Civil service is not overpowered in SP or SE.
Is SE as original poster stated no cats = horrible death.
In SP it might be overpowered on easy level, but everything is overpowered on easy levels.
On higher levels you spend to mach time and resources on it and rewards are small. You max capital size very limited and to use it you need to give up slavery in your capital for very long time.
Starting from time of running to CS finishing with using CS civic.
You would be mach better of to spawn cities and if opportunity arrised use Oracle to get mettalocasting, especially if you are industrial.
mach cheaper and effect is bigger.
Is SE as original poster stated no cats = horrible death.
In SP it might be overpowered on easy level, but everything is overpowered on easy levels.
On higher levels you spend to mach time and resources on it and rewards are small. You max capital size very limited and to use it you need to give up slavery in your capital for very long time.
Starting from time of running to CS finishing with using CS civic.
You would be mach better of to spawn cities and if opportunity arrised use Oracle to get mettalocasting, especially if you are industrial.
mach cheaper and effect is bigger.