Mercantile Guild Rivalries

[laughinglab_MatrixForum]

Being one of my favorite government types, I thought I would share some thoughts on Mercantile Guilds. I feel they should have a relations malus with each other to reflect that they are in essence competing for the galaxy's trade and resources.

I've been playing a lot of Crusader Kings 2 lately and the conflict between Merchant Republics got me thinking about similar mechanics for Distant Worlds.

One more thing, was troop recruitment speed for MC's reduced? According to the empire policy screen it is, but when starting a new game, it's not. I have read the modding guide, but haven't figured out how to mod the governments.

I appreciate your consideration. I am a longtime lurker of these boards and this is the 4X space game I keep coming back to. Shadows made it even better.

[MarQan]

If two Mercantile Guilds are close enough to hurt eachother's business (IF they do at all), they make a much bigger profit on eachother, than with any other empire.

I could imagine massive amounts of money going towards pirates to cut in the other Mercantile Guild's private sector. But an all-out war, or even a diplomatic relation change... I don't think so. At least not with the current mechanics.

[Fenrisfil]

I would suggest making sure both races have a high priority for controlling rare resources, use pirate attack missions whenever a good target presents itself and has win conditions that force direct competition (control the most resources, etc). That way it could push those races into a more interesting rivalry. You could also try and encourage sabotage missions by limiting many of the other types in the empires policies.