Looking past the Dawn of filthy ro our new Synthetic overlords, 1.9 is looming in the far distance, and will, hopefully, bring changes and reworks to warfare and diplomacy. For latter, I have the following suggestion:
Implement a 'Trade Agreement' system, which allows empires to actually gain something from being at peace with their neighbours, instead ofconq liberating their planets.
Since there's no actual trade goods of any description in the game, and trading 'to gain energy credits' is kinda pointless because you can produce those en mass anyways, I would like to see Diplomatic Arrangement system from CIV:BE (pretty much one of the few things that game did right) make an entrance to Stellaris.
Basically, the concept is that Empire A can make a Trade Agreement with Empire B, paying a type of 'political currency' (in Stellaris' case, without the addition of more values to track, that would be Influence), in order to gain some form of buff. Empire B in return gains a fraction (I would say half) of the payment.
Prior to being able to make these deals, an empire should need to research a technology which unlocked a first 'Trade Slot'. Further Trade Slots could be unlocked by civics, traditions, maybe another lategame tech and an Ascension Perk.
Each Trade Slot can be fitted with a Trade Agreement this empire offers to it's neighbours. Once slotted, the Agreement can only be removed after X years, for Y influence, and only if it's not used by a neighbour.
Other empires not a war with this empire can then ask for the slotted Trade Agreement via diplomacy. If agreed, they gain the bonus of the specific agreement, pay 1 Influence per month, and this empire gains a percentage (i.e. base 50%) of that Influence.
Vice versa, for each Trade Slot, this empire can ask for an agreement from another empire, gaining that benefit in exchange for Influence.
(Therefore, the number of Trade Slots unlocked limits both the number of incoming and outgoing trade agreements.)
At baseline, this means empires can spend 0.5 Influence per month to gain a buff of their chosing (assuming they let the other side make a trade deal, too, otherwise it effectively costs 1 per month).
This could be specialized upon by a 'Trade Mentality' civic that gives more slots and reduces the costs for maintaining deals by (i.e.) 10% (saving 0.1 Influence per deal). Or an Ascension Perk 'Center of Galactic Trade', which adds two slots, and increases the gain from incoming agreements by +20% (again, 0.1 Influence).
The variety of Trade Agreements avaible to be slotted by each empire would depend on ethics, civics, government form, technology, traditions, etc. Examples could be:
I think such a system would do well in giving empires another growth factor, alongside an Influence sink, that promotes being at peace with at least some other species, and thus could help making diplomacy meaning- and useful.
Implement a 'Trade Agreement' system, which allows empires to actually gain something from being at peace with their neighbours, instead of
Since there's no actual trade goods of any description in the game, and trading 'to gain energy credits' is kinda pointless because you can produce those en mass anyways, I would like to see Diplomatic Arrangement system from CIV:BE (pretty much one of the few things that game did right) make an entrance to Stellaris.
Basically, the concept is that Empire A can make a Trade Agreement with Empire B, paying a type of 'political currency' (in Stellaris' case, without the addition of more values to track, that would be Influence), in order to gain some form of buff. Empire B in return gains a fraction (I would say half) of the payment.
Prior to being able to make these deals, an empire should need to research a technology which unlocked a first 'Trade Slot'. Further Trade Slots could be unlocked by civics, traditions, maybe another lategame tech and an Ascension Perk.
Each Trade Slot can be fitted with a Trade Agreement this empire offers to it's neighbours. Once slotted, the Agreement can only be removed after X years, for Y influence, and only if it's not used by a neighbour.
Other empires not a war with this empire can then ask for the slotted Trade Agreement via diplomacy. If agreed, they gain the bonus of the specific agreement, pay 1 Influence per month, and this empire gains a percentage (i.e. base 50%) of that Influence.
Vice versa, for each Trade Slot, this empire can ask for an agreement from another empire, gaining that benefit in exchange for Influence.
(Therefore, the number of Trade Slots unlocked limits both the number of incoming and outgoing trade agreements.)
At baseline, this means empires can spend 0.5 Influence per month to gain a buff of their chosing (assuming they let the other side make a trade deal, too, otherwise it effectively costs 1 per month).
This could be specialized upon by a 'Trade Mentality' civic that gives more slots and reduces the costs for maintaining deals by (i.e.) 10% (saving 0.1 Influence per deal). Or an Ascension Perk 'Center of Galactic Trade', which adds two slots, and increases the gain from incoming agreements by +20% (again, 0.1 Influence).
The variety of Trade Agreements avaible to be slotted by each empire would depend on ethics, civics, government form, technology, traditions, etc. Examples could be:
- Arms Trade (Militarist) - +5% Firerate, +5% Army Strength
- Scientific Imports (Materialist) - +5% Research Speed
- Cultural Exchange (Any non-Xenophobe) - +7.5% Unity generation
- Cross-Trading Enterprise (started Prosperity Tradition) - -15% Influence cost for Trade Agreements (including this one, thus generating a net gain of Influence at the expense of a slot, for the other side)
- Yoga Instructions (started Harmony Tradition) - +5% Happyness, -5% Unrest
- Assurance of Non-Interaction (Xenophobe) - -50% borderfriction, bonus to trust, no ethic effects due to diplomacy; towards the empire offering the pact (aka, pay tribute to the Xenophobe nearby to make them peacefully towards you)
- etc
I think such a system would do well in giving empires another growth factor, alongside an Influence sink, that promotes being at peace with at least some other species, and thus could help making diplomacy meaning- and useful.
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