Executive Orders - An Indepth Look

This thread is to take a deeper dive into control and executive orders. The goal is to see which orders are working well and which ones could use some work.

General Notes
I'll start with just a few notes about EOs in general.

• Control is not a scarce resource. I have rarely found in any game of GC for control points to be a major limiter of EOs. Maaaybe in a corporate game where you are rushing everything all the time, but with most races control is pretty plentiful. The cooldowns on EOs is far more important. Late game, I am just spamming my EOs whenever possible, giving no consideration to the cost whatsoever.
  
  
• Conversely, many EOs come with some embedded cost that is far more impactful and limiting. Again, it seems like control is really a secondary resource, for most EOs its a question of whether I want to bare the cost of more crime or pollution or approval or XYZ, not the control cost. I personally feel it should be one or the other. If you want a system where each EO regulates itself internally, than just remove control as a resource entirely. Have your cooldowns and internal costs regulate. Or...increase the control costs but ramp down the cooldowns and internal costs, allow EOs to just "work" if you have the control to spam them unfettered.
  
  
• The lack of variety in EOs is quite noticable. There are 4 different ways to boost your money, 4! As a low hanging fruit, I think some of the war artifacts can be really useful here. For example, an EO that bombs a space dealing 10% hp damage to the fleet, or an emergency supply EO that heals a fleet for 10% of its health (aka lesser versions of the artifact powers). You could have these only work within your borders, providing another benefit to expanding your borders. I also think EOs are a cool way to "terraform" the map. Maybe an EO that could create a small nebula, or an EO that can create an asteroid. Late game EO that could make a blackhole, etc.
  
  
• The fact that artifacts and EOs are so similar in mechanics just calls out for some overlap. I would love an EO that can recharge an artifact for example. Obviously for balance the EO's cost would have to scale on which artifact used (the instant research artifact is a lot stronger than the +1 citizen for example), so the UI portion if tricky, but it feels like that should absolutely be an area that EOs play in, and would make artifacts even more fun to use.

 

Specific EO Notes

• Colonial Supplies: There are some issues here. The text needs work, the benefit suggests a +10% approval, but its actually only for colonies and not core worlds (you get that from the flavor text but not from the actual mechanical description). Second, the cooldown is much shorter than the duration, assuming the duration is correct, spamming this will net you +20% or maybe even +30% approval for a time (assuming the approval bonus stacks, which again is unclear). Ultimately though I'm not sure what the real point of this one is, approval is such as a fuzzy concept for colonies. I would recommend instead a reduction in decay. Everyone knows that decay means colonies, so there is no confusion. Decay is also a straightforward concept (50% decay means that 4 research becomes a 2, got it). So any adjustment here has a strong and well understood effect. Then feel free to adjust the cost accordingly. That would make it a more interesting EO.
  
  
• Draft Civilians: The control cost is actually high enough to be the primary cost, so I don't feel the approval penalty is needed. Ultimately this is an emergency EO, used for when a key planet is getting hit and you just don't have the forces available. A great idea, but the fact that it always summons to the capital planet really limits its use. I would rather you could click on the planet (or heck point in space if you want to get cool with it) and then have the ships show up there. Also, I believe the ships don't scale at all. It would be nice if the ships drafted always used your best default weapon and armor or something. The ships are great early on with their +50% hp, but quickly obsolete.
  
  
• Draft Colonists: A solid EO, though it takes some system mastery to unlock its full value. Early game its vital, allowing you to immediately begin a strong colonization campaign (in fact you could argue its too good, accelerating the land grab even more). Late game it may seem worthless when there are no more planets to conquer, until you realize that a colony ship is effectively 1 free population, just send it to a planet, garrison it, and then decommission. I think this is an EO that could be increased in control cost, as I rarely find the approval penalty enough to even consider whether to use it.
  
  
• Exhort Governors: Loyalty is a hard resource to build up, and this EO is vague on whether the penalty is permanent or not. As such I avoid this EO, it feels too pricey and there are many other EOs to get money from. This is a good candidate to remove the loyalty cost entirely, and ramp up the control cost (which can also scale on number of governors). Just make it pure control = money.
  
  
• Exploit Resources: Less money than print money but ultimately a cheaper cost in many cases, its ultimately got a higher control cost for the benefit, which is fine. I personally think there are way too many money EOs, but this does the job.
  
  
• Forced Overtime: This one seems pretty decent, strong control cost and good benefit. The one issue is, it doesn't specify how long the bonus lasts, so its hard to judge just how strong it is.
  
  
• Good Will Tour: This one is fine, diplomacy can be useful in the right circumstances.
  
  
• Galactic Festival: The benefit of this one is surprisingly strong, and though it has a long cooldown, I pretty much use it every chance I get. Another one that needs a greater control cost to be a strategic decision.
  
  
• Illicit Deals: How long does the crime last....forever? The benefit seems reasonable, again dirt cheap control cost its purely about whether I want the crime or not.
  
  
• Invite Leaders: This is one of the best examples of a well made EO. Its has a reasonable cooldown, cheap control cost, and provides a solid and useful benefit. It scales well, useful in the early game when you picking your choiciest ministers and still care about leader specials, and useful late when you have a lot of money and just want to fill your faction coffers with leaders.
  
  
• Print Money: The best of the money EOs for me, but that could be because its the clearest, as I know how long the approval penalty lasts. But this is a good money EO, a reasonable cost for the benefit.
  
  
• Research (the one that gives 50 research, can't think of the name): This is the most spammable late game EO, basically converting control into research. Its boring but effective.
  
  
• Telescope Takeover: I find as I play the game more I use this one less. I scout with my early probes without much issue. Further, the cooldown on this thing is insane, by the time I get to use it again most of my scouting is done. It also scales horribly, early game it has some use, but later game its barely worth talking about. I personally wish the area I scouted was active for 6 months lets say. Aka give me active vision of the area (as if there were sensors in the area), so now I can use this as a true spying EO. Also, one pet peeve of mine is I can't use it to scout other sectors until I send a ship there, to me that should be one of its primary features!