You appear to be complaining bitterly that, as a pacifist, your are unfairly restricted from invading and annexing the entire galaxy.
Mm, possibly. I definitely have had times when I've been tempted to do something that doesn't accord with how I'd hoped to play, because it was the only expedient way (and sometimes followed the mechanics, sometimes the ethics).
But I think I'm not annoyed by the actual options so much as how they're presented and communicated. Throughout most of the game, there aren't that many specific mistakes that lose you decades of development, that you can't later correct. The ones that have fairly large risks or costs usually have confirmation dialogues. Or are obviously risky (like fleet battles). But it feels like the diplomatic options related to conflict aren't presented with clear importance -- there's a clear "do you really mean it" about going to war at all, but things like "the timeout to fighting again against this empire is this and this other empire is that" and "these are the things you can't do while at war" you mostly just find out when they've gone wrong.
For example, your war exhaustion ticks up rapidly from just being in a war at all
Is that true? It's not listed on the wiki as an effect of a pacifist government. Any non-militarist don't get the militarist bonus, and pacifist pops won't be happy, but if there's an extra penalty to war exhaustion for pacifists that's not mentioned, that's unhelpful.
your population want to know what the heck you're doing launching an expensive war of choice just to satisfy your own twisted view of manifest destiny
Freeing slaves. Actually, no. I want to conquer the remaining empires because it seems like the only plausible way to progress. I'm not sure if there's a more pacifistic way of proceeding from here -- if they already rival my allies can I get them to like me enough to join the federation through peaceful means? If I can, that might be better, but it wasn't really obvious how.
Nun Aliens: Galactic Nomads
Oh, thank you! That makes sense. I'd heard of them but I hadn't realised they were in vanilla. OK, well I can live without them.
How come they have a specific letter, I thought the letters were assigned according to the order you met unknown aliens, or semi-randomly.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-07 09:28 am (UTC)Mm, possibly. I definitely have had times when I've been tempted to do something that doesn't accord with how I'd hoped to play, because it was the only expedient way (and sometimes followed the mechanics, sometimes the ethics).
But I think I'm not annoyed by the actual options so much as how they're presented and communicated. Throughout most of the game, there aren't that many specific mistakes that lose you decades of development, that you can't later correct. The ones that have fairly large risks or costs usually have confirmation dialogues. Or are obviously risky (like fleet battles). But it feels like the diplomatic options related to conflict aren't presented with clear importance -- there's a clear "do you really mean it" about going to war at all, but things like "the timeout to fighting again against this empire is this and this other empire is that" and "these are the things you can't do while at war" you mostly just find out when they've gone wrong.
For example, your war exhaustion ticks up rapidly from just being in a war at all
Is that true? It's not listed on the wiki as an effect of a pacifist government. Any non-militarist don't get the militarist bonus, and pacifist pops won't be happy, but if there's an extra penalty to war exhaustion for pacifists that's not mentioned, that's unhelpful.
your population want to know what the heck you're doing launching an expensive war of choice just to satisfy your own twisted view of manifest destiny
Freeing slaves. Actually, no. I want to conquer the remaining empires because it seems like the only plausible way to progress. I'm not sure if there's a more pacifistic way of proceeding from here -- if they already rival my allies can I get them to like me enough to join the federation through peaceful means? If I can, that might be better, but it wasn't really obvious how.
Nun Aliens: Galactic Nomads
Oh, thank you! That makes sense. I'd heard of them but I hadn't realised they were in vanilla. OK, well I can live without them.
How come they have a specific letter, I thought the letters were assigned according to the order you met unknown aliens, or semi-randomly.