Envoys as Leaders
So, I had written this up a year ago or so, before the latest DLC was announced. I've been thinking about it as a lot given Envoy's role, and it seems a waste to leave that aspect of personality not get the full leader treatment.
So, here's what I came up with on how it could work!
Envoys as Leaders
While Devs initially stated that they didn’t want to make Envoys full leaders due to micromanagement concerns, So far, I think limiting reassignment issues solves this issue for most players. Now with the galactic paragons DLC, I think there is a great opportunity to make them full leaders, and give them as much personality as generals, governors, and scientists.
Balancing Envoys
Currently, Envoys are a limited resource that are separate from the other leader pool. Now that leaders overall have a soft cap, it is easier to bring Envoys into that same shared resource, and allow empires to specialize in Envoys and Diplomacy over better admirals/governors/etc.
(There's an argument to be made, also I think, that Admirals and Generals can be merged as Generals in particular have a very narrow role in empires, but I won't discuss that in detail here.)
Empires traditionally range from from 2 - 12 or so envoys throughout the game, with some empires having more or less. In the changes below, one of the suggestions would be to reduce once sort of envoy usage down to a single role (much like Scientists were changed to have just one Head of Research).
The other change I might make would be not just for envoys, but for all potential leaders. Ideally, we need some trait or option (either from civics, traditions, authority, or policies) that would allow us to reduce the effective cost of a leader type on the Cap.
So for example - If you picked the Diplomacy Tradition, there should be an option that makes it so that your Envoys only consume .75 of your leader cap, instead of 1. This way, you could field 5 envoys for the cost of 4 normally. You could imagine that you could have similar traits for Admirals/Generals in Supremeacy; Scientists in Curiosity; and Governors in Expansion.
Alternatively, you could also find a way to reduce it through edicts, such as:
- Diplomatic Grants: Reduce Leadership cost of by 25%
- Research Subsidies: Reduce Leadership cost of Scientists by 25%
- Extended Shifts: Reduce Leadership cost of Planetary Governors by 25%
- Enhanced Surveillance: Reduce Leadership cost of Generals by 25%
- Fleet Supremacy: Reduce Leadership cost of Admirals by 25%
These are just a couple options, doubtless there are others. Critically, I thin there is a way to balance envoys against the rest of the leaders in a way that makes deciding what leaders to elevate and train to be very interesting and rewarding.
Envoy Counselor Positions
Per the rules as they are known so far, it would make sense that there is no starting position for Envoys on the council. However, I might recommend that a new slot be added (for base and DLC players) upon the formation of the galactic community.
Galactic Representative: An envoy must be assigned to this slot, and increases your diplomatic weight with the Galactic Community by 5% per skill point. (Personally, I found shifting envoys around for a critical vote in the Gal Com to be more micromanaging, and kinda cheesy. By making the bonus from one ruler, you now have an incentive to level up diplomats either in embassies or spy networks and then promote them to representing the empire at the 'big gathering'.
This would also put a greater emphasis on favors in getting a clutch vote.
Federation Representatives: Along the same line - I would add that empires can only send one envoy to a federation, and the skill level detirmines how much cohesion is added. This is also better because federations now are dependent on good leadership.
Empires that specialize in diplomacy through civics should certainly gain a unique position that uses Envoys. Civics that could likely allow envoys would be:
- Diplomatic Corps
- Shadow Council
- Cutthroat Politics
- Merchant Guilds
- Beacon of Liberty
- Parliamentary System
- Gospel of the Masses
- Media Conglomerate
- Public Relations Specialist
Envoy Leaders
As full leaders, Envoys would increase in effectiveness based on their level. For every skill point, Envoys provide:
- +1 skill bonus to making first contact
- +5% increased trust growth and cap when improving relations.
- +1 cohesion per skill point when assigned to a federation.
- Increase Infiltration speed by +0.25 when building a spy network
- 2% Diplomatic Weight per skill point when assigned to the Galactic Representative Position
Envoy Veteran Classes
Like the other classes, Envoys would have veteran classes. I would make divide up those as such:
- Ambassador - Veteran class focused on direct diplomacy with other empires.
- +/- 1 Opinion per month while Improving/Harming Relations per skill point (when assigned to an embassy).
- +10% Cohesion per skill point when assigned to a Federation
- + 50% Leadership Experience
- Spymaster - Veteran class focused on gathering intel and conducting espionage.
- Operations level increased by +1
- Max infiltration level increased by +2 per skill point.
- Representative - Veteran class focused on lobbying the galactic community.
- Counselor Effects: Increased Diplomatic Weight by 10%
- Counselor Effects: Reduce Influence cost of Submitting Resolutions by 2% per skill point.
In addition to the common leadership traits, here are some possible traits one could imagine Envoys had. Without knowing the full list, its hard to make exhaustive, but these are some good first guesses
Ruler Traits
- Partisan Ruler Effect: reduce opinion penalty by 20/40/60% of rivaling an empire
- Coercive Ruler Effect: +10/20/30% voting weight in Federation
- Magnetic Ruler Effect: +10/20/30 Opinion with all empires
- Demagogue Ruler Effect: +5% influence from rivaling other empires
- Peace Maker Ruler Effect: Lower threshold to settle for peace while at war.
Counselor Traits
- Parliamentarian Counselor effect: +10% diplomatic weight towards empire’s proposed resolutions
- Persuasive Counselor effect: +10% diplomatic weight for resolution votes
- Prestige Counselor effect: +10% diplomatic weight for determining council membership
- Deal-maker Counselor effect: Increased trade acceptance of favors
- Collaborative Counselor effect: +5/10/15% cohesion generation
- Charming Counselor Effect: +10/15/20 Opinion with Federation Members
- Collaborator Counselor Effect: Reduce cohesion penalty by 5% per skill point
Veteran Traits
- Trustworthy +10/20/30 Trust Cap with empire while improving relations
- Lobbyist +10/15/25% increased trade acceptance while improving relations
- Firebrand -1/2/3 opinion per month to and from target empire while harming relations.
- Mediator Reduce influence cost for diplomatic agreements by 4/8/12%
- Suspicious- Increased infiltration level for hostile operations by 2% per skill point
- Meticulous - reduced energy upkeep for operations by 5% per skill point while building spy network
- Detective - Increased Intel on target empire by 5/10/15 while building spy network
- Operator - Reduce operation difficulty by 1; reduce chance of detection
- Spook - Increase operation difficulty by 1;
Destiny Traits
- Castigation - Insulting an empire lowers the opinion of other empires toward it by 100 (cooldown)
- Renowned - Reduce the opinion penalties for diplomatic acceptance by 30%
- Adherent - Always gain the president modifier of being in a federation (except Hegemony)
- Senator - Gain the ability to veto resolutions as if on the council; if on council, veto influence cost reduced by 50%
- Enchanting - Increase acceptance of inviting other empires to join your wars
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