Hello! We could have in ES2 something like the great system we have in Civilization V: something like a Star Senate or Galatic Council. Such thing would not be just something we know exists ingame, but something we would be able to really deal with. 


What I mean: in Civ V, in regular turns interval we have to gather and vote for specific actions (or "laws", or "treaties") which affect all nations when approved. There, the votes are counted according to how may votes you have as a nation (a bonus here if you are the senate host), how many city-state allies you have, and the game era. Here we could have something similar. The system could consider aspects as the minor factions (e.g. granting one vote for every allied independent - not assimilated - minor faction you have) and you could even through diplomatic ways convince other nations to vote with you (or make concrete treaties or pacts, even using dust to buy votes). The system could also take into account the political party of the senators you have (versus the ones of the senators of other nations) to stablish if a proposal is viewed nicely or not, making us choose which senator (from which party) would bring an specific proposal to the table based on the general senate configuration (we would have access to a "senate screen" for this info). This mechanics would use the already known diagram of "political affinities", where we see for instance a science event would not have the approval of a religious party, etc (this is just an example, I can't recall the exact relations shown in the populations screen).


The Senate Proposals would include post-war crime judgements, commercial embargos, weapons of mass destruction banishments (this one would not stop us from building and using this, but would surely generate diplomatic tensions if we did so), etc.


Even the Academy could be involved. As I see it, if someone discovers or controls the Academy, what happens? Nothing. Who cares? No one. But being in control of, or being in a good stand with it, could be somehow benefical for the Senate (the Academy could even have some voting members inside the Senate... or even worse, some voting members HIDDEN in the Senate, like secret organizations - parallel to the Free Masons or the Illuminati - and having a good standing with the Academy would give us weapons of diplomatic persuation towards another Major Factions, or could give us extra votes). Just please don't link it with quests system. Not all players spend every playtime turn running towards them (I like them, but I consider them sometimes just a diversion from my objectives).


Thanks!