The Problem
Right now, in Stellaris planetary governors fade into irrelevance as the game wears on, because the leader pool is nowhere near big enough to provide one even for every core planet, let alone for sectors as well and let the player have any scientists or admirals.
In order to correct this, I suggest reworking the way planetary governance works completely.
The Basics
Every planet other than the capital should automatically generate a governor. These governors do not have a skill level or provide any generic bonuses like happiness. They just have a Planet trait.
These traits include all the current governor traits, plus some chosen from the current empire leader traits like Champion of the People, Home in the Sky, ship construction focuses, and some new ones like individual resource production, faction attraction reduction, and so on.
Governors can also have negative traits, these should happen in maybe 25% of cases and always be paired with a positive trait, so a Champion of the People might be Wasteful and produce -5% Energy, or so on.
When planets are in sectors, one of the planet governors is chosen as the sector governor. He gains a second Sector trait which he applies to all the planets in his sector. There are no negative Sector traits.
Planet and Sector traits are roughly half as powerful as the current traits. So eg. A Champion of the People would provide +5% happiness to his planet, or an Investor should provide +5% energy credits.
The national leader acts as the planet governor for the capital, and the sector governor for the Core, but also gains a third Empire trait which applies to the whole empire. Empire traits operate at the current power level, and there should be no negative traits at this level.
Different governments should have different ways of setting these governors.
Autocracies: Being the Being In Charge
In an Autocratic government, planet and system governors are a position for life. The governor will stick around until he dies or the Emperor decides it's time for him to go.
The Emperor can, at any time, pay a small amount of influence (say 10) to fire a governor. This automatically generates a new random governor on the planet. They can also pay a larger amout (say 30) to pick from a list of 3 (paid before you see what you're going to get though.
The Emperor can appoint sector governors freely for a small amount of influence.
Oligarchies: The Great Houses
Oligarchies should gain a new structure which enters use in this system. Four great houses represent the actual oligarchs. They can be fluffed differently for different government types, so:
Great Houses in a Plutocratic Oligarchy.
Branches of Service in a Military Junta.
Research Institutions in a Science Directorate.
Spiritual Orders in a Theocratic Oligarchy.
Offices of Civil Service in a Peaceful Bureaucracy.
Each one should weight the available traits slightly differently, so eg. the Harkonnen-a-like house is more likely to produce Iron Fist or Rule by Fear (suppress factions) and less likely to produce Intellectual or Champion of the People.
Each planet is governed by one of the houses, and instead of setting the governor, the player can pay 10 influence to set which house it is. When the next election cycle happens that house generates a new leader for that planet or sector.
Because the player has less control over the governors, only setting the likelihood of certain traits and having to deal with them changing every 40 years, the traits themselves are 50% more powerful than those of an Autocracy
As a bonus, each of the four leaders an Oligarchy presents for contention in national elections also belong to one of the houses.
(This structure could be used for internal politics in a later expansion)
Democracies: Of the People, For the People, By the People.
In a Democracy, the player has no control over the governors at all. Every ten years when elections happen a new governor is automatically generated for every planet (with maybe a 25% chance of keeping the current one), and one of those planet governors is automatically appointed as the sector governor.
Because the player cannot influence their traits and they cycle quickly, these traits are twice as powerful as those of Autocracies. (or as powerful as they are now).
This would remove the problem of not bothering with governors past the first five or six planets because you couldn't even slightly reasonably have enough, and also add more flavoursome variation between the different government types.
Right now, in Stellaris planetary governors fade into irrelevance as the game wears on, because the leader pool is nowhere near big enough to provide one even for every core planet, let alone for sectors as well and let the player have any scientists or admirals.
In order to correct this, I suggest reworking the way planetary governance works completely.
The Basics
Every planet other than the capital should automatically generate a governor. These governors do not have a skill level or provide any generic bonuses like happiness. They just have a Planet trait.
These traits include all the current governor traits, plus some chosen from the current empire leader traits like Champion of the People, Home in the Sky, ship construction focuses, and some new ones like individual resource production, faction attraction reduction, and so on.
Governors can also have negative traits, these should happen in maybe 25% of cases and always be paired with a positive trait, so a Champion of the People might be Wasteful and produce -5% Energy, or so on.
When planets are in sectors, one of the planet governors is chosen as the sector governor. He gains a second Sector trait which he applies to all the planets in his sector. There are no negative Sector traits.
Planet and Sector traits are roughly half as powerful as the current traits. So eg. A Champion of the People would provide +5% happiness to his planet, or an Investor should provide +5% energy credits.
The national leader acts as the planet governor for the capital, and the sector governor for the Core, but also gains a third Empire trait which applies to the whole empire. Empire traits operate at the current power level, and there should be no negative traits at this level.
Different governments should have different ways of setting these governors.
Autocracies: Being the Being In Charge
In an Autocratic government, planet and system governors are a position for life. The governor will stick around until he dies or the Emperor decides it's time for him to go.
The Emperor can, at any time, pay a small amount of influence (say 10) to fire a governor. This automatically generates a new random governor on the planet. They can also pay a larger amout (say 30) to pick from a list of 3 (paid before you see what you're going to get though.
The Emperor can appoint sector governors freely for a small amount of influence.
Oligarchies: The Great Houses
Oligarchies should gain a new structure which enters use in this system. Four great houses represent the actual oligarchs. They can be fluffed differently for different government types, so:
Great Houses in a Plutocratic Oligarchy.
Branches of Service in a Military Junta.
Research Institutions in a Science Directorate.
Spiritual Orders in a Theocratic Oligarchy.
Offices of Civil Service in a Peaceful Bureaucracy.
Each one should weight the available traits slightly differently, so eg. the Harkonnen-a-like house is more likely to produce Iron Fist or Rule by Fear (suppress factions) and less likely to produce Intellectual or Champion of the People.
Each planet is governed by one of the houses, and instead of setting the governor, the player can pay 10 influence to set which house it is. When the next election cycle happens that house generates a new leader for that planet or sector.
Because the player has less control over the governors, only setting the likelihood of certain traits and having to deal with them changing every 40 years, the traits themselves are 50% more powerful than those of an Autocracy
As a bonus, each of the four leaders an Oligarchy presents for contention in national elections also belong to one of the houses.
(This structure could be used for internal politics in a later expansion)
Democracies: Of the People, For the People, By the People.
In a Democracy, the player has no control over the governors at all. Every ten years when elections happen a new governor is automatically generated for every planet (with maybe a 25% chance of keeping the current one), and one of those planet governors is automatically appointed as the sector governor.
Because the player cannot influence their traits and they cycle quickly, these traits are twice as powerful as those of Autocracies. (or as powerful as they are now).
This would remove the problem of not bothering with governors past the first five or six planets because you couldn't even slightly reasonably have enough, and also add more flavoursome variation between the different government types.
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