What if world designations were gated behind traditions?

[Tannhäuser Cake]

It has previously been argued, several times by different posters, that the special world designations should be gated behind traditions instead of technologies. Some purported advantages of the change are that:

• Players who want a specific special designation are guaranteed to get it, instead of being helplessly at the mercy of random chance.
• The traditions trees with special world designations would become more valuable and distinct.
• It would help differentiate empires more, make them feel more different, based on their cultural choices. Currently every empire can get and use Penal Colonies and Resort Worlds.
• It reduces the risk of players only too late gaining the ability to use the special designations, after they have already developed all available worlds. If they are part of a tradition tree that the player intends to pick, players can prepare by setting aside a world (and also have the option of picking the tradition tree earlier).
• It makes more sense to gate the special world designations behind traditions, because they do not fundamentally represent any new scientific discovery. They are rather an expression of already existing sociocultural phenomena, just on an eccentric scale. This makes them a better fit for traditions.
• One special designation, Gestation World, is in fact already gated behind a tradition rather than a technology. It would be consistent if the rest of the special designations were the same.

My impression is that players generally seem to view the suggestion favourably, and I cannot recall anyone really opposing it (but feel free to vehemently disagree with a firebrand dissertation).

Edit: withdrawing the following thought, but recommend reading the alternative suggestion in posts #3 and #4.

However, I would now like to discuss an extension of the idea. If eccentric world-wide purpose alignments are suitable as tradition-unlocked abilities, could that also extend to the other existing world designations? One hypothetical design could look like this:

WORLD DESIGNATIONS​	TRADITION TREES​	DLC TRADITION TREES​
Colony	(default option)
Empire Capital	(default option)
> Forge Capital	Domination, Prosperity	Statecraft
> Factory Capital	Domination, Prosperity	Statecraft
> Trade Capital	Domination, Mercantile	Statecraft
Rural World	Expansion, Adaptability
> Generator World	Expansion
> Mining World	Expansion
> Agri-World	Expansion	Domestication
Industrial World	Prosperity, Adaptability
> Forge World	Prosperity
> Factory World	Prosperity
> Refinery World	Prosperity
Urban World	Mercantile, Adaptability
> Unification/Ecclesiastical Center	Harmony, Diplomacy	Politics
> Tech-World	Discovery	Archivism
> Fortress World	Supremacy	Unyielding, Enmity
Resort World	Mercantile, Diplomacy
Penal Colony	Domination
Thrall-World	Domination
Gestation World	-	Cybernetics (Assimilators only)

In the table above, the allocation principles were basically:

• Empire Capital and Colony remain available for all (Colony loses the population restriction).
  • All worlds have a designation and must have at least one option available.
  • This also emphasises the power relationship and imperial nature of the interstellar states in Stellaris, though in reality it will not take long for players to unlock their first alternatives.
• No designation in the base game may require a DLC tradition tree. DLC tradition trees are matched with thematically appropriate designations, where they make sense as alternative requirements.
• Expansion unlocks all basic resource designations.
• Prosperity unlocks all industrial designations, including Forge Capital and Factory Capital.
• Mercantile unlocks Urban World and Trade Capital, as well as Resort World.
• Harmony unlocks Unification/Ecclesiastical World.
• Discovery unlocks Tech-World.
• Supremacy unlocks Fortress World.
• Adaptability unlocks all "generalist" designations (Rural World, Urban World, Industrial World).
• Domination unlocks all Capital designations, as well as Penal Colony and Thrall-World.
• Diplomacy unlocks Unification/Ecclesiastical World, as that was the closest approximation, as well as Resort World.

Some alternatives:

• Diplomacy could unlock all Capital designations, as well as Resort World, making it more of a "nicer parallel" to Domination.
• Harmony could unlock all urban-type designations, while Diplomacy unlocks specifically Unification/Ecclesiastical World.
• Aptitude could unlock Unification/Ecclesiastical World designations.
• Subterfuge could unlock Tech-World designations.
• Ascension path traditions could unlock appropriate resource designations.
• The model could also be complemented with a new Mixed/Balanced/Regular/Unspecialised World designation that would be available as a post-Colony option for all.
• (Perhaps also "Sector Capital" and "Core World" designations, or a revamped Capital designation that is used by both Empire and Sector capitals, but that would be a topic for an upgraded sector system.)

What are your thoughts?

Should the special world designations be gated behind traditions instead of technologies?

Does it make sense that world designations would not be available from the beginning, and would need to be unlocked?
Should general world designations be gated behind traditions?

If yes to both, are there better alternatives to the draft above?

 

[Calvax]

General world designations absolutely not. We shouldn’t have to take specific trees just for things as basic as agriworlds or forge capitals. I don’t see what benefit it would bring to the game or what problem that solves.

Penal, thrall, resort etc I could see an argument for. But honestly I only tentatively prefer that over the current system because they appear so late in the tech tree they’re basically never of use.

 

[Gundabadguy]

Aren't all the world designations already unlocked at the beginning? (This isn't counting the ones like resort world/penal colony)

I think rather than gating designations behind certain trees, it would be better if those trees boosted the effects of a certain designation like an ascension

 

[BookHermit]

I think rather than gating designations behind certain trees, it would be better if those trees boosted the effects of a certain designation like an ascension

I do like that idea.

The basic designations are just resource colonies, and those as an idea pre-date capitalism as they were the entire drive of colonialism (settle a colony, colony sends goods back to the capital, the capital does stuff with them, whole Mercantalism thing about population being a measure of nations wealth and centralized manufacturing and control).

But having Discovery as a closer give a boost to Tech worlds makes sense. Mercantile giving a boost to Trade worlds, Supremacy and/or Domination boosting Stronghold worlds, etc.

Changing them would need balance (along with a lot of other new 4.0 mechanics), but would give traditions a little more impact and influence over the shape of your empire and also open up the space for new designations drawn from the Traditions like a Statecraft world designation as an Embassy world that maybe gave civilians located on that world a way to generate immigration draw & diplomatic weight for Galactic Senate heavy run. Or something similar from a Rivalry world designation that was a Propaganda world that reduced war weariness and improved empire happiness while at war with a rival based on civilian output or something similar.

It could also have interesting outcomes, like an Archivism related Archive world that would give a bonus to a Galactic Archive in orbit around it and an alternate place to put those Archeo Research buildings if you don't have a Relic world in your empire. So you'd have a choice then to build the Galactic Archive around your capital or delay it until you got a colony up to a enough population to build the archive there and designate that an Archive world.