Civic idea: Mass Consumerism

[Cleaving3]

I’ve had an idea for a civic for a while, and I think that this could be a neat addition to the game.

Mass consumerism would be a living standard based civic not unlike Shared Burdens (Ironically) or oppressive autocracy.

I would require your empire both NOT be fanatically authoritarian, and NOT be Imperial. (Additionally not have pleasure seekers or shared burdens etc.)
Here’s my pretty rudimentary idea for what it would do:

-Forces living standard: Mass consumerism
-Home planet starts with consumer goods factory
-Official leader capacity +1
-War exhaustion gain +15%
-Trade value from jobs +5%

Mass consumerism living standard:
Leaders:
1.25 CG +10 Happiness
Specialists:
1 CG +5 Happiness
Workers:
.75 CG +5 Happiness

You may be thinking one of a few things; either that the living standard sounds awful or that It’s too similar to Shared burdens/Pleasure seekers.

And I’d like to state my case:
The purpose of shared burdens is to be the most economical way to make your population generally happy, without having to spend all of the CGs on Utopian abundance. The purpose of Mass Consumerism is not that, as it is very expensive relative to Shared Burdens.
Additionally, Pleasure seekers is a way to make your population VERY happy, without having to be egalitarian, with the problem of its massive cost. Mass consumerism doesn’t attempt to fill this either, because of its very lackluster happiness bonus (Only +5 to workers relative to decent conditions)

The purpose of Mass Consumerism is trade value.
The trade value from living standards from mass consumerism should be very high, maybe even double what you get from Decent Conditions to justify its civic slot.

I’m very interested in your thoughts and refinements before I officially suggest this.

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

The costliest Living Standard in the game is Utopian Abundance at 1 CG per pop regardless of Strata. You're proposing roughly as much(0.75 as opposed to 1 for Workers) but 1.25 for Rulers(hence more) but for half the benefit of Utopian Abundance(75% less on Specialists/Workers). Secondly, you mention nothing about Slaves(they're a strata), Political Power, Trade value per pop(the whole point behind this I would assume and yet you don't mention anything regarding this, Utopian Abundance sets it to 0.50 per pop so for this to actually mean something, you'd have to make it 1 or even higher to justify that CG upkeep), Unemployment penalties(if any) and whether they even produce anything when Unemployed.

As for the Civic, +15% War Exhaustion is a malus, not a buff(think you meant -15%). You could also add a +10% Trade Value from Jobs function to the Living Standard like Academic Privilege does for Researchers. +Trade from Jobs is far more impactful than +5% Trade Value on the Civic. Overtuned Cyborgs can get +75% Trade Value but if we take this Civic, we could push it higher or have the Civic replace one of the Traits. Also, one final thing, this would probably be best under a Corporate Authority or a MegaCorp Civic given the emphasis on Trade Value. That is unless your intent is to push for Trade Value in a non-MegaCorp setup.

 

[Bitzo]

One niche interaction could be like a -50 opinion to and from Environmentalist empires since it's flavor text explicitly states they are about limiting consumerism.

As for the living standard being all about Trade Value, it would have to beat out Chemical Bliss, Utopian Abundance and Decadent Lifestyle with their 0.5 TV from Living Standards across all strata by a wide enough margin for the cost to be worth it to build around it (probably alongside Gospel of the Masses, Resort Worlds and Corporate Neurocommerce). I'm not good enough at running the numbers to suggest any specific amounts though.

 

[Cleaving3]

The costliest Living Standard in the game is Utopian Abundance at 1 CG per pop regardless of Strata. You're proposing roughly as much(0.75 as opposed to 1 for Workers) but 1.25 for Rulers(hence more) but for half the benefit of Utopian Abundance(75% less on Specialists/Workers). Secondly, you mention nothing about Slaves(they're a strata), Political Power, Trade value per pop(the whole point behind this I would assume and yet you don't mention anything regarding this, Utopian Abundance sets it to 0.50 per pop so for this to actually mean something, you'd have to make it 1 or even higher to justify that CG upkeep), Unemployment penalties(if any) and whether they even produce anything when Unemployed.

As for the Civic, +15% War Exhaustion is a malus, not a buff(think you meant -15%). You could also add a +10% Trade Value from Jobs function to the Living Standard like Academic Privilege does for Researchers. +Trade from Jobs is far more impactful than +5% Trade Value on the Civic. Overtuned Cyborgs can get +75% Trade Value but if we take this Civic, we could push it higher or have the Civic replace one of the Traits. Also, one final thing, this would probably be best under a Corporate Authority or a MegaCorp Civic given the emphasis on Trade Value. That is unless your intent is to push for Trade Value in a non-MegaCorp setup.

1: Slaves (logically) cannot live under mass consumerism, the Standard of Living is only forced on non-slaves
2:I wasn’t sure on political power
3:Trade value per pop is mentioned, just not with specific numbers, but should have the highest trade output of any living standard
4:I need to add unemployment penalties, thank you
5: The war exhaustion malus is intentional, consumerist societies don’t handle total war very well
6:Good Idea on the trade from jobs
7: I mostly intend this for regular empires and megacorps

Thank you for the input!

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

1: Slaves (logically) cannot live under mass consumerism, the Standard of Living is only forced on non-slaves
2:I wasn’t sure on political power
3:Trade value per pop is mentioned, just not with specific numbers, but should have the highest trade output of any living standard
4:I need to add unemployment penalties, thank you
5: The war exhaustion malus is intentional, consumerist societies don’t handle total war very well
6:Good Idea on the trade from jobs
7: I mostly intend this for regular empires and megacorps

Thank you for the input!

Thing is Slaves can exist under your Civic because you didn't forbid Ethics that would permit it(Authoritarian being one). Egalitarian forbids Slavery, hence why theres no need to mention Slave perks on Shared Burdens or Utopian Abundance because Slavery is outlawed. Political Power is worth mentioning because that dictates how Planet Stability via Pop Happiness happens to break down. Pops with more Political Power have a higher weight towards Planet Stability and corresponding Faction influence(and Unity generated!). Trade Value per Pop should be mentioned explicitly, otherwise how can we judge the CG cost? I would recommend upwards of 1.5, if not 2 per Pop to truly make it impactful. I myself am proposing an overhaul to Shared Burdens that would, if adopted, would drastically buff Living Standards via its Councilor post. It would multiplicatively stack with Pacifist Culture Workers, thereby pushing TV on Utopian Abundance from 0.50 to, on average, 1.3 or a 160% increase(going as high as 180% in a Holy Covenant). Meaning if you want your Civic to stand out, you'll need something at the numbers I quoted. That way if you opt to do Fanatic Pacifist with it, the impact from Culture Workers would be .90 to 1.20 TV bump(going as high as 1.20 or 1.60 in a Holy Covenant but I doubt you'll be in one in lieu of a Trade League).

Given that they don't take war very well, I would assume a lack of employment would certainly displease them immensely(-60% to -80%). The Trade from Jobs perk could be whatever you decide but I wouldn't go beyond +25% so that it doesn't outshine Thrifty or other Trade Traits. I would also try to pick between Normal Government Authorities or MegaCorps since if you're a Corporate Authority, your Civics are completely separate(and sometimes vastly different) from normal individualistic Civics.

 

[Cleaving3]

Mass consumerism living standard v2:
Leaders:
1.3 CG +10 Happiness +4 political power
Produces 2 trade value
Specialists:
1 CG +5 Happiness +3 political power
Produces 2 trade value
Workers:
.8 CG +5 Happiness +2 political power
Produces 1.5 trade value
Slaves:
.5 CG -5 Happiness
Produces .5 trade value
Unemployment penalties:
-60 Happiness

 

[Cosmic Fishering Fleet]

I'd suggest ban fanatic militarist empires as well.

 

[Lorenerd11]

What would this do that Pleasure Seekers doesn't. It feels like basically the same thing.

 

[Cleaving3]

What would this do that Pleasure Seekers doesn't. It feels like basically the same thing.

This is addressed within the original post, but the purpose of this is trade value, while the purpose of pleasure seekers is happiness and amenities.
(Also it’s compatible with slavery)

 

[cryptkeeper]

Merchant guilds is for tradevalue, if anything I rather a civic like this get rolled into it or megacorps in general, it is kinda weird megacorps don't have their own kinds of living standards.