Also... I just considered that it may have been designed as it was to make it not a free -5 point trait with no effect, but... there is a reason why a player would want to break deals.



1: To get back a resource that they previously traded away. Say I have 2 Dust Water. I trade one of them to another empire, to get a monopoly on, say, Void Crystals. But then I acquire one more of each. So now, all I have to do to have two monopolies instead of one, is cancel that previous trade! But since I'm Sheredyn, I have to balance that semi-permanent monopoly buff, against the fully permanent -10 morale debuff. Not such an easy choice, and definitely worth that -5 trait points.



2: The obvious. The Empire needs to expand. An ally is in the way of that expansion, and is by far the easiest target for invasion, with the other enemies far too strong to risk invading yet. Do I break the alliance to take my small, weak ally's systems? Or do I suck it up and remain friendly to not get that morale hit?



Those seem like -5 trait point decisions to me...



But then, it might simply have been because the code was easier to do for the version that exists now. But as I said, all that has to be done, is to trigger the -10 penalty to the actual button push to end an agreement, instead of the fact that an agreement has ended.

I second this. Endless War to me is a roleplaying trait. It's a lot to give up, never to be able to use trade routes, or trade for resources, but if you build the rest of your species right (hint: don't take this as garbage 'throwaway' points. It isn't!), it isn't completely crippling.



As it exists now though, the Sheredyn Integrity is much, much worse. The AI is far, far too fickle for Sheredyn empires to get permanent approval debuffs because of another empire breaking their deals, or worse yet, an ally declaring war on another ally. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is absolutely no way to counter or even predict that. Other 4x games have diplomacy options in which you can demand that an ally sign treaties with other races, but this does not. Even with the Dysharmony upgrades, the diplomacy still seems arbitrary and capricious.



I'm of the opinion that players should not be punished for things that are completely out of their control.



Plus, it's just unrealistic. Think of Sheredyn Integrity as, say, the Yakuza. If a Yakuza breaks the terms of an honorable agreement, or fails to do their duty, they are in dishonor, and are ashamed, and possibly even punished. However, if someone else who they've been dealing with turns out to be dishonorable, the shame and punishment goes the -other- way, I.E., the Yakuza go kick their butts! If anything, their morale probably goes up because of that!



I agree, as it is, since it produces permanent debuffs, it should be worth a lot more than -5 points. Consider it like this: shouldn't the point value of a negative trait be equivalent to the point value of a positive trait? Or, actually it seems that they're worth about 5 points less than the positive counterparts.



So Optimism, which gives just a +10 morale boost, is 15 points. Pessimism, which gives just a -10 morale penalty, is -10 points. But Sheredyn Integrity, which gives a stacking negative boost that can easily hit -50 or more by mid-game, and can be simply game-breakingly crippling by end-game, is -5? That doesn't work for me.



Plus, from a role-playing aspect, it doesn't make any sense at all...



The mood of Sheredyn Integrity is just that -- Integrity. They're honorable. They don't beak agreements. If they say they're going to do something, they do it. But that's not how this plays out. The cumulative -10 penalties are so crippling, that to play this trait effectively and competitively, there is actually zero difference between it and Endless War. So instead of honorable, they're isolationist and xenophobic, because heaven forbid an alien entity lie... their people panic for freaking ever from each lie an alien told.



It either needs to be worth a -lot- more points (probably -25 for this, and -15 for Endless War), or else that -10 penalty needs to FADE WITH TIME. Maybe even a non-linear fade. Something like... a -10% per turn effect, but with a floor of -1 morale per triggering event? That'd be worth -10.



Or better yet... just make it do what it says it does. Only give the penalty if the Sheredyn player clicks the "Break deal" button. That's even better, because it leads to deliciously underhanded (and Sheredyn-feeling) tactics, like deliberately pissing off an ally in order to get them to break the alliance, so you don't have to and look clean and honorable. Much better!



But one way or the other, this trait is deeply broken, completely unbalanced to its point cost, doesn't do what it says it does from a roleplaying standpoint, and makes absolutely no sense from an immersion standpoint.