Following the Euu controversy with the Prom treasury, several people have taken to emptying planet bank accounts to keep funds safe.
That is an issue for several people. Regardless of whether those doing it are seen as trustworthy, it never the less introduces a risk many aren`t comfortable with. However, players lack a risk free alternative to protect funds, so continue to empty the planet accounts.
I would like to propose the following as a solution:
4 x Regional Councils - Members are chosen in elections, as with planets.
Planet Motions - All payment motions above 2 million need not only approval by the planets government, but by the regional council too.
As a safeguard, a person cannot hold a seat in a planets government and regional council at the same time.
Interesting idea but it would be something like 2M/week as else you can just split it up in multiple smaller payouts.
That would be a problem as all of the politically interested people are in governments somewhere, either as govs or as parliament members so there would be nobody left to run the faction government, so you would likely have puppet candidates for that political faction which don’t solve any problem but just complicate things unnessesary.
But it could be a bigger government with like 10 seats so that more poitical factions can be in the faction government to keep an eye on what is going on. Every seat is one player but that seat is weighted in motions with the amount of votes the person gets, one vote per player, motion voting duration 3d, and a seat needs at least 5% of the total votes to be able to start a motion.
How about we just put a cap on the amount of money a planet can have - above that amount (say 2M) then no taxes are collected? The underlying problem here is planets are collecting too much in taxes and fees and the money just builds up in the planetary coffers - the money should be being used for the planet, not just left in the treasury.
I will make the same objection here as I’ve made before many times with this kind of issue: this is a problem for the player base to determine, not the devs. If the general consensus is that planetary treasuries are building up too much, Than it is up to the players to decide what to do with that. Whether that is run a planet at a loss for sometime, invest it elsewhere, or just give everyone a refund, it should be up to the players to decide how they want to manage their money, and not be enforced somehow by the game itself.
2M is almost the amount of money that big planets run through every week, and there are buildings that can cost way more to upgrade (I spend like 15M to upgrade 3 buildings on Vallis recently)
Stepping aside from the specifics - in general I feel like this entire topic is a distraction from what to me is the core of the game, making stuff, selling stuff, shipping stuff (maybe not in that order) and working with others to accomplish big things. Since EUU stole the treasury - and people reacted to that theft - I feel like the player base is fracturing - and it doesn’t feel like time is healing anything. There is alot of negativity in chats - aimed at certain senior players - that was never there before, to the point that mods have had to get involved.
I am just frustrated with this. I guess being older (50+) I know there can never be a 100% agreeable solution - there is just needing to move on - understand others make different decisions then we do and that doesn’t mean they are corrupt or evil - just different.
Hence I would like to see the planetary government mechanics changed to make it impossible to take money out of the government - but also include mechanics to make it easier to manage the planets (which I feel is needlessly complex) - first, planets need to be able to buy goods and have a warehouse to store those goods, second, we should be able to select the needs fulfillment we want and then that amount of material is automatically taken from the warehouse in the proper timeframe. Third, COGC should automatically draw from the supplies in the planetary warehouse. Fourth- planets should be able to post BUY contracts to their LM so that people are automatically paid for the goods they contribute (and this would open up the provision of goods to more players - junior players can just make a load of DW, then sell it to local planets - etc)
I agree that the governance system needs a rework, but I think some of the problem lies in the size of the player base. There’s not a lot of us, and often times the players who take on governance are those best suited to it but least inclined to like it and feel it a core part of the game loop. SHAITR for example has publicly expressed that he doesn’t love to govern: it takes time, effort, resources he could point elsewhere. I have spoken privately with many players, often whose planets i have taken on, who echo this statement. Hence why Euu and AGR, when they first appeared, were lauded for getting into governance. Here were some newer players who would focus on that aspect of gameplay, would do what other players didn’t want to, and seemed to have people’s best interests at heart. It’s discouraging that twice those people have turned out to be absolute [redacted]s, and seems that the game echos the IRL sentiment of “the people who want to govern are usually the least likely to do it well”. And in contrast, the people who don’t want to govern are those who do it best.
All that to say: yes, in an economy simulator, there has been a recent surge in the attention and importance attached to government. However, as in real life government and economy are intrinsically linked, so to try to make an economy simulator without a good governance system is a poor economy simulator.
Oh, to the point of negativity: the major player stirring up that kind of trouble is AncientGreekRenowned, who has gotten that same attitude started in other new players. That is (hopefully) on its way to being resolved.
I understand that there should be a governance system - I just wish is were more user-friendly
And ya, other than planets I have started myself - all the other planets I govern because I had bases on them and the government went sideways - so I took it over to keep the lights on and the other residents seem to be happy with what I am doing.
It is funny that we have confirmed the “people who want to govern probably shouldn’t be allowed to” (this is a point in favor of my new form of government - every 4 years all citizens get a letter - most are just blank, but other say “senator” “judge” or “president” - and that is your government position until you get your next letter - sorta like a reverse democracy).
And yes, would like to get the negativity removed and hope that something does happen to improve things.
I think the government system is okay but its decisions are too linear and yes/no, and on top of that some parts are just unnecessary annoying, like CoGC filling every 10d with no buffer.
I personally like governing “my” few planets (one big and some small ones) but I am now also gov on some planets where I took over because of projects or because the old gov didn’t continue to run. On top of that I am not parliament member in a lot more planets because of the new voting system and to fill the new seats on bigger planets.
If you govern one planet it is a nice part of the game, if you govern multiple planets it becomes a job and if you govern many it becomes a chore.
This new faction system will create more negativity. Right now if someone is unhappy / wants to do governace they can run a small planet help out (if they were unhappy they’ll learn the govs were doing a good job, if they wanted to do it for fun they’ll realize it’s bookeeping) The new system is getting locked to 5 players per faction. Imagine how much toxicity that’s going to create.
