The more powerful ethos effects sound great. I would love to see instigating a civil war to switch a government to one that is less favorable towards their controlling power a viable tactic. On that note, would be interesting if effects like civil war, famine and other similar states denied CC generation in a system from the chaos they cause.
Similarly, I also like the freedom fighters idea. Would be interesting if people pledged to a power could sign up as freedom fighters for a minor power housed in another power's systems, as sort of a black ops operation. Along those lines, and my thoughts above, it would be cool if these freedom fighters didn't necessarily, side with the faction in power in whatever system they support. Rather, it would be interesting if they supported the faction least favorable to the controlling power with the most power in that system. If the faction the freedom fighters support is different from the faction in power in that system, then successful action on their part, in addition to throwing off the shackles of the controlling power, would collapse the faction in control and start a civil war state.
So maybe system has this democracy government, which is just fervently supportive of their current overlords, power A. However, power B doesn't like that, and knows this up and coming despot hanging around in that system, who just hates power A. So they send a black ops mission to help this despotic faction gain power. Upon successfully doing whatever they need to do to trigger this, that system is lost to power A, and a civil war between the democratic and despotic factions starts. Maybe some people who just like the despot, or hate the democracy or the power supporting it, but not aligned with any power join in too, maybe not.
I was also thinking, especially if merits returned to a competitive system, it would be cool if the upper ranks formed sort of a council that got certain things only they could vote on. My idea for this is sort of power specific CGs that are decided by players in the power. Each week, they get to vote on a new one to do, that has a variety of things creating special benefits for the power, or penalties for other powers depending on levels of completion. Certain stuff like this black ops idea, allowing players from a power to become freedom fighters, is one idea. There could be something that restructures a controlled system, or roots out corruption, to increase the CC it generates, but there could also be other ones not related to CC mechanics. Some of these could be trade missions that confer a discount to all power members on a specific kind of item or ship, or just generate money for participants. a couple different locations and variations of each kind of mission would be generated each week, and high ranking players get to vote on which one of those actually takes effect. They could be something that really breaks the normal procedures within a power.
Similarly, I also like the freedom fighters idea. Would be interesting if people pledged to a power could sign up as freedom fighters for a minor power housed in another power's systems, as sort of a black ops operation. Along those lines, and my thoughts above, it would be cool if these freedom fighters didn't necessarily, side with the faction in power in whatever system they support. Rather, it would be interesting if they supported the faction least favorable to the controlling power with the most power in that system. If the faction the freedom fighters support is different from the faction in power in that system, then successful action on their part, in addition to throwing off the shackles of the controlling power, would collapse the faction in control and start a civil war state.
So maybe system has this democracy government, which is just fervently supportive of their current overlords, power A. However, power B doesn't like that, and knows this up and coming despot hanging around in that system, who just hates power A. So they send a black ops mission to help this despotic faction gain power. Upon successfully doing whatever they need to do to trigger this, that system is lost to power A, and a civil war between the democratic and despotic factions starts. Maybe some people who just like the despot, or hate the democracy or the power supporting it, but not aligned with any power join in too, maybe not.
I was also thinking, especially if merits returned to a competitive system, it would be cool if the upper ranks formed sort of a council that got certain things only they could vote on. My idea for this is sort of power specific CGs that are decided by players in the power. Each week, they get to vote on a new one to do, that has a variety of things creating special benefits for the power, or penalties for other powers depending on levels of completion. Certain stuff like this black ops idea, allowing players from a power to become freedom fighters, is one idea. There could be something that restructures a controlled system, or roots out corruption, to increase the CC it generates, but there could also be other ones not related to CC mechanics. Some of these could be trade missions that confer a discount to all power members on a specific kind of item or ship, or just generate money for participants. a couple different locations and variations of each kind of mission would be generated each week, and high ranking players get to vote on which one of those actually takes effect. They could be something that really breaks the normal procedures within a power.
