So this thing dawned on me in a moment of going to the fridge for a beer.
How will the game treat democratic or like minded empires using WMDs early on in a war (from your own empire view)?
A democratic nation that is usually peacefull would likely have a high amount of civil unrest if it goes around throwing WMDs willy nilly at the first month of war.
So it dawned on me that WMDs (from the democratic POV) should be deterrents and only be brought in if its last resort (being wiped out), "M.A.D" (the other guy did it first so we are free to go) or the war has run for a serious long time and can't be resolved quickly and war exhaustion (assuming there is such a thing) is tremendeously high and no one wants more soldiers in bodybags.
So if the democratic empire found itself at war with an empire run by a dictator the democrats couldn't just with nukes and win despite perhaps that being the "cheapest" option in terms of own resourses. Because their own people would oppose this horrid thought.
The democrats would only be allowed to use WMDs if the enemy used it first or war exhaustion is really high. Could tie in with modes of war allowed where relatively low defcon level is limited to minor skirmishes and defending borders from raiders that could escalate into full scale wars if a diplomatic solution could not be found to a skirmish that happened.
A nation could have sent a minor fleet on a scavenging hunt, general exploration or any other (perhaps) peacefull purpose but might have stumbled upon border guards that initially tried to turn the intruders away but the situation somehow got out of hand.
Could open a plethora of possibilities for events that would spice up the gameplay and throw you into wars that you had no chance to avoid. The empire that lost ships might wow revenge or back down, and the offending empire might or might not offer reparations etc. that could turn the dice in favour of war or peace.
Hope I explained it well enough, but would like some deterrent from simply just going WMD crazy "because you can".
Obviously a player can work around the negatives in own empire, might even use it to force a change or mentality in your population, but if you roleplay the "good guys" it would be an interesting barrier.
How will the game treat democratic or like minded empires using WMDs early on in a war (from your own empire view)?
A democratic nation that is usually peacefull would likely have a high amount of civil unrest if it goes around throwing WMDs willy nilly at the first month of war.
So it dawned on me that WMDs (from the democratic POV) should be deterrents and only be brought in if its last resort (being wiped out), "M.A.D" (the other guy did it first so we are free to go) or the war has run for a serious long time and can't be resolved quickly and war exhaustion (assuming there is such a thing) is tremendeously high and no one wants more soldiers in bodybags.
So if the democratic empire found itself at war with an empire run by a dictator the democrats couldn't just with nukes and win despite perhaps that being the "cheapest" option in terms of own resourses. Because their own people would oppose this horrid thought.
The democrats would only be allowed to use WMDs if the enemy used it first or war exhaustion is really high. Could tie in with modes of war allowed where relatively low defcon level is limited to minor skirmishes and defending borders from raiders that could escalate into full scale wars if a diplomatic solution could not be found to a skirmish that happened.
A nation could have sent a minor fleet on a scavenging hunt, general exploration or any other (perhaps) peacefull purpose but might have stumbled upon border guards that initially tried to turn the intruders away but the situation somehow got out of hand.
Could open a plethora of possibilities for events that would spice up the gameplay and throw you into wars that you had no chance to avoid. The empire that lost ships might wow revenge or back down, and the offending empire might or might not offer reparations etc. that could turn the dice in favour of war or peace.
Hope I explained it well enough, but would like some deterrent from simply just going WMD crazy "because you can".
Obviously a player can work around the negatives in own empire, might even use it to force a change or mentality in your population, but if you roleplay the "good guys" it would be an interesting barrier.
Maybe Democracy in game would make POP reactions more important. Excited to see the political mechanics!
