As it stands, if a planet does not elect anyone to government, an entire term must elapse before new elections can be held. While this isn’t a common problem, it’s one I have put myself in. I settled a new planet with plans to fill out mid-tier to advanced workforce with the aid of government programs. I accidentally failed to stand for election, so all the infrastructure I built on this virgin planet has to sit idle for a month now before I can fix my mistake.
I understand this not being a high development priority since most people aren’t dropping that kind of money on a planet and then forgetting to elect themselves, but how flexible can terms be? Would it be possible for empty terms to be shorter so one can fill empty seats sooner?
If there is no governor for a planet, I don’t think it would be a stretch if you could just ‘apply’ and get it immediately upon clicking. If anyone wanted the role, they could’ve become governor themselves by just clicking ‘apply’ in this case, or just vote in the next term since they missed the chance.
I think the best solution is when you click “run” in ADM, where government is empty, it just starts new election cycle immediatelly. This election also should last like 3 days long, like when you’ve just built an ADM on a planet.
IMO immediatelly making someone a governor is a bit of a stretch
I like this solution a lot. We already have the precedent of the initial election being accelerated because there’s no government, so it would fit well for other instances of there being no government.
The idea behind just getting the position immediately is that there was nobody else who wanted the position before you got there. Waiting 3 days for an election where you are 99% sure to be the only one running wouldn’t accomplish anything. Going to a completely untouched planet and colonizing it but having to wait 3 days just to make sure nobody else shows up seems kind of pointless.
Planets that are already colonized may be having elections regularly, but what if nobody runs in that election? Now the election ended and nobody wanted the position. Now it can be up for grabs by just clicking ‘run’ and getting it. Once again, waiting 3 days seems needless here.
This 3 day period may be to keep competition alive for the government position. I would argue the competition barely revolves around becoming governor. Rather its more from getting to the resources and capitalizing first among the others in the industry. Waiting 3 days would allow competitors to potentially screw you over for a month which would definitely be funny (unless its you). However they could’ve just blocked you by being governor before you even considered that planet, like they claimed dibs already.
Having no 3 day limit wouldn’t be too much of a deal since you can run for governor at any time without having a base and there’s no real value in being governor (I don’t care if I’m the governor or you’re the governor as long as someone does it). However, I would be annoyed if I sent off a ship full of stuff to establish a base with the intention of running for governor once I got there and taking the planet in a particular direction only to find that someone else ‘suddenly’ became governor. Also, if there were established bases but just nobody to that point had bothered running for governor I would still want the opportunity to vote (especially if some harmful interloper is the one who decided to run).
For those reasons, I think it is completely necessary to have a waiting period.
On the other hand, should I be able to run for governor and instantly become governor on any planet without a government? Even if I don’t have a base there? That doesn’t feel right to me. I feel strongly that if you want to be governor on a planet, at least one person with a base there should vote for you (and if you want to vote for yourself, you must put down a base yourself)