Senate

The Senate represents the government for an empire. The Senate has many empire-wide effects, primarily determined by the Laws passed within it.

Parties

Main article: Political Parties

The Senate consists of a number of political parties. Most of the Senate's mechanics, like Laws and Hero Senators, depend on the parties currently in power.

One to three parties may be in power at a given time, depending on the current Government Type. The party composition of the Senate will be determined every Election.

Parties earn political experience while in power and may level up after winning an election. Higher levels of political experience unlock higher-tier laws for the party. Parties that lose an election do not lose experience and will start at the same level if elected again the future.

List of Political Parties

• Independent
• Militarists
• Industrialists
• Scientists
• Ecologists
• Pacifists
• Religious

Laws

Main article: Laws

Two to six laws may be active at a given time, depending on the current Government Type.

Most laws require a certain political party to be in power, along with a certain level of political experience. Parties that are no longer in power after an election will automatically have their laws removed. Additionally, the party with the most support will always have a default law active, called their forced law or power law. The forced law takes up a single law slot and cannot be removed whilst the party is in power.

In addition to party-specific laws, there are a number of independent laws unrelated to any party. Some independent laws also have level requirements; these are unlocked when any party in the senate has reached that level of political experience.

Most laws have an upkeep cost of Influence per turn. For party-specific laws, the upkeep cost is equal to the law's level multiplied by the empire's population. Independent laws and forced party laws have no upkeep cost; however, independent laws usually have some penalties, unlike party-specific laws.

Number of Law Slots

• Democracy and Autocracy start with 1 additional Law slot.
• All governments gain 1 additional Law slot each when reaching Stage 3 and Stage 5 of Empire Development.
• Democracy gains 1 additional Law slot when reaching Stage 5 of Empire Development.

	Empire Development Level
	1	3	5
Democracy	3	4	6
Republic	2	3	4
Federation	2	3	4
Dictatorship	2	3	4
Autocracy	3	4	5

Hero Senators

Heroes belong to political parties, and a party may select a single hero to be their political leader in the Senate. When this party is in power, the hero's "On Senate" skills will become active, granting various empire-wide bonuses. The political leader for a party is the hero in the party with the most "On Senate" skills; ties are broken by the hero level.

Representatives

Each system has a number of representatives belonging to various political parties. In a Democracy or Republic, each system has a number of representatives equal to its population. In a Federation or Dictatorship/Autocracy, a system has (1 + (3 x System Level)) representatives. A representative's political party depends on the system population's innate preferences, as well as events that have occurred in the empire that may affect a party's political support.

A system receives bonuses and penalties to depending on whether their representatives belong to parties currently in power (+2 if in power, -3 if not). Like parties, representatives are re-selected every election.

Elections

An election will be held every 20 turns (on Normal speed), at the end of the turn. During an election:

• An action may be taken in an attempt to manipulate the outcome of the election.
• Each system will choose its representatives.
• New political parties will be chosen, depending on the above actions and representatives.

Detailed Mechanics

In the first stage of the election, an Election Action may be taken in order to manipulate the outcome of the election. This is also referred to in game as "cheating" an election. The availability of election actions, as well as their effects, depends on the current Government Type.

In the second stage of the election, each system will select its representatives. Representatives are chosen probabilistically based on population preferences as well as recent events.

Next, political parties are chosen. In a Democracy, Republic, or Federation, parties are chosen based on their political support, which is determined by the number of representatives in the party, as well as the election action that was taken. In a Dictatorship or Autocracy, the ruling political party is chosen directly by the player's action.

In the final stage, votes from losing parties are redistributed between the winning parties (except in Dictatorship/Autocracy). This may have a significant effect, altering the rankings of winning parties. Votes are redistributed according to their alignment in the politics wheel, prioritizing their closest political neighbors. For example, if the Pacifists lose but the Scientists and Religious win, the Pacifists' votes will go to the Scientists. If the leading political parties are equal distant to the redistributed political parties vote (i.e Scientists lose but Militarists and Ecologists win, or Militarists lose but Industrialists and Religious win, their votes will be halved and equally distributed to the 2 closest parties). Ideologically opposite political parties will never redistribute votes towards each other.

Federation election actions.

Systems choosing representatives.

Redistributing losing parties' votes.

The politics wheel.

Government Types

Democracy

• 3 parties represented
• +1 Approval per Population
• -10% Influence cost of enacted laws for each party represented in the Senate (maximum)
• Can only provide "Official Support" to one party as a means of influencing elections
• -50% influence cost to pass a new law
• +1 Additional Law slot
• +1 Additional Law slot when reaching Empire Development Technology Stage 5

Election Actions

• Official Support - applies 10 PlayerActionBonus and 5 PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier
• No other actions available.

Strategy

• Three parties grant access to a wide array of laws that can cover any potential needs (Food, Industry, Approval, etc...). This synergises with the fact that Democracy has more Law slots than the other governments.
• Three parties can level up simultaneously, granting access to higher tier laws more quickly.
• Three heroes can be senators at the same time.
• Having three parties in power greatly reduces the Approval penalties from having no representation; the three largest parties generally have vastly more support than the other three (this marks a 5 difference for every . This synergises well with Democracy's innate +1 Approval per Population.

The disadvantage of Democracy is the inability to influence elections (in a significant manner). If a strategy requires a certain law to be active, Democracy offers few tools to ensure the law is always available.

However, this is somewhat mitigated by the fact that parties in Democracy are more stable: it is very difficult for the largest party to fall out of the top three parties entirely. While other governments may struggle with smaller parties constantly rotating in and out, in Democracy it is easier to consistently maintain two powerful parties along with all their associated benefits (laws, Senator skills, etc...). That said, if you want to maintain a political party in power to get powerful tier-3/4 laws that goes against the population's typical desires (i.e. for Sophons, or for Unfallen) rest assured, it's almost guaranteed to be a lost cause.

Somewhat ironically, Democracy is harder to play not because of it's lack of stability (as it's typically assumed), but as a result of its lack of flexibility to switch from one political party to another less popular, but more vital, political party, whereas Federations and Republics can take a shot at changing it through elections, and with the Dictatorship a guarantee. For example, this could be a problem when you'd like to go Militaristic ASAP to safeguard your interests, but you have to spend time to drum up the support of the populace for conflicts before it even gets a chance at getting voted in, whereas other governments have either more leverages or a certain win.

Republic

• 2 parties represented
• Laws provide better effects and/or other bonuses
• Can influence elections with Dust

Election Actions

• Official Support - applies 10 PlayerActionBonus and 5 PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier
• Primary Elections - reduces support for other parties by applying -50 PlayerActionBonus and -30 PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier
• Lobbying - increases support for selected party by applying 100 PlayerActionBonus and 40 PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier

Strategy

The draw of a Republic is twofold. Firstly, laws in a republic are often 33% to 100% stronger, or provide entirely new benefits compared to other governments. Secondly, it is much easier to acquire Dust to influence elections, rather than the Influence.

The downside of Republic is that it simply offers no other bonuses on its own, outside of its law effects.

Federation

• 2 parties represented
• +1 system before Overcolonization penalty per Hero Representing the current ruling political parties on Empire
• Can influence elections with Influence
• -20% system luxury development cost

Election Actions

• Official Support - internally applies 10 PlayerActionBonus and 5 PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier
• Intimidate Citizens - reduces support for other parties by applying, internally -50 PlayerActionBonus and -30 PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier
• Imperial Support - increases support for the selected party by applying, internally 100 PlayerActionBonus and 40 PlayerActionBonusWeightModifier

Strategy

The main attraction of Federation is "going wide"; particularly if you're able to snag a few extra heroes of your current political parties, it pushes back the point at which you start to have approval problems, considerably. Overcolonization isn't the only source of approval problems, but because it's in any 4x player's interest to expand as far and as fast as possible, all players will quickly make it their number-one approval problem.

Like Democracy, Federations are attractive as a tool to fight Disapproval; to conceptualize the difference, Democracy has to "pay back" a deficit of disapproval, whereas Federation makes that deficit lower to begin with. Particularly - each additional system of Overcolonization induces an additional -10 Approval. In order to be even with Federation, a Democracy will need to either have at least 10 pop units, and/or eliminate at least 10 unhappiness that would be present Federation due to the "political parties no represented in senate" malus.

As a small bonus, Federations also reduce the system-development luxury cost; this often isn't significant but it's a nice little unique bonus that synergizes with wanting to settle "wide".

The downside of Federation is that it does not offer any bonus to law effects or law slots; like Republic, it dodges the significant malus Dictatorship gets to law choices and slots, but unlike Republic or Dictatorship, it doesn't have intensified law effects to compensate for the lower overall number of law slots.

By costing Influence, the election actions for a Federation will generally be far out of reach for most factions (with the exception of a few unusual ones like the Unfallen). They do the same things as the actions for the Republic, but cost a different resource. As with the republic, they're a strong shove in a given direction, but they're no guarantee that the outcome will go your way.

Dictatorship

• 1 party represented
• Directly choose ruling party at elections
• x1.5 senator skill effect on Hero
• Pillaging/Razing systems will not incur approval penalty.
• The "power/forced law" has bigger effect and/or other bonuses
• A "Propaganda system project" will be present on all player systems that will gradually improve support for the chosen political party.
• Systems rebel at Unhappy instead of Mutinous

Election Action

• Official Support - Under a Dictatorship, you're allowed to watch the population vote for various parties. However, in spite of their votes, whichever party you chose to support overrides their choice, and is appointed as the new ruling party. It's worth observing the results to gauge potential unhappiness impacts.

Strategy

Dictatorship has a few unique benefits; the obvious one is the absolute guarantee that, no matter what, the party you want will win the election, period — this means that: One of the biggest reasons to go for a Dictatorship is to guarantee the availability of certain laws with powerful effects. The obvious one you'll get even at the start of the game is the "power/forced law" associated with a certain party, and you're likely to also have access to their tier 1 and 2 laws throughout most of the game. Dictatorship further tries to sweeten the deal by giving some minor additional bonuses on this "power/forced law" - they will often either amplify the bonus given by Republic, or add a new bonus entirely.

Since there are so few "power/forced" laws, it's worth considering them (and to a lesser degree, the likely tier-1/2 laws) explicitly here:

• Ecologist — If you've got several core systems with uncolonizable (non-gas) planets, this can skirt around the tech requirements and let you put off researching the required techs by a long amount of time. Being able to colonize all 4 or 5 planets in a great core system is a huge boost to 'economic booming' since many System Improvements increase productivity based on the "per colonized planet in system" principle. The tier 1/2 laws from the party massively double down on Food income.
• Industrialist — The industrialist power law is very weak and not worth it in and of itself. Tier 1 law allows rushing towards colonizations faster, possibly outcompeting other factions, and the tier 2 law, once you have access to it actually gives a quite solid boost to Industry and strategic-resource generation, though.
• Militarist — This allows you to declare war with no cost in Influence, and also gives you an Approval bonus per active war you have going, in Dictatorship/Autocracies, the bonus is amplified significantly, making it possible to raise all systems to Ecstatic just by declaring wars with everyone else (although you risk antagonizing more factions than you could chew). The first two law tiers make ships cheaper, and give you Dust/Science bounties for destroying enemy ships (as well as an empire-wide Upkeep bonus). This party choice is a straightforward buy-in on pure aggression.
• Pacifist — This allows you to force peace on an opponent. As a tool to stave off aggression, this is somewhat ineffectual, since the opponent simply has to pay an Influence cost to tear down your forced peace and declare war on you. However, as a tool to make long-term friends, this is surprisingly effective against the AI - if you actually follow up the forced peace by a period of good-faith behavior, most AI personalities will transition into the same sort of "we've been friends for a long time and trust you" stance they would under normal peace agreements (and makes forming alliances easier, too). The upside of this is that many skeptical AI opponents will require a quite steep payout in resources to make a regular peace agreement, but this costs only Influence. There are some decent Approval and Dust gains from having the party in force, and the late-Tier-4 law grants significant bonuses from having multiple peace and alliances. (Note: Factions with trait of Eternal War (on Cravers only by default, whose AI always chooses Militarist) cannot be forced peace unless they have Pacifists in leading political parties.)
• Religious — This one lets you invade opponents without formally declaring war on them; because of how the AI is programmed to react, it will likely lead to to a declaration of war if you choose to occupy a system rather than pillaging it. It can be worthwhile as a way to save Influence costs (although Militarist power law is arguably better at that), especially since it gives a modest per-pop bonus to Influence as well. It could be a way for the players who wish for raiding without conquering, since declaring war allows the opponent to sue for truce, and having to wait a significant amount of time before further aggressions can be done. Tier 1 law gives significant production, at the cost of stagnating minor population growth.
• Scientist — This one lets you research techs from an era past the current one you've unlocked, as well as giving a decent boost to research speed. If there's a real game-changer tech you're gunning for, this could be worth it. Because of how technology research calculation cost works, every technology researched makes every following technology costing (from 0 technologies) roughly 15% more, and the cost is multiplied for higher tiers, by skipping certain technologies you may end up saving quite some cost. The scientist party can also, in early tiers, give a small reduction to system-improvement Industry cost, and ship movement speed.

Another fringe benefit of Dictatorship is the "Propaganda system project" - every system can enact a project which, like the projects which convert industry into dust/science, ties up the system's production queue. Each of these will provide a modest resource boost (the Ecologist propaganda will provide a +20% boost to Food on the system), but, uniquely, they will also "gradually increase support" for that political ideology, although this is a rather weak effect (it struggles to fight against the natural political inclinations of the population, rather than steamrolling over it). It might be worth it if there are quests that require raising support for politics in some systems, or if you have a need to increase a particular output of a resource over building new structures and ships, and propaganda output is better than the 25/50% -> / conversion that your tech could give out.

Yet another benefit of Dictatorship is that Pillaging and Razing systems does not give any Approval hit. Pillaging can give surprisingly good resource gains (particularly of strategic resources), and Razing systems can be a brutally quick and efficient way of denying opponent advantage, should you choose not to take the Empire-wide penalty of -10 from occupying it (over the allowed limit).

The biggest downside of Dictatorship is that with only 1 political party represented, the versatility of passable laws is extremely limited; you're only able to pass laws from the party you chose to support, and from the pool of "independent laws" (that said, some of Dictatorship's independent laws have altered versions that allows you to enact them with considerably less cost, and with potentially much more benefits.).

Furthermore, Dictatorship will be the government that takes the most disapproval hit from having parties that have "no representation in senate", since you're facing 5 parties that meet that criterion (rather than 4, or even 3 under democracy). Although the approval hit is mitigated by the fact that Dictatorships have their source of representatives coming from system levels as opposed to population, which usually results in much lower amount of representatives.

Another downside of Dictatorship is that, because you have only one political party represented, you have only one hero that can be a Senator (thus, applying their 'as senator' hero skill bonuses) in your government, rather than 2, or 3. Dictatorship was given a special bonus to help offset this inherent malus - the senator you do have will get a 1.5x bonus to their skills, but it ends up being a net downside in spite of this.

A mixed downside/upside of Dictatorship is that your systems will rebel when they are "unhappy" instead of "mutinous". This has some odd implications - when a system is in a state of impending rebellion, it unlocks an otherwise unavailable action where you can spend some luxury resources to give the system a temporary +25 Approval boost. The critical thing here is that (regardless of your government), your approval rating on a system acts as a multiplier against your Food and Influence values - Dictatorship is able to do it in a bracket that raises your food levels enough that you will likely be able to prevent starvation/stagnation. Under other governments, this action is only available when you're in the "mutinous" bracket, which means a system is producing 25% of it's nominal Food and Influence values, and bribing the rebellion there will bring you up to the "unhappy" bracket, which gives you 50% Food and Influence. But in a dictatorship, this option will be available to systems that are merely "unhappy", which means you can raise them back to "content" (i.e. from 50% back to 100% Food and Influence). Relying on this is a bit shaky, because there's no guarantee that the populace will demand access to a luxury resource you even are able to gift them, but it is a unique source of quite a bit of Approval that can spot-fix problem systems.

Autocracy

Autocracy has similar effects to Dictatorship, with a few differences:

• 1 party represented
• Directly choose ruling party at elections
• x1.5 senator skill effect on Hero
• Pillaging/Razing systems will not incur approval penalty.
• The "power/forced law" has bigger effect and/or other bonuses
• A "Propaganda system project" will be present on all player systems that will gradually improve support for the chosen political party.
• Only the major population can vote (this is a bit misleading in that it counts the original starting population rather than the major population, it also means non-original population cannot have political influence)
• Anarchy is impossible (meaning that rebellion can't happen, it also means that government type can't be changed through rebellion)
• Cannot change government type
• +1 Additional Law slot

Election Actions

• Official Support - Exactly like under a Dictatorship, you simply pick which party is going to win, and it does.

Strategy

Autocracy is a special government type given to the Cravers to reflect their extremely unusual society - specifically the fact that rather than peacefully coexisting with other populations, they enslave them and eat them. Needless to say, their livestock are completely politically disenfranchised.

Besides having all the benefits of Dictatorship with an immunity to a few maluses thereof, it also means Cravers are unable to switch governments, and thus are fairly limited in their political options during the game.

Autocracy can be given as a faction trait to custom factions, allowing them to have a similar playstyle.

Changing Government Types

After you research the tier 3 Empire Development technology "Xeno Anthropology", you can switch governments. To do so, you need at least 50% empire happiness , as well as some influence . The amount of influence needed depends on the number of colonized systems you have, and also what government type you want to switch to.

Upon switching a government, you will endure 5 turns (on normal speed) of "Anarchy". During anarchy you will not receive the malus of "no political representation on senate", but you will be able to pass no laws, and all current laws will be revoked. Anarchy will also lock all of the slots for political parties, which also effectively prevents Heroes Senate bonuses and the bonus of "having representation on senate".

Rebellion

Anarchy will also be forcibly induced if your empire is in a state of rebellion, and this rebellion reaches a certain peak level.

When this happens, it will forcibly alter your government type. Typically, this will turn you into a Dictatorship, with a political affiliation of the opposite of your current leading political party. If you are already a Dictatorship, it will instead turn you into a Democracy.

An identical effect can be induced by hacking an opponent's home/primary system.

Autocracy

"Autocracy" cannot switch to another government. Notably - this includes both willful choices by the player (to manually try to switch), and also includes involuntary switches via rebellion and hacking.

Starting Governments

All factions start with a specific Government Type, with 1 ~ 2 parties represented depending on if the authority allows. They all start with base levels and therefore can only pass Tier-1 laws.

Notably, the secondary party of factions are either the political tendencies of the starting minor population, or the secondary political inclinations of the main population.

When starting with a custom faction, the secondary party will be the ideologically opposite political party of the main political party.

Faction	Government Type	Party 1	Party 2
Cravers	Autocracy
Hissho	Dictatorship
Horatio	Dictatorship
Riftborn	Republic
United Empire	Federation
Vaulters	Federation
Sophons	Democracy
Lumeris	Republic
Umbral Choir	Democracy
Unfallen	Democracy
Nakalim	Republic
Vodyani	Federation