Recently I posted a suggestion that a trade post map mode should be added to the game in order to help megacorps determine where all their tradeposts are and what planets are still available. In it I also suggested that such a system could also be used to add in trade sectors which would give bonuses to megacorps owning all the trade posts in a particular empire, though that this is not a necessary system and should not be the priority. After that though, I began to think about some of the other problems with megacorps and realized that this new improved trade system could be used to fix the major issue with criminal megacorps at the moment, that the AI will target and destroy all their criminal trade posts almost immediately after placing them since they have a static crime boost which is easily overcome with enforcers.
My basic proposal for the trade sector system would be that it would give you extra trade value (how much is determined by the total value of the whole empire) the higher percentage of trade posts in an empire you own (sort of a monopoly bonus). For a criminal empire however, this trade value bonus could be replaced with a crime bonus. This means that criminal empires can expand their criminal control by being hyper aggressive towards one empire in covering it in crime trade posts, ensuring that it's own growth is fueled by the ruthless pursuit of a single empire. Perhaps this could be increased even further by increasing piracy (and making piracy also improve crime somehow) so that if an empire has been completely taken over by crime they will feel it. This all is in the hope that the empire in question is more encouraged to pursue the expropriation war against the megacorp to drive out crime when their police fails. This all still means that a lone criminal trade post can be taken out by the police, but a crime controlled empire can only defeat the cartels through the use of their military. Empires should still be aggressive towards criminal megacorps, just not at the expense of the criminal empires ability to use its own mechanics. Also overall this trade sector system will hopefully encourage more wars between megacorps (because wars in stellaris are fun and always need more incentives). Overall though my hope is that this system simply builds on the already present megacorp system and improves its game play without significant changes to mechanics.
My basic proposal for the trade sector system would be that it would give you extra trade value (how much is determined by the total value of the whole empire) the higher percentage of trade posts in an empire you own (sort of a monopoly bonus). For a criminal empire however, this trade value bonus could be replaced with a crime bonus. This means that criminal empires can expand their criminal control by being hyper aggressive towards one empire in covering it in crime trade posts, ensuring that it's own growth is fueled by the ruthless pursuit of a single empire. Perhaps this could be increased even further by increasing piracy (and making piracy also improve crime somehow) so that if an empire has been completely taken over by crime they will feel it. This all is in the hope that the empire in question is more encouraged to pursue the expropriation war against the megacorp to drive out crime when their police fails. This all still means that a lone criminal trade post can be taken out by the police, but a crime controlled empire can only defeat the cartels through the use of their military. Empires should still be aggressive towards criminal megacorps, just not at the expense of the criminal empires ability to use its own mechanics. Also overall this trade sector system will hopefully encourage more wars between megacorps (because wars in stellaris are fun and always need more incentives). Overall though my hope is that this system simply builds on the already present megacorp system and improves its game play without significant changes to mechanics.