I've noticed that the developers are currently tracking ideas for policies or edicts, ala Civilization 4 civics, in different categories at a government level to give civilization bonuses (and sometimes penalties).



I wanted to contribute my own suggestion. Let me start by saying I've only played a few hours, but I really enjoy the game so far. However, I think the games combat, solar system management, and economic systems are easy enough to manage that the game could benefit from an extra layer of shaping an Empire's direction.



My favorite system of government policies was the social engineering system from Alpha Centauri (SMAC, see: http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Sid_Meier's_Alpha_Centauri/Social_Engineering ). It provided you a number of categories of policies to implement, as well as a number of categories to get bonuses and penalties in. And the best part, in my opinion, is that it doesn't take a huge number of options to get a lot of customization. When each of your choices comes with both bonuses and penalties, it really becomes a question of how do you want to focus your civilization. Do you want to excel in a few areas, while crippling yourself in others? Or do you want to maintain a more balanced approach? Perhaps there's one or two areas you're willing to sacrifice to be fairly powerful in other areas?



The other added benefit of this type of system is that it indirectly adds replayability to other existing features of the game. For example, depending on what type of social policies you would like to implement, your research efforts might be more focused in a pattern different from the one you typically play, in order to unlock those specific social policies. Or if you focus your civilization towards excelling in specific areas, than those areas of the game - say, combat, or diplomacy - will be areas you really focus on while you play. If you always tend to focus on combat in your games, you might start a game to focus on diplomacy and enjoy some features you hadn't previously delved into very much.



Not to mention, for those that really only enjoy one or two ways of playing, a social engineering system could provide unique ways of playing in that style. Perhaps for the military minds, sacrificing research and economy to focus on production and population growth will help you build a massive - although perhaps technologically weaker - empire. Or, you could focus on research and military strength, while sacrificing food and production to build a strong, highly advanced military that can't afford to take too many casualties. Same play style, but different styles to exploit!



While individual edicts with specific bonuses and penalties can be a way to implement this, I think I prefer the system from SMAC because it's designed with core bonus/penalty categories in mind. The entire system is designed around the categories which you get bonuses and penalties in which enables players to build balanced empires if they want to, or to really specialize in certain areas. I also think there's a lot of possibilities for categories in Endless Space beyond just FIDS. There's also military strength (both defensive and offensive, and ground and space), there's the hero system where hiring and upkeep costs could be increased or decreased, heros gain XP slower or faster, and with enough points, hero slots are unlocked or lost. There's also the potential for diplomacy and espionage categories.



Overall, I think such a system would be a great way to add value to existing content. While tricky to balance, I think in the long run the implementation would be worth it because it compounds existing content. It's designed to enhance what is already in the game, rather than just be added as a "new feature" - and perhaps most importantly, it allows player's to focus their play style as well as try new things.

Some or all your suggestions have already been suggested. We have added to summary list linked here. If you feel you have more of suggestions or ideas to add to summary list for Dev teams consideration. Suggest them in detail on your thread and link them to discussion thread here.