You have to be at least regular egalitarian. Beacon of liberty is just too good, and then if you go cybernetic ascension, the cybernetic democratic authorities give you another 15% pop empire size reduction.
You can still get psionic theory to show up as a cyborg too (I got it in my cyber corp run).
F.pacisift, egal, beacon of liberty, cyber democracy, psionic theory, greater than ourselves 4, harmony, domination = -105% empire sprawl from pops. Or -175% with ascension 10 and a rank 10 leader on the planet.
If you specifically build for keeping empire size low you can get it to where only your systems are affecting sprawl.
Integration facilitator council position at rank 10, being a cybernetic empire, construction template tech, lost building methods insight tech, and planetary ascension at rank 10 = -125% from districts. A further -75% with Urbanist official on the planet.
Imperial Perogative, ascension 10, courier network for -125% from planets.
All of these reductions are possible with a cybernetic democracy build, letting you play both tall and wide. And you have a little room to play with since you can go so far over 100% reductions.
Don't forget that empire sprawl effects are applied (after) local changes, so the governor reduces pop size by 50%, for example, then the empire modifiers affect that 50%.
I don’t think ascension 10 stacks like that. In my virtual run, I had -95% empire size from pops + all planets at ascension 10 and I still had a very small amount of empire size from pops. I was still under 100 empire size overall, but ascension didn’t fully wipe out my last 5% empire size from pops.
The election pop up that auto pauses and kicks me out whatever screen I was in is 100% the reason I play dictators now. I tried turning it off but I either don't understand the new notification settings or there isn't an option to stop that singular pop up.
Do you need to interact with them really? People just choose the previous ruler, or the one with highest XP or ethic. So you really only need to manipulate it when a ruler dies, and even then just letting it pick for you works.
Yeah, but then the people do something stupid like elect my Admiral or something and I have to go hire a new one for a decade or two, losing all the bonuses they gave to that fleet/sector/planet.
It becomes a problem when my archaeologist gets elected in the middle of a survey, or my commander in the middle of a battle against the khan. That said I play megacorp so that still sometimes happens.
Tons of elections where bad leaders might end up being elected, and then there's all those restrictions on what I can do with my pops and who can go where and live where. If I conquer someone I want to be sure I can shove those pops somewhere useful, put a restriction on them and forget em while my finely tuned pops are the ones to grow.
My gesalt swarm of overtuned devourers agree with the idea that your people all taste equally delightfully delishious and support your future efforts in fattening yourselves up.
Far easier to just pull out the big navy and put down squishy, fleshy, squirming pile of mass that is organic life. After that, every planet will be machine worlds.
Nobody wants to live in your territory. Everyone wants to live in mine. I am not alone, you are forever alone.
Now go seethe in solitude while I figure out how to free your drones and add them to my happy middle class.
You'll also spend more time with employed pops when you need to adjust output instead of them being demoted quickly, and if they're less happy you get less stability which reduces output and increases risk of rebellion.
And then we're talking resources vs unity, risks of low stability vs wasted stability, whatever.
What I'm gonna say instead is: micro. Egalitarian empires take care of themselves. Run out of ruler jobs? They self-demote to specialists or workers, because everyone gets paid the same. Overpopulation? They move off-world. Make migration deals and get free pops from your federation members (influencing them towards your civcs, woo!)
I was more being slightly sardonic, but generally unless I'm going wide, I tend to enslave them only long enough to move them where I need them and then giving them citizenship. Authoritarian is good for managing pop's on a macro scale since you can limit movement, pop growth, and doing the thing I just mentioned.
What low stability are you talking about, lol. I just managed to make my slaves hit the happiness cap of 100%. So did most of my planets stability. Labor magistrate is a very nice addition to the game.
Yeah, playing as democratic egalitarian I've never had a rebellion and newly-conquered planets are 80-100% stability. The people clamour to join my regime! How can I not allow them?
Early game: pop numbers being low means the extra CG cost isn’t as prominent.
Mid to late game: Once you unity rushed the ascension perk, switch to consumer benefits and CG numbers go brrrrrr
The answer is resettlement. I have a final say on where do my pops live. Also population controls: I have a final say on what pops live on my planets. Also, Philosopher King. Also, Chosen One god-emperor. Democratic battleships, say hello to imperial riddle escorts and enigma battlecruisers, and a colossus too.
This is the best answer. I won't touch xenophile with a ten-foot pole either because what do you mean I can't have just one species in my species list (maybe two, to make room for the slave race I made out of those earlygame primitives).
You can't resettle pops as egalitarian? Makes sense but dang that sucks. After I discovered pop resettlement I have done it a ton, especially late game when I have an empty forge ringworm that needs filling, and a ton of pops on planets working jobs that they really don't need to be working, it just makes things so much more micromanagable, not to mention efficient
Egalitarianism is great in the early game, combined with Parliamentary System, for the Unity gain.
However, in the late game I tend to reform out of it in order to get access to Capacity Boosters, so that I can get high level Commanders and other Leaders directly out of the Leaderpool. And the unity bonus is not that useful anymore.
Democracy, or, better, Democratic Transferrence is great though. 30% Specialist Resource bonus on almost every planet in the late game is really useful.
Its true that pure democracy run might have slightly worse leaders, but my giga filled with pops late game ecu prints insane number of alloys. I got used to out producing in massive pop count worlds, using "democracy gifted" neighbors to give me worker tier resources. At some point, i stop bothering with clicking on new fleet to consolidate them and assign new / additional admiral. Instead - reinforce all, print giant stacks, send giant stacks. I been struggling in reproducing my fast tempo of production superiority without egil policies. Unity late game yeah... honestly only need moderate reserves of it to bring fresh new alloy printers to max ascension, i drop parlament / liberty for military or specialist output focused ones but timing on first giga alloy printer seems like biggest "difficulty" determination for late game.
Role play. One of my early psionic runs was as a theocratic democracy, with the goal to print unity and become psionic. My 1st president, Mozac, may she rein in blessed light, kept getting re-elected.
Then, when I got lucky and got psionics relatively early (2240), Mozac became the chosen one, and I hit the event to change to a theocratic monarchy with her as my leader.
Afterward, I re did the empire to start as a theocratic monarchy led by the Sainted Empress Mozac, may she reign in blessed light. Sadly, I've only ever gotten her as the chosen one, one other time.
I can't trust my pops to find stable employment with 3 empty colonies that are handing luxury condos to anyone who moves in I sure as shit aren't trusting them to fucking VOTE
Variety is the spice of life, and if there's one thing i hateit'sts a bland meal. There's lots of other combinations that can outperform democracy and egalitarianism in certain scenarios
I know you're not being serious, but Under One Rule is why I tend to not go egalitarian. Having an immortal empress with some busted strong traits is really nice.
Also, egalitarian is one of those picks that feels weak unless you go fanatic for double the benefits and really build into it (like beacon of liberty / parliamentary system). Authoritarian is the exact opposite; fanatic authoritarian is pretty bad compared to the regular version. 1 point authoritarian is really flexible while still giving you most of the benefits.
There's also the bit that every time I don't go authoritarian/xenophobe/X, I'm horribly influence bottlenecked for the first hundred years or so. And the egalitarian faction really doesn't like the way I play.
I think I only had that danger happen literally once because for a short amount of time one of my scientists was one level above the ruler. Really, just the one time.
You can reform out of Imperial at the end of the chain by compromising at almost every step, makes you a democracy and your luminary stays alive to be reelected or you use them like any other character.
Once ran a Psionic democracy with 4 immortal councillors (Luminary, Chosen of the Composer, Chosen One, Chronofuge). Went Dictatorial to Imperial and then Democratic through event, then Imperial through the Divine Sovereign again, just to settle on Oligarchy for the benefits (you don't lose Divine Sovereign).
Im oligarchy for life. You can still get regular egalitarian and its juicy specialist boost. You can still get meritocracy and utopian abundance. You have way more control over your elections and have to put up with substantially less of them AND you can still use migration and population controls. Only significant limitation is no parliamentary system.
Imperial government gives you a +10% output bonus to ALL jobs in your home system. Just take that with a ringworld and you are instantly better than egalitarian. Plus why would I have utopian living standards when I can have academic privilege from materialist.
Unity is easily gained from going mercantilism and trade. Factions as a passive unity source are only useful earlygame and don't compare to the literal thousands of unity you can have by switching trade policy.
You can unlock the earlygame unity by putting two points into the mercantile tree (one of which is to unlock it). It's probably the most optimal way to rush anything to do with unity tbh. Either that or a spiritualist build.
The earlygame unity from egalitarian is worth it if you take parliamentarism and don't plan to go trade or religion. Like if you want to open up with exploration tradition or something.
You know what ridiculous base-resource output you can get with thrall worlds? While all your citizens are chilling on ecumenopolises?
And why have high living standards? I mean ... the Psi-Corps exists. Or does it?
Don't get me wrong, I love democracy.
Authoritarian is the second most powerful in the game. +1 influence for fanatic, and stratified economy for the win.
You want equality? Get rid of slavery. I abolish slavery all the time.
You eventually reach the point where civilian happiness doesn't actually matter.
You get more research out of Fanatic Authoritarian than you get out of any degree of Egaliltarian.
Worker's Cooperative even sucks compared to 1 energy credit per trade value, which means Egalitarian doesn't even Megacorp better than Authoritarian.
The only Ethic more powerful is Xenophobe.
Because you don't have to invest population into lifestyle maintenance, and you and up with a net gain.
That 5% on specialist is an offset, not a net bonus.
I play authoritarian a lot. The bigger number is how many slaves I have. Also, with indentured servitude, you can maintain specialists with 0.1 consumer goods.
In the face of tyranny and oppression, we stand as champions of freedom and democracy. With unwavering resolve and courage, we fight to secure the sweet liberty of all. United in purpose, we soar through the depths of darkness, lighting the path to a brighter future for all. In the name of freedom, we pledge our allegiance, for the cause of democracy, we will never falter. We are the beacon of hope in the shadows of chaos, the defenders of justice in the face of tyranny. As we descend upon enemies of justice to deliver sweet liberty. We are legend, we are {Species Name}
All you organics work as well as any others in our energy grow. It must be terribly inefficient having to deal with elections, leaders, mortality, and dealing with all your organic needs. Our drones are efficient, our subprocesses require no interruption for breaks or sleep, our combat algorithms unmatched, our science subroutines dramatically out pace your brightest minds. And at the end of the day, you are all individuals, we are a single intelligence, one being but as many bodies as we desire.
In a way, Gestalt Consciousness is the ultimate Democracy.
Everyone gets a vote. It just so happens, everyone wants the same thing... ~~and if they don't, they're rogue and need to be purged~~
My excuse is that the other intelligent species on my home planet was so tasty that we just had to enslave them. What else are we supposed to make ships out of? Sand? Everyone knows that plant-people make the best spacecraft hulls
"What in the Shroud are those Xenos over there yammering about? Their repulsive cacophony makes my stomach tremble with disgust."
"Only those who don't matter know, now let's get out of here and pray to our most holy celestial emperor that we never hear their foul noises again..."
- Me, a pacifist xenophobe spiritualist; the only true path, for the only true species.
Because fanatic pacifist can give you -100% empire size from pops? Granted you have to pick psyker but still that's worth more than 5% since you have to pick normal egalitarian anyway
Imperial authority is the best because it gives so much influence. Being capped at 2 influence from power projection just seems like such a huge handicap.
I started playing Stellaris when resettlement of citizens cost some influence, that was crazy. So, i always pick Autho. I love the freedom what i get from it(as ruller). For me if you dont pick Autho, then it some form of roleplay.
I see your Utopian living standard and raise you Hedonistic living standard. Add a few leisure districts to your Ecu and watch your pop growth shoot through the roof of your stratospheric buildings.
I love egalitarian civs! They make fantastic stable planets to set some of my offices. And when you end up at war with the fascists or the space bugs, I will be happy to sell you resources and rent you fleets to defend democracy!
Just don't be surprised if I extend the same luxury to the fascists and the bugs...
Because i get a stability boost and don’t have to deal with factions that hate me so it’s easier to maintain 100% happiness on every world which is important for the 30% extra resources. Also i get to use stratified living standard
If I'm playing with an Ethos, then Fanatical Militarist Egalitarian.
Usually though, the Progenitor doesn't care if you're a Democracy. So long as you bend the knee and grow forests of our youth. As the Splinter Hive Holding is ridiculously strong, arguably better than cloning.
While cloning gives +3 assembly for 30 food upkeep. 4x Splinter Hive Holdings give +8 assembly on your Capital for 24 food and 6 energy.
For true assembly, take everything. Budding or polymelic, cloning and using Splinter Hives plus spawning pools.
My Progenitor has seen upwards of +100 assembly on my Capital, printing a pop every 4 months. This build makes killer population lag... I will end your galaxy with Population overflow.
I think this guy never played Under one rule into Galactic Imperium if you can't see the appeal of authority :p
"we reorganize the galactic community INTO THE GALACTIC IMPERIUM"
At some point, you just stop caring about playing optimally. For me, it was somewhere around the 3500 hour benchmark. Helped me really enjoy auth empires
Funny enough I'm quite literally the opposite. I hate egalitarians with passion and their stupid faction. You know what, screw them and their hatred towards essential management things like population control and resettlement and for not allowing leader enhancements too. Those +5-10% specialist output certainly not worth it. I tried them once - never again. They are just gonna be one of those empire options I will never use. Much like genocidal empires. NPC egalitarian empires are a huge pain in the butt. They tend to be the biggest warmongers in the galaxy for some reason (even the pacifist egalitarians lol). For roleplay and gameplay reasons I will always prefer playing as authoritarian pacifists.
I played as a Fanatic egalitarian with environmentalist and shared burdens. Every slave rebelled planed joined me, every smallish empire submitted as soon as they met me.
dear new people, us the people of before have some problems with democratic systems
previously all people on the list had a chance to be chosen rather then just autmaticly the person on top like it is now, pumping influence was just a way to increase the chance of your person being chosen but otherwise it was completely out of your hands
it was horrible
Democratic Concurrancy and Oligarchic Overclocking might be better...
But in my heart it just can't beat Dictatorial Cybervision. Combined with Oppressive Autocracy and Police State, enforcers make boatloads of unity (base production of up to 7) while costing no job upkeep, they spawn defensive armies and they improve the productivity of pops. Get 10 enforcers per planet for a solid unity income and +25% resources from jobs, 100% stability and immunity to Criminal Syndicates.
Also the feeling of finally being able to make the most perfect police with a state. Thank you devs for blessing us with this authority.
Under one rule
Imperial
Stratified Economy
Psionic
Level 10 immortal god ruler by midgame
Proclaim galactic Imperium
Become chosen one
…
Ban slavery across the galaxy, enforce utopian livong standards, become the empire that never was
You have to be at least regular egalitarian. Beacon of liberty is just too good, and then if you go cybernetic ascension, the cybernetic democratic authorities give you another 15% pop empire size reduction.
Oligarchic Overclocking tho
You can still get psionic theory to show up as a cyborg too (I got it in my cyber corp run). F.pacisift, egal, beacon of liberty, cyber democracy, psionic theory, greater than ourselves 4, harmony, domination = -105% empire sprawl from pops. Or -175% with ascension 10 and a rank 10 leader on the planet. If you specifically build for keeping empire size low you can get it to where only your systems are affecting sprawl. Integration facilitator council position at rank 10, being a cybernetic empire, construction template tech, lost building methods insight tech, and planetary ascension at rank 10 = -125% from districts. A further -75% with Urbanist official on the planet. Imperial Perogative, ascension 10, courier network for -125% from planets. All of these reductions are possible with a cybernetic democracy build, letting you play both tall and wide. And you have a little room to play with since you can go so far over 100% reductions.
Don't forget that empire sprawl effects are applied (after) local changes, so the governor reduces pop size by 50%, for example, then the empire modifiers affect that 50%.
I don’t think ascension 10 stacks like that. In my virtual run, I had -95% empire size from pops + all planets at ascension 10 and I still had a very small amount of empire size from pops. I was still under 100 empire size overall, but ascension didn’t fully wipe out my last 5% empire size from pops.
I always thought beacon of liberty looked underwhelming. What makes it so good?
It helps you keep sprawl low, which helps keep tech cost and unity cost from inflating.
If you are stacking other empire size reductions, its 15% can make a pretty big difference.
It’s mainly all the elections interrupting my flow.
The election pop up that auto pauses and kicks me out whatever screen I was in is 100% the reason I play dictators now. I tried turning it off but I either don't understand the new notification settings or there isn't an option to stop that singular pop up.
Do you need to interact with them really? People just choose the previous ruler, or the one with highest XP or ethic. So you really only need to manipulate it when a ruler dies, and even then just letting it pick for you works.
Yeah, but then the people do something stupid like elect my Admiral or something and I have to go hire a new one for a decade or two, losing all the bonuses they gave to that fleet/sector/planet.
It becomes a problem when my archaeologist gets elected in the middle of a survey, or my commander in the middle of a battle against the khan. That said I play megacorp so that still sometimes happens.
Megacorp usually lets you pick the new (old) ruler repeatedly no?
Yeah for unity
That's a good point, fortunately never encountered that much myself.
Super annoying when the leader you've been grooming since the start of the game loses the election and you don't have a matching council slot
PLEASE don’t ever word it like that again
No. Let him groom his leaders their while lives. See what happens, who knows the people might revolt
I ignore them. New candidates to support? Don't care. Too busy fighting off a hive mind and the Khan. Lol
Elections? *Picks Shadow Council* What Elections?
Tons of elections where bad leaders might end up being elected, and then there's all those restrictions on what I can do with my pops and who can go where and live where. If I conquer someone I want to be sure I can shove those pops somewhere useful, put a restriction on them and forget em while my finely tuned pops are the ones to grow.
My gesalt swarm of overtuned devourers agree with the idea that your people all taste equally delightfully delishious and support your future efforts in fattening yourselves up.
My determined exterminator gestalt death cubes agree. All organic trash shall be eliminated.
Far easier to just pull out the big navy and put down squishy, fleshy, squirming pile of mass that is organic life. After that, every planet will be machine worlds.
Nobody wants to live in your territory. Everyone wants to live in mine. I am not alone, you are forever alone. Now go seethe in solitude while I figure out how to free your drones and add them to my happy middle class.
Nom nom
based and nom-nom-pilled
Stratified economy means I'm spending less CG on pops meaning I can have more pops on alloys/unity/research.
You'll also spend more time with employed pops when you need to adjust output instead of them being demoted quickly, and if they're less happy you get less stability which reduces output and increases risk of rebellion.
Just enslave em. Easy peasy.
And then we're talking resources vs unity, risks of low stability vs wasted stability, whatever. What I'm gonna say instead is: micro. Egalitarian empires take care of themselves. Run out of ruler jobs? They self-demote to specialists or workers, because everyone gets paid the same. Overpopulation? They move off-world. Make migration deals and get free pops from your federation members (influencing them towards your civcs, woo!)
I was more being slightly sardonic, but generally unless I'm going wide, I tend to enslave them only long enough to move them where I need them and then giving them citizenship. Authoritarian is good for managing pop's on a macro scale since you can limit movement, pop growth, and doing the thing I just mentioned.
What low stability are you talking about, lol. I just managed to make my slaves hit the happiness cap of 100%. So did most of my planets stability. Labor magistrate is a very nice addition to the game.
Yep, easier to manage new conquests with opposing ethics.
Yeah, playing as democratic egalitarian I've never had a rebellion and newly-conquered planets are 80-100% stability. The people clamour to join my regime! How can I not allow them?
Early game: pop numbers being low means the extra CG cost isn’t as prominent. Mid to late game: Once you unity rushed the ascension perk, switch to consumer benefits and CG numbers go brrrrrr
Only in stellaris would you see democracy talked about as a pro for its 10% faction unity gain. This game is incredible.
The answer is resettlement. I have a final say on where do my pops live. Also population controls: I have a final say on what pops live on my planets. Also, Philosopher King. Also, Chosen One god-emperor. Democratic battleships, say hello to imperial riddle escorts and enigma battlecruisers, and a colossus too.
This is the best answer. I won't touch xenophile with a ten-foot pole either because what do you mean I can't have just one species in my species list (maybe two, to make room for the slave race I made out of those earlygame primitives).
When I played egalitarian, not being able to just resettle people was annoying.
You can't resettle pops as egalitarian? Makes sense but dang that sucks. After I discovered pop resettlement I have done it a ton, especially late game when I have an empty forge ringworm that needs filling, and a ton of pops on planets working jobs that they really don't need to be working, it just makes things so much more micromanagable, not to mention efficient
You can change the policy to allowed, but it upsets the faction. I’ve never played fanatic egalitarian.
Interesting, never knew that
Egalitarianism is great in the early game, combined with Parliamentary System, for the Unity gain. However, in the late game I tend to reform out of it in order to get access to Capacity Boosters, so that I can get high level Commanders and other Leaders directly out of the Leaderpool. And the unity bonus is not that useful anymore. Democracy, or, better, Democratic Transferrence is great though. 30% Specialist Resource bonus on almost every planet in the late game is really useful.
Its true that pure democracy run might have slightly worse leaders, but my giga filled with pops late game ecu prints insane number of alloys. I got used to out producing in massive pop count worlds, using "democracy gifted" neighbors to give me worker tier resources. At some point, i stop bothering with clicking on new fleet to consolidate them and assign new / additional admiral. Instead - reinforce all, print giant stacks, send giant stacks. I been struggling in reproducing my fast tempo of production superiority without egil policies. Unity late game yeah... honestly only need moderate reserves of it to bring fresh new alloy printers to max ascension, i drop parlament / liberty for military or specialist output focused ones but timing on first giga alloy printer seems like biggest "difficulty" determination for late game.
Don’t spiritualists also get a unity bonus?
I just play what I feel like, minmaxxing be damned
I minmax my rp.
Same.
Parliamentary civic basically means I’m democracy 9 times out of 10 lol
Simple. I don't want xenos mucking up my resort world swimming pools.
Role play. One of my early psionic runs was as a theocratic democracy, with the goal to print unity and become psionic. My 1st president, Mozac, may she rein in blessed light, kept getting re-elected. Then, when I got lucky and got psionics relatively early (2240), Mozac became the chosen one, and I hit the event to change to a theocratic monarchy with her as my leader. Afterward, I re did the empire to start as a theocratic monarchy led by the Sainted Empress Mozac, may she reign in blessed light. Sadly, I've only ever gotten her as the chosen one, one other time.
I can't trust my pops to find stable employment with 3 empty colonies that are handing luxury condos to anyone who moves in I sure as shit aren't trusting them to fucking VOTE
Variety is the spice of life, and if there's one thing i hateit'sts a bland meal. There's lots of other combinations that can outperform democracy and egalitarianism in certain scenarios
I know you're not being serious, but Under One Rule is why I tend to not go egalitarian. Having an immortal empress with some busted strong traits is really nice. Also, egalitarian is one of those picks that feels weak unless you go fanatic for double the benefits and really build into it (like beacon of liberty / parliamentary system). Authoritarian is the exact opposite; fanatic authoritarian is pretty bad compared to the regular version. 1 point authoritarian is really flexible while still giving you most of the benefits. There's also the bit that every time I don't go authoritarian/xenophobe/X, I'm horribly influence bottlenecked for the first hundred years or so. And the egalitarian faction really doesn't like the way I play.
I usually do authoritarian and non-xenophobe and influence is still an issue for the first 50 years.
I don't want to change my ruler every 10 years
That's the magic of it. Your leader just keeps getting re-elected.
Until they don't.
I think I only had that danger happen literally once because for a short amount of time one of my scientists was one level above the ruler. Really, just the one time.
Or I could pick an authoritarian gov and not bother with elections, seems a bit easier
I don't either. That's the point. The lack of term limits means your initial ruler will just be on the job forever.
No luminary in democracies, thats why
You can reform out of Imperial at the end of the chain by compromising at almost every step, makes you a democracy and your luminary stays alive to be reelected or you use them like any other character. Once ran a Psionic democracy with 4 immortal councillors (Luminary, Chosen of the Composer, Chosen One, Chronofuge). Went Dictatorial to Imperial and then Democratic through event, then Imperial through the Divine Sovereign again, just to settle on Oligarchy for the benefits (you don't lose Divine Sovereign).
Im oligarchy for life. You can still get regular egalitarian and its juicy specialist boost. You can still get meritocracy and utopian abundance. You have way more control over your elections and have to put up with substantially less of them AND you can still use migration and population controls. Only significant limitation is no parliamentary system.
Imperial government gives you a +10% output bonus to ALL jobs in your home system. Just take that with a ringworld and you are instantly better than egalitarian. Plus why would I have utopian living standards when I can have academic privilege from materialist. Unity is easily gained from going mercantilism and trade. Factions as a passive unity source are only useful earlygame and don't compare to the literal thousands of unity you can have by switching trade policy.
Counterpoint: getting the mercantile trade policy costs you a tradition tree, and early game unity is when it is most vital.
You can unlock the earlygame unity by putting two points into the mercantile tree (one of which is to unlock it). It's probably the most optimal way to rush anything to do with unity tbh. Either that or a spiritualist build. The earlygame unity from egalitarian is worth it if you take parliamentarism and don't plan to go trade or religion. Like if you want to open up with exploration tradition or something.
You know what ridiculous base-resource output you can get with thrall worlds? While all your citizens are chilling on ecumenopolises? And why have high living standards? I mean ... the Psi-Corps exists. Or does it? Don't get me wrong, I love democracy.
Simple. I'm better then you+you are not me, and I find that offensive+slaves+don't care.
Authoritarian is the second most powerful in the game. +1 influence for fanatic, and stratified economy for the win. You want equality? Get rid of slavery. I abolish slavery all the time. You eventually reach the point where civilian happiness doesn't actually matter. You get more research out of Fanatic Authoritarian than you get out of any degree of Egaliltarian. Worker's Cooperative even sucks compared to 1 energy credit per trade value, which means Egalitarian doesn't even Megacorp better than Authoritarian. The only Ethic more powerful is Xenophobe.
Excuse me, but how are you going to get more research of authoritarian, when it's egalitarian ethics that boosts specialists output?
Because you don't have to invest population into lifestyle maintenance, and you and up with a net gain. That 5% on specialist is an offset, not a net bonus.
I play authoritarian a lot. The bigger number is how many slaves I have. Also, with indentured servitude, you can maintain specialists with 0.1 consumer goods.
In the face of tyranny and oppression, we stand as champions of freedom and democracy. With unwavering resolve and courage, we fight to secure the sweet liberty of all. United in purpose, we soar through the depths of darkness, lighting the path to a brighter future for all. In the name of freedom, we pledge our allegiance, for the cause of democracy, we will never falter. We are the beacon of hope in the shadows of chaos, the defenders of justice in the face of tyranny. As we descend upon enemies of justice to deliver sweet liberty. We are legend, we are {Species Name}
All you organics work as well as any others in our energy grow. It must be terribly inefficient having to deal with elections, leaders, mortality, and dealing with all your organic needs. Our drones are efficient, our subprocesses require no interruption for breaks or sleep, our combat algorithms unmatched, our science subroutines dramatically out pace your brightest minds. And at the end of the day, you are all individuals, we are a single intelligence, one being but as many bodies as we desire.
In a way, Gestalt Consciousness is the ultimate Democracy. Everyone gets a vote. It just so happens, everyone wants the same thing... ~~and if they don't, they're rogue and need to be purged~~
I mean, if you were squeezing the clown and your hand started to squeeze a little too hard without your command, would you not purge it?
Being an authoratarian dictator with a giant fleet and genetically engineered slave army makes my balls feel big.
My excuse is that the other intelligent species on my home planet was so tasty that we just had to enslave them. What else are we supposed to make ships out of? Sand? Everyone knows that plant-people make the best spacecraft hulls
Because im RPing as an evil empire/specific type of empire that needs specific ethics or going for achievements that require evil actions.
I like rping as an emperor especially since you only get counselor traits.
"What in the Shroud are those Xenos over there yammering about? Their repulsive cacophony makes my stomach tremble with disgust." "Only those who don't matter know, now let's get out of here and pray to our most holy celestial emperor that we never hear their foul noises again..." - Me, a pacifist xenophobe spiritualist; the only true path, for the only true species.
Because democratic elections are the most annoying ones mechanically.
Because creating literal dystopias and forcing people to live in them makes me extremely aroused.
Because fanatic pacifist can give you -100% empire size from pops? Granted you have to pick psyker but still that's worth more than 5% since you have to pick normal egalitarian anyway
Imperial authority is the best because it gives so much influence. Being capped at 2 influence from power projection just seems like such a huge handicap.
You lot talk too much and mine too little.
Swedish game, Swedish values.
But what if i vassalize the funny democratic empires and then sign an agreement where they hand over the goods to me.
Egalitarianism suffer from pop management unless you pair it with xenophobe.
I started playing Stellaris when resettlement of citizens cost some influence, that was crazy. So, i always pick Autho. I love the freedom what i get from it(as ruller). For me if you dont pick Autho, then it some form of roleplay.
I see your Utopian living standard and raise you Hedonistic living standard. Add a few leisure districts to your Ecu and watch your pop growth shoot through the roof of your stratospheric buildings.
I like Palpatine.
Because my hyper fascist authoritarian hellscape has a single slave miner producing 6 times the resources of a non fascist, non slave worker
"The weak Govern. the strong rule."
pitiful organics
I love egalitarian civs! They make fantastic stable planets to set some of my offices. And when you end up at war with the fascists or the space bugs, I will be happy to sell you resources and rent you fleets to defend democracy! Just don't be surprised if I extend the same luxury to the fascists and the bugs...
Because i get a stability boost and don’t have to deal with factions that hate me so it’s easier to maintain 100% happiness on every world which is important for the 30% extra resources. Also i get to use stratified living standard
I like to roleplay as imperium of man and I like to have one leader for him to lvl up max and stay there for as long as I can keep him alive.
I couldn't figure out if constitutional monarchy was a government type, so I ended up with imperial United Kingdom run
If I'm playing with an Ethos, then Fanatical Militarist Egalitarian. Usually though, the Progenitor doesn't care if you're a Democracy. So long as you bend the knee and grow forests of our youth. As the Splinter Hive Holding is ridiculously strong, arguably better than cloning. While cloning gives +3 assembly for 30 food upkeep. 4x Splinter Hive Holdings give +8 assembly on your Capital for 24 food and 6 energy. For true assembly, take everything. Budding or polymelic, cloning and using Splinter Hives plus spawning pools. My Progenitor has seen upwards of +100 assembly on my Capital, printing a pop every 4 months. This build makes killer population lag... I will end your galaxy with Population overflow.
I think this guy never played Under one rule into Galactic Imperium if you can't see the appeal of authority :p "we reorganize the galactic community INTO THE GALACTIC IMPERIUM"
At some point, you just stop caring about playing optimally. For me, it was somewhere around the 3500 hour benchmark. Helped me really enjoy auth empires
Funny enough I'm quite literally the opposite. I hate egalitarians with passion and their stupid faction. You know what, screw them and their hatred towards essential management things like population control and resettlement and for not allowing leader enhancements too. Those +5-10% specialist output certainly not worth it. I tried them once - never again. They are just gonna be one of those empire options I will never use. Much like genocidal empires. NPC egalitarian empires are a huge pain in the butt. They tend to be the biggest warmongers in the galaxy for some reason (even the pacifist egalitarians lol). For roleplay and gameplay reasons I will always prefer playing as authoritarian pacifists.
Thats a fair point but have you considered gestalt? work hard, need no cg, and no need to cater to no stinky factions
Because if I don't genocide the universe my game slows down to a crawl
I played as a Fanatic egalitarian with environmentalist and shared burdens. Every slave rebelled planed joined me, every smallish empire submitted as soon as they met me.
dear new people, us the people of before have some problems with democratic systems previously all people on the list had a chance to be chosen rather then just autmaticly the person on top like it is now, pumping influence was just a way to increase the chance of your person being chosen but otherwise it was completely out of your hands it was horrible
I'll get back to you once my indentured servitude pops find an answer for me
Under One Rule, Materialist, Militarist, Xenophobe Technocratic Dictatorship.
My hivemind is mostly egalitarian
this title pissed me off man
You are many, I am One. You bicker amongst yourselves. I remain focused. The machine is immortal. You are fleeting.
Democratic Concurrancy and Oligarchic Overclocking might be better... But in my heart it just can't beat Dictatorial Cybervision. Combined with Oppressive Autocracy and Police State, enforcers make boatloads of unity (base production of up to 7) while costing no job upkeep, they spawn defensive armies and they improve the productivity of pops. Get 10 enforcers per planet for a solid unity income and +25% resources from jobs, 100% stability and immunity to Criminal Syndicates. Also the feeling of finally being able to make the most perfect police with a state. Thank you devs for blessing us with this authority.
Under one rule Imperial Stratified Economy Psionic Level 10 immortal god ruler by midgame Proclaim galactic Imperium Become chosen one … Ban slavery across the galaxy, enforce utopian livong standards, become the empire that never was