I'm going to post me ideas from easiest/least work to implement to hardest/most work to implement.
1. Having leaders should be the default (Less agency can be better)
One thing that annoys me right at the start of many Paradox games is leaderless units. You start with a small squadron of corvettes but they have no commander, the scientist on board of your explorer dies but has no first officer stepping up?
Or as I saw in a recent MP stream by Stefan Anon - ｢Stellaris｣ Fighting Prethoryn Scourge in MP - 3.0 Nemesis
You hire ~20 admirals then fire all but 3 that don't have the desired trait (increased fire range in his case). Or in the case of ideal multiplayer meta you always switch the optimal scientist in to get the max. benefit from research boni for maximum micromanagement.
The problems here are that it's bad RP wise (unless you love to do some brain-acrobatics to come up with explanations) and game mechanics wise - forcing micro instead of providing settings (like we have with policies for example).
So RP wise instead of hire&fire we should get leaders that stick with us and whose traits add flavour instead of forcing luck to get clearly superior ones. While in terms of gameplay we should have leaders that are more consitant with play and less with luck - if you want better leaders run a bigger or more efficient empire promote meritocracy and enforce loyalty, if you favour well trained leaders with certain traits make sure your empire provides the right education for that. (Make military academies matter for leader starting lvl for example, war policies for traits, spend money on military exercises and have your society/economy devoted to what you value - instead of just scraping your navy at the start of the game)
2. Führereigenschaftsfestlegung/Avatarcustomization
One thing that's not customizable but has quite the RP-factor and gameplay value (especially in dictatorships and monarchies where their rule can last frome decades to forever - should they become the chosen one) are the traits and agenda of the ruler which vary a lot in usefulness. Leaving it up to chance just adds another annoying and unecessary factor of luck at the start of the game.
It's also a yet missing part of the DLCs you can become Emperor Palpatine but you have no grant ambition, no palaces or artefacts (well I guess relics count in a way), no apprentice...
3. Leaderpools/careers
The leaderpool is quite shallow with only 3 picks to start with and hardly increases there is a clear lack of interaction. Then there should be a hierachy with for example scientists starting out on science stations/Research Institutes, moving up to command their own ship (which is a whole other discussions - science ships are joke especially considering how heavily rooted in Sci-fi-tropes Stellaris is) to finally leading research or becomming the head of the science nexus.
4. Leaderlevel and traits in combat.
This goes toward combat-rework but having commanders use tactics depending on their level and traits seems obvious - a trickstar might use asteroid belts and stellar objects to provide cover/concealment for his units (and break the max range meta). A scout-loving commander would use strike craft to find the trickster's ships while a low lvl aggressive one might just rush into the system (if the enemy is way inferior and you value speed more than lives the later approach might be preferable for you).
A fleet with twice the theoretical strength just shouldn't auto-win, a sufficiently skilled commander should be able to outmaneuver the enemy in most cases at least.
5. Loyalty vs. Quality
If you want to get rid of someone it should be ingrained in your empire's lore - spend influence to sack someone innocent but gain corruption in an autocratic regime for example or protect/promote ones by exerting influence if they fail at their task but are loyal. Disloyal leaders might start a rebellion, a maniacal researcher could end up digging to deep and too greedily.
This is the kind of softcore, intuitive and automatic roleplay that I imagine for Stellaris.
1. Having leaders should be the default (Less agency can be better)
One thing that annoys me right at the start of many Paradox games is leaderless units. You start with a small squadron of corvettes but they have no commander, the scientist on board of your explorer dies but has no first officer stepping up?
Or as I saw in a recent MP stream by Stefan Anon - ｢Stellaris｣ Fighting Prethoryn Scourge in MP - 3.0 Nemesis
The problems here are that it's bad RP wise (unless you love to do some brain-acrobatics to come up with explanations) and game mechanics wise - forcing micro instead of providing settings (like we have with policies for example).
So RP wise instead of hire&fire we should get leaders that stick with us and whose traits add flavour instead of forcing luck to get clearly superior ones. While in terms of gameplay we should have leaders that are more consitant with play and less with luck - if you want better leaders run a bigger or more efficient empire promote meritocracy and enforce loyalty, if you favour well trained leaders with certain traits make sure your empire provides the right education for that. (Make military academies matter for leader starting lvl for example, war policies for traits, spend money on military exercises and have your society/economy devoted to what you value - instead of just scraping your navy at the start of the game)
2. Führereigenschaftsfestlegung/Avatarcustomization
One thing that's not customizable but has quite the RP-factor and gameplay value (especially in dictatorships and monarchies where their rule can last frome decades to forever - should they become the chosen one) are the traits and agenda of the ruler which vary a lot in usefulness. Leaving it up to chance just adds another annoying and unecessary factor of luck at the start of the game.
It's also a yet missing part of the DLCs you can become Emperor Palpatine but you have no grant ambition, no palaces or artefacts (well I guess relics count in a way), no apprentice...
3. Leaderpools/careers
The leaderpool is quite shallow with only 3 picks to start with and hardly increases there is a clear lack of interaction. Then there should be a hierachy with for example scientists starting out on science stations/Research Institutes, moving up to command their own ship (which is a whole other discussions - science ships are joke especially considering how heavily rooted in Sci-fi-tropes Stellaris is) to finally leading research or becomming the head of the science nexus.
4. Leaderlevel and traits in combat.
This goes toward combat-rework but having commanders use tactics depending on their level and traits seems obvious - a trickstar might use asteroid belts and stellar objects to provide cover/concealment for his units (and break the max range meta). A scout-loving commander would use strike craft to find the trickster's ships while a low lvl aggressive one might just rush into the system (if the enemy is way inferior and you value speed more than lives the later approach might be preferable for you).
A fleet with twice the theoretical strength just shouldn't auto-win, a sufficiently skilled commander should be able to outmaneuver the enemy in most cases at least.
5. Loyalty vs. Quality
If you want to get rid of someone it should be ingrained in your empire's lore - spend influence to sack someone innocent but gain corruption in an autocratic regime for example or protect/promote ones by exerting influence if they fail at their task but are loyal. Disloyal leaders might start a rebellion, a maniacal researcher could end up digging to deep and too greedily.
This is the kind of softcore, intuitive and automatic roleplay that I imagine for Stellaris.
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