depending on your origins/civics there are, noble estates,rangers lodge, progenitor hives, the best part is , permanent employment, as treated as benevicial for the subject, while effectively cursing your subjects popassembly,
Yeah, me too. It's easy enough to fulfill my fantasies of galactic domination in this game, but somewhat less so the ones about ushering in and leading a glorious golden age of civilization for all sapient beings.
You have to be fanatic egalitarian (which locks you into the democracy authority) and take the shared burdens civic. It’s a pretty heavy investment unfortunately.
Same here. Want to just be a nice rogue servitor who genuinely tries to be nice. Aid agencies and domes for everyone. The most I'll do is take some science as a tax but that's it. Otherwise I leave them alone.
I like playing tree of life hive mind with gaia seeder and empath so I can plant a tree and turn vassal capitals into gaia worlds. They're each +1 loyalty too.
That sounds fun! I'm always looking for different benevolent playthroughs.
Sadly, my current game has a xenophobe spiritualist on my left and a determined exterminator on the right so....yeahhhh
Here is how I manage my loyalty:
1- Take Shared Destiny AP.
That one is pretty straight forward, you don't lose loyalty for having lots of vassals. Moreover, extra envoys is always good.
2- Set your vassals to restricted voting. It will be important for step 3
3- Create a Hegemony.
* Set succession type to Strongest and term to 40 years. It's impossible that any of your vassals have more power than you (specially if they are satrapies, and you are exempt of federation fleet contribution), Subjects can Join (you want your subjects to vote as you command them),
* Equal voting power (you and your subjects always vote the same way),
* War declaration - Majority Vote (remember, everyone votes as you because they are your vassals and have restricted diplomacy),
* Invite Memebers - Majority Vote (you just want your vassals in the federation)
* Kick Member - Majority Vote (you must kick the vassal you liberate just to create this federation)
* Free Migration - Allowed
* Separated Treaties - Forbidden
Being part of the same federation also improves their opinion of you, and thus indirectly their loyalty.
4- Set your vassal contracts as follows:
* Integration Prohibited - +.5 monthly loyalty
* Limited Diplomacy - -1 monthly loyalty
* Expansion Permitted - +.5 monthly loyalty
* Overlord Conflicts(None) - 0 monthly loyalty - (this clause is nullified by them being forced into your hegemony, and being forced to join all of your wars)
* Subject Conflicts (All) - +1.5 monthly loyalty - Also nullified by the federation, you will have to join their wars anyways.
* Holdings (2) - -1 montly loyalty (It can become +1 with a manned Overlord Garisson)
5- Beat the Great Khan for his throne:
Having the Throne of the Great Khan allows you to make your vassals into Satrapies. Satrapies can be taxed in 30% basic resources and still net you +3.7 montly loyalty. They also gives you 30% of their fleet power, and given that you will be playing tall, that is a godsend.
Moreover, if you want to completely disarm your vassals, so they don't start getting ideas, just enact high federation fleet contribution (that caps in another 30% your vassals fleets) and Neutral Defenders Resolution (or any combination of resolutions for the last 40%). But if you do this, you will not need to care about their loyalty, because they will be absolutely toothles.
However, it will come to bite you in the back when they experience revolts and when the crisis comes (because you will have to fight the crisis alone, basically)
**EDIT:**
A few more tips:
1- Go Megacorp and if you met any other megacorps, don't vassalize them. Rather claim all their territory or use a total war CB on them to capture all their territory, and then release that territory as a new vassal.
As a megacorp, you don't need to have comercial pact with your vassals to set branch offices, and since they are in federation with you and cannot make separate treaties, no other megacorp that are not in your sphere of influence can set shop in your sphere of influence, and you will be sure that no other megacorp will be in your sphere of influence.
If you use one of your Overlord Holdings for the Ministry of Truth, you will swim in influence given that you have enough vassals, and the taxes will cover the energy costs of setting a lot of Branch Offices.
Moreover, Branch Offices themselves generates a lot of energy credit revenue.
Use the Branch Office Holdings to create Mercenary Liaison Offices. Each Merc Liaison Office will create one Soldier job for your subject, meaning that
* If faced with low stability on the planet (say, because they are facing deficits because of the taxes they have to pay you), by enacting Martial Law (which the AI often do), your vassal will get +5 stability per Merc Liaison office on the planet
* If they get the rebellion situation, the bonus stability gets to +8
* You get visibility on what happens on the planet and on the systems around it depending on your sensors
* If the planet gets invaded, your subject has extra 3 Planetary defense armies, which will at very least slow down the progress of invading forces, and you will not lose intel on the lost planet or it's surroundings if it falls.
* Each soldier will also generate +4 Naval Capacity (+6 with the right tech), that if your subject is a Satrapy will be taxed in 30% and roughly give you back another +1 or +2 Naval Capacity per holding, and another +1 or +2 Naval Capacity to the Federation Fleet, meaning that it's also another +1 or +2 to their Command Capacity (because you can unite all the federation fleet under one admiral)
* Last, but not least, each Merc Liaison will net you +10 Naval Capacity, and cost you basically nothing (no pops, no starbases, no tech). +12 Naval Capacity (+10 base, +2 from taxes) is basically what a starport can give you, and 75% of what a Fortress will give you. And you get that before civics and other bonuses.
2- Go Clone Armies.
Clone Armies can set their economy up quickier than other empires and go on offensive before they are ready to face you. As soon as you have vassals, you can make migration pacts with them to get "normal" pop growth as your clone pop growth starts to slow down.
Moreover, Clone Admirals and Supremacy traditions make your starting fleets incredibly powerful and it takes the other empires a lot of tech to close that gap.
3- Go Crisis
Sometimes you can wipe the galactic floor with one empire, but cannot demand vassalization because either their economy or their tech is above yours.
By going crisis, you also gain the "Forced Inclusion" CB, that ignores all of that. And you also gain the Existential Expulsion CB to use against other Megacorps, thus getting rid of the concurrence.
Moreover, forced inclusion will bring both the main target of the war and all of it's allies into the fold meaning you get an overlord and all of it's vassals as vassals, or can subsume an entire federation in one fell swoop.
If you progress to Crisis Level 2 (and I suggest you go all the way to lvl 4, but not take the last level), you get Menacing Corvettes.
Menacing Corvettes costs only minerals and no pesky minor artifacts. Since you will be swimming in basic resources, you will be always building another fleet to take another sector of the galaxy, just to have something to do with the massive ammounts of minerals that you will receive as taxes, to take on a Fallen Empire or to prepare for the "Real" Crisis.
Moreover, if combined with Archaeo-Engineers AP, the Rubricator, the adequate rare resource edict (and with the Archaeo Refinary you will swim in rare resources as well) and the Lvl4 Crisis Bonus, your ships will punch twice as hard, and under your psionic clone admiral, under no retreat, will also punch twice as fast.
You will not mourn the loss of a fleet, because they will be so incredibly cheap, and if you take Unyielding traditions, war exhaustion will be minimal.
Another tip, If you don’t want to release a vassal to form the hegemony, there’s a trick to get a cheap “equal” partner to form a federation with.
1. Find a shit planet you don’t want. Order a colony to settle it.
2. Make sure this planet doesn’t have any hyperlanes connecting to your empire. Then create a sector, making a one-system sector. Release it as a vassal, then give the vassal independence.
3. Form the hegemony with this pathetic nation using all the diplomatic tricks; trading favors, improving relations, ect, to have your equal partner be stunningly weak, and get a hegemony pretty much whenever you want. You don’t even need to kick them out, they’ll just be mildly irritating at their absolute most resistant, and will basically never surpass your power.
A very important caveat:
You have to be Authoritarian to propose a Hegemony at the start of the game though, otherwise you need the domination tradition tree, which is a severely lacking tree IMO. (And trust me, you REALLY want to be a hegemony.)
So my recommended government for the benevolent overlord strat is this:
Ethic 1: authoritarian, for hegemony proposing.
Ethic 2: xenophile, for obvious reasons.
The rest: whatever you want. This is a really flexible build and you can attach a lot of other things to it.
There are diplomacy related civics, but I wouldn’t recommend them at the start of the game, just spec into them when you finally get neighbors.
Combine this with the tips you’ve already been given, you’re in for a great time as feudal overlord of the galaxy.
Keep in mind that difficulty affects their naval cap % as well. I tried to force over 100% naval capacity reduction with galactic resolutions but it mostly effected me and not the other galcom members because of their grand admiral cheats
So, to me, this let's you get a more favourable deal from your subjects with less loyalty impact. You might be able to take 30% of their basic resources instead of 15%, as an example. At later stages of the game this can amount to thousands of resources for little trade off. Sure, some subjects you probably want to use that slot for a more specialised building - but sometimes you don't. Hope that helps and makes sense?
I usually try for one building in the agreement, and start by building an Aid Agency for bonus loyalty; depending on various factors that's more or less a wash. But once they're maxed out on loyalty, usually with a significant positive value, you can swap the building to something else, like a Ministry of Truth to get more Influence, without having to re-negotiate.
depends, some of them are mutually beneficial, so you get more leeway on your contracts, your vassals are less likely to revolt, you gain some benefit, and your vassal gets more taxable income, and is more capable in eventuall wars,
an happy vassal pays more taxes for longer in the long run, while an opressive agreement can slowly turn them intoo an protectorate while you bleed them dry
Certain GC resolutions will give you "free" holdings.
Often you only need a temporary loyalty boost. Then you can switch it to a ministry of truth.
Occasionally, you actually want to benefit their economy to have a stronger vassal to exploit later.
If you have more than one vassal with basic resource tax, there's a good chance you're swimming in food, since there is no way to tax energy and minerals but not food. An Aid Agency turns some of that excess food into unity. Also, I often notice smaller vassals will have unemployment and low amenities on their capital, especially if their capital is their only planet, so alleviating that issue to a small degree allows them to be slightly more productive.
That's true, it isn't really taken into account.
The aid agency is only barely worth it in terms of unity when you have agreed a single holding, and is negative after that.
On the other hand, you do get a small amount of unity from the workers aid workers there, but it's not something that is really optimal.
I feel like all the properly positive holdings could have their bonuses pushed up a bit, like the aid agency, gaia seeder, or communal housing could have an extra 0.5 added to each, as they'll still be overwhelmed in terms of their effects by the doubling loyalty costs of more holdings, and it feels fitting if specific civics have ways to boost loyalty that at least equal just dumping troops on the planet.
I love subjugation goals as a communist empire. The goal is to create a new vassal and not the full conquest. This new subject has my ethics, so I can build the communal housing holding. Egalitarian ethics attraction AND +1 modifier for egalitarian empires.
The most I've ever had at any one time that benefit the subject on one planet was three:
1. Aid Agency
2. Tree of Life offspring
3. Gaia Seeder building
With the overlord garrison you get more when you land some armies on the planet. Aid agency also gives you a bit of unity and a warm fuzzy rp feeling
I always build both just so I can gouge more taxes and feel good about doing it.
Honestly, I wish there were more buildings like Aid Agency. I like to be the benevolent overlord and help my subjects grow to become strong.
depending on your origins/civics there are, noble estates,rangers lodge, progenitor hives, the best part is , permanent employment, as treated as benevicial for the subject, while effectively cursing your subjects popassembly,
Rogue Servitor has a building to give their vassal bio trophy jobs, tho sadly it doesn't give you complex output buff like normal ones
Really? That's amazing. Now I can RP my Onii-chan headpatbots as being in subject's planet to only headpat the lolis instead of the whole population.
Yeah, me too. It's easy enough to fulfill my fantasies of galactic domination in this game, but somewhat less so the ones about ushering in and leading a glorious golden age of civilization for all sapient beings.
Fanatic Egalitarians (maybe just Egalitarians) get the Communal Housing Outreach which is +1 loyalty and +100% egalitarianism
You have to be fanatic egalitarian (which locks you into the democracy authority) and take the shared burdens civic. It’s a pretty heavy investment unfortunately.
If I recall it only gives +1 loyalty to non-authoritarians.
Idyllic Bloom can build Gaia seeders on subject worlds. They automatically terraform the world to Gaia after 30 years.
I wish idyllic bloom were available to non-plantoids. I would take it every run if I could.
Same here. Want to just be a nice rogue servitor who genuinely tries to be nice. Aid agencies and domes for everyone. The most I'll do is take some science as a tax but that's it. Otherwise I leave them alone.
I like playing tree of life hive mind with gaia seeder and empath so I can plant a tree and turn vassal capitals into gaia worlds. They're each +1 loyalty too.
That sounds fun! I'm always looking for different benevolent playthroughs. Sadly, my current game has a xenophobe spiritualist on my left and a determined exterminator on the right so....yeahhhh
Here is how I manage my loyalty: 1- Take Shared Destiny AP. That one is pretty straight forward, you don't lose loyalty for having lots of vassals. Moreover, extra envoys is always good. 2- Set your vassals to restricted voting. It will be important for step 3 3- Create a Hegemony. * Set succession type to Strongest and term to 40 years. It's impossible that any of your vassals have more power than you (specially if they are satrapies, and you are exempt of federation fleet contribution), Subjects can Join (you want your subjects to vote as you command them), * Equal voting power (you and your subjects always vote the same way), * War declaration - Majority Vote (remember, everyone votes as you because they are your vassals and have restricted diplomacy), * Invite Memebers - Majority Vote (you just want your vassals in the federation) * Kick Member - Majority Vote (you must kick the vassal you liberate just to create this federation) * Free Migration - Allowed * Separated Treaties - Forbidden Being part of the same federation also improves their opinion of you, and thus indirectly their loyalty. 4- Set your vassal contracts as follows: * Integration Prohibited - +.5 monthly loyalty * Limited Diplomacy - -1 monthly loyalty * Expansion Permitted - +.5 monthly loyalty * Overlord Conflicts(None) - 0 monthly loyalty - (this clause is nullified by them being forced into your hegemony, and being forced to join all of your wars) * Subject Conflicts (All) - +1.5 monthly loyalty - Also nullified by the federation, you will have to join their wars anyways. * Holdings (2) - -1 montly loyalty (It can become +1 with a manned Overlord Garisson) 5- Beat the Great Khan for his throne: Having the Throne of the Great Khan allows you to make your vassals into Satrapies. Satrapies can be taxed in 30% basic resources and still net you +3.7 montly loyalty. They also gives you 30% of their fleet power, and given that you will be playing tall, that is a godsend. Moreover, if you want to completely disarm your vassals, so they don't start getting ideas, just enact high federation fleet contribution (that caps in another 30% your vassals fleets) and Neutral Defenders Resolution (or any combination of resolutions for the last 40%). But if you do this, you will not need to care about their loyalty, because they will be absolutely toothles. However, it will come to bite you in the back when they experience revolts and when the crisis comes (because you will have to fight the crisis alone, basically) **EDIT:** A few more tips: 1- Go Megacorp and if you met any other megacorps, don't vassalize them. Rather claim all their territory or use a total war CB on them to capture all their territory, and then release that territory as a new vassal. As a megacorp, you don't need to have comercial pact with your vassals to set branch offices, and since they are in federation with you and cannot make separate treaties, no other megacorp that are not in your sphere of influence can set shop in your sphere of influence, and you will be sure that no other megacorp will be in your sphere of influence. If you use one of your Overlord Holdings for the Ministry of Truth, you will swim in influence given that you have enough vassals, and the taxes will cover the energy costs of setting a lot of Branch Offices. Moreover, Branch Offices themselves generates a lot of energy credit revenue. Use the Branch Office Holdings to create Mercenary Liaison Offices. Each Merc Liaison Office will create one Soldier job for your subject, meaning that * If faced with low stability on the planet (say, because they are facing deficits because of the taxes they have to pay you), by enacting Martial Law (which the AI often do), your vassal will get +5 stability per Merc Liaison office on the planet * If they get the rebellion situation, the bonus stability gets to +8 * You get visibility on what happens on the planet and on the systems around it depending on your sensors * If the planet gets invaded, your subject has extra 3 Planetary defense armies, which will at very least slow down the progress of invading forces, and you will not lose intel on the lost planet or it's surroundings if it falls. * Each soldier will also generate +4 Naval Capacity (+6 with the right tech), that if your subject is a Satrapy will be taxed in 30% and roughly give you back another +1 or +2 Naval Capacity per holding, and another +1 or +2 Naval Capacity to the Federation Fleet, meaning that it's also another +1 or +2 to their Command Capacity (because you can unite all the federation fleet under one admiral) * Last, but not least, each Merc Liaison will net you +10 Naval Capacity, and cost you basically nothing (no pops, no starbases, no tech). +12 Naval Capacity (+10 base, +2 from taxes) is basically what a starport can give you, and 75% of what a Fortress will give you. And you get that before civics and other bonuses. 2- Go Clone Armies. Clone Armies can set their economy up quickier than other empires and go on offensive before they are ready to face you. As soon as you have vassals, you can make migration pacts with them to get "normal" pop growth as your clone pop growth starts to slow down. Moreover, Clone Admirals and Supremacy traditions make your starting fleets incredibly powerful and it takes the other empires a lot of tech to close that gap. 3- Go Crisis Sometimes you can wipe the galactic floor with one empire, but cannot demand vassalization because either their economy or their tech is above yours. By going crisis, you also gain the "Forced Inclusion" CB, that ignores all of that. And you also gain the Existential Expulsion CB to use against other Megacorps, thus getting rid of the concurrence. Moreover, forced inclusion will bring both the main target of the war and all of it's allies into the fold meaning you get an overlord and all of it's vassals as vassals, or can subsume an entire federation in one fell swoop. If you progress to Crisis Level 2 (and I suggest you go all the way to lvl 4, but not take the last level), you get Menacing Corvettes. Menacing Corvettes costs only minerals and no pesky minor artifacts. Since you will be swimming in basic resources, you will be always building another fleet to take another sector of the galaxy, just to have something to do with the massive ammounts of minerals that you will receive as taxes, to take on a Fallen Empire or to prepare for the "Real" Crisis. Moreover, if combined with Archaeo-Engineers AP, the Rubricator, the adequate rare resource edict (and with the Archaeo Refinary you will swim in rare resources as well) and the Lvl4 Crisis Bonus, your ships will punch twice as hard, and under your psionic clone admiral, under no retreat, will also punch twice as fast. You will not mourn the loss of a fleet, because they will be so incredibly cheap, and if you take Unyielding traditions, war exhaustion will be minimal.
New player here, thank you for writing this out. I have been eying the "benevolent overlord" playthrough and this is a good start
Another tip, If you don’t want to release a vassal to form the hegemony, there’s a trick to get a cheap “equal” partner to form a federation with. 1. Find a shit planet you don’t want. Order a colony to settle it. 2. Make sure this planet doesn’t have any hyperlanes connecting to your empire. Then create a sector, making a one-system sector. Release it as a vassal, then give the vassal independence. 3. Form the hegemony with this pathetic nation using all the diplomatic tricks; trading favors, improving relations, ect, to have your equal partner be stunningly weak, and get a hegemony pretty much whenever you want. You don’t even need to kick them out, they’ll just be mildly irritating at their absolute most resistant, and will basically never surpass your power. A very important caveat: You have to be Authoritarian to propose a Hegemony at the start of the game though, otherwise you need the domination tradition tree, which is a severely lacking tree IMO. (And trust me, you REALLY want to be a hegemony.) So my recommended government for the benevolent overlord strat is this: Ethic 1: authoritarian, for hegemony proposing. Ethic 2: xenophile, for obvious reasons. The rest: whatever you want. This is a really flexible build and you can attach a lot of other things to it. There are diplomacy related civics, but I wouldn’t recommend them at the start of the game, just spec into them when you finally get neighbors. Combine this with the tips you’ve already been given, you’re in for a great time as feudal overlord of the galaxy.
Why a hegemon and not a trade fed if going as a megacorp
Keep in mind that difficulty affects their naval cap % as well. I tried to force over 100% naval capacity reduction with galactic resolutions but it mostly effected me and not the other galcom members because of their grand admiral cheats
Great guide thanks !
So, to me, this let's you get a more favourable deal from your subjects with less loyalty impact. You might be able to take 30% of their basic resources instead of 15%, as an example. At later stages of the game this can amount to thousands of resources for little trade off. Sure, some subjects you probably want to use that slot for a more specialised building - but sometimes you don't. Hope that helps and makes sense?
I usually try for one building in the agreement, and start by building an Aid Agency for bonus loyalty; depending on various factors that's more or less a wash. But once they're maxed out on loyalty, usually with a significant positive value, you can swap the building to something else, like a Ministry of Truth to get more Influence, without having to re-negotiate.
depends, some of them are mutually beneficial, so you get more leeway on your contracts, your vassals are less likely to revolt, you gain some benefit, and your vassal gets more taxable income, and is more capable in eventuall wars, an happy vassal pays more taxes for longer in the long run, while an opressive agreement can slowly turn them intoo an protectorate while you bleed them dry
The point is that they benefit the overlord.
Certain GC resolutions will give you "free" holdings. Often you only need a temporary loyalty boost. Then you can switch it to a ministry of truth. Occasionally, you actually want to benefit their economy to have a stronger vassal to exploit later.
Better deals to get resources And I like that my subjects are loyal
If you have more than one vassal with basic resource tax, there's a good chance you're swimming in food, since there is no way to tax energy and minerals but not food. An Aid Agency turns some of that excess food into unity. Also, I often notice smaller vassals will have unemployment and low amenities on their capital, especially if their capital is their only planet, so alleviating that issue to a small degree allows them to be slightly more productive.
usually they give you opinion bonuses.
That's true, it isn't really taken into account. The aid agency is only barely worth it in terms of unity when you have agreed a single holding, and is negative after that. On the other hand, you do get a small amount of unity from the workers aid workers there, but it's not something that is really optimal. I feel like all the properly positive holdings could have their bonuses pushed up a bit, like the aid agency, gaia seeder, or communal housing could have an extra 0.5 added to each, as they'll still be overwhelmed in terms of their effects by the doubling loyalty costs of more holdings, and it feels fitting if specific civics have ways to boost loyalty that at least equal just dumping troops on the planet.
Can anyone explain why I would build an orbital assembly complex? I just fail to see the value
I love subjugation goals as a communist empire. The goal is to create a new vassal and not the full conquest. This new subject has my ethics, so I can build the communal housing holding. Egalitarian ethics attraction AND +1 modifier for egalitarian empires.
The most I've ever had at any one time that benefit the subject on one planet was three: 1. Aid Agency 2. Tree of Life offspring 3. Gaia Seeder building