Pro tip: NEVER set a Megacorp vassal as a Bulwark

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Did so earlier in my campaign without thinking about it in order to vassalize somebody nearly on the other side of the galaxy from me. As the specialization tiered up, the amount of Energy I had to pay to them was utterly insane - at tier 3 it came to be about 3,000 Energy per month. Might've bankrupted me if I didn't realize the cause and switch them out.
Now that I've helped them take back a few systems they lost before becoming my subject, it would be nearly 4K. By contrast, the amount of advanced resource I can pay them is miniscule - just a couple hundred CG's and Alloys at 30%, easily manageable for my late-game empire.

Planning on setting them as a Scholarium now, perfect for my authoritarian technocratic lizards, and taxing them some of that Energy in exchange for all the Alloys and rare resources they want...

[Kufesska]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Did so earlier in my campaign without thinking about it in order to vassalize somebody nearly on the other side of the galaxy from me. As the specialization tiered up, the amount of Energy I had to pay to them was utterly insane - at tier 3 it came to be about 3,000 Energy per month. Might've bankrupted me if I didn't realize the cause and switch them out.
Now that I've helped them take back a few systems they lost before becoming my subject, it would be nearly 4K. By contrast, the amount of advanced resource I can pay them is miniscule - just a couple hundred CG's and Alloys at 30%, easily manageable for my late-game empire.

Planning on setting them as a Scholarium now, perfect for my authoritarian technocratic lizards, and taxing them some of that Energy in exchange for all the Alloys and rare resources they want...

why not make them prospectorium, in this case?

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by Kufesska:

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Did so earlier in my campaign without thinking about it in order to vassalize somebody nearly on the other side of the galaxy from me. As the specialization tiered up, the amount of Energy I had to pay to them was utterly insane - at tier 3 it came to be about 3,000 Energy per month. Might've bankrupted me if I didn't realize the cause and switch them out.
Now that I've helped them take back a few systems they lost before becoming my subject, it would be nearly 4K. By contrast, the amount of advanced resource I can pay them is miniscule - just a couple hundred CG's and Alloys at 30%, easily manageable for my late-game empire.

Planning on setting them as a Scholarium now, perfect for my authoritarian technocratic lizards, and taxing them some of that Energy in exchange for all the Alloys and rare resources they want...

why not make them prospectorium, in this case?

Because we're both Materialist, and I like research.

[Garatgh Deloi]

I'd argue that it should be: Pro tip, never make anyone a Bulwark ever.

[Falling5tar]

I honestly only set scolariums and prospectoriums

[Mogger]

why would you ever make a bulwark

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Why wouldn't you? Buffs to their military to make them slightly less pathetic, free extra AI-controlled fleets on your side so you don't have to micromanage every last bit of a war. Plus the starbase upgrade cost reduction they give you applies to Orbital Rings too, saving you a ton of Influence.

Militarist empires also tend to be quite happy with the specialization, letting you peacefully subjugate empires who would never accept it otherwise.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Why wouldn't you? Buffs to their military to make them slightly less pathetic, free extra AI-controlled fleets on your side so you don't have to micromanage every last bit of a war. Plus the starbase upgrade cost reduction they give you applies to Orbital Rings too, saving you a ton of Influence.

Militarist empires also tend to be quite happy with the specialization, letting you peacefully subjugate empires who would never accept it otherwise.

Yea but they tend to cost a ton of resources. Basically at the highest Bulwalk tier you are paying them a hefty +50% in proportion to their income in basic resources, it can quickly get out of hand and since its based on their income it won't stay stable either, if they conquer a area your cost will shoot up.

The only time i even consider building a Bulwark is if i have a single world of little worth well inside my empire i can lock them into (for the bonuses).

[Nolo Contendere]

as someone who plays a lot of megacorps (when I'm not playing gestalt machines), this made me lol

that said, don't Scholariums require an overlord subsidy of basic resources like bulwarks do? how would making them a Scholariums not bankrupt you?

[RCMidas]

Bulwarks have a penalty to their own production, which means you need to supply them more to prevent constant rebellions and successions due to bankruptcy, instability, crime and so forth.

Scholaria do not have this penalty, so you only need to subsidise them as per a normal subject empire; and Prospectoria actually have a bonus to production so you can actually tax them instead.

Conversely, BEING a Prospectorium or Scholarium is usually seen as a bad idea due to the massive penalties to research or military ships respectively, making it very difficult to get out the bad situation that led to you becoming a vassal in the first place.

Being a Bulwark, on the other hand, is regarded as the better option as it'll give you enough punch to survive whatever threats are currently out there whilst also enabling a successful independence war later on.

EDIT: That said, I've had a bit of fun experimenting with being a Scholarium of a much smaller empire that I locked off from expanding. I could crush them at any time, I get obscene amounts of research, I'm not competing with them for space and so can outgrow my limited military stature, and my Arctrellis ships make a mockery of mid-late game robot empires (including the Contingency and Cetana).

[Nolo Contendere]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

Bulwarks have a penalty to their own production, which means you need to supply them more to prevent constant rebellions and successions due to bankruptcy, instability, crime and so forth.

Scholaria do not have this penalty, so you only need to subsidise them as per a normal subject empire; and Prospectoria actually have a bonus to production so you can actually tax them instead.

Conversely, BEING a Prospectorium or Scholarium is usually seen as a bad idea due to the massive penalties to research or military ships respectively, making it very difficult to get out the bad situation that led to you becoming a vassal in the first place.

Being a Bulwark, on the other hand, is regarded as the better option as it'll give you enough punch to survive whatever threats are currently out there whilst also enabling a successful independence war later on.

EDIT: That said, I've had a bit of fun experimenting with being a Scholarium of a much smaller empire that I locked off from expanding. I could crush them at any time, I get obscene amounts of research, I'm not competing with them for space and so can outgrow my limited military stature, and my Arctrellis ships make a mockery of mid-late game robot empires (including the Contingency and Cetana).

My understanding (which I freely admit I could be wrong, it's been a while since I really really looked) is that the overlord subsidy works by matching a percentage of the subject's production (ie: in the case of a 30% overlord subsidy, if the subject produces 100 of a resource, overlord matches and pays 30).

so bulwarks, because they need to focus on alloy production to provide appropriate military support, would get a subsidy of basic resources equal to 30% (varies based on agreement) of their own production. not sure what being a scholarium entails (been a while since I really looked at the agreements), but interestingly Prospectorums get a research subsidy.