Tall (vs Wide) means bigger production centers (bigger population, bigger output boosts) rather than many production centers.
- Democracy (government social policy) rises population (+50%?) and number-based influence (N per colony instead of N^0.5).
So bigger output from planets but less planets for the same IP output. Super tall.
- Overpopulation (economic or social policy) rises population (+B*HabSize) and influence upkeep (-M IP), and lowers stability (-S).
In games like MoO2 or Civ series, tall invest production into enlarging planets/cities instead of building more colonies, and tall planets/cities need extra facilities to reach 100% production (like pollution in MoO2 and corruption or discontent in Civ). All those buildings are quite repetitive (micromanagement), so forbidden in FO.
We need some non-repetitive way to soak PP and increase population:
- Subterranean Habitation unlocks Underground Cities (or whatever): PP output is reduced until enough PP are invested (count saved in a special I guess), target pop gradually raised until investment is done; de-adopting the policy removes the pop bonus (the special) and the investment is lost. Also rises influence upkeep (-1 IP per planet).
Empires with many planets of low production will find this less interesting, since it takes a big chunk of empire's PP output for quite a while. Tall empires will get the bonus sooner and have more return if coupled with percentage boosts.
- Orbital Habitation unlocks Orbital Cities policy and Orbital City special hull: policy is required to allow an effect of special hull (speed 0) that rises the population (+X*HabSize) of the owned planets in system (no more than 1 orbital cities per owned planet in system; can be shot down; they also rise influence upkeep, + #owned orbital cities in empire (so #^2), and this effect remains when the policy is de-adopted or the hulls self-destruct when the policy is not adopted, whatever is better for gameplay; I considered the idea of putting the population on the ships, but I don’t know if that is possible and allows to get the empire’s various bonuses to output without changes in backend, at least ships can’t have foci AFAIK).
Making some techs to help tall empires is possible:
- Thread about changing pop bonuses to better differentiate tall vs wide: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11786
This needs a review with policies in mind: is balance OK? Turn some bonuses into policies?...
- A research-focused RP boost (from a new tech or probably better repurposed), techy/telepathy fluffed, mid game, RP bonus grows exponential with population (+X*pop^1.5 RP), rises number-based influence upkeep by a percentage (+50% ?).
Abaddoni subterranean needs rework to fit with this.
- A different bonus from the trait: +1*HabSize in all environments, unlocks Subterranean Habitation and halfs the PP investment needed for the Undergroun Cities policy.
New trait aquatic? +2*HabSize in ocean, +1*HabSize in terran and swamp, -1*HabSize in all other environments. Can have it species with preference terran, ocean or swamp only? Aquatic species in subterranean oceans of barren worlds...
Good for tall strategies that invest on terraforming.
New trait aerial? (aerial as in living in the air, not being able to fly; makes sense for Sly) If we can find an interesting effect, not just another flavor of Aquatic.
Older thread about Tall vs Wide:
- viewtopic.php?f=15&t=11756
There are ideas there that could be good, I need to review the thread again. TBD.