So far there's a stunning diversity in Stellaris, and major props to the devs, it's my most anticipated game of the last decade. We've got such a diversity of empire mechanics, and fallen empires, uplifted race, all that jazz.
There's one style of sci-fi empire though that isn't covered in the mechanics of Stellaris so far: Slow Empires.
Everything currently in the game makes the assumption that a race becomes a political player on the field upon the development of faster than light travel. However, I pose the question, "What if one of them didn't?"
Based on a model similar to Unciv China in V2, or Japan in EU4 I'd like to propose a way that it might be possible to handle the inclusion of a Slow Empire in a future DLC/Expansion. (As obviously I don't expect something like this to be added so close to the release date.)
It's like, they've been out there for hundreds of years now, younger than the ancient fallen empires but older than the new generation of emergents. Yet by some quirk they've missed the boat on this very important thing.
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Basic Description:
The Slow Empire possesses for itself but a single system, its home system. This system is decked out; all potentially colonisable planets colonised, pops up near capacity, space ports and mining stations in every possible location, and access to basically all the techs on the basic-tier, except for FTL. Additionally, they have access to 3 ship hull sizes. The lowest Corvette we see a lot of, the one size up from that (to present a diversity of intra-system ships), and the largest possible hull size (whatever that may be).
Ideally for these empires the largest possible hull size should have a roughly conical shape to it for real-world reasons.
Each other star system in the Slow Empire is a vassal of the home system with progressively less base population the further away it is and should (at the start at least) have access to all the same technologies and ship hulls. However, being far inferior to the home system in economic terms they wouldn't have the facilities to build the large ships. There should be free migration between the home system and all its vassals though so you would observe population spreading out from the crowded home system to build up the colonies.
Now, each of these large ships should have a relatively low upkeep cost (either through some specialised modifier or through design) and should be equipped with a special drive that allows them to move between systems in the same way a warp drive does, but much, *much*, MUCH slower. Some speed rating scaled to represent maybe 50% of the speed of light to represent it accelerating with the pointed cone forwards to make it resilient to interstellar dust all the way up to most of the speed of light and then decelerating engines first to arrive in the destination system (graphics optional).
These ships, having lower powered engines and being enormous, should have a full load-out of missiles, point defence weapons, lasers, projectiles etc. Everything they'd need that a single ship might be able to quell a rebellious system on its own. From my understanding that might involve that one ship having a navy strength of ~2000 or so, and it being possible to fleet up two of them into the same navy if required. They should also have the capacity to colonise and perform scientific investigations like surveying new systems and analysing debris. Naturally this means that they should also consume part of a pop to build.
This Slow Empire, when not 'flying the flag' to quell rebellious vassals should also colonise new systems, which should become new vassals and add to the faction in that way.
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Ascension:
In order to ascend to the level of a regular faction, they would either have to engage an invading/passing by fleet with Warp/Hyperdrive engines, destroy them and study the wreckage, or explore into a system with wormhole gates and destroy one of them to study the wreckage (or depending on ethos potentially acquire them peacefully through some diplomatic mechanic). However, it is implied that this race has some inherent difficulty of understanding that has handicapped them thus far, so it is recommended that it have a low likelihood of success, probably requiring several attempts to acquire the technology.
Once 'ascended' the home system would begin behaving more like a regular AI and also become allowed to begin annexing their vassals one by one through the usual vassal integration mechanic (presumably quite a slow process). This would also remove the effect that keeps their ships at low maintenance costs (or maybe those costs would be tied to the drive so when they 'upgrade' the design, the full cost becomes implicit).
This would result in a very large and potentially exploitable earlyish game opponent (assuming you can field just enough of a force to take down one of their very large ships plus whatever the system has in ships and defences locally), but present what is likely a mid game political player with an enormous economic base from which to work and reclaim territories lost at the fringes. The actual scope of this would likely vary depending on how many vassals it starts with, how rich the generated home system is and how much resistance it meets adding additional colony vassals to its realm. Additionally, one that ascended via wormhole tech would likely become a force to be reckoned with much quicker than the other methods, but by the same token
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Other Features:
A group of rebellious colonies in proximity could form a faction against the home system, with the most powerful at the head. Should the most powerful have, by way of favourable system conditions, grown to the point where it can build its own giant interstellar vessels it would be a serious threat. A faction that succeeded in this rebellion might form a second Slow Empire, with the other rebellious systems as vassals of the new one.
??? Make Suggestions ???
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So yeah, I'm putting this forward as a thought for the future, I'll add any other feedback and suggestions onto the OP, and I'd really like some feedback on if people think it'd add something to the dynamic.
There's one style of sci-fi empire though that isn't covered in the mechanics of Stellaris so far: Slow Empires.
Everything currently in the game makes the assumption that a race becomes a political player on the field upon the development of faster than light travel. However, I pose the question, "What if one of them didn't?"
Based on a model similar to Unciv China in V2, or Japan in EU4 I'd like to propose a way that it might be possible to handle the inclusion of a Slow Empire in a future DLC/Expansion. (As obviously I don't expect something like this to be added so close to the release date.)
It's like, they've been out there for hundreds of years now, younger than the ancient fallen empires but older than the new generation of emergents. Yet by some quirk they've missed the boat on this very important thing.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Basic Description:
The Slow Empire possesses for itself but a single system, its home system. This system is decked out; all potentially colonisable planets colonised, pops up near capacity, space ports and mining stations in every possible location, and access to basically all the techs on the basic-tier, except for FTL. Additionally, they have access to 3 ship hull sizes. The lowest Corvette we see a lot of, the one size up from that (to present a diversity of intra-system ships), and the largest possible hull size (whatever that may be).
Ideally for these empires the largest possible hull size should have a roughly conical shape to it for real-world reasons.
Each other star system in the Slow Empire is a vassal of the home system with progressively less base population the further away it is and should (at the start at least) have access to all the same technologies and ship hulls. However, being far inferior to the home system in economic terms they wouldn't have the facilities to build the large ships. There should be free migration between the home system and all its vassals though so you would observe population spreading out from the crowded home system to build up the colonies.
Now, each of these large ships should have a relatively low upkeep cost (either through some specialised modifier or through design) and should be equipped with a special drive that allows them to move between systems in the same way a warp drive does, but much, *much*, MUCH slower. Some speed rating scaled to represent maybe 50% of the speed of light to represent it accelerating with the pointed cone forwards to make it resilient to interstellar dust all the way up to most of the speed of light and then decelerating engines first to arrive in the destination system (graphics optional).
These ships, having lower powered engines and being enormous, should have a full load-out of missiles, point defence weapons, lasers, projectiles etc. Everything they'd need that a single ship might be able to quell a rebellious system on its own. From my understanding that might involve that one ship having a navy strength of ~2000 or so, and it being possible to fleet up two of them into the same navy if required. They should also have the capacity to colonise and perform scientific investigations like surveying new systems and analysing debris. Naturally this means that they should also consume part of a pop to build.
This Slow Empire, when not 'flying the flag' to quell rebellious vassals should also colonise new systems, which should become new vassals and add to the faction in that way.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ascension:
In order to ascend to the level of a regular faction, they would either have to engage an invading/passing by fleet with Warp/Hyperdrive engines, destroy them and study the wreckage, or explore into a system with wormhole gates and destroy one of them to study the wreckage (or depending on ethos potentially acquire them peacefully through some diplomatic mechanic). However, it is implied that this race has some inherent difficulty of understanding that has handicapped them thus far, so it is recommended that it have a low likelihood of success, probably requiring several attempts to acquire the technology.
Once 'ascended' the home system would begin behaving more like a regular AI and also become allowed to begin annexing their vassals one by one through the usual vassal integration mechanic (presumably quite a slow process). This would also remove the effect that keeps their ships at low maintenance costs (or maybe those costs would be tied to the drive so when they 'upgrade' the design, the full cost becomes implicit).
This would result in a very large and potentially exploitable earlyish game opponent (assuming you can field just enough of a force to take down one of their very large ships plus whatever the system has in ships and defences locally), but present what is likely a mid game political player with an enormous economic base from which to work and reclaim territories lost at the fringes. The actual scope of this would likely vary depending on how many vassals it starts with, how rich the generated home system is and how much resistance it meets adding additional colony vassals to its realm. Additionally, one that ascended via wormhole tech would likely become a force to be reckoned with much quicker than the other methods, but by the same token
-------------------------------------------------------------
Other Features:
A group of rebellious colonies in proximity could form a faction against the home system, with the most powerful at the head. Should the most powerful have, by way of favourable system conditions, grown to the point where it can build its own giant interstellar vessels it would be a serious threat. A faction that succeeded in this rebellion might form a second Slow Empire, with the other rebellious systems as vassals of the new one.
??? Make Suggestions ???
-------------------------------------------------------------
So yeah, I'm putting this forward as a thought for the future, I'll add any other feedback and suggestions onto the OP, and I'd really like some feedback on if people think it'd add something to the dynamic.
- 6
