When Stellaris was first released, there was a mechanic called Border Extrusion, which was a value centered on planets and a limited supply of outposts and your coloured Borders would expand outwards from there along a Euclidean distance radius. While I feel it was a poor way of handling expansion and led to some silliness with planet ownership of frontier worlds, it added a very cool and organic expansion and empire growth mechanic akin to a nutrient gradient. If anyone here has played Sins of a Solar Empire, there was a culture mechanic that spread in a similar way and was based on a rate which could be increased with structures and planet designations. I really liked the idea that I lay the "roads" but my population passively fills the "vehicles".
I would love to see a return of a similar mechanic surrounding the new Unity, Sprawl, and Cohesion mechanics. If the Unity production of a planet added a "Culture" growth rate, which would tick up a Culture value similar to piracy levels, we could then have immigration pull/push(among other things) follow this "nutrient" gradient and grow our planets and systems in a more natural and organic way.
With 3.0s changes to pop mechanics, growth went from new planets being an isolated petri-dish with minimal growth from outside to an empire/galaxy wide system of petri-dishes that overflow into other petri-dishes when full. I like this thematically, but mechanically these pops tend to go around with little in the way of direction or discernible logic. By tying the direction these migrating pops follow to the immigration pull/push and affected by Culture level, planets would grow along predictable channels and could even be directed by having a local Unity focused planet such as a Holy World filled with temples or a Trantor style bureaucratic hub. This Unity world would increase the culture rate of its star system with spillover along connected hyperlanes, allowing for additional bonuses for having these in a densely colonized sector and thus increasing the growth of nearby worlds through pop migration. Having a unity structure on all of your planets would also be mechanically rewarded as it would help get that Culture to start ticking up in the direction of your new colonies.
It sounds from today's Dev Diary and hints from previous ones that sprawl will soon be related to Unity. I think it would be quite fitting if Unity clustered around sector capitals and planets of importance to your empire helped to mitigate sprawl around them by increasing efficiency of buildings(not as much duplication of administrative burdens) and infrastructure while simultaneously increasing overall sprawl through concentrations of pops. You would want a small amount of Unity on every planet to get the flow of pops to your new worlds started, while mid to late game you would be able to start an expansion into new territory with a strong capitol world with a Unity focus to open up the floodgates from your "full" core sectors.
This Culture could spread beyond your borders and affect other empire's frontiers, increasing your ethics spread and decreasing theirs if your Culture is stronger. If your Culture has saturated a neighbouring world for too long it may spawn a rebellion or peaceful secession event. The problem with these in 1.x Stellaris was how sudden and complete this transition was, but I feel a similar mechanic with ways to mitigate and prevent this transition of planets/systems could work out. A planet with a 50/50 culture split between two empires would be hard to fully govern for either party, so you wouldn't suddenly lose your most powerful production planets but neither would you gain theirs at full power either until you solve the Culture/Unity/Sprawl problem of being a contended planet.
I feel this is thematic and follows a similar growth to what we have seen with Human population centers throughout history, where Culture and it's spread through trade networks have been the primary drivers of our current situation with towns and cities that slowly grow along the roads and waterways until they merge into something larger while those outposts far away from the travel and movement of people are harder to manage and maintain.
Overall I have focused on the theme of this mechanic and I'm sure it would be harder to implement than I make it sound, but I really liked how in 1.x Border Extrusion made empires feel like a bunch of competing gases in a vessel who expand to fill their available space until they find constraints and begin to build up pressure. It may not have been the best tool for Borders themselves, but to represent the circulatory network of your empire and how pops and resources are distributed I feel a similar mechanic would bring some life back to expansion and away from the rush to choke points and backfill that we have had since it was removed while being a great tie in mechanic for a lot of other aspects of the game, especially by the sounds of it this new Unity/Sprawl system.
Some pros and mechanic tie-ins:
-Piracy suppression along high Culture routes representing the compounded benefits of tolls, taxes, and policing from a concentration of pop travel. Would provide a higher floor before piracy spawns hostiles, and give those struggling corvettes more time to get to each system in the late game when piracy has gone off the deep end.
-Empire growth along "nutrient" gradients. Think of a tree root finding a water source, or a branch reaching for sunlight around another tree. Perhaps a bit gamey and imperfect since we can build the water sources and move the "sun", but more organic than what we have now.
-Possible way to expand peacefully through a focus on Unity and Culture spread but still be countered if your target hasn't expanded recklessly and overextended their empire's reach.
-Higher empire ethics attraction in high Culture, vice versa
-Ships fighting in strong Culture could receive combat buffs as a home court advantage or a divine right of conquest. Enemy Culture would be harder to fight in, logistically and psycologically.
-High and Low Culture events for planets, systems, sectors, leaders, fleets(desertion debuff?), Intel and espionage, etc.
-More organic rebellions from isolated worlds with poor connections to your core worlds.
-Costlier expansion into fresh territory, cheaper and faster expansion in your existing sectors.
-Power Projection from fleets could also project Culture and disrupt hostile spread through patrols or severing key systems in enemy Culture routes.
-Game mechanic incentives for building a Resort/Holy/specialty world in a particular location to enhance surrounding worlds.
-Crime, stability, and amenity bonuses and maluses from Culture(a similar spread mechanic for crime from pop and criminal concentrations would also be interesting)
-Prolonged or repeated wars over systems and worlds would build local war exhaustion(and/or Rivalry?), a decaying malus to Culture spread(among other things) and the possibility to sever the link between two sectors and slow or stop the growth of a rival empire's Culture spread through conquering strategic targets. Conquering or retaking these prizes could give empire bonuses though when this localized war exhaustion builds high enough as a catch up.
-Culturally significant planets and systems would be extremely high value for defenders and attackers in war, as the defender does not want to lose their compounded spread rate and attackers want to control these to mitigate enemy spread and harm the enemy empire as a whole. (Think of Stalingrad, Battle of Britain/the Blitz, or the Japanese home islands and the Doolittle raid in ww2). Even in a losing war, sending a small attack force to disrupt and cause a disproportionate amount of damage by lowering the enemy Culture spread along unprotected hyperlanes would give more reasons to go raiding and additional benefits to smaller faster ship fleets that can do damage and get out before being caught by a quick reaction force.
-Influence cost of claims and new outposts affected by Culture level
-Brave New Galaxy megacorp
-Positive Culture spread from pops with your empire ethics, negative or hostile foreign Culture spread from traitorous sympathizers.
Cons:
-Piracy calculations are apparently quite taxing to run and have a large impact on performance in the late game.
-I don't think Culture is the best name and I would prefer it to be called Influence but that is already the name of another mechanic(not that that ever stopped Paradox, looking at you Intel...) and even that doesn't quite capture every aspect of this potential mechanic. Maybe someone else can think of a better title. The closest definition I can think of for my head cannon of this is the migration of peoples along a Unity gradient and everything these people would bring: ie. language, ideas, values, traditions, beliefs, etc.
-Most people don't like losing planets and having setbacks(Rome II TW: half your base are belong to us). Having the neighbouring pacifists steal your stuff without even a bloody nose is a bit insulting, so maybe keep the claim you get from lost planets for when they switch from this mechanic? The presence of hostile Culture in Unity producing worlds increases your Culture gain to give a small offset and a chance to respond? Either way I don't think this should be at all a competitive way to acquire enemy territory, more an incentive to shore up your frontier and expand in a safer, more planned way with a strong consequence for overexpansion. If you really want that chokepoint or juicy world near your neighbour you should need to invest a lot more than rushing in a scientist and a construction ship.
-Evenly matched opponents would be disincentivized from going to war as any hostile fleet presence would set both empires back significantly and be left vulnerable to third party vultures(Apex Legends flashbacks)
-Unity would become a necessity for all empires(just like research!) to maximize empire growth and therefore be another critical mechanic to ensure balance across all empire types. For how long Technocracy has existed in it's current form though maybe this isn't as high a priority for Paradox. At the very least it might get them to nerf it since this would be a massive buff to that civic.
-More UI bloat on the starmap and things to keep track of.
I would love to see a return of a similar mechanic surrounding the new Unity, Sprawl, and Cohesion mechanics. If the Unity production of a planet added a "Culture" growth rate, which would tick up a Culture value similar to piracy levels, we could then have immigration pull/push(among other things) follow this "nutrient" gradient and grow our planets and systems in a more natural and organic way.
With 3.0s changes to pop mechanics, growth went from new planets being an isolated petri-dish with minimal growth from outside to an empire/galaxy wide system of petri-dishes that overflow into other petri-dishes when full. I like this thematically, but mechanically these pops tend to go around with little in the way of direction or discernible logic. By tying the direction these migrating pops follow to the immigration pull/push and affected by Culture level, planets would grow along predictable channels and could even be directed by having a local Unity focused planet such as a Holy World filled with temples or a Trantor style bureaucratic hub. This Unity world would increase the culture rate of its star system with spillover along connected hyperlanes, allowing for additional bonuses for having these in a densely colonized sector and thus increasing the growth of nearby worlds through pop migration. Having a unity structure on all of your planets would also be mechanically rewarded as it would help get that Culture to start ticking up in the direction of your new colonies.
It sounds from today's Dev Diary and hints from previous ones that sprawl will soon be related to Unity. I think it would be quite fitting if Unity clustered around sector capitals and planets of importance to your empire helped to mitigate sprawl around them by increasing efficiency of buildings(not as much duplication of administrative burdens) and infrastructure while simultaneously increasing overall sprawl through concentrations of pops. You would want a small amount of Unity on every planet to get the flow of pops to your new worlds started, while mid to late game you would be able to start an expansion into new territory with a strong capitol world with a Unity focus to open up the floodgates from your "full" core sectors.
This Culture could spread beyond your borders and affect other empire's frontiers, increasing your ethics spread and decreasing theirs if your Culture is stronger. If your Culture has saturated a neighbouring world for too long it may spawn a rebellion or peaceful secession event. The problem with these in 1.x Stellaris was how sudden and complete this transition was, but I feel a similar mechanic with ways to mitigate and prevent this transition of planets/systems could work out. A planet with a 50/50 culture split between two empires would be hard to fully govern for either party, so you wouldn't suddenly lose your most powerful production planets but neither would you gain theirs at full power either until you solve the Culture/Unity/Sprawl problem of being a contended planet.
I feel this is thematic and follows a similar growth to what we have seen with Human population centers throughout history, where Culture and it's spread through trade networks have been the primary drivers of our current situation with towns and cities that slowly grow along the roads and waterways until they merge into something larger while those outposts far away from the travel and movement of people are harder to manage and maintain.
Overall I have focused on the theme of this mechanic and I'm sure it would be harder to implement than I make it sound, but I really liked how in 1.x Border Extrusion made empires feel like a bunch of competing gases in a vessel who expand to fill their available space until they find constraints and begin to build up pressure. It may not have been the best tool for Borders themselves, but to represent the circulatory network of your empire and how pops and resources are distributed I feel a similar mechanic would bring some life back to expansion and away from the rush to choke points and backfill that we have had since it was removed while being a great tie in mechanic for a lot of other aspects of the game, especially by the sounds of it this new Unity/Sprawl system.
Some pros and mechanic tie-ins:
-Piracy suppression along high Culture routes representing the compounded benefits of tolls, taxes, and policing from a concentration of pop travel. Would provide a higher floor before piracy spawns hostiles, and give those struggling corvettes more time to get to each system in the late game when piracy has gone off the deep end.
-Empire growth along "nutrient" gradients. Think of a tree root finding a water source, or a branch reaching for sunlight around another tree. Perhaps a bit gamey and imperfect since we can build the water sources and move the "sun", but more organic than what we have now.
-Possible way to expand peacefully through a focus on Unity and Culture spread but still be countered if your target hasn't expanded recklessly and overextended their empire's reach.
-Higher empire ethics attraction in high Culture, vice versa
-Ships fighting in strong Culture could receive combat buffs as a home court advantage or a divine right of conquest. Enemy Culture would be harder to fight in, logistically and psycologically.
-High and Low Culture events for planets, systems, sectors, leaders, fleets(desertion debuff?), Intel and espionage, etc.
-More organic rebellions from isolated worlds with poor connections to your core worlds.
-Costlier expansion into fresh territory, cheaper and faster expansion in your existing sectors.
-Power Projection from fleets could also project Culture and disrupt hostile spread through patrols or severing key systems in enemy Culture routes.
-Game mechanic incentives for building a Resort/Holy/specialty world in a particular location to enhance surrounding worlds.
-Crime, stability, and amenity bonuses and maluses from Culture(a similar spread mechanic for crime from pop and criminal concentrations would also be interesting)
-Prolonged or repeated wars over systems and worlds would build local war exhaustion(and/or Rivalry?), a decaying malus to Culture spread(among other things) and the possibility to sever the link between two sectors and slow or stop the growth of a rival empire's Culture spread through conquering strategic targets. Conquering or retaking these prizes could give empire bonuses though when this localized war exhaustion builds high enough as a catch up.
-Culturally significant planets and systems would be extremely high value for defenders and attackers in war, as the defender does not want to lose their compounded spread rate and attackers want to control these to mitigate enemy spread and harm the enemy empire as a whole. (Think of Stalingrad, Battle of Britain/the Blitz, or the Japanese home islands and the Doolittle raid in ww2). Even in a losing war, sending a small attack force to disrupt and cause a disproportionate amount of damage by lowering the enemy Culture spread along unprotected hyperlanes would give more reasons to go raiding and additional benefits to smaller faster ship fleets that can do damage and get out before being caught by a quick reaction force.
-Influence cost of claims and new outposts affected by Culture level
-Brave New Galaxy megacorp
-Positive Culture spread from pops with your empire ethics, negative or hostile foreign Culture spread from traitorous sympathizers.
Cons:
-Piracy calculations are apparently quite taxing to run and have a large impact on performance in the late game.
-I don't think Culture is the best name and I would prefer it to be called Influence but that is already the name of another mechanic(not that that ever stopped Paradox, looking at you Intel...) and even that doesn't quite capture every aspect of this potential mechanic. Maybe someone else can think of a better title. The closest definition I can think of for my head cannon of this is the migration of peoples along a Unity gradient and everything these people would bring: ie. language, ideas, values, traditions, beliefs, etc.
-Most people don't like losing planets and having setbacks(Rome II TW: half your base are belong to us). Having the neighbouring pacifists steal your stuff without even a bloody nose is a bit insulting, so maybe keep the claim you get from lost planets for when they switch from this mechanic? The presence of hostile Culture in Unity producing worlds increases your Culture gain to give a small offset and a chance to respond? Either way I don't think this should be at all a competitive way to acquire enemy territory, more an incentive to shore up your frontier and expand in a safer, more planned way with a strong consequence for overexpansion. If you really want that chokepoint or juicy world near your neighbour you should need to invest a lot more than rushing in a scientist and a construction ship.
-Evenly matched opponents would be disincentivized from going to war as any hostile fleet presence would set both empires back significantly and be left vulnerable to third party vultures(Apex Legends flashbacks)
-Unity would become a necessity for all empires(just like research!) to maximize empire growth and therefore be another critical mechanic to ensure balance across all empire types. For how long Technocracy has existed in it's current form though maybe this isn't as high a priority for Paradox. At the very least it might get them to nerf it since this would be a massive buff to that civic.
-More UI bloat on the starmap and things to keep track of.
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