The slave market should be reworked/removed

[KalistheGalvanic]

As a player, I have never once sold a pop on the slave market. It always seemed like such a bad deal, and I wouldn’t even have considered it when the galaxy had far more pops in it. With the changes to pop growth that were added in 3.0, getting 500 energy for a pop just seems like an even worse idea, after all, a technician will make far, far more than that amount over the course of the game. Pops are the backbone of your economy, and trading them for a quick chunk of energy is a terrible idea even in desperate circumstances.

But the AI will always overuse the slave market and destroy themselves in the progress. Just last game, I had a huge rival empire above me who was a constant threat in the early game, but as soon as the galactic market resolution passed, they fell off super hard. Once I got to high enough intel, I saw what had happened: they sold every single pop from their syncretic evolution origin. About 60% of their pops were gone, and so I was easily able to beat them from that point on, and their empire never recovered.

I know that the issues of the slave market have been brought up a lot in the past, but with the announcement of the custodian initiative, there has never been a better time to discuss what should be done with it. Personally, I think it should just be removed, but if it isn’t, there needs to be some serious changes. At the very least, the reward for selling a pop needs to be great enough that even a human player would consider it.

 

[RoverStorm]

The real problem is that having pops beats not having pops in all scenarios. Attempts to reduce total pop headcount has not helped reduce this problem either. So why would someone voluntarily give up a pop?

Base cost of a pop on the slave market is I think 500 credits. Base production of a technician, with no bonuses at all, is 6 per month. That means selling a pop nets you just under 7 years of energy credit income if it was a technician. With no modifiers at all. In a game with a default official length of 300 years. With zero modifiers.

Yeah so if you have +100% energy production from jobs, entirely from tech and stuff that ISN'T the pop traits (which increase selling prices), then selling the pop nets under 3.5 years of technician value.

Oh let's not forget the performance issue with the current slave market either. My computer can take MINUTES to load the slave market if there are a lot of slavers in the galaxy.

Personally I think the slave market should be re-envisioned. I like the idea of a player being able to buy a targeted slave "immigration" instead. They choose an empire to buy slaves from, choose planet(s) to receive growth from, and the specie(s) they want to grow on their planet(s). This could also be an interaction between empires too. A vastly more complicated possibility is to temporarily sell slaves, or sell slaves that have a "lifespan" and can't reproduce. This means you are not permanently buffing anyone you sell slaves to and if you get the slaves back then it could be a net gain overall, at the cost that something unfortunate could happen to the slaves such as conquest by a purifier.

I also think there's an argument to expand the slave market to a more general Black Market. Allow people to buy and sell all sorts of items other nations may frown upon, such as assets from espionage. You could also buy and sell normal products, but without an unlimited supply and without the normal market fee.

 

[Calvax]

The real problem is that having pops beats not having pops in all scenarios. Attempts to reduce total pop headcount has not helped reduce this problem either. So why would someone voluntarily give up a pop?

This hits the nail on the head. Until this is addressed, like in some sort of internal diplomacy update, it’s just never going to have more than niche uses.

 

[HFY]

Slave trading, whereby you trade one slave pop for a different slave pop, would solve several problems. You'd still have to pay something to make up for the difference between a bad pop and a great pop.

You'd get your variety of slave pop (useful for different planets / different roles / pie chart gore), but nobody would be behind by a whole pop.

Hopefully the AI could be coded to not screw this up.

 

[Voy]

Besides all mentioned points it's a lagfest. They do not have to show all individual pops of the same species and genetics that's causing a slowdown, but somehow someone thought that was a good idea.

 

[Peepijeep]

Another problem of slave market is: The slaves of my main species are sold too fast, so I can't buy them.
Here are some solutions mentioned for the problem.

But yes, buying slaves is advantage, selling slaves is disadvantage. I am happy that AI is too studpid and sells a lot of them

 

[HFY]

Another problem of slave market is: The slaves of my main species are sold too fast, so I can't buy them.
Here are some solutions mentioned for the problem.

But yes, buying slaves is advantage, selling slaves is disadvantage. I am happy that AI is too studpid and sells a lot of them

I'd like it if the AI sold slaves which:
- (a) had the wrong habitability preference for the founder species; or
- (b) overlapped the strengths of a species already in the empire; or
- (c) unemployed pops which aren't auto-migrated.

The AI would keep slaves by default, and would seldom sell robots (until they ran out of jobs on a planet) since robots fit into every habitability type.