Grog's Guide to Human Resources Administration

[jimwinsor]

Thanks! I also posted this as a Steam Guide, which may be easier to access: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2307478602

[eddieballgame]

Outstanding Guide...'Print' & Saved As PDF.

[Arralen]

Many thanks jimwinsor - I had my table halfway finished when I found your lists here ... made things much more easy:

LeaderSkills.jpg (195 KiB) Viewed 1559 times

As one can see, you don't need equally talented people for all jobs - and some skills are not really needed at all.
Btw., Vic, do you really not want to do something about that?

What are missing are (e)vents, for the most part. And don't ask what that governor event was - when it happened, I just noted "e" in my table and went back to the game [;)]

[zgrssd]

Btw., Vic, do you really not want to do something about that?

Oh, I am sure it is on "the list".
The list is very long.

[jimwinsor]

Yeah, as I noted in my prologue, including the skills used on events is missing and would be a big project to undertake. The easiest way would be to peek at all the event text in the code, but we can't really do that. The other would be to make a note during play when events come up, but that would be a difficult and probably less than complete account.

I am starting to informally pay more attention to events though, and make a mental note in my mind. For example, Governors (or their Advisors) often need Offensive Tactics to deal with all sorts of civic disturbances, etc. Things like that.

The chart is a great addition, thanks!!!

[Soar_Slitherine]

I don't have a Secret Service Council yet in my ongoing game, and I noticed that my secretary has a higher Covert Ops skill usage rate than my Supreme Command Council director who actually sends out the spies. I suspect this means that the secretary is actually the one that rolls to prevent spies from being lost in the absence of a Secret Service Council, rather than the Supreme Command Council director.

[Arralen]

ORIGINAL: Soar_Slitherine
I don't have a Secret Service Council yet in my ongoing game, and I noticed that my secretary has a higher Covert Ops skill usage rate than my Supreme Command Council director who actually sends out the spies. I suspect this means that the secretary is actually the one that rolls to prevent spies from being lost in the absence of a Secret Service Council, rather than the Supreme Command Council director.

Now this is an interesting information!
If this turns out to be true and intended (therefore not fixed/changed in a patch), this would mean that the secretary might actually "worse" than the governor in the number of skills he needs.
Only that the number would diminish during the game, and the secretary becomes a prime governor candidate ... .

[Soar_Slitherine]

I don't follow. What does my observation have to do with use of any skill besides Covert Ops by the secretary? It makes sense that somebody is responsible for maintaining spies even if there is no Secret Service council, but otherwise they only seem to make rolls if an existing job position is vacant.

[jimwinsor]

I've noticed tax stratagems call on the Secretary now to make the roll, even when a SCC is available. So yeah, some change was made in a patch not too long ago, complicating what we previously knew about backup ministers.

[FarAway Sooner]

ORIGINAL: Sieppo
After playing this game since June I have to say, this post is the most useful post on this forum. Thank you again, I pretty much keep the page open always when playing. Should be pinned.

Although I only started playing this game one month ago, I'd echo this comment. I love the game and I love Vic's hard work on it!

The Council mechanics are exciting and really important, but also quite opaque to newcomers. I think the volume of enthusiastic responses on this thread suggests one low-hanging fruit that he could deliver pretty easily. On the "Add a New Council" screen, provide Tooltips that provide a simple description of what each Council does.

Heck, I'd volunteer to write them myself if he's interested! Here's a sample:

The Economic Council generates Research Points to Discover new civilian technologies and then to Research them, it generates Prospecting Points to locate hidden resources within your Zones, and it helps with your empire's economic policies. Stratagems relating to the Economic Council include managing Corporate relationships, promoting investments in the public sector, and private-sector activities involving prospecting or archaeology.

[jimwinsor]

Big update: ECOLOGY is now a thing! Yes Ecology, that skill I once referred to as "the most obscure skill in the game." Thanks to the 1.08 patch, the Foreign Affairs Council now uses Ecology on its minor diplomacy cards interacting with intelligent alien species (Xeno Diplomat, Xeno Diplomat Team).

It's something to keep in mind now when recruiting your Foreign Minister on planets with fauna that grunt at you and make hand gestures!

[BlueTemplar]

Lastly, the Secretary also acts as the minister of last resort, when neither the appropriate cabinet official nor the Supreme Command Council is available. The roll is done at a -25 penalty.

The SCC also makes the Skill Rolls for any other leaders who are not present for some reason, making him or her the first backup in such situations.

Neither of these seems to be happening ?
I switched my Interior Council Director, and during the turn that position was vacant, I got the full -50% relation bonus and 0% skill bonus on all 4 tasks.

[Akrakorn]

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

Lastly, the Secretary also acts as the minister of last resort, when neither the appropriate cabinet official nor the Supreme Command Council is available. The roll is done at a -25 penalty.

The SCC also makes the Skill Rolls for any other leaders who are not present for some reason, making him or her the first backup in such situations.

Neither of these seems to be happening ?
I switched my Interior Council Director, and during the turn that position was vacant, I got the full -50% relation bonus and 0% skill bonus on all 4 tasks.

I'm not sure what you mean, but the Secretary does take over if the appropiate council cabinet leader isn't available.

[BlueTemplar]

Ah, I was talking about Council Tasks, rather than Stratagems.

[jimwinsor]

Yeah I should clarify that that only applies to stratagem rolls ...

[zgrssd]

I noticed a lack of information on Retirement. Wich is one form of "Human Resource Management". The other one being assasiantion.

My understanding is this:
- each retirement card/retirement plan has a specific target Seniority. It is designed to have a 50% sucess chance against that seniority level
- the councilor and target skills are ignored
- the card rolls 1D[2 times the stated seniority] vs [target leader seniority]. Wich results in the above mentioned 50% chane vs the target Seniority.
- if there is money attached to the retirement, you only pay on a success
- if you fail with a card that is at least within the right ballpark (not trying the minimal 1D20 card vs a seniority 71 leader), the targets seniority will be reduced
- if you crit fail, this is handeled as if you promised a job - with all the downsides for Wordscore and Happiness if you do not do that it entails

[jimwinsor]

Yes, not a bad thing to add. I should probably also update with a brief section on scrapping hiring cards. I'm def going to include this image on the Steam Guide:

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: zgrssd

I noticed a lack of information on Retirement. Wich is one form of "Human Resource Management". The other one being assasiantion.

My understanding is this:
- each retirement card/retirement plan has a specific target Seniority. It is designed to have a 50% sucess chance against that seniority level
- the councilor and target skills are ignored
- the card rolls 1D[2 times the stated seniority] vs [target leader seniority]. Wich results in the above mentioned 50% chane vs the target Seniority.
- if there is money attached to the retirement, you only pay on a success
- if you fail with a card that is at least within the right ballpark (not trying the minimal 1D20 card vs a seniority 71 leader), the targets seniority will be reduced
- if you crit fail, this is handeled as if you promised a job - with all the downsides for Wordscore and Happiness if you do not do that it entails

A small correction on the fail and seniority damage:
Apparently there is a fixed percentange of seniority damage (0%/25%/50%/75%) based on the level of the Retirement plan. As long as you risk spending any money, you can get their seniority right down.

[jimwinsor]

Updated. I think retirement rolls need to be equal to or greater than Seniority? And not greater? I can't recall an instance where the roll was right on the number ...

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: zgrssd

I noticed a lack of information on Retirement. Wich is one form of "Human Resource Management". The other one being assasiantion.

My understanding is this:
- each retirement card/retirement plan has a specific target Seniority. It is designed to have a 50% sucess chance against that seniority level
- the councilor and target skills are ignored
- the card rolls 1D[2 times the stated seniority] vs [target leader seniority]. Wich results in the above mentioned 50% chane vs the target Seniority.
- if there is money attached to the retirement, you only pay on a success
- if you fail with a card that is at least within the right ballpark (not trying the minimal 1D20 card vs a seniority 71 leader), the targets seniority will be reduced
- if you crit fail, this is handeled as if you promised a job - with all the downsides for Wordscore and Happiness if you do not do that it entails

Another small correction on the fail result:
It is possible that the "You are counted as if you promised a job" result only happens with the "no Retirement Plan" option. And on that one it happens with a Normal Fail.
It is possible that while Criticial Fail/Sucess are still indicated, that they are not actually tracked based on how different the roll is.