I like the OP's proposed system, but I'm not entirely sure it would actually act as an deterrent to having lots of colonies.  It would, however, suppress having multiple outposts growing at once which is something.  Overall, I like the ideas presented as they make sense.  Hard to judge wether they're fun though.  I do like that it prevents you from squatting outposts deep into enemy territory risk-free.

vahouth wrote:

Maybe an easier solution would be that the overexpansion penalty applies only for outposts and for as long as they remain that way.

Once they form into self sustained colonies, the penalty should start to dissipate, both in the core worlds (they don't need to feed them anymore) and the colony itself.

I think this makes more sense than the current system at least.

I believe the purpose of that over-colinization penalty is to add a disadvantage for spreading too wide, which neither of these proposals really address.  For that, I have my own proposal:  Add a corruption penalty to FIDSI that's dependant on how far a colony is from the homeworld.  You could have planetary improvements and governor skills that would reduce corruption, but generally the idea is that your colonies are getting less efficient the further they spread.  This would create a sort of "soft-cap" on colonization that seems to be the purpose of the current happiness penalty.

Cronstintein wrote:

I believe the purpose of that over-colinization penalty is to add a disadvantage for spreading too wide, which neither of these proposals really address.  For that, I have my own proposal:  Add a corruption penalty to FIDSI that's dependant on how far a colony is from the homeworld.  You could have planetary improvements and governor skills that would reduce corruption, but generally the idea is that your colonies are getting less efficient the further they spread.  This would create a sort of "soft-cap" on colonization that seems to be the purpose of the current happiness penalty.

Yes - I admire the OP's direction but it's too complicated IMHO.  Cronstintein's proposal is much simpler.  

Given that population is tracked independently, the one tweak I would say is that individual population units are unhappy the further they are away from their own homeworld.  These penalties could be increased/doubled/etc. if you don't control their homeworld. So for example - if I'm the Craver's and I start capturing Sophon fringe worlds - the Sophon's should be really unhappy - not only because I just took them over but because now they have no access back to their homeworld.  If I were to go on to capture their homeworld, that penality would then go away - although distance from the homeworld would always remain a factor.

That's the happiness part (which affects industry and food output - correct?).

I would then have a second part of the equation that is distance from the imperial seat of power.  This would be your homeworld in the start of the game - but you should have the opportunity to move it over the course of the game.  This is similar in a way ot Age of Wonders 3's "Throne City" mechanic.  Moving up your "throne world" to a more central location might reduce dust/science (e.g. corruption) penalties - but would also put your throne world more on the front-line and more at risk.  It makes for an interesting tradeoff but with a really simple mechanic.

I don't think it should be distance from home world mainly because sometimes the closest habitable world is really far away. This would be a big handicap to anyone early game. You would either have to research a closer planet type or live with 25 happiness. I think it should be based on the closest distance from the systems influence circle to your continuous home worlds circle.

I would then have a second part of the equation that is distance from the imperial seat of power.  This would be your homeworld in the start of the game - but you should have the opportunity to move it over the course of the game.  This is similar in a way ot Age of Wonders 3's "Throne City" mechanic.  Moving up your "throne world" to a more central location might reduce dust/science (e.g. corruption) penalties - but would also put your throne world more on the front-line and more at risk.  It makes for an interesting tradeoff but with a really simple mechanic.

That would work pretty easily as a unique system improvement.  Bureaucratic Center or Capital System, something to that effect.