It's pretty safe to say, based on comments by the devs, that a diplomacy/espionage rework will round out the Total Stellaris Revamp trilogy after Cherryh and Le Guin. When that happens, I hope leaders get another look as well.
With the current version (and with Le Guin, as far as I know) leaders feel static and limited from a roleplay perspective, much like planets and pops did under the tile system. What could alleviate this? Consider the course of a game where the following rule changes have taken place:
With the current version (and with Le Guin, as far as I know) leaders feel static and limited from a roleplay perspective, much like planets and pops did under the tile system. What could alleviate this? Consider the course of a game where the following rule changes have taken place:
- By default no leader is restricted in the job he or she can be assigned. (For clarity, I'm going to use the term "position" instead of "job" going forward to distinguish from pop jobs.)
- Leader traits specific to certain positions are minimized and replaced by personality, background, and ethics-based traits that can apply modifiers across multiple positions.
- The number of position types is expanded to include roles like spy, tourism/immigration coordinator, or ambassador. Empire-specific positions could exist depending on chosen ethics, civics, and policies (for example, a bishop in a spiritualist empire or a CFO in a megacorp).
- The leader recruitment pool now consists of active characters residing in your empire who simply lack an official position in the ruling government. They can interact with factions, work for or against your interests, and perhaps even form a shadow government.
- Relatedly, a leader removed from a position does not disappear forever; instead he or she returns to this pool.
- All leaders will feel a certain level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards the empire based on their personality and ethics, the empire's policies, and recent events.
- A disgruntled leader can be turned against your interests by outside powers; he or she can even defect to another empire.
- All leaders upon generation are assigned a same-species pop somewhere in your empire from which they come. This pop's occupation, stratum, and ethics will determine some (but not all) of the leader's traits. A leader's pop can promote or demote, undergo modification, flip to a different planet or empire if emigration push is strong enough, or even be wiped out. All of these events can have an effect on the leader.
Emily MacDonald was born to humble farmers of New Roanoke in the remote border system Manward. In the highly stratified Idyllic Kingdom of Terra such an inauspicious beginning would normally merit no notice. However, young Emily proved that she was more than a diligent worker; she exhibited a rare genius for handling matters of administration and logistics. At age 34, after graduation from a provincial academy and several years directing bulk trade at one of the semi-public merchant houses, she came to the attention of the sublime empress, who appointed her governor of a newly-settled resource-rich sector.
This unorthodox commission angered the more autocratic members of the government. In particular, it was the last straw for Klaus Fischer, head of Terran engineering research, who was already disgruntled by previous imperial policy changes. Two years after Emily took her post, a spy from the neighboring Luchekk Compact secured Klaus's defection; he brought to the struggling avian empire key insights into several technologies they lacked.
In any case, Emily took to her new position with enthusiasm. The pacifistic outlook she had inherited from her parents agreed with general imperial policy, and her talents and disposition were well suited to overseeing the farming and mining colonies under her purview.
Everything changed when the blood court of the Merope Cleansers declared an extermination war on the Terrans. Within six years, the Idyllic Kingdom managed to stabilize its borders and secure a temporary truce, but not before the Meropians had reduced New Roanoke to radioactive rubble. Nearly all of Emily MacDonald's family and childhood friends died in nuclear fire.
In reaction to such trauma some people might have turned militant or xenophobic. Emily, however, withdrew into herself. She turned to spiritual matters, meditating on the sanctity of organic life and encouraging other to follow her in contemplation. Naturally, the productivity of her sector suffered, and the empress decided to replace her with an eager up-and-comer from the resort world Arcadia.
Emily spent the rest of her life working with the Hallowed Temple Union, seeking new converts to the cause. Though this faction never achieved official recognition within the Idyllic Kingdom of Terra, their sheer numbers eventually persuaded a later emperor to institute a kingdom-wide ban on artificial life. But that's another story.
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