Should origins be split into different categories that can be combined?

[Tannhäuser Cake]

Assuming that the "default" society type would need an option for megacorps, perhaps even called "Megacorporation", it could perhaps be possible to even move the choice of corporate play from authority/government type selection to the choice of society type. It would fit thematically, and by separating the choice of authority from the choice of corporate play, corporate empires would no longer by default be stuck in an essentially oligarchic position, and could make other choices. There could then also be imperial, dictatorial, and democratic megacorporations.

(Though the same effect could also be achieved by just adding corporate equivalents for those authority types.)

 

[r3xm0rt1s]

(Though the same effect could also be achieved by just adding corporate equivalents for those authority types.)

It has been. There is a mod that implements such, even if I am not sure it catches every edge case where the code or script refers to specific authority.

 

[Tannhäuser Cake]

It was pointed out in another thread that the new Wilderness origin seems like a better match for the Authority system than the Origin system. Looking over the new Origins in Biogenesis, it seems to me like:

• Wilderness could indeed work very well as an Authority pick, rather than an Origin pick. Especially when considering that Wilderness apparently also includes a new Wilderness-specific Authority.
• Evolutionary Predators could technically be split into the trait (Malleable Genes) and a trait-exclusive society type / purpose. I am inclined to think that, at least, the trait could be made available independently of the origin. If only as a way to lock a custom empire into going for the genetic ascension mutation path, when designing custom empires for the AI to play with.
• Starlit Citadel is a mix of pre-FTL origin and post-FTL conditions, but I consider the emphasis to be on the latter. It should also definitely not be combinable with the other post-FTL-type origins, while it seems relatively easy to combine it (conceptually, logically) with pre-FTL origins, such as Under One Rule...

If we define Authority as describing a society's internal power structure, and view the current Origins and Civics through that lens...

• For Hive Mind empires, among the 2 Hive Mind-exclusive Origins, there is one clear candidate for a new Authority: Progenitor Hive. Among the civics, I only spotted three that seem to come close to describing the internal authority structure of a Hive Mind:
  • One Mind
  • Subsumed Will
  • Autonomous Drones
• For Machine Intelligence empires, there does not seem to be any Origin that relates to the internal authority structure (in fact, a search for "Machine Intelligence" on the Origin page only shows a single Machine Intelligence-exclusive Origin: Resource Consolidation). Among the civics, I only spotted two or three that seem to come close to describing the internal authority structure of a Machine Intelligence network:
  • Delegated Functions
  • Sovereign Circuits
  • (Unitary Cohesion, maybe)
• For regular empires, there are a couple of candidates among the Civics, though mostly weak ones.
  • Shadow Council: does in theory represent a substantially different power structure than the four authorities, but would still work better as a new "Society Type", since it is supposed to be compatible with any of the three types with elections. Those three Authority types must still exist for Shadow Council to work, even if they are only held up as a facade by the true oligarchy.
  • Feudal Society: close, but it does not describe the supreme power of the society and it would also not really add anything we cannot already fit within the three non-Democratic types (while it is limited to Imperial, it would not necessarily be incompatible with Oligarchic and Dictatorial).
  • Oppressive Autocracy: it is just a nasty variant of Dictatorship or Imperial, and does not represent something fundamentally different. Different meat, same skeleton.
  • Imperial Cult, Parliamentary System: again, variations of existing alternatives.
  • Technocracy: could perhaps work as an Authority, if it more fully represented the rule of knowledge, science and best practices rather than individual policy-makers. However, Technocracy should realistically still be vulnerable to biases and individuals being given positions of (academic) authority based on merits from decades into their past, with little actual relevance to their current performance or knowledge state. However, the potential of a faceless, idealised "rule of knowledge" could perhaps be realised with a combination of Technocracy and the suggestion below...
    • (The Technocracy point really could apply equally well to Exalted Priesthood.)
  • Shared Burdens / Worker Cooperative: these two get really close, as they touch on something that is a step beyond representative democracy - Anarchy, a lack of rulers/government. Not a lack of order, but rather voluntary order (see also: V's preachings in the V for Vendetta comic, which the movie did not at all do justice).
    • One option could be to rework the current regular empire authority scale, making it a more linear scale from Monarchic (Imperial) to Anarchic, where non-Egalitarian non-Authoritarian empires have access to Dictatorial, Oligarchic and Democratic while Authoritarian and Egalitarian ethics shift the availability one step towards the extremes. Fanatics would only have access to the two most extreme options. Nota bene: the placements of Dictatorial and Monarchic (Imperial) in this ordering could also be flipped; dictators seize power while Monarchs are given power, and it is debatable which of the two should be represented as being more powerful/authoritarian/hierarchical (though the list below is at least symmetric, with -chics at every second step).
      • Monarchic/Imperial (requires Authoritarian ethics)
      • Dictatorial (blocked by Egalitarian ethics)
      • Oligarchic (blocked by Fanatic Egalitarian and Fanatic Authoritarian ethics)
      • Democratic (blocked by Authoritarian ethics)
      • Anarchic (requires Egalitarian ethics)
    • Monarchic: replacing Imperial, as it is a much better description for an internal political power system. Imperial has a lot of foreign policy connotations that all of the other Authority types lack, while empires also can be democratic. "Monarchic" would simply be a less ambiguous term than "Imperial".
    • Anarchic: would have no ruler and would therefore also have no ruler elections, or the ruler would simply have no effect. Or something like that. Any dialogue references to ruler names could instead be redirected to a randomly selected Envoy who is temporarily used as the "Spokesperson". While there are few examples of enduring, orderly anarchic societies in human history, which leans heavily in the authoritarian direction as far as government types go, Stellaris is a science fiction game involving alien species with alien psychologies and alien cultures. The concept of functional anarchy is imaginable, and can therefore have a place in Stellaris, just like its caricature opposite Oppressive Autocracy. We are also almost already there, with the Worker Cooperative civic removing all Elite stratum jobs.
    • Authority Type and Election Type could also be detached somewhat from each other. Authority Type would still handle all of the other things, including the effects of the ruler, while Election Type would be a policy choice. Among other effects, this would finally allow us to make an elective monarchy without needing to pick Dictatorial + Philosopher King.
      

      Election Type vs Authority Type​	Hereditary, for life​	Oligarchic, for life​	Oligarchic, for 20 years​	Democratic, for 10 years​	No ruler election, ever​
      Monarchic	Yes (absolute monarchy)​	Yes (elective monarchy)​	-​	-​	-​
      Dictatorial	Yes (constitutional monarchy)​	Yes (dictatorship)​	Yes (Roman dictators)​	-​	-​
      Oligarchic	-​	Yes (first among equals?)​	Yes (oligarchy)​	Yes (presidential democracy)​	-​
      Democratic	-​	-​	Yes (elite democracy)​	Yes (representative democracy)​	Yes (direct democracy)​
      Anarchic	-​	-​	-​	Yes (constitutional democracy)​	Yes (orderly anarchy)​

TL/DR:

• Wilderness and Progenitor Hive could both be changed from Origins to Authority Types for Hive Minds.
• For regular empires, Authority Type could conceivably be expanded with Anarchic (and Imperial should be renamed "Monarchic").