Galactic Senate
Csaj
This type of diplomacy body is a macro-level representation of all players in the game.
The Galactic Senate is not available to the player until a certain point of their development. This is mainly to stop players from creating small accounts (possibly Demo accounts) and flooding a Galactic Senate.
The Galactic Senate votes on Senate Laws. The voting options are Accept, Decline or Abstain. All players default to Abstain.
A vote has a start cycle (or time) and an End Cycle (or time). When voting begins, players belonging to the Senate will be notified through In-Game email. They can select the Galactic Senate interface. There is a global chat channel "Senate Floor" or something similar where players can debate the vote. It can be toggled on and off by players who do not want to be spammed. It will be moderated by our in-game GM's as well as the Senate Leader.
A single Galactic Senate ranging the entire galaxy is implemented. Laws have been made more free-form and actually affect the game play now. Voting is done by majority owner by population on a planet.
We would love to hear your thoughts about this idea.
Or start a new topic with ideas you would like to see happen.
Aurelius
This is one of my favourite features. When a player gets large enough they can suggest legislation. That legislation is actually reviewed for approval from DSE developers. If the approval is given, the legislation is put up to a vote by every player in the galaxy. The number of votes a player gets to cast is based on the number of planets they control. The interesting thing here is that the vote is system based. This means that if there are 9 planets in one system, then 5 of the planets must vote one direction to carry the 9 votes of the system.
14 days. that is how long a player would have to get the votes they need to pass the legislation
Aurelius
21 days was an example in the FAQ.
The submission of the "law" request is submitted to the BP team and they will evaluate and potentially deny a request. This removes "silliness". It is also submitted so that the BP team can eval the timeline for actual development should the law pass.
Now, peek into the design of this. There are alot of games out there that have forums where the players are constantly begging for features. This is part of our evolution. We have constructed a method where the players can vote and "force to most degree" the changes of game mechanics. That vote occurs through normal gameplay so that fighting, politics, etc, become tangible and valuable to the extent that players will covet the land, its colonists, and the power of their vote.
So in essence, you as an emperor would have seen the game for awhile. You would know the mechanics. You can then propose a vote for a law. If the devs can implement it in a reasonable timeframe, we put it up for a vote. Then 2 weeks of vote manipulation occurs and then the vote is cast. The manipulation, i.e. wars, espionage, political intrigue, payoffs, bribes, purchases,extortion, threats,….all fun! If the vote would drastically empower a certain empire, hence the reason they propose the vote, then it would certainly be up to the others in the game to go for an uprising.
Someone posted there would be a lot of wars. We can only hope. In fact, this will be the stuff that will tear the galaxy to shreds and the stories will be farspread on how votes would turn.
For those in the world, there is a game out there called FLUXX (its a card game). If you have ever played it, you will understand the theory. A game where the rules are changed creates a very exciting dynamic.
Aurelius
Funny thing, we have been holding back! We don't answer questions that are answered elsewhere through the forums or just simple "figure it out" exercises.
It is important to us that our players/testers begin to take up the slack and answer questions as they become more aware of the game. I think that in time we will start to identify "trusted" players on the forums so that they will be able to be seen as answering questions with authority. Its not a moderator, but people we identify as truly "getting" the game and what we are going to achieve.
Csaj
Asking for researchable technology that isn't in the game yet is entirely acceptable. In the case of the example you gave the idea was run by the devs and got a response of a day to enact, but we would allow say 3 days for worse case enactment scenario. Then the statement "The senate will now be voting on funding some research groundwork in the promising field of wormhole generation technology to spur innovation among the research community." would be made and the 14 days of voting would begin.
Csaj
There is a system in place to combat the "Game just went live" mad rush for voting rights inevitability. You only need control of 1 planet to vote, but you need control of 1 solar system to propose legislation. By the time the first player has control of an entire system and proposes some ridiculously selfish law there will be many, many players who have control of at least a planet that can't propose laws but can vote no to the unfair proposed law.
Emperor (title needed for law proposals) is a hard title to get, and as the beta testers know an even harder title to keep for long. Everyone hates the man at the top.