We all know that unrest is not much of a factor, and we also know there is much we can do via SM, however, it would be nice to add more spice into the mix.
This is a first draft, as there would be more interesting ideas in relation to the topic that may not be fitting into existing mechanics or involve lots of coding. So I am starting it by keeping it super simple.
So my proposal was to have a Spoiler Race called Rebels, working as the same for every PR or NPR. In terms of generation,they will work via RNG linked to specific factors: unrest, unemployment, xenophobia, could all come into the mix. The check for the trigger could be done every production increment or every X production increment, will require testing.
More importantly, Rebels should have a cool down, once spawned they should not be rerolled for X years. I think that X counter check for RNG and X counter Cooldown should be possible to be set by players.
If the RNG rolls the generation of rebels, then these will be spawned in X amount of systems over X amount of colonies, either owned or civilian.
I can see the issue with having the race dynamic, so to keep it simple it will work like the precursors in terms of not moving from where generated and like all other spoilers when concerning tech level.
If all goes to plan, be prepared to defend your own galactic empire against the rebels, because the RNG Gods just decided to spawn rebels in your 50+ systems and priority should go into defending core worlds while smaller may fall into the enemys hands and will be hard to be taken back.
I think the balance of this dynamics would be very difficult (and time consuming) to obtain.
I played Paradox’ “Imperator: Rome”, and I put it aside because I had to spend more time to fight the rebels than to expand the empire. Instead maybe “Europa Universalis IV” and “Victoria 3” were more manageable in this respect. Just to name games, from the same (big) producer, where rebels behave differently.
So, would I just need to place an STO on each colony to deal with the rebels in just 5 seconds? They’ll just spawn over the planet, right?
Also, what kind of ship designs will they have? And most importantly, where will they get them in such numbers? In my game, for example, shipyards and fighter factories are located only on Earth, everything else is mining colonies. It’s hard to believe that a bunch of miners will be able to build a dreadnought or at least something larger than a fighter.
Finally, we already have Raiders playing the role of pirates/rebels. A fleet of 21 Raider ships looks like a small rebellion. If we could adjust, for example, the production rate of their ships (just a couple lines of code, I guess?) and their behavior (more code), we could make such “rebellions” more frequent and aggressive, so that they don’t turn around and run away at the sight of just a couple of warships. However, the sight of an approaching 200,000-ton monster can really be intimidating.
I’d suggest that you’re rolling for rebellion at each population based on local conditions. If rebellion occurs, part of your population is converted to ground troops of the new rebel faction. Maybe limit them to infantry with personal light weapons, unless there are one or more ground unit training facilities.
Add a field to each officer for birth location and training location, each of which could then be used to adjust their likelihood of rebellion. Officers would be drawn from all population centers based on ratio of total empire pop, but trained locally if academies are available.
Troops at a population in rebellion make an initial roll to stay with you or transfer to the rebellion. The likelihood of staying with you is increased by the commanding officer’s political rating (finally a use for that!) and decreased if they were born at the rebelling population.
Ditto for any ships in that system.
Ongoing rebellions would increase the rebellion chance of nearby populations the longer they go on.
This would result in local rebellions that can be put down or have a small risk of spreading, which would be logical and (in my opinion) a reasonably fun game mechanic. Incentivizes garrisoning colonies, paying attention to garrison officer’s origins, and finally give a use for the officer politics trait. Should also avoid making us micromanage multiple flights at the same time.
, I’ll try it.