Authoritarian)
Instead of doing everything by him/her/it-self, the ruler selects a number of trustworthy, loyal and sometimes even capable individuals to aid in government. This is a good abstraction of highly totalitarian, as well as feudal governments, where a single ruler (i.e. monarch) held all power, but distributed specific tasks to a cadre of closely-as-powerful subjects (which had the tendancy to ally up and seize the power to install a new monarch, but this is Stellaris, not CKII).
Note that the 'kind' of staff is not further defined. It could be family members of the ruler, a group of high-priests, the most wealthy of the population or a cadre of ministers chosing by competence. We don't need to bother with these details, we just say there's a small group of (mostly) loyal individuals with centralized power, each of them managing his own affairs, responsible only to the ruler.
This poses a new gameplay mechanic, in which the empire's current ethics are displayed in the ruling body box, with a 'Loyality' percentage. Starting out at 100% for the 2/3 present empire ethics, this represents the idealism and trust of the staff towards their 'all-powerful' ruler. If said ruler performs actions which inherently oppose one of the ruling ethics (i.e. befriending another empire as fanatic xenophobe, or declaring a war as a pacifist), the loyality drops (moreso for fanatic ethics). Performing actions fitting the ethic restores loyality, and per default loyality ticks up/down to 80.
Regardless of loyality, having a staff grants +50% attraction to the respective empire ethics, as well as +4 leader slots (representing the focus of the government of having an elite cadre) and -30% Faction Impact. Additionally, having an unrest above 50 reduces unrest and leader recruitment costs, below 50 increases unrest (as the staff becomes disloyal, the population realizes something is going less then stellar) and leader recruitment cost.
If the loyality drops exceptionally low, coup events may trigger, forcing the ruler to either abdictate or face a large revolt. Abdictation comes with a loss of influence, a possible change in empire ethics (a single ethic may change or flip, representing the slightly different views of the new ruler) and a chance for sectors to declare independence from the new 'false' government (without war, just plain seperation).
Unless dethroned by disloyal key figures, rulers rule for lifetime and come with a clearly defined heir (aka, current collectivist governments).
- Advisory Council (not avaible to Egalitarian)
Opposed to the previous concepts of centralized power (in one or multiple individuals), the Advisory Council system is a 'barebones' form of a 'plutocratic' government: The ruler technically holds all power, but delegates said power to 'advisors' to ensure the empire prospers. However, there is a constant struggle between the ruler trying to hold his centralized power and the council trying to find reasons to gain power of his own.
The relatively centralized power grants +1 Core Sector Systems, +1 Influence/month and -25% Faction Impact.
However, you will have to deal with the 'council's requests' in the government tab: In semi-random intervals (with a base MTTH of 5 years), the council will request to be assigned to a specific task or problem. As long as the request is pending (which can last up to 20-30 years, but may clear out earlier if the condition under which the suggestion was created are no longer met) and ignored, it costs 0.5 monthly influence (possibly stacking up several times to a significant net loss). The ruler can accept the request at any point, gaining an instant bonus (i.e. a 10-year unrest reduction at a specific unhappy colony, a lump sum of energy, a 10% research cost reduction for a specific tech, etc). On the downside, however, this increases the council's power for 30 years, increasing Faction Impact by +5% and increasing the frequency at which council requests occur by 5%.
Rulers in this form of ruling body rule for life-time and have their heirs succeed, usually. But for each accepted council request, there is a stacking 10% chance that the council will attempt to seize power at the rulers death (and a significantly smaller chance per year), which fires an event where the player is offered the choices of opposing the council militarily (medium revolt, removes all accepted request modifiers), diplomatically (costs a large sum of influence, removes all accepted request modifiers), compromise (grants a permanent modifier equivalent to two accepted council requests (until eventually removed by one of the upper two options) or cede the ruling position to a new ruler (former councilman) whilst installing the 'Upper House' (mentioned below) ruling body.
- Upper House (not avaible to Fanatic Authoritarian)
This expands the concept of shared power from a few hand-selected, to a slightly larger, but still percentually small group of individuals who gained their power by ruler's grant, inheritage or self-made wealth. This leads to the major portion of the ruling power to rest with the ruler, but he/she/it is dependant on the support of the 'Upper House', a term we will widely use here to catch any kind of 'Elite Upper Class' system: This could be actual landlord-nobles, wealthy oligarchs, local governeurs or some form of cardinals. For simplicity, we will simply refer to these elite as 'Nobles'.
Being forced to rely on Nobles for government reduces the Core System cap by 2, but increases the actual Sector Cap by 2. Furthermore, each sector is automatically staffed with a Governeur, who costs no influence and does not count against the leader pool limit. He is, as well, replaced upon death, but cannot be manually removed or reassigned. The leader is always recruited from the noble pops of the specific sector ('Noble Pops' are explained below).
Additionally to having automatically staffed sectors, all sectors gain +20% mineral output and -10 Unrest. Furthermore, Faction Impact is reduced by 50% overall, but increased by 5% for each individual faction for each noble pop joining. Furthermore, nobles are 100% more likely to join factions and the Noble Pop Percentage value for the empire is increased by 10.
Rulers rule 'for lifetime' in name only, but are expected to abdictate once they reach 80% of their average maximum age. At that moment, an election is held between the ruler, his heir and a number of generated potential rulers from all noble pops in the empire. The player can spend influence to massively impact (but not strictly decide) the outcome of the vote. Unless the player votes for keeping the ruler himself, noone will (aka, ruler abdictates). Per default, votes will flock to the rightful heir, unless the noble pops are discontent. If the ruler is 're-elected' he will continue to rule until his proper death (at which time the same election is held, without the ruler participating).
- Senate (not avaible to Authoritarian)
Our abstraction of the 'senate' government body focusses on a system where there is a clear ruler (i.e. a president) with wide-reaching powers, but occasional limitations by a group of representatives, elected from the population (preferably politicians, wealthy magnates or other individuals in positions of relative power). A special aspect we add to this government body is that it focusses on a two-party system (which does not realistically apply to all senates/parlaments per default).
In game terms, this means Faction Impact is increased by 25%. Additionally, there will always be at least two factions (if necessary, at game start). The two largest influential factions at any time are considered 'lead factions' and gain +100% to their pop attraction (latter, however, is not considered for reevaluating which faction is to be considered a lead faction) and increase attraction to their respective ethic by +25%.
Furthermore, they appear in the ruling body box for the senate and determine what further boni the empire gains, by averaging the support of both factions:
At full support, the empire gains -10 Unrest (down to +10 Unrest at 0 support), +1Unity/planet (at full support, vs 0 Unity at zero support) and +10 happiness (down to -10 happiness) to all pops which have one of the two 'in power' ethics. However, all pops with ethics which are not represented by the two lead factions gain -10 happiness.
Rulers rule for fixed periods of 10 years and can be re-elected once. Unless the current ruler isn't eligble for re-election (already passed 2 terms or died), there will always be 3 canditates; the ruler, and one generated potential ruler from both lead factions. Players can spend a small sum of influence once to support one of the three candidates, with the strength of the support depending on the support of both parties.
- Parlament (only for Egalitarian)
The 'Parlament' ruling body is a step up from the binary senate by providing further laws and regulations to emphasize the existence of many different parties (and factions), to ensure the concerns of minorities are not ignored. This makes the ruler more of a mediator, who tries to combine all (relevant) parties' interests into a common course of action. Whilst still able to call upon his executive powers, the ruler of a parlament government must obey the general consensus of said parlament or risk completely instability.
Under this government body, the minimum pop size required for faction foundation is reduced by 66%, making factions appear more quickly and in greater number. As well, there is always at least one faction. And of course, Faction Impact is increased by 50%, making the diverse political issues of factions a major concern. On the plus side, the guarantueed representation grants all pop's who belong to a faction +5 happiness and additionally lessens the negative impacts on faction support from laws by 25% (making it easier to keep everyone happy). As last stat effect, research speed is increased by up to 15%, scaling with the total support (aka, the same modifier applied to influence gain from politics) of all factions.
However, having to abide by the parlaments decisionmaking affects gameplay directly: Any decision the ruler (tries) to make, which has some form of relevance to ethics (i.e. invading primitives, changing (species) laws, declaring war, forming a NAP) is run past a decisionmaking system based upon the factions and their strength (i.e. spiritualist factions will vote against permitting construction of robots). Factions who do not have an oppinion on the issue will vote depending on their general support. If, by majority vote, the parlament is against the player's action, a confirmation pop-up warns the player that whatever action he tries to perform will anger the parlament (referring to player her, because AI rulers simply will never do an action which would upset the parlament). Proceeding will reduce the support of all disagreeing factions by 10 for 10 years.
Rulers are elected for 8 years, from a selection of candidates presented by the various factions. Players can repeatedly spend small sums of influence to support specific candidates. (aka, current individualist governments).
- Direct Democracy (only for Fanatic Egalitarian)
This does not necessarily represent the 'Direct Democracy' government already present in Stellaris, but abstracts the concept into any form of democracy where the population is directly included in politics, without election of representatives, i.e. by law changes requiring a public vote. In this form of society, the function of the ruler is exclusively to represent and serve the population itself. Of course, in game terms, limiting the players action to that degree would make for rather dull gameplay, thus we will abstract that part somewhat.
In any case, adopting this kind of ruling body grants a global +10 happiness boost to all pops, +2 Core System cap, +15% Energy Credits production, +100% Faction Impact, +10 Factions Support and -25% Empire Ethic Attraction (promoting free will and plurality in all things). Opposed to the more regulated form of the parlament, however, it does not lessen the impact of false laws on faction support.
Similar to the system in a Parlament ruling body, the rulers actions are watched closely by the political factions. However, instead of factions sanctioning his moves afterwards, in this case it's the population. Votes are not run past Factions, but a sum of all Full-Citizen pops in the respective ethics, and ignoring the majority vote causes a -15 happiness penality to all those pops and a -10 support to all factions which contained disagreeing pops for a period of 10 years.
Rulers are automatically generated every 4 years at random, since they are merely reprentative faces for the actual population calling the shots.
'Nobles' are a new mechanic which can occur with certain government body constellations. Per default, the 'Noble Pop Percentage' is 0, implying there is no system of nobility. However, if specific government bodies increase that value, Noble pops are automatically generated to match the required ratio, on a per-planet basis (i.e. a planet with 17 pops and a empire Noble Pop Percentage of 10 will have 2 Nobles). Additionally, if the Noble Pop Percentage is larger then 0, the Capital World gains a planetary +1 Noble Pop Percentage for each further planet in the empire).
Noble Pops are the inverse of Slaves, but share the same mechanics, i.e. that they are specially flagged 'normal Pop's. Naturally, Noble Pops cannot be enslaved, nor can Slaves be made Nobles. Nor can Nobles be resettled or purged and do not migrate.
Noble Pops produce -75% food and minerals, and -25% energy/research. They come, however, with a +25% boost to Unity regeneration, and will 'desire' to be placed on such tiles that produce unity, suffering a -30 happiness penality whenever they are not working a Unity-generating tile, unless all Unity-producing tiles are occupied by nobles already.
All non-noble pops gain -5% happiness for each Noble Pop with a happiness lower then their own.
Nobles have a +100% desire to be in a faction and any faction gains +5% attraction per Noble Pop in it.
As a result, the existence of Nobles is both a boon and a bane, depending on whether the surplus of ressources (basically Unity, but can be extended upon with govermental bodies) they produce is worth the political threat they pose.
Yey, we're done.
With one of four bodies.
But, don't be afraid, only these 'ruling bodies' required this extensive of a description, since they contain a bit of explanatory background, the game effects and usually additional game mechanics. The following segments are usually more simple stat boosts to build your governments from.
As you noticed, the Authoritarian vs Egalitarian ethic axis was most important for forming the ruling body, but the other government bodies are filled from the other ethics. For this, I've decided to make each of the three remaining axis only affect two of the bodies, generating 7 possible choices (4 from the respective directions of the two acis for each body, and 2 default ones, plus the 'Direct Control' one).
So, let's move on to the 'Social Body':
- Direct Control (default 'empty' slot, cannot be chosen, but is enforced by 'Direct Control' Ruling Body)
There are no social constructs, but the ruler's oppinion as to how society should function.
Grants +1 Core Sector System, but reduces Growth and Influence by 25%. Costs 50% less influence to switch out. - Assured Living Standards
The most-important task of the government is to ensure the well-being of it's population, regardless of standing and costs involved.
+10% Consumer Good Consumption, -20% Food Consumption, +5% happiness across all pops, -5 Noble Pop Percentage. - Call of the Hierarchy
Greatness comes with discipline and order. Every citizen knows that and will upkeep those ideals in both public and private.
+25% Empire Ethic Attraction, -5 Unrest to all planets. - Integrational Society (requires Xenophile)
Every custom and every unique detail of every species is welcome. New individuals are integrated into the society just as the society adapts to them.
-25% happiness and faction support effects from differing ethics (i.e. xenophobes hating other species or militarists disagreeing with peaceful policies), +15% Empire Ethic Attraction, +15% Migration Attractiveness. - Seize the Stars (requires Xenophobia)
The galaxy is dark and full of terros, yet it contains many wondrous worlds that are only waiting to be settled by our numerous kind.
+10% Food generated, +10% Growth Speed, -25% Colony Influence Cost - Spiritual Guidance (requires Spiritualist)
Gurus and/or priests form a core aspect of society, have a renowed standing and impose law and tradition upon the population.
+10% Unity generation. +5 Noble Pop Percentage. Each planet gains negative Unrest equal to the amount of Unity it generates. - Mass-Education (requires Materialist)
Education is seen as the highest avaible good and high educational standards are both promoted and enforced to the entire population. An individual's worth is measured by it's knowledge.
+15 Noble Pop Percentage. Nobles gain +50% Research Point generation (totalling to 125% against their innate -25%) and are fine with being placed on tiles that generate Research Points instead of Unity. -10% Leader Recruitment Cost.
- Direct Control (default 'empty' slot, cannot be chosen, but is enforced by 'Direct Control' Ruling Body)
From primary to tertiary sector, all economy is under the direct control of the ruler.
Grants +1 Core Sector System, but reduces Energy and Research Point generation by 20%. Costs 50% less influence to switch out. - Capitalistic Magnates
The economic success of everything can be measured in the wealth it generates. This holds true from the largest empire to the smallest individual. Money is Power.
+10% Energy generation, +10 Noble Pop Percentage. Nobles gain +50% Energy generation (totalling to 125% against their innate -25%) and are fine with being placed on tiles that generate Energy instead of Unity. - Raw Industry
Production quotas are the key to any functioning empire. Industrial production translates into wealth and growth, which will then translate into more industry.
+15% Mineral generated, +10% Minerals from slaves, -15% Food production. - Serving the Higher Good (requires Spiritualist)
Every piece of fruit, every rock of minerals and every spark of energy we harvest, has the purpose of serving our divine goals.
+20% Food generated, +5% Food, Mineral and Energy income from slaves - Unlimited Research Funding (requires Materialist)
Both government and private sectors priorize funding both public and institutional research facilities, ensuring a varied and qualitative expansion of technology.
+10% Research Speed, +1 Research Alternatives, -33% Research Station Construction Cost, -10% Energy Generation. - War Machine (requires Militarist)
We must project our strength with a large fleet. And no large fleet can stand without the full support of a well-oiled industrial machine behind it.
+10% Minerals produced, -15% Ship Cost, -15% Ship Upkeep - Regulated Markets (requires Pacfistic)
Conflict is the bane of productivity, both outside and within. Regulations and buerocracy ensure the market serves the needs of the people, not the other way round.
+1 Core Sector System, +5% Energy and Credits generated, +10% Building Construction Speed, -15% Energy and Credits generated at wartime.
- Direct Control (default 'empty' slot, cannot be chosen, but is enforced by 'Direct Control' Ruling Body)
Every ship is under the direct command of the ruler, and his voice speaks in each diplomatic negotation.
+1 Core Sector System, -20% Naval Limit, -10% Border Range - Modernized Fleet
Since the discovery of FTL drives, it has been clear that not mass or ferocity, but modern arms will ensure military supremacy. Only a fleet in pristine condition is a fleet worth having.
+5% Naval Limit, -25% Ship Upgrade Cost, +25% Ship Repair Speed. - Galactic Diplomacy
We must abandon the concepts of 'Global' diplomacy and realize just how large and populated space is. Establishing our positions amongst the countless other empires will secure out future.
+1 Rival possible, +10 Relations per Common Rival to other empires, -15% Influence Cost from Diplomatic Agreements. - Presence Doctrine (requires Militarist)
It doesn't even matter whether we are facing foe or ally, war or peace: We must have the superior military presence at any given moment, in every given aspect.
+20% Naval Limit, +5% Firing Rate, +10% Army Strength, -15 Relations to non-militarist empires. - Demilitarized Zones (requires Pacifistic)
The best way to avoid war is to avoid having battlegrounds. By demilitarizing border zones and focussing on static, non-threatening military we calm conflicts before they break out and ensure lasting peace.
-75% Border Friction generated towards other empires, -25% Threat generated towards other empires, -20% Military Station Construction Cost & Upkeep, -5% Border Range. - Forward Diplomacy (requires Xenophile)
They cannot hate what they love. The best way to further mutually beneficial relationships is to ensure other empire's populations are fully aware of the value of alien life.
+20 Relations to other empires which have at least 5% Xenophile Pops, +5 Xenophile Ethic Attraction to all known empires which are not closing their borders, +10% Influence generated. - Isolated Frontiers (requires Xenophobe)
The only thing other species need to know about us, is that we don't want to know anything about them. By creating closed borders far off our colonies, we achieve just that.
+10% Border Range, +10% Border Range against empires borders are closed against, -25% Frontier Outpost Construction Cost, -10 Relations with all other empires.
Conclusion:
Overall, this concept would lead to far more diversified governments, simply based upon the various modular choices. Additionally, it would make governments able to shift around more during gameplay, instead of making sudden jumps between the fix government types currently in Stellaris.
I'm pretty sure at least someone will skip this line and complain about OP values, to which I would like to pre-emptively respond:
- This is a concept suggestions, all numbers only serve to indicate in which direction a specific concept could be heading.
- Making each body give a bonus as large as previously governments gave as a whole doesn't make anything OP, as all empires will receive the same buff. It would merely force rebalancing towards non-empires (i.e. empires would become more powerful faster and require end game crisis to be adjusted in strength) and provide more specialization of empires.
But whilst we wait for that to eventually happen, how about coming up with more governmental body ideas, maybe 'Tier 2' ones unlockable by tech, event or time?
If you enjoyed this concept, you might as well enjoy the previous and next entry of my series:
< Pen & Dagger - Diplomacy & Espionage <
> Ground Warfare & Mobilization >
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(and, as always, a very cool idea for the game)
