A great example of this is the need to provide defenses against pirates or enemy fleets that will happily interdict and destroy undefended freighters. This can be a challenge because the resources required to build transport craft must be balanced against the priority of other construction projects in your empire. Understanding which colonies produce which goods and how to route them through your empire is critical to development as the game progresses. However, fail to provide enough capacity for transport and you will see negative income and approval. Colonies produce goods with industry and increasing the access to these goods throughout your empire, and other friendly empires, will give you an approval boost as well as tariff income. Similarly, trade is an important tool in maintaining your empire.
Your alignment also matters as you meet other empires: the closer they match your style of government, the more it impacts your relations favorably. Fail to do so and you’ll risk increasing unrest in the empire. Push too far away and you’ll get a warning that you need to change to a government that aligns with your choices. Traits are powerful and can be used for things like reducing upkeep and construction costs or enhancing your empire’s research capabilities but you need to carefully manage your point allocation to either drive your empire toward a government or to maintain alignment with the current one. As you explore systems, found colonies, research tech, and eliminate enemy ships you’ll gain empire points which can then be invested in traits that are aligned to the Federalism/Liberalism and Socialism/Capitalism axis of the government chart.
There are quite a few governmental options but not all seem vastly different and at the start, there are only four you can access. You will want to invest in traits not only for their immediate benefits but also to shift your empire’s alignment toward the government type you want. Government in Stellar Sovereigns has a real impact on your empire due to the interplay of traits and colony approval. There are some rough edges, but where the game shines is with an impactful government system, unique colony management that encourages the development of domestic and foreign trade routes, and a deep tactical combat system with nuanced damage mechanics.
It’s even more surprising that this offering comes from a one-man developer. Stellar Sovereigns (Steam Link) is one of the few that tries and mostly succeeds by blending some of the best ideas from SotS into something quite different yet still familiar. Despite the fondness many gamers have for Sword of the Stars, there aren’t many games inspired by it.
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