I please for this because not everything that is more complex is better, sometimes it is simplicity that brings the most profit. Yes, I know that changing the system that is functioning at the moment is associated with many changes that seem unnecessary at first glance, but do not you have to work on similar changes while doing new additions? The difference is that in this way you would only work on this one time instead of each time. Why?
The Gestalt consciousness is two different mechanics - hive mind and mechanical intelligence, which require separate changes and balance, in addition to what you do with basic empires. If you simplify their principle of operation and equate with normal empires, you would work on it only once - now for a change, and then all changes made to ordinary empires would be simultaneously applied to gestalts, it would require from you at most small changes in the balance if at all.
Besides, the current system does not allow us to fully enjoy gestalt consciousness. How many times have you been asked for new mechanics? How many times have you been asked for a civic that would allow ordinary populations to live with gestalt consciousness. How many times have you been asked to let hive mind be psionics? How many times have you been asked for the biological equivalent of assimilators? And all this would be available without major problems but only with a small balance in the civic itself.
So how do I see this change?
I will describe it as simply as possible, but I do not promise that it will be so because English is not my basic language.
First, we need to distinguish three types of gestalt consciousness, because this is not a zero-one phenomenon, but rather has its shades of gray, but without fear, it will not be incredibly complicated. I would also like to point out that each type can be both psionically connected, synthetically and organically, and the names themselves are not final, although I will try to best reflect their destinies.
The first type is a combination where individuals are completely individual, possess their personality and mind, they can feel contentment and different opinions, and their connections only makes them more efficient and can communicate with other people much easier, and interestingly we already have this kind of awareness in the game - psionic and synthetic ascension, I would add to this combination the biological ascension and slightly changed the current traits. Let me just emphasize that this type of connection is unavailable from the beginning of the game for anyone, and it can be obtained only through ascension perks - transcendence, synthetic evolution and evolutionary mastery.
traits:
psionic: available after obtaining transcendence - increases the production of unity, science, and general happiness of the population.
synthetics: available after obtaining a synthetic evolution - increases the production of minerals and energy, health of the army and gives the leaders immortality.
social awareness: available after obtaining the evolutionary mastery - reduces the cost of maintaining the population and jobs, hausing, and also increases food production.
The second type of gestalt consciousness is what we see at the moment in the game - populations are partly conscious, have limited individuality and can make their own decisions. In this case, however, they are not affected by happiness, have limited political capabilities, I would like the populations in the new system to be able to belong to the faction and make issues, but not on the basis of individual choices, but rather a combined decision, that means all populations with the same trait belongs to one faction and can not change it (unless in special cases, or if you choose otherwise), it is a faction belonging to the dominant ethics in the empire. In the case of empires with only one ethic or fanatical ethics, this is a simple calculation, in the case of empires with several equivalent ethics, it will be the ethics that most of the empire's population support.
traits:
psychic community, hive mind, machine intelligence.
These traits do nothing except what is described above. They are called differently to show that they are different "minds" connected in a different way and only with those with the same trait.
This kind of connected consciousness can be chosen at the beginning of the game, but more on that later.
The third type of Gestalt consciousness are completely connected pops that have no will and individuality, they are not so much a connected network of minds, but rather one being speaking through all the bodies. Such populations have no happiness, the leaders of these populations do not have any individualities, they are all exactly the same without exception, and their maintenance does not cost energy credits, but the influence and / or unity (not some huge value, maybe 0.05 influences per leader), which reflects the lack of leaders as such, or rather the focus of awareness of this being on specific tasks.
traits:
The entity (psychic): significantly increased production of unity, reduced all influence costs, significantly reduced population growth, significantly reduced housing. Possibility of assimilation of the population from the spiritualistic faction.
Overmind (biological): Increased costs of population maintenance, reduced population growth, significantly reduced housing, increased speed of sociological research and food production. The possibility of assimilation biological populations.
Central processor (synthetic): reduced cost of population maintenance and housing, increased energy production. The possibility of assimilation of mechanical and cybernetic populations, and belonging to the materialistic faction.
As you can see, all differences do not depend on separate mechanics or governments, but on the same traits given to the populations. Besides, everything that has not been told works exactly like all other populations and empires. All the populations can live together, regardless of whether they are gestalt consciousness and to what extent or not.
and now the issue of traits and governments.
Let's start with the government. In the game we have democracy, oligarchy, dictatorship and imperialism. It would be necessary to add to this "gestalt consciousness" as a kind of government. Gestalt consciousness is a government totally controlled by populations of connected consciousness, rulers are elected without using influence, but no more often than every 50 years, or at the death of the previous ruler.
It must be added that the ethics of "one mind" will be available, worth one point, but only available to the government of the collective mind.
Choosing a government of gestalt consciousness loses one point of ethics selection, so you can choose one ethic and "one mind", or one fanatical ethics, or two basic ethics.
When choosing a government of gestalt consciousness, we must choose one of the trait of consciousness for our population, in addition to the already selected traits (as we now select the "survivor" feature of the civic "post-apocalypse") and now:
- in the case of "one mind" ethics, we choose the traits of "the entity", "overmind", "central processor".
- In the absence of this ethics, we choose from the traits: "psychic community", "hive mind", "machine intelligence".
The government may change during the game, the less limited collective minds (both from the ascension perks and not) can freely change governments in their empires, whereas if in the empire there are no collective minds (including psionics or synthetics), they can not use the government "gestalt consciousness", and if in the empire there are only populations with the traits of "one mind" they can not change the government from the "gestalt consciousness".
In the case where lives mix of the population in the empire and has a democratic government, it does not prevent "one mind" from ruling the country for the next 10 years, or if it is a government of "gestalt consciousness", nothing stands in the way of this one of the individual minds stood at the head of this empire.
Although the government of combined consciousness starts with only one - two ethics ("one mind" is chosen only at the beginning of the game to indicate the direction of selecting the traits of the population, later it is no significant), during the game can get another, up to a total sum of three points as in the case of other governments, on the principle of supporting the factions, as it is today the change in the ethics of governance.
Differences in the empires and playstyles will therefore depend on the players themselves and will not be imposed top-down. The player will choose his own ethics, civics and policies during the game to determine the rules governing his empire. And although everything will be more similar to each other, simplified and less complex, it will allow for much more possibilities, differences, uniqueness and playstyles.
I know I wrote lot, I usually do not do that. I hope that I described the whole in a simple and accessible way, although I may have written a bit, but that's because I wanted to describe it in details.
Thank you to everyone who has read this, I hope that the devs also.
I am asking for comments, even if you think I've lost my mind, but constructive criticism will certainly be better than: "You are stupid, and combining too much," of course, paraphrasing.
If you do not understand something, like for example - my logic or motivation, feel free to ask, show your point of view. Dont put "disagree" only because you just like present system (and if you do, try to tell me why and with what you disagree, because without it this is unconstructive), bcs what i posted will not change YOUR gamplay, you would still be able to do everything what you was doing. Differece is that everybody will be able to do everything what they couldnt.
To sum:
Collective consciousness not on governemnt, but on population level.
I have posted this also in "suggestion" subforum, but community in there is so low i dont think anyone will replay, and constructive criticism is always good, regardless of whether you like something or not.
