So, with factions we have polished up internal mechanics. The next step in that direction, which I could see happening in two-three expansions, would be introducing culture (and border-transcending factions)
Basics:
Culture should be an additional trait for every pop (except hivemind pops), laying out their cultural orientation. Empires should start out fairly monocultured, but fracture over time and expansion. My goal with the system is to put a realistic expansion slower on large empires. Pops should have their own cultural value, the higher it is, the higher being attraction to the culture for other pops, and the lower the chance for this pop to be converted to another culture. Pops will get culture by various possible things, planetary buildings being one of them, techs being another. The later the game goes, the higher the influence of the cultural value gets, while distance gets less important by time (and tech). Culture should in any situation on the pop level get more bonusses than maluses so that building up culture would be worth it.
The effects of culture:
Cultures on themselves should be pretty much uninteresting, having one effect at the start, which could be positive or negative, but probably should be positive. Emerging cultures could have positive or negative effects. You could modify a culture to have different effects, but this could also go wrong (i´ll get to that later in the text). Different culture would encourage seperatists, while same culture would stop separatism from happening. Empires would have primary culture(s), and accepted cultures. Primary cultures have a very low chance for separatism to happen, while accepted cultures have a still way lowered chance (higher than primary cultures though).
The Start:
Any species would have atleast 1 culture at the start. Depending on traits the standart should be 2, the maximum 4. The pop on a colony ship could then be of all those cultures. In the early game this would lead to your empire probably being rather monocultured. If you´d just send your main culture out to colonize, the others would get progressively angrier.
The early game:
After the early game, cultural divergence sets in. At this point, there still will be 1-4 cultures, but, depending on how far away the colonies are, that will change soon. No matter what traits the pops have, there should be new cultures spawning soon. A naturally divergent species will fracture into maybe 6-8 cultures even early, while a conformist species might stay with 2-4. Those cultures will get random traits, with a maximum of 2 positive and 1 negative trait. Those cultures will probably convert their planets soon, and might start spreading to other planets in the system, and possibly other systems. At this point spread over system borders should mostly happen via colony ships and only rarely otherwise, as the cultural value of pops (and planets, and systems) would still be pretty mediocre, while the distance penalty would be high.
Sow how would an empire look then at this point? The core system (let´s say, Sol) would be split between some cultures (western, Chinese, russian for example), three colonies would have their own cultures developed, with one having spread a system further, and the rest would also be of the base cultures.
The mid game: The process would pretty much continue, even though at this point the cultures should start spreading into neighbouring systems, leading to a fractured landscape of diverging cultures. The base cultures would still be strong, but gradually going down. The larger cultures should either need to get accepted by the central government or form strong separatist movements (still scratching up ideas on the acceptance process to not make it too easy). If aliens are on a planet a hybrid culture considering two or more species could emerge, and possibly spread over empire borders, which would also enable factions that act in two or more empires.
The late game: At this point new cultures should rarely emerge, and cultures should be more in a long term fight over domination of the galaxy. Seperatist movements for new states should be a given a t this point, and should be able to still shake up big empires even after the lategame crisises and possibly the war in heaven have settled.
Culture modification/Memetic Engineering:
As cultures would have buffs debuffs and attractions, modifying them could of course be fun. I´d like to see this as a social science project, possible after a mid- lategame tech, which could change various things about a culture. It could of course go wrong and split the culture, with some having the desired trait, and some don´t, or even go horribly wrong and change the culture in unintended directions.
I´m still in the process of scratching this out, so, as always any comment and criticism is encouraged.
Basics:
Culture should be an additional trait for every pop (except hivemind pops), laying out their cultural orientation. Empires should start out fairly monocultured, but fracture over time and expansion. My goal with the system is to put a realistic expansion slower on large empires. Pops should have their own cultural value, the higher it is, the higher being attraction to the culture for other pops, and the lower the chance for this pop to be converted to another culture. Pops will get culture by various possible things, planetary buildings being one of them, techs being another. The later the game goes, the higher the influence of the cultural value gets, while distance gets less important by time (and tech). Culture should in any situation on the pop level get more bonusses than maluses so that building up culture would be worth it.
The effects of culture:
Cultures on themselves should be pretty much uninteresting, having one effect at the start, which could be positive or negative, but probably should be positive. Emerging cultures could have positive or negative effects. You could modify a culture to have different effects, but this could also go wrong (i´ll get to that later in the text). Different culture would encourage seperatists, while same culture would stop separatism from happening. Empires would have primary culture(s), and accepted cultures. Primary cultures have a very low chance for separatism to happen, while accepted cultures have a still way lowered chance (higher than primary cultures though).
The Start:
Any species would have atleast 1 culture at the start. Depending on traits the standart should be 2, the maximum 4. The pop on a colony ship could then be of all those cultures. In the early game this would lead to your empire probably being rather monocultured. If you´d just send your main culture out to colonize, the others would get progressively angrier.
The early game:
After the early game, cultural divergence sets in. At this point, there still will be 1-4 cultures, but, depending on how far away the colonies are, that will change soon. No matter what traits the pops have, there should be new cultures spawning soon. A naturally divergent species will fracture into maybe 6-8 cultures even early, while a conformist species might stay with 2-4. Those cultures will get random traits, with a maximum of 2 positive and 1 negative trait. Those cultures will probably convert their planets soon, and might start spreading to other planets in the system, and possibly other systems. At this point spread over system borders should mostly happen via colony ships and only rarely otherwise, as the cultural value of pops (and planets, and systems) would still be pretty mediocre, while the distance penalty would be high.
Sow how would an empire look then at this point? The core system (let´s say, Sol) would be split between some cultures (western, Chinese, russian for example), three colonies would have their own cultures developed, with one having spread a system further, and the rest would also be of the base cultures.
The mid game: The process would pretty much continue, even though at this point the cultures should start spreading into neighbouring systems, leading to a fractured landscape of diverging cultures. The base cultures would still be strong, but gradually going down. The larger cultures should either need to get accepted by the central government or form strong separatist movements (still scratching up ideas on the acceptance process to not make it too easy). If aliens are on a planet a hybrid culture considering two or more species could emerge, and possibly spread over empire borders, which would also enable factions that act in two or more empires.
The late game: At this point new cultures should rarely emerge, and cultures should be more in a long term fight over domination of the galaxy. Seperatist movements for new states should be a given a t this point, and should be able to still shake up big empires even after the lategame crisises and possibly the war in heaven have settled.
Culture modification/Memetic Engineering:
As cultures would have buffs debuffs and attractions, modifying them could of course be fun. I´d like to see this as a social science project, possible after a mid- lategame tech, which could change various things about a culture. It could of course go wrong and split the culture, with some having the desired trait, and some don´t, or even go horribly wrong and change the culture in unintended directions.
I´m still in the process of scratching this out, so, as always any comment and criticism is encouraged.
