I've been thinking of ways to make things more interesting, especially towards the mid-game. Much of these ideas obviously can be chopped and changed and what have you. I haven't fully fleshed out the ideas either. All inputs are welcome though!
So I thought wouldn't it be cool if towards your midgame if you haven't looked after your empire very well, things could start to fracture. So how would that happen? Well, by the use of sectors and pops that belong in those sectors could start to rebel. These pops would have different ethics than your empire and if they gain enough foothold, can start creating events that if you don't either bribe or stomp down on them, could become a real problem.
So exactly how would this work? Well, I believe that with these kinds of systems, it should be optional if people would want to opt-in or not. However, if you are to opt-in, you gain a much higher reward at the cost of a higher risk of things that could be going wrong. So for this to work, you would create sectors, if you have none then you got nothing to worry about. However, if you start making sectors and start to specialise even more than you could with planets, you get a higher boon and increase in productivity. Governors of the sectors would be very important in regards to how you want to specialise your sector. Would it be encouraging trade and make your empire more prosperous, making alloys for your military industry or maybe just be a jack of all trades, master of none? Whatever the case may be, you start creating sectors, they will start to also represent all your pops inside them. (tbh, how this would be represented, not entirely sure myself) And if they're happy, then you got nothing to worry about. But, if your governor is corrupt, if you neglect them and leave them to fend for themselves while you're too busy planning an invasion elsewhere... well rebelling may come knocking on your door. Towards the midgame, a group of pops might decide to rebel and take a planet. No worries you think, just send some space marines to deal with them and all should be right again. But oh no, now that you've stomped the rebellion to the ground, others have started to follow suit as they don't have your empires ethics. This now might be a problem, furthermore, other planets are now being seized by rebels as there are not enough amenities, living conditions aren't quite as good as the empire next door or you devoted too much energy credits to your military that you could've spent making your citizens happy. Next thing you know your governor is either a hostage or is now with them. Either way, your sector is now lost, and they could become an empire in their own right. (also the enemies may just have sent spies to entice rebellion) Democratic empires would have an easier time in dealing with rebellion, by the production rewards of sectors won't be as high as an Imperial government, however, Imperial govs would have more risk of rebellions. (if you wanted to add that flavour into the game.)
How to combat this? Ethics attraction is now more important. maybe adding a building that has propaganda might help. Maybe there will be events that happen that you can influence. such as given the pops more decent living conditions. Maybe you create smaller sectors so you always have enough power to stop them.
Also been thinking of another idea that could tie into this, though I am on the fence about it myself. Titles. So like something from Rome: Total war. You have your leader, then under them your Grand Admiral, your Grand General, your Treasurer, Prime Minister, etc. (The titles should be allowed to be changed by the player, but you get the idea) There will be an organization treemap that shows all the titles and who holds office. You could have extra stats for leaders, such as popularity, influence and loyalty. (though loyalty can only be activated if your sectors start to rebel, otherwise it won't have much effect.) The skill stat would still be a thing, so the higher it is, the better they perform with their duties such as increased naval capacity, trade value, etc. Although how many titles the game would have I have no idea, maybe its dependant on your government type. The democratic gov could have most titles being of equal rank while imperial government titles could be sort into more tiers. As I said, more on the fence about this idea as I'm not sure how Paradox could make it work with Stellaris. Maybe even Planetary governors as well. So the Prime Minister could be in charge of Sector and Planetary Governors while your Grand Admiral is in charge of your fleets, your Grand General in charge of all your armies, your Inquisitor in charge of your police and spy forces, treasurer in charge of trade value, minister of propaganda in charge of influence, etc. The higher influence and popularity of your leader, the more likely they will be the top dog of your empire in some way, whether by voting or assassinating depending on your empire type. Or by leading a rebellion from a sector that's upset.
Happy to clarify anything, I haven't typed something like this in a long time so apologies if it's messy. I know if Paradox does somehow implement this, it most likely won't be as I laid it out. I just would like to see more things going on internally in your empire.
I may add more to this later, but as I said, happy for input or criticisms!
So I thought wouldn't it be cool if towards your midgame if you haven't looked after your empire very well, things could start to fracture. So how would that happen? Well, by the use of sectors and pops that belong in those sectors could start to rebel. These pops would have different ethics than your empire and if they gain enough foothold, can start creating events that if you don't either bribe or stomp down on them, could become a real problem.
So exactly how would this work? Well, I believe that with these kinds of systems, it should be optional if people would want to opt-in or not. However, if you are to opt-in, you gain a much higher reward at the cost of a higher risk of things that could be going wrong. So for this to work, you would create sectors, if you have none then you got nothing to worry about. However, if you start making sectors and start to specialise even more than you could with planets, you get a higher boon and increase in productivity. Governors of the sectors would be very important in regards to how you want to specialise your sector. Would it be encouraging trade and make your empire more prosperous, making alloys for your military industry or maybe just be a jack of all trades, master of none? Whatever the case may be, you start creating sectors, they will start to also represent all your pops inside them. (tbh, how this would be represented, not entirely sure myself) And if they're happy, then you got nothing to worry about. But, if your governor is corrupt, if you neglect them and leave them to fend for themselves while you're too busy planning an invasion elsewhere... well rebelling may come knocking on your door. Towards the midgame, a group of pops might decide to rebel and take a planet. No worries you think, just send some space marines to deal with them and all should be right again. But oh no, now that you've stomped the rebellion to the ground, others have started to follow suit as they don't have your empires ethics. This now might be a problem, furthermore, other planets are now being seized by rebels as there are not enough amenities, living conditions aren't quite as good as the empire next door or you devoted too much energy credits to your military that you could've spent making your citizens happy. Next thing you know your governor is either a hostage or is now with them. Either way, your sector is now lost, and they could become an empire in their own right. (also the enemies may just have sent spies to entice rebellion) Democratic empires would have an easier time in dealing with rebellion, by the production rewards of sectors won't be as high as an Imperial government, however, Imperial govs would have more risk of rebellions. (if you wanted to add that flavour into the game.)
How to combat this? Ethics attraction is now more important. maybe adding a building that has propaganda might help. Maybe there will be events that happen that you can influence. such as given the pops more decent living conditions. Maybe you create smaller sectors so you always have enough power to stop them.
Also been thinking of another idea that could tie into this, though I am on the fence about it myself. Titles. So like something from Rome: Total war. You have your leader, then under them your Grand Admiral, your Grand General, your Treasurer, Prime Minister, etc. (The titles should be allowed to be changed by the player, but you get the idea) There will be an organization treemap that shows all the titles and who holds office. You could have extra stats for leaders, such as popularity, influence and loyalty. (though loyalty can only be activated if your sectors start to rebel, otherwise it won't have much effect.) The skill stat would still be a thing, so the higher it is, the better they perform with their duties such as increased naval capacity, trade value, etc. Although how many titles the game would have I have no idea, maybe its dependant on your government type. The democratic gov could have most titles being of equal rank while imperial government titles could be sort into more tiers. As I said, more on the fence about this idea as I'm not sure how Paradox could make it work with Stellaris. Maybe even Planetary governors as well. So the Prime Minister could be in charge of Sector and Planetary Governors while your Grand Admiral is in charge of your fleets, your Grand General in charge of all your armies, your Inquisitor in charge of your police and spy forces, treasurer in charge of trade value, minister of propaganda in charge of influence, etc. The higher influence and popularity of your leader, the more likely they will be the top dog of your empire in some way, whether by voting or assassinating depending on your empire type. Or by leading a rebellion from a sector that's upset.
Happy to clarify anything, I haven't typed something like this in a long time so apologies if it's messy. I know if Paradox does somehow implement this, it most likely won't be as I laid it out. I just would like to see more things going on internally in your empire.
I may add more to this later, but as I said, happy for input or criticisms!