Overhaul of luxury resource consumption

Cheers,

currently the luxury resources are used up (mainly) by static system improvements costing 40/30/20 of a “set once and be stuck with it forever” system improvement. I feel like this could be improved. The following suggestion is one way to tackle the problem and the numbers chosen are not checked for balancing.

1) Remove the system improvement buildings altogether and make the spaceport a separate tech in the 2^nd era instead. A player may now built spaceports wherever he requires them to juggle pops. The spaceport could provide other bonuses such as improved trade value, fleet movement speed, defense bonuses on fights in orbit etc. An era 3 and an era 4 tech improve the spaceport to send up to 4/5 pops and grant more bonuses.

 2) Each system in your empire may spend luxury resources once era 3 has been reached in the economy& industry tech to gain bonuses depending on the type and amount of luxuries spend with following rules:

• Luxury spending is now a turn-based upkeep instead of a flat amount.
• A player may spend 3/4/5 different types of luxury resources per system if tech era 3/4/5 is reached in the industry and economics sector (this replaces the system improvements).
• Each luxury resource consumed grants a bonus for the system in that turn. Additionally an approval bonus of +1/+2/+4 is applied for each tier 1/2/3 resource spent.
• A target value is set by the player for each luxury deposit on each system. The system then adapts its consumption of said luxuries by one unit per turn towards the new setting.

Example: I colonize a new planet and thereby have access to 4 bluecap mold per turn. As I want to boost my science I increase the consumption of bluecap mold in my starting system from 0 to 4. Next turn, 1 bluecap mold will be consumed netting me +1 Approval (on the system) and +10 Science. Each subsequent turn the consumed amount is increased by 1 until the set value is reached (+4 Approval, +40 Science).

•  If a luxury is not available to be consumed at the start of the turn the bonuses are not applied and an approval penalty (-5 Approval per luxury resource not provided) is applied to the system. The target value is set to zero automatically resulting in the level of consumption of this resource being reduced by one next turn.

Example: An enemy took over my system with the 4 bluecap mold deposit. Two turns later I do not own any bluecap mold anymore and my main system was still set to consume 4 of them. I will receive a -20 approval penalty and the level of consumption automatically drops to 3 (-1 per turn until it hits zero or the demand can be fulfilled again).

• Spending of luxuries affects the political parties and elections (in a small way).

Example: My main system is back up on blue cap mold consumption again. In the next election the scientist party will have a minor advantage.

• The total amount of luxuries spend on a system may not exceed the number of population in a system. This threshold may be modified by laws/governments or increased by various techs.

Example:  My starting system has 15 pop and I acquired a huge stock of luxuries. I decide to set the target value to 5 Jadeonyx, 5 Red Sang and 5 Bluecap Mold on this system. At that point I have reached the limit of luxuries to be spent on this system and I cannot increase the target value anymore.  

• Stacking of a single luxury will cause diminishing returns granting less and less benefits.

Example: My starting system is growing to 16 pop and I want to increase bluecap mold even further. However the 6^th bluecap mold will net only +8 science +0 approval.

The bonuses I have in mind are not per pop bonuses as they are now but rather a flat (or percentage) bonus as indicated in the table below. I could think of crazier bonuses for tier 2 and tier 3 luxuries but I will keep it simple here (Again: this is not checked for balance).  For the last luxury I do not have a clue (currently it is about ships and trade routes). If you have an idea post it below.

Implementation and visual display

As all of this need to be implemented in the game in a manageable way I suggest following approach:

• Adjustment of the luxuries is done in the economy menu where system improvements used to be managed. A list of systems appears here with each a) the system name b) the system pop number c) a number of boxes equal to the unlocked luxury deposits (imagine the boxes that you would drag luxuries into for system improvements).
• The luxuries can now be dragged and dropped onto each system and a target value can be set below it. A luxury resource may be removed off a system again, but only if the current consumption level is zero for this luxury.
• A green number below each luxury indicates the current level of consumption of that luxury in that system. A red number is displayed instead if the luxury could not be consumed instead.
• The target value is displayed in gray for each luxury. It is replaced by a zero (and cannot be changed) for each system if the luxury could not be delivered at the beginning of the turn. Once supply is back online the original value is displayed and modifiable again.
• If the population threshold is reached, the green consumption level indicator turns yellow.
• The target value may be set higher than the current population threshold. This way a player does not have to micromanage every turn. The system adapts to the new limit automatically and tries to spread growth of luxuries equally among all selected resources.
• The adjustment of numbers for the luxury resources may also be modified in the system view (where you can see all planetsor in the empire menu.

Pros and Cons (as far as I see them)

+ Account fo