Having survived the walls of text above, what are your thoughts on the topic?
Agree, disagree, alternate suggestions, better ideas?
I think you're saying two true and accurate things:
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Ethics try to do too much. Ethics currently try to touch many parts of the game, and try to model multiple conflicting variants of an Ethos. Interactions between Ethics with conflicting flavor implications are ignored.
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Xenophobe and Xenophile aren't great as Ethics. We have some amazing Xenophobe Civics, each of which gives distinct and interesting play styles -- Selected Kinship is both Phobe and Phile, Pompous Purists are very fun in a diplomatic galaxy, Fanatic Purifiers are the best genocidal with a lot of fun Origin interactions (e.g. Necrophage), Inward Perfection is a distinct way to play even if it's showing its age and could use a glow-up, etc. -- but the base Phobe package is just an unfriendly target of mutual rivalries and early DoWs. The basic Phile is just Federation bait and quickly becomes part of a power bloc while having no agenda.
It would be viable to trim down Ethics and put more fun stuff in specific Civics, and it might be great to remove Phobe and Phile as Ethics and put their effects into policies and Civics.
Xenophile Civics could be buffed up to get the benefits of the Ethic, like
Free Havens could give a diplomacy bonus and +% TV from pacts in addition to the immigration bonus, and the "All Refugees Welcome" and "No Purge Ever" could be part of the Civic instead of the Ethic. More Phile Civics should be added, too, like an Auth Phile mechanic ("We love xenos. They're so cute that we can't stop buying them!")
Xenophobe Civics could buff their current mechanics, and some new Phobe Civics could be added for any cases the current Civics don't cover, but overall the current Phobe Civics are pretty great.
Moving the effects of the current (poor) Ethics into (better) Civics would make room for a new axis.
I don't like the Realist - Idealist axis proposed. It feels too much like a government policy which isn't shared by the people. Idealistic governments could exist, and Realist governments could exist, but it's not a thing that I would expect to see in the population.
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As a replacement Ethical Axis, what I'd propose is
Ascetic - Hedonic.
- Ascetic pops use fewer Amenities, but are harder to distract. You can't manipulate them with bread & circuses. They are cheaper to maintain, but more difficult to manage if they become unhappy. Temporary hardships might be easier at first, but they have a hard breaking point.
- Hedonic pops use more Amenities, but are easier to dis--
Hey is that a new circus?! Their base happiness is higher as long as their amenities are supplied. They can be induced to adapt more easily, albeit at cost. Temporary hardships are immediately felt, but they hae a soft breaking point.
The key thing is that neither is objectively wrong, but they disgust each other and can't get along, and empires with one or the other will look different and play different.