But how does the player change governments in a campaign?
If a player colony declares independence how do they choose their government if it is to be different?
Will we delve into unrest caused purely by political dissidence?
Can the player subvert other NPR governments and cause rebellions?
Can I "liberate" a NPR population by force and install a matching government to make friends?
Theres so much that could be done with such a system but as mentioned it would require massive effort on Steve's part.
Some of my thoughts:
1. A UI button which gives the player the option to 'reform government' which allows for a player to change a player race's government from one type to another. This process should take some significant amount of time. During 'reformation' there should be a malus to relevant empire statistics. For example, manufacturing capacity should be dramatically reduced and possibly ships/troops respond to orders more slowly (similar to jump shock or the effects of crew training). Possibly also there is an increased chance of rebellion or secession on colonies during a reformation. If a player declares a player race colony independent, that colony should select a random government type (possibly weighted towards the original player race government type) and enters a reformation as previously discussed.
2. The game does not currently implement political dissidence, only unrest. I am not sure this system needs to change at all except that I believe that if the political stability of a colony reaches 1% or less, the colony should enter a reformation and randomly select either to remain in the current player empire or secede and start a new government. Secession and rebellion should, I think, be handled somewhat differently, with secessions being relatively peaceful and rebellions being more destructive, resulting in the destruction of ground installations, infrastructure, orbital facilities, and possibly ships and troops. Of course, one always reserves the option to declare war on a recently seceded colony, turning things more violent, but secessions in my opinion should not be inherently bloody.
3. I think that would be interesting from a RP perspective. Perhaps it would make diplomacy and espionage more engaging and rewarding than in it's current form.
4. I think there is a lot that could be done here. For example you might consider the option of fighting galactic wars of liberation, whereby you liberate oppressed populations from their authoritarian overlords. Or alternatively you could enslave all life in the galaxy. This should be left up to the player in my opinion. My suggestion for this mechanic is that following a 'conquest' event during a planetary invasion, the 'conquered' population should enter a reformation and the player should have the option of choosing the new government type, or alternatively have the conquered population join the player empire as some sort of imperial citizen (not necessarily a fully fledged citizen, but this should also be a player option). Some examples of citizen types for newly conquered populations might be: slaves, vassals, serfs, limited citizens, full citizens, etc... Again it should be a player choice as to how newly conquered populations are integrated into the player empire.
I'm fumbling around in the dark a bit here because governments have never really been implemented, even in VB. The current system seems to tie race/species to most of the things I would usually associate with government-level traits. There is probably an argument to be made for a dedicated government window, or at least a section on the race/species window. Additionally, I would expect that each colony in a particular empire would share the same form of government, otherwise I don't think 'empire' or 'colony' would really be the correct terms to use.
