I like it! +1 these Ideas

Yeah, any opportunistic elite-led secessions should tend to occur in clusters: the areas a bit closer to your military outpost may be the tiniest bit too scared of your military to do anything on their own, but with a few other systems willing to back them up they'd throw in for a better deal. Any unhappiness-related citizen rebellions should happen one at a time, but having a nearby rebelling system should massively kick up the chance of another rebellion where the seeds are already sown—safety in numbers, after all.

I also agree that the contentment of your population should be a chief concern for every empire. I'm particularly fond of the idea that rebellions should not just occur because the populace is peeved at living on a lava planet, but due to a mixture of factors that ultimately lead to them believing that living without your empire would be the better option.



It's not just the serfs and proles that you're trying to keep off your palace either. A rebellion by a wealthy system/world should be far less 'bloody civil uprising' and much more 'mass defection of vessels and declaration of independence.'



Finally, rebellions and secession should be a major problem rather than a simple whack-a-mole nuisance. Major uprisings should have the possibility of causing other equally discontented worlds join in an effort to topple your rule. While an entire civil war mechanic is probably a bit far fetched, having major loyalist-rebel conflicts would be a neat addition and a possible clamp on over-extended expansionism.

I had a similar suggestion, but was given the old "this has been suggested by other members" speech, even though I could not find a similar suggestion anywhere.

3) Rebellion.

As far as I can tell, Happiness only has a complete negative when the whole empire hates you. So as long as you have some nice happy colonies, it will even out. I suggest when a colony sits at Revolt for a certain period of time (a notification should pop up saying x system is in Revolt) with out rectification, they will enter a state of Rebellion. This rebellion acts as if there is a fleet over the system, slowly taking it over. The combined FIDS counts as the MP of that fleet. At this point, just lowering taxes will not stop the revolt, and until it is quelled, you can not produce in the system. To combat it, you have to send a fleet to the rebelling system. You can occupy the system like an enemy system, in which an MP l less than the combined FIDS will slow the rebellion, equal to stops the decline, and greater than builds the bar back up. Once the bar is returned, the rebellion is over, and you can remedy the happiness problem. If the rebellion succeeds, it creates a new AI player of your faction. Needless to say, this faction will be at war with the original faction. Any other rebelled systems add to that player, meaning separate star systems of each end of the empire and any that happen after the initial rebellion will be under the same AI player. During the rebellion and after a successful rebellion, the systems connected by string will have a negative happiness bonus.



Separate Rebellion idea: This could bring some fun game play ideas in post-espionage-expansion game play. Perhaps the spies could seed the ideas of rebellion in certain systems. Or, maybe the spies of one nation could start the rebellion, and if it succeeds, the newly rebelled system would not be under control of an AI player, but under the spying player. In this way, players could subvert systems, and them use them to attack the enemy without even declaring war. Of course, there would be safeguards; techs and buildings that would be able to catch possible spies. This could lead to military intrigue and war.

They said because I mentioned espionage, which has been suggested by some other users, that my suggestion was invalid even though it was an after thought, not the suggestion.

I'd like to go a step further: rather than simply have colonies rebel if they're unhappy, happiness should be one of a few key factors in whether or not a planet will rebel. The other two factors should be the planet's prosperity (how well they think they can do without you) and your military strength near the planet. A prosperous planet far away from your military forces might just have social elites who can get the planet to rebel, even if the general populace is content with your rule. The empire is so distant anyway...



It's just a pet peeve of mine though, an empire able to maintain far-flung holdings without having to worry about controlling them—all we ever worry about in 4X games is someone taking away our holdings, not the holdings deciding they're better off without us.

I agree! Running an empire would be way too easy if you didn't have to worry about the happiness and well being of your people!

I certainly think this would help the galaxy be a bit more lively. It will also make you reconsider how fast you want to expand, because who cares if you have a castle if it's built on limestone.

This would be nice. Currently the game feels a little too much like balancing a spreadsheet. Among some other novel features this would help make the galaxy feel more organic and alive.

Yes, this would be nice. Currently there is little need for the later approval technolgies. Everyone is happy as can be