Making megacorps more distinctive from nomal enpires

[SEELE 01]

I've always wanted to dive into the idea of megacorps trying to solve everything with money, making them played more differently from normal empires.

1. Give them special living standard that increase trade value, just like academic privilege increases science output.

2. Give the titans special T slots, so they can put on an advertisement instead of an weapon, and increases the trade value of the system it's in by 2% per titan.

3. Special bombardment stance, it spends energy but increases happiness on the planet its bombing. If the people are unhappy, give them money!

4. Special colossus, spend a huge chunk of consumer goods, increases stability for 10 years. The people are rioting or not happy because they just got conquered? Spam more money and luxury goods!

5. Special operation on pre-ftl civilization, spend consumer goods to get more science out put, while the turning it's ideaology to xenophile, spiritualist, or pacifist.

6. Able to buy or sell relics with other empires.

7. More branch office slots and branch office building. Maybe when a planet reach 100 pops, you may open a special office where it count as your territory. So you don't need to spend 1000 influence to open a store on the other side of the galaxy as a peaceful trader.

8. Able to sell and buy technology, more money equals more technology. Maybe only with empires that really likes you and only their out-dated techs.

9. Trade intelegence with other empire. If you knows something other people don't, you should sell it.

10. Rent you fleet to other empires as mercenary. If they aren't shooting at something, they are wasting my money, get them out of here! Come back when there is a massive world ending crisis or something.

 

[Zagreb 887]

I like the 1 and 9 ideas the rest goes from totally useless, OP and very hard to implement in the game.

Buying techs? Why should it be limited to megacorp, if this option become possible one day?

Shifting ethics from primitive is already a thing (which don't work really well, as anything related to ethic shift) and why limiting it to xenophile and pacifist? What if you play a militaristic xenophobe corp? This doesn't make any sense.

And the bombing stance? I guess it's harcoded that you can't bomb your own planets, and why would spend energy to increase happiness on ennemy planets when you can abduct them or purge them from orbit?

 

[SEELE 01]

Shifting ethics from primitive is already a thing (which don't work really well, as anything related to ethic shift) and why limiting it to xenophile and pacifist? What if you play a militaristic xenophobe corp? This doesn't make any sense.

Well, if goods and gifts are dropping from heaven, it's hard to become militarist or xenophobe eh? Plus, active research already makes them xenophobic.

And the bombing stance? I guess it's harcoded that you can't bomb your own planets, and why would spend energy to increase happiness on ennemy planets when you can abduct them or purge them from orbit?

The spiritualist colossus allows you to fire on your own planet, I don't see why bombing your own planet can't be a thing. Maybe even not spend the energy, just like science ships helps research, they just flat out increase happiness.

 

[Pancakelord]

. Trade intelegence with other empire. If you knows something other people don't, you should sell it.

You can do this already, find someone your target likes, bribe them with free goods, then arrange a sensor deal in the trade screen. Now you can see most of their space.

If you do this with one member in a federation or multi-vassal/overlord setup you'll see everything the rest of the federation/vassal swarm can see.

There are no mechanical effects from low intel (e.g. having low intel on an enemy fleet doesn't reduce your damage against them (i.e. making more glancing/ineffective gunnery shots), or doesn't make your ships move slower through their uncharted (to you) space).

Intel (excluding operations) is basically all just map coverage. Liberal cheesing of favours, diplomats, food gifts and 'trade sensors' will get you galaxy-wide view by like 2040 with near 0 intel interaction in most cases. I usually do this with a single nation in each big federation on the galaxy, they essentially act as a weak link, giving me the view I need to plan invasions.

 

[Me_]

Some of these ideas are funny, some are weird, but I like the core premise - making Megacorps actually play differently. They don't really feel all that different from ordinary oligarchies, with the only difference being the branch offices.

 

[Eled the Worm Tamer]

I do think MCs need more theming about what services they offer to other empires. Make them much more specialized in doing the one thing/ but allow non-competing MCs to share planets, making true mercantile leagues viable. Possibly at the cost of locking a given MC into one branch office pathway? Branch offices definitely require another look, to say nothing of how crime and criminal offices interact.

Not sure any of these ideas go quite far enough though.

 

[Zagreb 887]

Well, if goods and gifts are dropping from heaven, it's hard to become militarist or xenophobe eh? Plus, active research already makes them xenophobic.

The spiritualist colossus allows you to fire on your own planet, I don't see why bombing your own planet can't be a thing. Maybe even not spend the energy, just like science ships helps research, they just flat out increase happiness.

What's the point of turning them xenophile/ pacifist if you dont share those ethics? If you do, you can just go for the classic endoctrination from the observation post. Your idea is fun RP wise, but is redundant IG.

For the colossus, firing his engine is different from bombing a planet, regarding to coding (from what I understand of it, could be wrong)

 

[klopkr]

I actually kind of like all of these. I just think some could be expanded to all empires or just be interesting niche ships. I really like the idea of making trade focused fleets for making mad cash rather than fighting. Perfect for pacifists who aren't expecting war for a while!