How would you rework the Galactic Council?

[Anskiy]

So, I think that conceptually, the Council is great. But every so often, a game will have them convene too early, and vote in a leader race before you can do anything. How would you redesign it to solve this problem? Would you also redesign it for other purposes?

[haphazard1]

I generally like the council system. It often allows the player to close out a game where you have a strong position without having to conquer the entire galaxy. The cases where you get an early loss are mostly due to the too easy cheese alliances the AIs can form (and then break and reform). If that alliance behavior could be fixed to make them a bit less common, I think the council would work pretty well.

[rgp151]

It seems to me that lately I haven't had many problems with the Council. I guess I've gotten better at manipulating it. I think it would be cool if the Council could vote on other things, like sanctions and stuff. For example, if you were able to get enough votes together with partners they could do stuff like vote to ban the use of Bio weapons, and if anyone violated it everyone would unite against them, etc. They could vote for economic sanctions against a race to prevent all trade with that race, etc. And the sanctions would last until the next vote.

But generally, I think what haphazard said. Just need fewer early alliances.