Problems Outline
Reasons behind this
- Factions feel too powerful especially while stacking bonuses and Political Power provided by High Living Standards.
- High Living Standards also turn Civilian jobs into beastly source of Unity.
- Factions in their current state completely invalidate a job type - Bureucrats.
- Factions stacking also completely invalidates alternative playstyles such as Slavery-oriented one. Saving on some CGs vs being able to not spend jobs to produce Unity is an easy pick.
- Years after Administration Rework, Bureucrats feel like a weak, luxury job which at best you put on your 5th or 6th planet - instead of core part of your empire.
Reasons behind this
- Introduction of Civilians & Dormant species trait made high living standards powerful.
- Change made to Factions long time ago (scaling Unity output with Pops and their Political Power) allows Factions to have very high base output difficult to match.
- Bureucrat jobs are quite weak when compared to Factions or other Jobs. They have high upkeep, produce not much of Unity and there is very limited support for them (Traits, Planetary Designations, Buildings are quite weak).
- Additionally - Bureucrat replacement jobs are weird at times. Especially Corporate Prosperity Preacher with even less Unity.
- Reduce Political Power of Egalitarian Living Standards (500% -> 250%; 300% -> 150%). Consider lowering Political Power across all Living Standards.
- Note: Unity output of Factions is already at 0.05 in the formula - it is the Political Power which inflates the final result.
- Make Utopian Abundance no longer add Unity / Research production to Civilians.
- To preserve this gameplay loop - make Pleasure Seekers replace Civilians with Hedonists who generate Unity (just like in Fallen Empire).
- Give Living Standards Pop Promotion/Demotion modifiers and automatic migration modifiers. Consider penalty for bad living standards as they discourage social mobility.
- Reduce Faction Output bonuses from +40% range to +25%.
- Potentially, replace current Culture Site building effects with something.. else.
- Replace flat Edict Fund received from Traditions, Ascension Perks and Tech with % Edict Fund modifiers.
- Reduce power of Charismatic leader trait (edict upkeep / edict fund).
- Improve Bureucrat jobs by providing them with Edict Fund (currently locked behind Efficient Administration civic).
- Priests and Managers just swap Edict Fund for Trade or Amenities.
- Remake Conservative trait into Organized (2 points, +20% Bureucrat Efficiency).
- Improve Administrative Planet designation (-20% Bureucrat Upkeep).
- Add -20% Bureucrat Upkeep reduction bonus to either Harmony or Domination tree.
- Rework/Improve Efficient Bureucracy, Byzantine Bureucracy and Genetic Identification civics.
- Efficient Bureucracy can be replaced with Efficient Administration and reduce Empire Sprawl penalty (similiar to Hive’s Divided Attention civic).
- Factions will no longer invalidate Bureucracy during early game.
- Egalitarian Faction economy will be a bit slower to roll.
- Civilian-focused playstyle will still be available as a feature of Pleasure Seekers.
- Bureucrats will now have two important roles to fullfill - producing Unity and Edict Fund.
- Bureucrats will now have traits, traditions and designation to support them - allowing to significantly reduce their Upkeep similiarly to Researchers.
- I have to admit that I miss Administrative Capacity and Culture Workers (especially their later iteration with ethic-based bonuses) and still find it weird for Unity to represent both Culture and Administration. I wish this issue could be answered somehow.
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