Post by Krall on Jun 7, 2016 5:37:16 GMT
The first step to building our alien empire is deciding on our ruling ethos! In Stellaris both pops and empires have ethics, with different ethics providing a variety of bonuses to both and affecting how their AI will act. At the start of empire creation we have 3 ethos points, and thus can choose either 3 ethics or 1 ethic and 1 fanatical ethic (fanatical ethics have twice the effect of a normal one, so it's basically like choosing that ethic twice). The way choosing our ruling ethos will work is as a poll of the 8 basic ethics and each person only getting 1 vote. The three most popular ethics will be ours (unless they're mutually exclusive, in which case I'll have to choose the next most popular) or if the most popular choice gets twice as many votes as the second most popular choice then we'll choose its fanatical form in addition to the normal form of the second one.
This does mean that each individual voter can't choose a full set of ethics, but I don't know how I'd prevent people from voting for mutually exclusive ethics, or how someone could vote twice for the same ethic if they wanted the fanatical version of it. So, if you want a specific set of ethics you'll have to round up some friends and get them to vote too - that's the point of this AAR after all, to play as a community, rather than as individuals!
Anyway, full information on ethics can be found here, but I'll try and give a quick run-down of each ethic and what it means background- and mechanics-wise. There are 4 sets of ethics, each consisting of a pair of opposed ethics and their fanatical version - ethics within a set are mutually exclusive, so you can't be Militarist and Pacifist, but otherwise you're free to mix and match whichever ethics you like. The ethics sets are as follows:
SET 1: Collectivist-Individualist
Stellaris uses these terms differently from how we normally would, so ideologically "Individualist" means protecting the rights of an individual above all else, whilst "Collectivist" means violating individuals' rights for the good of society. Individualist pops produce more Energy - a resource that we need to keep buildings, space stations, and spaceships running - and don't like slavery. Collectivist pops consume less food - a resource that's needed to maintain population on a planet and grow more, thus meaning faster population growth - and are more tolerant of slavery. Our ruling ethics will also lock some Empire policy options to us, depending on the ones we choose, so Individualist empires can't enslave pops.
I consider this the main ethics set, primarily because different government types are organised into three classes - democracies, oligarchies, autocracies - and these ethics can lock off one or two of those classes (Fanatical Individualists can only choose democracies, regular individualists can't choose autocracies, etc.).
SET 2: Materialist-Spiritualist
These terms are used more like how we generally interpret them. Materialist ideology is based on the idea that matter and energy are the fundamental substance of everything and all phenomena - including consciousness - can be explained as the interaction of matter and energy, whereas Spiritualist ideology is focused on faith-based belief in a soul and other non-physical forces. Materialist pops get a bonus to producing all types of science, which is very nice - whilst Spiritualist pops get happiness bonuses - which is also very nice, as unhappy pops will produce less of everything, and can eventually rebel.
SET 3: Pacifist-Militarist
This one's straight forward, Pacifists hate violence and war whilst Militarists think it's a good idea. Pacifist pops are less happy during wartime but require less time to grow, and Pacifist empires' armies do less damage (which isn't really a big deal). Militarist pops are happier during wartime, and Militarist empires' armies do more damage.
SET 4: Xenophile-Xenophobe
This one boils down to "Are you a terrible bigot or do you think aliens are wicked cool?". It mainly affects empires' diplomacy, both in terms of how they view each other and what options they have when it comes to interacting with each other. Xenophiles like other empires more, and Xenophile empires can maintain more embassies to increase their relations with other empires, as well as paying less Influence to maintain alliances with other empires. By contrast Xenophobes get more Influence from declaring rivalries with other empires, and Xenophobe pops will be a-okay with enslaving other races (even if they're Individualist, I believe).
So, those are your options. If you have any questions please feel free to ask them, or check out the Stellaris Wiki in case it's explained on there. This poll will close in three days, at which point I'll look at the results and we shall have our governing ethos!
This does mean that each individual voter can't choose a full set of ethics, but I don't know how I'd prevent people from voting for mutually exclusive ethics, or how someone could vote twice for the same ethic if they wanted the fanatical version of it. So, if you want a specific set of ethics you'll have to round up some friends and get them to vote too - that's the point of this AAR after all, to play as a community, rather than as individuals!
Anyway, full information on ethics can be found here, but I'll try and give a quick run-down of each ethic and what it means background- and mechanics-wise. There are 4 sets of ethics, each consisting of a pair of opposed ethics and their fanatical version - ethics within a set are mutually exclusive, so you can't be Militarist and Pacifist, but otherwise you're free to mix and match whichever ethics you like. The ethics sets are as follows:
SET 1: Collectivist-Individualist
Stellaris uses these terms differently from how we normally would, so ideologically "Individualist" means protecting the rights of an individual above all else, whilst "Collectivist" means violating individuals' rights for the good of society. Individualist pops produce more Energy - a resource that we need to keep buildings, space stations, and spaceships running - and don't like slavery. Collectivist pops consume less food - a resource that's needed to maintain population on a planet and grow more, thus meaning faster population growth - and are more tolerant of slavery. Our ruling ethics will also lock some Empire policy options to us, depending on the ones we choose, so Individualist empires can't enslave pops.
I consider this the main ethics set, primarily because different government types are organised into three classes - democracies, oligarchies, autocracies - and these ethics can lock off one or two of those classes (Fanatical Individualists can only choose democracies, regular individualists can't choose autocracies, etc.).
SET 2: Materialist-Spiritualist
These terms are used more like how we generally interpret them. Materialist ideology is based on the idea that matter and energy are the fundamental substance of everything and all phenomena - including consciousness - can be explained as the interaction of matter and energy, whereas Spiritualist ideology is focused on faith-based belief in a soul and other non-physical forces. Materialist pops get a bonus to producing all types of science, which is very nice - whilst Spiritualist pops get happiness bonuses - which is also very nice, as unhappy pops will produce less of everything, and can eventually rebel.
SET 3: Pacifist-Militarist
This one's straight forward, Pacifists hate violence and war whilst Militarists think it's a good idea. Pacifist pops are less happy during wartime but require less time to grow, and Pacifist empires' armies do less damage (which isn't really a big deal). Militarist pops are happier during wartime, and Militarist empires' armies do more damage.
SET 4: Xenophile-Xenophobe
This one boils down to "Are you a terrible bigot or do you think aliens are wicked cool?". It mainly affects empires' diplomacy, both in terms of how they view each other and what options they have when it comes to interacting with each other. Xenophiles like other empires more, and Xenophile empires can maintain more embassies to increase their relations with other empires, as well as paying less Influence to maintain alliances with other empires. By contrast Xenophobes get more Influence from declaring rivalries with other empires, and Xenophobe pops will be a-okay with enslaving other races (even if they're Individualist, I believe).
So, those are your options. If you have any questions please feel free to ask them, or check out the Stellaris Wiki in case it's explained on there. This poll will close in three days, at which point I'll look at the results and we shall have our governing ethos!
