Internal Politics and More Significant Rebellions

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I would really love to see a more in depth system of internal politics. Here are just some possible ideas I had while thinking about it. Even more could be done with factions, leaders, espionage, etc.

1. Empires could be broken up into sector tiers. First would be your core sector, tier 2 would be any sector that borders the core sector, and tier 3 would be any sector that borders a tier 2 sector. The core sector should have a boost to government ethics attraction. Tier 2 sectors should be normal. Tier 3 sectors would have a reduction in government ethics attraction. All other systems or sectors would be considered frontier territory and would have an even larger reduction in government ethics attraction.
2. Sector capitals should provide an immigration pull, stability, increased trade value, and increased government ethics attraction. The empire capital would have even higher values. This would make capitals more important and meaningful.
3. Factions should have more opportunities for negative happiness in order to make unrest and rebellions more common.
4. Crime should have more events that lower stability or happiness in order to make unrest and rebellions more common.
5. Sectors should also have a stability value based on planet stabilities weighted by economic output. If the sector stability is very low a sector rebellion should have a chance to occur. Unlike planet rebellions sector rebellions can happen at a higher stability. This is because sectors feel more able to stand on their own than planets.
6. Civil war should be an option if more than 1 sector has low stability. This will occur at a level even higher than sector rebellions. The sectors will automatically rebel. Other sectors with stability under neutral will have a chance to either join the rebellion or stay neutral.
7. During sector rebellions and civil war fleets will have a chance to defect, split, or stay loyal based on the percentage of sectors rebelling.
8. Going over administrative capacity should increase crime through the empire.

The overall effect of additions like these would be to give core systems and planets more flavor and to also make larger empires more prone to breaking up. If balanced correctly creating a galactic scale empire should require diverting extra resources towards domestic propaganda and law enforcement in order to maintain stability. Smaller empires wouldn't have to do this as much and could devote more resources to growing.

 

[Gormi]

I really like your idea. This really turns Rebellions from a nuisance only AIs suffer from into a serious threat. Not only does it improve the ability for the Rebellion to achieve something in the long run, but it also prevents a late-game with 20+ 1-System-Empires. Machine Uprisings may also benefit from that, perhaps making them a valid choice to play.
Now, I would like to add some ideas I got when reading yours:

1. Empires could be broken up into sector tiers. First would be your core sector, tier 2 would be any sector that borders the core sector, and tier 3 would be any sector that borders a
tier 2 sector. The core sector should have a boost to government ethics attraction. Tier 2 sectors should be normal. Tier 3 sectors would have a reduction in government ethics
attraction. All other systems or sectors would be considered frontier territory and would have an even larger reduction in government ethics attraction.

Sectors which are connected by wormholes or gateways should count as neighboring, just like with empires. Wormholes have to be surveyed by the empire who owns the sectors for that effect to work. This would make it worthwhile building gateways more frequently when going wide.

2. Sector capitals should provide an immigration pull, stability, increased trade value, and increased government ethics attraction. The empire capital would have even higher
values. This would make capitals more important and meaningful.

On top of the higher values for the empire capital, the resources given by the "Empire Capital" planetary designation should be separated from the planet designation. That way the empire capital could simultaneously be a bureaucratic center, for example.

5. Sectors should also have a stability value based on planet stabilities weighted by economic output. If the sector stability is very low a sector rebellion should have a chance to
occur. Unlike planet rebellions sector rebellions can happen at a higher stability. This is because sectors feel more able to stand on their own than planets.

One problem I see with that is how to handle planets that are not assigned to a sector. Maybe an event could be added where a frontier planet with low stability declares itself sector capital as sort of a warning sign.

As for war goals I think the generic "Total War" we see for example in Machine Uprisings would not be fitting in this context. Perhaps the Rebellion could have something along the lines of "Humiliate" or "Impose Ideology" as their goal, while the defender would have "Conquer Claims" with automatically 1 or 10 claims on every system of the rebellion.


I really hope your suggestion catches the attention of the game devs!