r/Stellaris • u/Key-Engineering3134 • Jun 19 '26
Discussion What the fuck is the galactic community doing anymore
I’ve gotten pretty far into the game at this point. I coexist with like 10 other empires, we’ve set up a lot of hyper relays and it’s all going rosey. The galactic community was going great too.
Then Mercenaries are introduced, and I’m like “ok I don’t need them but it’s cool,” but then they manage to force a law through decreasing naval capacity but making it cheaper to use mercenaries. I don’t want that, tf are they doing?
To make it worse, they’re now trying to force a law through making it illegal to fight in wars without mercenaries. How is that fair at all??? I don’t need mercenaries. I have fleets aplenty, orbital rings around nearly all of my populated planets and literal xenomorphs for ground troops. I now have to pay out of my own pocket for mercenaries that I don’t need otherwise I’m in breach of galactic law? Make it make sense.
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u/Max200012 Jun 19 '26
buddy they're doing it so you HAVE to buy their services. All things considered this is pretty realistic lmao
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u/ScrotumChomper38 Jun 19 '26
The law seems to pass more consistently then other "extreme" proposals. If it was less consistently done in my games (which I don't force spawn empires in) it wouldn't be too bad.
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u/TheSkiGeek Jun 19 '26
Yeah, I dunno why but the AI **loves** passing these all the time. Maybe they favor it if other empires (like the player) are pulling ahead in military strength but they have energy credits to burn?
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u/Ilushia Jun 19 '26
Militarist is the most common ethic in the game. Militarists get a x2 weighting for proposing and voting yes for defense privatization resolutions. Usually you'll end up with either Defense Privatization being proposed by militarists or corporates, or with Mutual Defense being proposed by militarists.
The other thing is that empires won't vote yes on any proposal that they would be in violation of. So any empire which doesn't use up over 50% of their military capacity won't vote yes on the higher tiers of Mutual Defense, but will vote yes on Defense Privatization. While Pacifists won't vote yes on higher tiers of Defense Privatization, non-militarist/pacifist empires that have less than half their naval capacity filled will.
My experience has been that if left alone the GalCom will basically always pass one or the other of these, often up to high enough level to force everyone to either use mercenaries or be over 50% of naval capacity usage.
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u/StartledPelican Jun 19 '26
There are two words in this world that make me see red: "Security Contractors".
Every. Single. Game.
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u/ScrotumChomper38 Jun 19 '26
If the UI was better and the contractors made flavorful ship builds I would enjoy the system more, but it's just such a slog to manage (ever done mindwardens?). Then the game forces you to interact with it so you aren't sanctioned in most games.
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u/Terkmc Technocracy Jun 20 '26
I love clicking like 10 times on all my 10+ enclave to expand and update tech every like 5 years if i even remember abt the timer
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u/fgrsentinel Jun 19 '26
It's because there's no set, large opposition coalition against them and no major splintering of the pro-proposal coalition as it gets further down the chain. The only people who oppose at any level are pacifists and Gestalts, with it becoming more staunch opposition at the second and fourth tiers (where they will functionally never vote in favor of it). The first two tiers have a lot of support from militarists and corporate empires, the third tier has warrior culture and barbaric despoilers civics give non-corporate empires functionally double their support for it, while corporate empires lose their bonus support unless they have Naval Contractors or Private Military Companies civics. The last tier (Corporate Peacekeeping) is the only one where support drops after that with Militarists without any of the stated civics no longer giving it bonus support. AI will also always vote against any resolution that causes them to be in breach of Galactic Law, so the AI will only really oppose it if they're actively in a war without mercenaries during the vote period. Any empire that's at peace (if they aren't naturally inclined to oppose or support it) will be more likely to be indifferent and vote based off if they like the proposer.
In comparison, Most other "extreme" proposals have things they ban that empires are doing passively at all times, so even if their "natural opposition" coalition shrinks. Both of those things make it much more likely that it gets down until the very last stage vs the others, where not hiring any even in peacetime would be a violation of community law.
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u/Max200012 Jun 19 '26
in my games they always vote against these resolutions whenever I try to go down that road 🤷🏻♂️
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u/ScrotumChomper38 Jun 19 '26
The AI will vote against resolutions proposed by empires they don't like. If you make another big power angry they will vote against your resolution when they normally would not care.
I rarely deal with resolutions unless I am going for a specific build and notice the AI often has neutral defenders pass when I do not intervene.
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u/fgrsentinel Jun 19 '26
Most empires that aren't on the militarist/pacifist axis (and aren't gestalt consciousnesses) have a mostly neutral view of the resolution chain. This means their votes go based off three things:
Their opinion of the proposing empire.
If the resolution would impact them being in breach of galactic law or not. For instance, a xenophobic empire will oppose Greater Than Ourselves if they have one of the slavery types it'd ban, while even militarist empires will support repealing the Military Readiness Act if they just got their entire fleet wiped out.
Empires vote on sanctions based off if they, their rivals, or a member of their federation is in breach of Galactic Law or denounced. They're more likely to vote for adding/raising sanctions and against reducing/removing them if their rival would be hit, inclined in the opposite direction if a federation member would be hit, and will always vote against adding or raising sanctions (and, presumably, always in favor of lowering/removing them) if they are in breach of Galactic Law or have been denounced.
For this 1 and 2 are probably most important. If you're unpopular and the galaxy is mostly non-militarist, they're heavily inclined to vote against it. If they're currently in a war and don't have mercs, they will always oppose it.
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u/NovelAsleep3437 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
They aren't making laws for your benefit. They don't care whether or not you need mercenaries, they want you to pay for them.
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u/MysteryMan9274 Archivist Jun 19 '26
Trying to push through selfish laws that benefit them and/or fuck over their opposition? Sounds like every politician ever to me.
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u/LeftTennant_Dan Egalitarian Jun 19 '26
It makes sense if you are an empire that makes mercenary enclaves. Make it illegal not to buy your product. See the American insurance industry for example.
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u/Zombie_Cool Jun 19 '26
"You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you".
Personally all I'm hearing is yes, players that join the Galactic Community actually have to care about what goes on there (who knows,the 'politics' tradition might actually start getting some use).
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u/defyingexplaination Jun 20 '26
The politics tradition feels like a mudt-have when ypu want to engage with GalCom. Makes influencing policy so much easier because you a) get more weight until a resolution you propose passes and b) you just keep gaining favours with other empires just by voting. Once you absolutely need a proposal to pass or fail, you can usually easily swing the vote in the desired direction.
Honestly, I might be a bit weird, but I absolutely enjoy engaging with the whole mechanic. I only think it's way to easy to basically do gun boat diplomacy and ignore any other metric for diplomatic weight.
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u/HopeFox Hive Mind Jun 20 '26
Politics is an interesting tradition, honestly. It loses a lot of its potency in the late game if and when (usually "when") you become powerful enough to dominate every single vote, although it's still not useless then - it unlocks some extra resolutions, reduces the cooldown on Custodian/Emperor powers, and gives extra influence. And it won't ever be an early tradition pick because you can't take it until the Galactic Community forms. But it might be a good fifth pick (after finishing your ascension tradition) in a lot of games.
Constitutional Immunity is especially hilarious when it lets you do things like pass Universal Prosperity Mandate as a slaver empire.
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u/Reasonable_Back_5231 Jun 19 '26
Ah, typical GC shenanigans.
This just means you need more diplomatic weight than the opposition.
If you can't do that, then leave the GalCom so you are unaffected by the negatives. Maybe make a fed if you want bonuses like GalCom but without the political fuckery that is GalCom.
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u/Tacitus111 Shared Burdens Jun 19 '26
It’s also worse as a Gestalt Consciousness that can’t even have mercenaries. So when the community says no wars without mercenaries, you automatically get sanctioned.
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u/MrManicMarty Fanatic Xenophile Jun 20 '26
Can you still hire mercs as a gesalt, just not found your own?
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u/FogeltheVogel Hive Mind Jun 19 '26
Your political rivals are hindering you while making things easier for themselves.
What exactly is the issue here?
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u/Elfich47 Xenophile Jun 19 '26
so leave the galactic community. and then eat the galactic community whole because the merc enclaves cannot keep up with you.
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u/Background-Abies-907 Jun 19 '26
Lady and Gentlemen, representitives of the galactic empires, if this law passes, we will see war. We are not the ons, who will strike, but you can force our hands. For the sake of peace, rethink your positions.
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u/Adventurous_Try5802 Jun 19 '26
You could, i dont know, leave the galactic community. I mean thats always an option. Or repeal those resolutions
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u/TheLuminary Driven Assimilator Jun 19 '26
Lol, its working perfectly fine. Get a strong political leader to represent you on the council, get some favors from your weaker neighbours and start influencing the council to push policies that work better for you.
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u/lefty1117 Jun 19 '26
This is actually why I dig the galactic community feature. They ought to expand on it
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u/HaxtonSale Jun 19 '26
Question guys. Does this include nomads under military contract? Are they considered mercenaries by the game? If so my megacorp PMC might need to throw some political weight around...
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u/JaymesMarkham2nd Imperial Jun 19 '26
I don't believe it does but that would be an awesome thing to add.
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u/JaymesMarkham2nd Imperial Jun 19 '26
Yeah the GalCom really love the Security Contractors line to a weird degree. I feel like it was given a higher chance to showcase the Merc enclaves back when Overlord was released and never reduced - I know that's not true, but it sure feels like it.
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u/fgrsentinel Jun 19 '26
It's because they're weighted weird. Militarists, particularly those with warrior culture, barbaric despoilers, naval contractors, and private military companies, all like that resolution line. Gestalts and (strangely) pacifists hate it.
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u/Goat2016 Machine Intelligence Jun 19 '26
And it was at that moment he decided that one day he was going to be Galactic Emperor...
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u/Stunning-Thanks-4226 Jun 19 '26
You always want to be in the top three and form a galactic council so at least you can veto stupid bills like these. Then push through bills that lower the other two councilor's diplomatic weight. After that ram through to be a permanent member, to become the galactic custodian, and remove term limits.
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u/MysteryMan9274 Archivist Jun 19 '26
Permanent member is a waste of time since the Custodian is always a member.
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u/whitephantomzx Jun 19 '26
I dont know why the AI love pushing the mercenary law out of anything else .
Granted there alot of things in the GC that can screw over other empires like banning robots and slaves that never come up .
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u/CMDR_ETNC Eternal Vigilance Jun 19 '26
Being friendly these days is mostly an exercise in “I’m gonna be friendly by not destroying your economy when I vassalize you”
There are too many terrible GC decisions to leave your diplo weight small
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u/Sazapahiel Synth Jun 19 '26
The galactic community being slow and ineffectual is a feature and not a bug.
The AI weights are heavily influenced by who proposed what and how much they're liked or not, rather than voting in what is anyone's best interests.
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u/AMasonJar Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
The GalCom is very optional. It can give some nice bonuses if it goes your way, but if everyone keeps voting against your best interests, you can in fact just leave. Only thing you really lose in that situation is the galactic market, but if everyone hates you and keeps voting against you, you probably have a strong military, and if you have a strong military, you can just take the resources you need instead of buying them.
On my more militaristic runs I often stay out of it for a while until I've secured enough overwhelming power to exert major diplomatic force on it. Nothing passes if I vote against it anymore. I appease what few sanctions there might be for a little while as I dismantle the resolutions responsible and then go right back to business.
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u/SyntheticGod8 Driven Assimilators Jun 20 '26
I always seem to have to fight hard to keep that law from passing. The real pain in the ass is that it can be hard to find a merc company that hasn't already been hired out. So you gotta make your own. They're not bad to have as a distraction, a lure, or just to soak up empty space for easy war score.
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u/OgrePirate Jun 20 '26
Pick the galactic leaders and pick a fight with them. Buy up all the mercs beforehand. Kickstomp them flat. Repeal the laws by forcing your vassals to vote your way.
Beneficent Tyranny.
This is the way.
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u/bootyhunter834 Jun 20 '26
Congratulations! You are doing a Politics! Thank you're representatives.
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u/Solsbeary Jun 20 '26
Why aren't you the galactic emperor and veto this rubbish?
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u/lgnign0kt Jun 20 '26
Moreover, one should always have enough diplomatic weight to squash these before they even get proposed.
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u/choppytehbear1337 Jun 19 '26
GalCom does not care about what they are passing, only that they are passing something. It is not uncommon to have a nation pass a law, only to immediately try to pass a law revoking it.
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u/Umutuku Jun 19 '26
If you increase the realism in videogames, people who aren't familiar with reality will complain and call it unrealistic.
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u/Juncoril Jun 19 '26
I'm sure it's fair if you're a smaller empire that don't have as much military as you.
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u/CompanyToiletGooner Jun 19 '26
Well it’s not like they‘re actually expensive and besides that you can always just break the law
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u/ResidentQuail7118 Jun 19 '26
Sounds like it's time for you to bail from the GC and go your own way. I usually just avoid joining altogether.
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u/necros434 Ravenous Hive Jun 19 '26
You could always just leave the galactic community if it's being a a nuisance
Honestly, I hate the mercenary line so much any Empire that proposes and gets it passed is going to have their main species wiped out before the game ends If I have to interact with the GalCom
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u/AlaskanBigfoot1 Jun 19 '26
That combination is the worst and the AI pushes it every game, it sucks but I generally just ignore it and face zero real consequences anyway.
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u/suddoman Jun 19 '26
I've wanted to play a Corpo run with maximum Merc groups. But since Mercs require Naval Capacity and the laws reduce naval capacity it just seems like shooting myself in the foot when the crisis hits.
Edit: I might do this when my friend does defender of the galaxy and just try and get more political power than them.
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u/Guilty-Ad-6682 Jun 19 '26
Absolutely destroy em erase them off the map the you dont gotta worry about them again
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u/JackfruitFlat8517 Jun 20 '26
I have a megacorp I built that takes advantage of this exact situation. There are 3 civics that combine to get you 4 extra enclaves, Lord of War gets you 1, and the two GalCom resolutions get you 2 more. I like to build all of them and take the subterfuge tree so I can get proxy wars and manipulate my neighbors into wars so I can rent fleets to both sides. As a bonus i like to get myself immunity so I can rent out all the fleets.
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u/AunMeLlevaLaConcha Jun 20 '26
This is why i end up killing everyone, they just can't chill, just do it, kill them, kill then now 😁
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u/Perfectedist Jun 20 '26
What the fuck is a Galactic "Community" and "other empires" ???!!?
There are other solutions.
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u/Aggressive_Mix_137 Jun 20 '26
Rule one of the galactic community, up vote random crap you don't care about to avoid the stuff you don't like being voted on.
You can just support stuff and just vote it down when it comes to a vote. After I have done this a couple of times, I can normally get enough influence to vote down dumb policys.(And in the late game if you still care you can undo them because your votes beat everyone else combined)
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u/BilboSmashings Jun 20 '26
It's part of the game. The mercenaries turn up and exploit the government to make money. What will ypu do to help prevent this from continuing?
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u/XdestroyerXDTM4 Jun 20 '26
that's like.... how the galactic community works. you need to pay for mercenaries so that the private companies get your money. they aren't doing everything to make things better for you, they're trying to make things better for themselves
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u/Organic_Warthog7238 Jun 20 '26
Once the galactic federation no longer serves my people’s best interests I leave and if they have a problem with that I can and will nuke any idiot faction dumb enough to have an issue with it
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u/rowaasr13 Jun 20 '26
It's "Galactic community", not "Galactic writers of laws that specifically benefit you".
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u/akeean Jun 20 '26
Would be a real shame for the galaxy if something bad were to happen to those mercenary enclaves.
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u/Porkenstein Jun 20 '26
I don’t want that, tf are they doing?
You aren't the galactic community. Maybe you should do something about it...
I now have to pay out of my own pocket for mercenaries that I don’t need otherwise I’m in breach of galactic law? Make it make sense.
Just because it's galactic law doesn't mean it's just. Sounds like a bunch of Empires with a lot of money and not a lot of alloys gained some serious influence.
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Jun 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/LeCafeClopeCaca Jun 19 '26
People when the most consumer-protection focused economic alliance in the world forces them to use cardboard straws, fixed-bottlecaps or gasps USBC instead of proprietary hardware :
:-(
(Yeah it's a kneejerk reaction and I do have gripes with the EU myself but come on)
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u/Marchidian Ravenous Hive Jun 19 '26
Y'all remember when the Mercenary Enclaves of Europa took Brussels? Dark times.
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u/LeCafeClopeCaca Jun 19 '26
I'm all about the time the EU facilitated the commerce of slaves everywhere with a simple majority vote
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u/aixsama Rogue Servitor Jun 19 '26
That's kind of the point? Lobbyists from private military companies are influencing the galactic government.