In many 4X games, there are luxury goods you can acquire, which keep your pops healthy and happy.
In Stellaris, pops are more austere, and live off food alone; as long as they aren't starving, their happiness is mainly determined by politics and by living in a comfortable climate.
Now I don't think it's a good idea to start flooding the game with specific named luxury goods. But what I think could be interesting is to have a more abstract system of trade that represents the general flow of consumer goods. You automatically build up a trade network between planets, both within your empire and between your planets and foreign planets. Trade routes between planets with different climates/species are more valuable, and some planet modifiers and governor skills will boost trade. Trade value doesn't generate 'money' (=energy in Stellaris), but instead it generates scaling amounts of Influence at an empire level, and happiness at a pop level, but also ethics divergence (especially if trading with pops/empires that have conflicting ethics). There's also a certain expected level of trade based on empire size; below this, you don't gain influence from trade and your pops will be unhappy. The effects would be scaled by ethics:
- Individualist empires get more Influence from trade (strong trade means a healthy 'private sector'); Xenophile empires get more Influence from *external* trade
- Xenophobe empires have lower trade expectations
- Individualist pops are more sensitive to trade value; Collectivist pops are less sensitive
- Slave pops and synths without rights aren't involved in trade (they don't have access to luxury goods)
You can also set trade policy towards other empires (individually for each other empire), which will affect diplomatic relations depending on their attitudes. Default policy depends on your empire's ethics, with 'limited trade' being the standard if your ethics are neutral on the trade issue. The trade flow is determined by whichever empire has the more restrictive trade policy, but you can negotiate a more open trade policy or force it by war. Xenophobes gain Influence from embargoes and their pops don't like open trade, whereas Xenophile pops don't like embargoes. Federations have common trade policies externally (set by the President) and free trade internally.
One consequence of trade is that it would partially compensate for 'boxed in' starts: if you have many neighbours, you have the potential to get a lot of trade, whereas if you are in an empty area of the galaxy, your trade options are going to be more limited until you start meeting aliens (or creating trading partners for yourself by enlightening/uplifting primitives).
In Stellaris, pops are more austere, and live off food alone; as long as they aren't starving, their happiness is mainly determined by politics and by living in a comfortable climate.
Now I don't think it's a good idea to start flooding the game with specific named luxury goods. But what I think could be interesting is to have a more abstract system of trade that represents the general flow of consumer goods. You automatically build up a trade network between planets, both within your empire and between your planets and foreign planets. Trade routes between planets with different climates/species are more valuable, and some planet modifiers and governor skills will boost trade. Trade value doesn't generate 'money' (=energy in Stellaris), but instead it generates scaling amounts of Influence at an empire level, and happiness at a pop level, but also ethics divergence (especially if trading with pops/empires that have conflicting ethics). There's also a certain expected level of trade based on empire size; below this, you don't gain influence from trade and your pops will be unhappy. The effects would be scaled by ethics:
- Individualist empires get more Influence from trade (strong trade means a healthy 'private sector'); Xenophile empires get more Influence from *external* trade
- Xenophobe empires have lower trade expectations
- Individualist pops are more sensitive to trade value; Collectivist pops are less sensitive
- Slave pops and synths without rights aren't involved in trade (they don't have access to luxury goods)
You can also set trade policy towards other empires (individually for each other empire), which will affect diplomatic relations depending on their attitudes. Default policy depends on your empire's ethics, with 'limited trade' being the standard if your ethics are neutral on the trade issue. The trade flow is determined by whichever empire has the more restrictive trade policy, but you can negotiate a more open trade policy or force it by war. Xenophobes gain Influence from embargoes and their pops don't like open trade, whereas Xenophile pops don't like embargoes. Federations have common trade policies externally (set by the President) and free trade internally.
One consequence of trade is that it would partially compensate for 'boxed in' starts: if you have many neighbours, you have the potential to get a lot of trade, whereas if you are in an empty area of the galaxy, your trade options are going to be more limited until you start meeting aliens (or creating trading partners for yourself by enlightening/uplifting primitives).
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