Making tall playstyle viable

I like the idea behind this (anything to encourage different playstyles and increase replayability is appreciated), though I feel like it would require a pretty major rework to a lot of systems in ways I don't fully grasp, including changing a lot of the end-game mechanics like you said (lvl.4 expansions etc.). I would also question how it would scale between map sizes- would five systems be able to equal ten in a small map vs. 40 in a bigger one? 

Still, Amplitude hasn't shied away from completely changing how different races work in EL, so maybe...?

Hey thanks for your reply! I am currently hoping for a good balance rework, so this is mostly in Amplitude's hands. 

Food and Dust need a big rework, Influence needs to be looked at aswell. 

Luxuries need to be more useful overall, not have a select few which are mandatory.

I know Aitarus is thinking about making the Republic Party taylored for a Tall playstyle. Maybe this will work. 

After I read the info about the Umbral Choir, I thought to myself: What if population merging was available for all factions? Of course we don't know how exactly it would work, but I think this is something that could work for making a tall playstyle viable.

Maybe it would work like this: Fuse 2 population together their bonuses add up but they only take up 1 population slot. They still count as 2 population for "per population" bonuses. This would allow factions to get past the 60 pop limit on systems, which is reached with 14 population per planet and 5 planets. 

However, as drawback, the system would count as more than 1 system towards the colonization treshold. 

I'm sure the guys at Amplitude already thought about this, I just wanted to remind them that having an option to play for all factions would be greatly appreciated, and the "population merging" is a great idea.

I got another idea when I was looking at the citadel bonuses: Naturally, you would want your few, tall systems to be protected well. But even huge amounts of system defense can get sieged down to zero....unless:

Special improvement for tall systems that grants "unremovable manpower" similar to the bonus you get on your citadel systems. As a quick reminder, some citadel upgrades include an improvement to system defense, which cannot get reduced and is always active. I think something like this would also greatly help out tall systems, and should be active on the Umbral Choir's home system, kinda like the Cultist city which has additional defenses.