Essence Tithes: Civilized Conversion

Peacefull vodianny? thats actually a intersting concept. I never heard about it before. I just have two questions for you: are those Essence pacts and Essence Thithes laws for vodianny? i can't really imagine how you can trade whit another empire the growth of your vodianny (i believe that, by saying that, you're refering to the total amount of food produced into your empire. am i right? ) and im pretty unsure of how those situations would work in a pratical manner.

Could you give me an example of how this would happen? i think your idea is missing some examples in order to be understood more clearly.

Nevertherless , its also a cool idea. allowing Vodianny to be more peacefull can allow vodianny to enter and remain into alliances, whitout needing to feast into anything they find close by, wich can (im not sure) increase its chance of survivability into late game. 

Maybe more options for finding or creating essence for vodianny could come in handy. :)

More a Diplomatic Treaty like a Trade or Science Agreement. Probably unlocked at the same tech you get Alliances at. And yes, it'd basically be an empire-wide Food penalty, as well as extra Essence on, say, Trade Routes for the Vodyani and whatnot, but with some upside to make it more appealing, like reduced Diplomatic Pressure from the Vodyani or a Science/Happiness boost.

Let me see if i understand: Those diplomatic ... choices, will be available in your interaction whit other empires. Then, when you see you are feasting over another empire and the empire does not want you to feast over their systems, you or the another empire can simply ask one of those two demands, and those demands will grant essence for Vodianny faction by not harvesting over systems, utilizing different methods. 

But then just a question: Do you mean by saying trade routes into your last post, that you plan to make trade routes give essence for vodianny, or it simply... uhm... gives a bonus essence for vodianny if the opponent have trade routes... Like, really, i dint understood what you mean by Trade Routes. can you explain it? 

Also, how that Science/ happiness boost will work? you just said something about it, but you dint really explained its mechanics. I dont get it...

I don't get why this is hard to grasp. Lets break it down piece by piece:

1. Diplomaty Treaty: The Vodyani would have a Diplomatic Treaty available to them exactly like Trade Agreement, Science Agreement, etc. If a friendly Empire accepts that agreement, they would take a small empire-wide penalty to Population Growth and the Vodyani would gain an appropriate amount of Essence.

2. Diplomatic Demand: If the Vodyani have enough Diplomatic Pressure they could make a Diplomatic Demand for Essence Tithes, just like you can make a demand for Resources, Economic Tributes, etc.

3. Trade Routes: If the Vodyani has an active Essence Tithe diplomatic Treaty or Demand, and also has a Trade Agreement with an Empire, they would also gain Essence from that trade route in addition to Dust, Science, and Resources.

4. Science/Happiness Boost: I legitimately have no idea how to explain this to you other than to go "Do you know how to speak english?" As compensation for losing Population Growth, the Empire that's trading with the Vodyani would gain a small bonus to Happiness and Science Production in their Systems. That's it. That's the mechanics. Like every other boost in the entire game ever. The dictionary definition of the word "Bonus."

5. Harvesting: All of these suggestions are 100% independant from the Essence Harvesting that the Vodyani normally use. I.E. you don't have to park a Leecher over their planet to begin negotiatons. You just contact them in the Diplomacy Menu and go "Hey Neighbor, you mind if we skim a bit of essence off of the top?" And then, exactly like every other diplomatic treaty in the game, you get extra income each turn. Once again, it's exactly like a Trade or Science Agreement. Each Empire gets a bonus based on the strength of the other. Quite literally the only difference is this time, the resources being exchanged are different, I.E. the Vodyani get Essence, the other Empire gets something else (Either Dust or Science/Happiness, not sure which would be better but that can be ironed out later.)

I really liked that additional explanation in previous post with all the numbers and capital letters on game mechanics names like Happiness, Essence, Empire and so on.