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Stellaris Dev Diary #201: Galactic Imperium

Hello everyone!

Last week we talked about how the Galactic Community can elect a Custodian to unite them against an ongoing crisis, and this week we aim to continue that story.

The Unbidden invaded the galaxy, and in order to defeat the crisis you needed to ask for additional powers, and the length of the war underlined the need for more permanent powers. Those powers were very nice to have, and they are powers that you may not want to give up so easily.

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Remember that time when you needed to make your custodianship perpetual? Those were the days.

It would be better if you could find a more permanent and legitimate solution. Besides… wouldn’t the galaxy be safer under your leadership anyway?

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When a Custodianship is granted on a perpetual term limit, the Custodian can propose a resolution for the creation of a Galactic Imperium.

Proclaim the Galactic Imperium
Citizens of the galaxy! On this day we make history as we transition into a new, and brighter future! Under this New Order, our ideals and rights will be protected. We hold these rights to be self-evident and we will defend them by force of arms. No star shall be lost to the enemies of our Community and together we will repel all attacks from within or without. Let our enemies learn to fear us: those who challenge our resolve will be crushed.
– High Chancellor Nilapatep, during the proclamation of the Galactic Imperium


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Long live the Imperium!

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Long live the Emperor!

When the Galactic Imperium is created, all federations that were previously in the Galactic Community will be disbanded.

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There is a New Order in town.

The Galactic Imperium cannot be proclaimed during a War in Heaven.

Galactic Imperium
Once created, the Galactic Community ceases to exist and turns into the Galactic Imperium instead. Some things will be familiar, and some things will be entirely different.

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Will the Imperial Senate Comfort the Fallen?

The Galactic Emperor will gain access to a number of new resolutions, and a number of resolutions that are similar to those that were available to the Custodian.

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There is much work to be done in the Galactic Imperium.

The Galactic Emperor retains the powers available to the Custodian, e.g. such as Conclude Session and Freeze Resolution. They will also have a permanent Intel bonus against members, and gain an additional bonus to Diplomatic Weight.

Your Ethics will shift towards Fanatic Authoritarian, shift your Authority to Imperial, and you will get a new government form. Your Civics that are incompatible with your new position will be removed and you will gain a new unique Civic.

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The emperor will gain a new unique Civic that doesn’t occupy a Civic slot.

Hive Minds, Machine Intelligences and Megacorps are not blocked from proclaiming the Galactic Imperium, and have their own slight twist on it.

A Megacorp that forms the Galactic Imperium gains access to regular civics as well as corporate civics.

Imperial Armada
If there was a Galactic Defense Force during the previous Custodianship, it will be converted into the Imperial Armada instead.

Imperial Authority
The power that the Emperor holds over the Galactic Imperium is reflected in Imperial Authority. Depending on the strength of the Imperial Authority, different things can happen.

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Members of the Galactic Imperium can choose to Strengthen or to Undermine Imperial Authority.

The Galactic Emperor gains access to a new Operation – Target Seditionists – which will prevent the target from undermining Imperial Authority with their envoys for a certain amount of time.

Those opposing the lawfulness of this New Order will also gain their own tools. The Weaken Imperial Authority Operation will do exactly what it promises. Should Imperial Authority fall below 50, they also gain access to the Spark Rebellion Operation, which will also do exactly what you would expect.

Rebellion
The rebels have chosen to light the flame, and the galaxy is in turmoil once again.

Those who refuse to join the rebels will join a loyalist federation instead, and a war will be declared that pits these two federations against each other. All rebel empires will leave the Imperium for the duration of this war.

If the Rebels win the war, the Imperium is dismantled and reverts back into the Galactic Community. All Rebels will rejoin the Community, Council members lose their seats, and all Loyalists get a temporary debuff to their diplomatic weight for a few years, meaning their influence in the reborn Galactic Community will be limited to begin with. The former Emperor will get even greater diplomatic weight penalties which will also last longer.

If the Loyalists win, the Rebels are all forced back into the Galactic Imperium and they get temporary debuff which lowers their diplomatic weight for a few years. In addition, Imperial Authority is greatly increased.

Regardless of who wins, the Rebel and Loyalist federations are disbanded.

If the war ends in a Status Quo/White Peace, the Rebels secede from the Imperium, and their Federation stays intact.

A Galaxy on Fire
With Nemesis we wanted to focus on the things that can go wrong, we wanted to focus on disruption and chaos. With one crisis defeated, the next crisis might be just around the corner, and it will be up to you to navigate the delicate balance of the galaxy.

Will you light the flame, or will you restore the balance?

Who will be your Nemesis?
 
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I wish to point out for those wanting a democratic alternative to the imperium without a shift toward authoritarianism: it has been said several times that you can just stay custodian without creating the imperium. While it seems a poorer option, remember that becoming the emperor disbands all federations, including whatever federations you were a part of. In other words, you lose all the goodies from the federation you worked so hard to get. Depending on what federation you're in, it may be a better choice to stay a custodian. Getting the united galactic fleet while being at the head of a high-level research cooperative seem like a pro gamer move to me
 
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Yes, if you remain as the Custodian, you could double-dip with both the Galactic Defense Force and your Federal Fleet. So becoming the Emperor could cost you special fleets.

On the other hand, currently Federations can consume up to 30% of your Naval cap for a maximum Federal fleet, but only give you 600 ships in return. (We don't know if this is being changed in Nemesis, but nothing so far has suggested it will.). Depending on how big your naval capacity is, this can be a highly losing trade. In which case the disbanding of your federation could let you field more ships overall.

I think certain Federation types will be more reluctant to go to Emperor than others. A research cooperative has the highly unique extra megastructure build slot and might not want to give that up, but lots of the Galactic Union perks are fairly weak or replaceable with the Galactic Sovereign civic that you get from becoming Galactic Emperor. Trade Leagues might not want to give up their Trade League trade policy either.
 
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Yes, if you remain as the Custodian, you could double-dip with both the Galactic Defense Force and your Federal Fleet. So becoming the Emperor could cost you special fleets.

On the other hand, currently Federations can consume up to 30% of your Naval cap for a maximum Federal fleet, but only give you 600 ships in return. (We don't know if this is being changed in Nemesis, but nothing so far has suggested it will.). Depending on how big your naval capacity is, this can be a highly losing trade. In which case the disbanding of your federation could let you field more ships overall.

I think certain Federation types will be more reluctant to go to Emperor than others. A research cooperative has the highly unique extra megastructure build slot and might not want to give that up, but lots of the Galactic Union perks are fairly weak or replaceable with the Galactic Sovereign civic that you get from becoming Galactic Emperor. Trade Leagues might not want to give up their Trade League trade policy either.


in the screen of the resolutions there are some that rassemble federation "effects" . so we will have to see about it.


the part about the federation fleet , is probably something that will have to be discussed.

even IF you are losing some naval capacity , a federation fleet can have 3 extra titans and the possibility of a BIG doomstack , i often find that to be usefull in itself more than the same number of ship in naval capacity ( with the only problem of having the AI spamming corvette and destroyers to the cap if left unchecked) .

losing the federation fleet , if you have one, is most of the time problably a nerf to your fleet power ( if done by a short time ) over the fact that empires that more likely are interested in the position of emperor, will probably be in a Hegemony federation ( that don't pay federation fleet contribution ) meaning that becoming emperor will surely reduce theyr actual fleet power.
 
Well, when your naval capacity gets returned to you in the dissolution of the federation, you can use that to get more Titans yourself, as long as you aren't up to the 20 Titan limit (attained at 3800 personal naval capacity).

A full federation fleet of 600 can have 4 Titans, so you stand to lose 4 Titans, but if you are contributing enough capacity to the federation that you're actually losing 800 or more naval cap (implying you have a base of 2,666.66 or more), you can actually gain total Titan slots provided that you aren't going to hit the cap in the process. So this is admittedly a fairly specific window, but it is possible.

The more irreplaceable loss is that of the Federal Juggernaut (not that they're good, but they are "unique" in that each nation or federation can only have 1 under any circumstance).

And, of course, you are going to have a large drop in fleet power from the disbanding of a federal fleet in the immediate term, which is disadvantageous. So the benefit of getting naval capacity back is only a long-term benefit.
 
Well, when your naval capacity gets returned to you in the dissolution of the federation, you can use that to get more Titans yourself, as long as you aren't up to the 20 Titan limit (attained at 3800 personal naval capacity).

A full federation fleet of 600 can have 4 Titans, so you stand to lose 4 Titans, but if you are contributing enough capacity to the federation that you're actually losing 800 or more naval cap (implying you have a base of 2,666.66 or more), you can actually gain total Titan slots provided that you aren't going to hit the cap in the process. So this is admittedly a fairly specific window, but it is possible.

The more irreplaceable loss is that of the Federal Juggernaut (not that they're good, but they are "unique" in that each nation or federation can only have 1 under any circumstance).

And, of course, you are going to have a large drop in fleet power from the disbanding of a federal fleet in the immediate term, which is disadvantageous. So the benefit of getting naval capacity back is only a long-term benefit.

Hegemony have the federation fleet for free after the 2° perk ...
 
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Yes, but not everyone will be a Hegemony before they become Emperor, so the pros and cons will vary as such.

i take no dubt that any form of empire can be emperor and may want the position.

but from an AI point of wiev or RP for a player . the resolution is chained to authoritarian , and not all flavors of authoritarians , in particolar xenophobe may be reclutant to have an GE with so many xeno nations with a say in it .

i find demotivating that a resolution that seems the only "authoritarian" chain of resolutions that are aimed for authoritarians in the GC ( there are no resolutions that follow an authoritarian desire , as for example " lets force evryone to treat this race as slave" or leders job should be recognized as more important than specialists and evryone should give privilege to them ) is the resolution that most damage theyr favorite federation type .


in particolar, any president of a federation that is able to become the defacto perpetual leader of theyr federation will probably find themself damaged by forming the GE.
 
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i take no dubt that any form of empire can be emperor and may want the position.

but from an AI point of wiev or RP for a player . the resolution is chained to authoritarian , and not all flavors of authoritarians , in particolar xenophobe may be reclutant to have an GE with so many xeno nations with a say in it .

i find demotivating that a resolution that seems the only "authoritarian" chain of resolutions that are aimed for authoritarians in the GC ( there are no resolutions that follow an authoritarian desire , as for example " lets force evryone to treat this race as slave" or leders job should be recognized as more important than specialists and evryone should give privilege to them ) is the resolution that most damage theyr favorite federation type .


in particolar, any president of a federation that is able to become the defacto perpetual leader of theyr federation will probably find themself damaged by forming the GE.

Yes, I could see them being damaged in most cases. However, and this is a reason why I've been trying to ask the devs a certain question (without getting an answer so far)... IF diplomatic vassalization and integration of imperial member nations by the emperor is still possible (as its not an actual federation except during galactic civil wars, and assuming the option has not been restricted) then the universal dissolution of federations could be spun into an advantage. If enough other nations are weak enough that they can be vassalized, but previously refused due to being in federations, becoming emperor could allow a more diplomatically-orientated player the options to vassalize the members of other former federations (as well as their own former federal allies). Then these nations could be integrated peacefully hereafter.

But that all hinges upon whether the Galactic Emperor can actual diplo-vassalize still. If a dev or ambassador like @Eladrin, @grekulf, @Alfray Stryke, @MrFreake_PDX could clarify this single point - whether the "Offer Protectorate/Demand Vassalization" diplomatic option is still available to the Galactic Emperor - this would greatly clarify matters.
 
Thinking on it, this clip is a pretty good representation of how I would try to portray my nation's motives (RP-wise) for creating the Galactic Imperium, in complete seriousness and sincerity, just at a galactic scale [and not necessarily using genetically altered soldiers like here].


I think that would be more interesting [and a good example of jumping off the slippery slope in the name of some ideals (at the expense of others) as we seize power to make the Imperium] than just being a generic evil empire.
 
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