Why aren't trade hubs used to determine sectors?

[MeowBeep]

The starbases could both be in the same single sector. If another starbase is in range you then simply add it to the sector and you do this for all starbases that are in range of the first starbase's collection range. Add all the territories they collect from combined into the same sector unless it intersect with another sector, in which case you split that distance.

Preferably the starbase would have a building on them for that though so you wouldn't unintentionally create starbases without planets in them.

Yeah, maybe like a governor seat building or the such that requires trade hub modules and then applies a sector matching their trade reach. That could even open interesting possibilities for variations on the governor seat building type.

 

[Stars_and_Bars]

It seems like such an intuitive connection that I'm sure I must be failing to taking something important into account.

So, is there any good reason that using the gathering areas of trading hubs to also determine the sector outlines would not work?

Why even have sectors at all? I never rely on the ai to manage any of my sectors. If I wanted the AI to run that sector, I'd release it as a vassal.

 

[MeowBeep]

Having the whole empire as one sector is both a massive buff (you only need one governor) and a massive weakness (you can't specialise areas of your empire), and depending on playstyle one of these two effects would come to dominate enormously.
If all the building does is define a sector it is *massively* weaker than any other option, and would be a solid nerf to all of the gestalt types.
Buffing the governor is a possibility - but that then complicates matters in a way that doesn't really need to happen, and would be difficult to get right to balance it against "normal* sector management, due to the fact that a 6 sector governor could be handling 2 or 3 inhabited systems, or a dozen, so the effects of boosting the gestalt governors would be enormously variable.

I'm not sure single sector would reach such extremes in either direction. Having a single sector empire amounts to basically costing whatever the potential gains from specializing sectors would be while saving on the upkeep of multiple leaders. But again, uniformity is supposed to be a defining factor of gestalt species.

Given that their leaders are immortal, I think building a few modules on a starbase to be able to apply a lvl 10 governor buff to a sector would totally be worthwhile. It seems atleast in the ballpark for being balanced with some tweaking.

I dunno, my whole take on gestalt is that they're supposed to be easier but less versatile to play.

 

[Kent_Lang]

Why even have sectors at all? I never rely on the ai to manage any of my sectors. If I wanted the AI to run that sector, I'd release it as a vassal.

You don't get a lot of value out of your vassals in Stellaris though. At least with an automated sector you get resources out of it and the last game I played - only reason why I expanded was to appropriate more resources as I was running out in my own worlds. Would be nice to hand it off to a sector and tell the sector to replace their 7 predinct houses with something useful like trade buildings or hydroponics.

 

[Stars_and_Bars]

You don't get a lot of value out of your vassals in Stellaris though. At least with an automated sector you get resources out of it and the last game I played - only reason why I expanded was to appropriate more resources as I was running out in my own worlds. Would be nice to hand it off to a sector and tell the sector to replace their 7 predinct houses with something useful like trade buildings or hydroponics.

It's true that you don't get a lot out of vassals before 2.2, but the AI is really bad at managing sectors, especially after 2.2. Currently an independent AI empire cheats a lot just to survive. It might just be the case that you could get more by taxing a vassal that cheats, then from letting an AI manage a sector and taking the loss internally. Also if you want to keep your admin burden below the cap so that you can have ZERO added unity/tech costs, vassals seem like a decent way to go.

 

[DreadLindwyrm]

I'm not sure single sector would reach such extremes in either direction. Having a single sector empire amounts to basically costing whatever the potential gains from specializing sectors would be while saving on the upkeep of multiple leaders. But again, uniformity is supposed to be a defining factor of gestalt species.

Given that their leaders are immortal, I think building a few modules on a starbase to be able to apply a lvl 10 governor buff to a sector would totally be worthwhile. It seems atleast in the ballpark for being balanced with some tweaking.

I dunno, my whole take on gestalt is that they're supposed to be easier but less versatile to play.

Again.
The problem is that even with 6 jumps available to your sector governor (or local brain node bug) the number of planets he is managing is unpredictable - it could be a couple of them, it could be a couple of dozen. Balancing that with buffing the gestalt governor would be a nightmare. Do you buff them as if you have a few planets or dozens? Where do you set the level for how much of an extra buff the gestalt leaders should have to compensate for their sector forming module having no other functions?

Basically how much better should the gestalt leader be, or what buffs should they get?

 

[Stars_and_Bars]

They honestly just have to create a better sector generator. Personally I'd like it so that every sector had one main core system with planet(s) and then have neighboring systems would be divied up to the closest habitable planet system. Also make governors cheaper to hire and have lower upkeep. Maybe even add some nice governor sector interaction events.

 

[PirateJack]

I think it'd be fine if they just upped the sector generation range to 4. That would make sectors not too common and allow them to cover a good number of worlds.

That way you get the most out of your governors without going overboard and you see a minimum of 1 planet sectors.

It also means that when they expand sectors to become internal political entities that they cover enough ground to pose a serious threat if they rebel.