GCs and Ministers

[ChubbyChecker]

A lot has been made about giving the ministers more power. And rightly so. Modifying the jobs of the GCs and ministers will add an extra dimension to the game for the active players in a galaxy and will give them something to compete for. Below is a few changes that I think should be made for future rounds:

Galactic Commander:
The GC currently has too much power. An active GC rules the roost since he can appoint ministers at the drop of the hat.
Firstly, get rid of his ability to mail the whole galaxy. This will make the MoC more powerful since he is the only one who can do it. I am not sure if the GC can moderate the forum but if he can then get rid of this too.
Secondly, make it so that the GC can only take away a minister's job after he's had it for at least 48 ticks. This means that the GC can't appoint a new minister depending on who happens to be online at the time. He actually has to think about who he makes a minister.
Keep the power of exile. The GC should be the only one who can initiate it. Perhaps also make it so that he cannot exile ministers, again this will make him think about who he makes a minister.

MoC:
Removing the power of the GC to mail the whole galaxy will increase the status of the MoC. I can't think of any other appropriate powers for him atm.

MoD:
An idea that has been suggested in another thread which I quite liked is for the MoD to have the ability to "twin" his galaxy with another galaxy. This means that the two galaxies can trade resources with each other depending on what resources they need. It should be a simple case of mailing the opposing MoD and if he accepts the twinning is done. Galaxies that are twinned are still able to attack each other of course.
Perhaps also make it so that the MoD is unable to trade resources in the fund with the Universe fund. The exchange rate is 25% anyway so the MoD is not getting any advantage from doing it there. This will make his job more intellectual as he has to then allocate resources to planets in the galaxy rather than letting them rot in the fund.

MoW:
This is the real problem as he currently has no power. One idea that has been suggested is to give him the power to report incoming to the appropriate alliance in-game. This is good. He wouldn't know which alliance he's reporting to, just that he's reporting. If a planet with no alliance gets incoming then the MoW shouldn't realise that he's allianceless, the mail just doesn't go anywhere. Otherwise he could use this knowledge to his advantage.
Another idea which I like is to give the MoW the ability to fleet scan any hostile (not friendly) incoming into the galaxy. Cloaked ships don't show up as per usual. This will reduce the power of distorters as organised galaxies will make their MoW an amp whore. This isn't too much of a problem though cos distorters are currently too powerful. I know of some very large planets (2000 roids plus) that have received practically no incoming this round because people can't scan them.

Also free planets should have the ability to become ministers. This will give active free planets a clear sign that they're doing well and will make them want to upgrade more. The position of minister if you upgrade is no incentive at all imo.

[furball]

Are you trying to destroy Planetarion, or does it just come naturally?

[Kal]

I actually like what he is trying to do, though there are flaws in some of the specific ideas (which are discussed in the threads the individual ideas were proposed in).

I'd like to go further in making the galaxy a useful and cohesive unit:
only allow self exile once every 3 days, make base self exile cost higher, lower affect of galaxy size and number of self exiles on overall cost
make galaxy exile free for any planets that have not logged in for more than 3 days
restrict galaxy exile to once every 3 days, but allow exiles in small galaxies
only galaxies in the bottom 25% by number of PAID planets can receive new planets or planets returning from c200

I think combining exile changes with the above changes to GC/MOC/MOD would be interesting, MOW is allways a tricky one of course though.

Of course this all needs more thought and discussion.

[ChubbyChecker]

Originally Posted by Kal

only galaxies in the bottom 25% by number of PAID planets can receive new planets or planets returning from c200

I discussed the problems with this idea here

The rest of your ideas seem reasonable enough though.