Should Empires become more unstable?

[youpi ck]

I think some of Problems you have mentioned can be solve by pirate and spying idea in this post :https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/diplomacy-spying-factions-and-pirate.996196/

 

[sdeezie]

It would be cool if sectors could be released as their own independent nations, and if they agitated for independence, as I believe they talked about early in Stellaris' development.

This would incentivize keeping the sectors both small and happy, perhaps, and would also allow a larger nation to release a custom-shaped sector as a "buffer state" if they so desired, which would be really cool. No border friction penalty with your neighbor on the other side of your vassal/march/whatever.

 

[Kamakaze Panda]

I don't really want big empires to be impossible or almost guaranteed to fall apart, but I DO want there to be a more than zero percent chance of it happening a time or two in the game.

I remember watching the Stellaris launch stream with the many streamers and having seen one empire splinter into several rebel groups that formed their own factions and thought "cool, so min-maxing everything into science or military might leave you vulnerable".
Sadly, that never really happened in my games and I've played for close to 400 hours now.

I'd love to see it changed so that people that plan on branching out hard and fast would actually have to keep an eye on cohesion and spend some of their beginning stat points (traits, government type, civics, whatever) on keeping the population unified.

Bonus points if there was actually a really good reason to let it happen. Say you are an empire that started at the edge of the galaxy - after a couple hundred years of conquest the farthest colonies in your empire might be pretty miffed at you and your core worlder policies.

It'd be fantastic if - rather than suppressing rebels - you could choose to cede a bunch of worlds to form a new empire that becomes a permanent or long term ally with a massive opinion modifier and/or some nifty unique benefits such as improved research pacts, permanent shared sensors or the like.

You could form the united states of space by having several such subject states that shape their own interior policy, but otherwise closely work together with you as the progenitor empire.

I quite agree, this was partially what I was getting at, giving you different ways to interact with possible rebels, and giving you the choice of peacefully granting independence or autonomy, but in a more compelling way that in the current game.

 

[Sibericus]

Planets and sectors do rebel if pop factions get strong enough. I've never had to deal with them in my own empires, but I always end up supporting my federation allies in crushing a rebellion, or supporting a rebellion in an opposing empire nearby.

 

[Drowe]

I think some more instability would help to improve the game, but only if there are tools available to counter that. I would also like to see sectors become more than just indirectly managed parts of your empire. They should have a personality with their own interests and should have the option to become disloyal, if they aren't kept happy, and even rebel if they see a chance to win.

Holding a large empire together should get increasingly difficult the larger they get, but not so difficult that it can't be done. My thoughts are that bureaucracy should become a problem the larger an empire gets, especially if it is very centralised. This should decrease efficiency unless actively countered, this could be done possibly through an edict that over time reduces the inefficiency, a large one time investment to bring it down quickly or by decentralisation for example giving more autonomy to sectors. This would give smaller empires an edge, as they have less bureaucracy related inefficiency, and counter the snowball effect somewhat. It doesn't prevent big empires from being able to crush smaller ones through superior numbers, but the difference in efficiency of the economy can make it harder for large empires to maintain a fleet at their fleet cap, leaving less resources for development and research.

 

[terrycloth]

It would be cool if sectors could be released as their own independent nations, and if they agitated for independence, as I believe they talked about early in Stellaris' development.

This would incentivize keeping the sectors both small and happy, perhaps, and would also allow a larger nation to release a custom-shaped sector as a "buffer state" if they so desired, which would be really cool. No border friction penalty with your neighbor on the other side of your vassal/march/whatever.

I thought you could already release sectors as vassals by accepting the demands of their separatist faction? I've never actually done it, though.