using the system described, you have the emperor speaking to the top civilian or military minister and setting limits (weed out all officers below 6 loyalty, and all civil servants below 6 integrity). then the automatic systems go about achieving those averages. sort of like setting your tax rate. nice and hands-off, high level, just like you want.

Right now when I play and I decide to weed out all corrupted official I do it this way: I click on a planet and see the governor's face, I see Corruption 10! Great, the mouse moves over Fire button and stops because I notece he is Competence 12 and Loyalty 7. Right... I'm not so sure now. In addition I look at his faction affiliation and I see Warlords faction which is 14%, so he is from an underdog faction and I don't want to weaken them even more because the imperial stability will fall, in addition I plan a grand military campaign soon and the Warlords faction grands me a nice perk then, but only if they reach 25% or more :) So, I sigh heavily and move on to the next planet and then fire someone who is only Corruption 8 but was more disposable.

It's a non trivial decision, taking into account a lot of factors and super cool to make. I don't want to take it away. And it works on an individual level only (or on a limited numer of targets only).

I'm not saying I won't make some bulk fire option, but... it's the last resort that kills most of the fun of the system.

Right now when I play and I decide to weed out all corrupted official I do it this way...

so whats the problem? that's too "hands on" ?

the "poor" part of your current solution shouldn't really occur. purges should make average stats asymptotically approach what ever stat level you use as a cut off. whether you do them all at once, or one per turn. unless i'm mistaken, that's just how probability works. if i flip 100 coins, then re-flip all the tails, and continuing to re-flip the remaining tails, i'll eventually get all heads. same idea with firing governors and stats. keep firing the bad ones - eventually you'll get all good ones. only if you fired all governors each time would your average remain at about 6.5.

since the "poor" part seems to be based on a math error, and its the part that makes the "mediocre" part mediocre, it would seem that you actually have no problem at all, and merely made an error in calculating how your system would behave over time.

if browsing governors to be fired is the issue, make it so you can sort the list on any stat, and other such things, to put the info into the most user friendly interface possible. there's little difference between a game with lots of micro management and a game with less micro management, but an interface that doesn't do its utmost to facilitate the management tasks that do exist. IE make sure the issue is "this is too much like micro management" and not simply "this is too much like work (due to the interface)".

I have been playing it for a while and I have to agree that the number of governors makes in unmanageable. But it comes from the ability to fire any governor anytime, not necessarily from the sheer volume I think.

So, I thought of these:

- divide all personnel into high rank (few) and low rank (many), you can toss around the high rank with great freedom (appoint, fire, reassign) while having only limited or abstracted influence over low ranks

- personnel's stats effect being proportional to the group not to their numbers, like all admirals affect 50% of Competence in fleets and all lower rank officers affect it too by 50%, regardless how many of those there are (like 1 admiral and 1,000 captains means 50% of the effect comes from the single admiral and 50% from all the captains together)

- governors can't be Fired anymore (they just die of an old age/get assassinated by competitors/etc, or are fired in bulk if you order some sort of empire wide purge/competence tests), instead each time a position is vacant you get a choice of 3 candidates (4 if you researched 'Civil Service Academy') for that position (EndTurn button is disabled until you make the choice)

- inspectors events, I have an audience mechanic that could be used, like sometimes an imperial inspector come in reporting that a governor was found corrupt/disployal/incompetent (random chance, he was caught doing some shady stuff) and you have a choice to keep or fire that governor (that even would be triggered vs a poor governor only, like only those of high corruption can be caught as corrupted)

Well, first of all I know it is another complexity layer but I think it would be better if you don't know (at least) corruption level of an officer without any effort. You may consider adding an in-empire investigation/intelligence unit as well. At Total War Series it is done by spies for foreign commanders/agents to reveal their traits. Such unit may even be linked to an anti-corruption investigators where players would seek a balance. ( Like you can't have bug-free code but less bugged one with more time and money, there is a point where spending money to lower corruption costs more than corruption itself.) You may also consider a demotion option as well rather than mere firing. (Everybody knows governing Coruscant is promotional than governing a remote planet at Outer Rim)

For too much governor problem, I am with player appointing one grand official and him handling such stuff but Empire can also be able to require certain arrangements ( like remove governor of Tatooine, appoint Empress' nephew to Mustafar etc)

Finally you may consider a counterbalance like if player fires people too quick, it has negative impact on loyalty ( You failed me for the last time commander , force grip , you there you are commander now ) or competence.

For too much governor problem, I am with player appointing one grand official and him handling such stuff but Empire can also be able to require certain arrangements ( like remove governor of Tatooine, appoint Empress' nephew to Mustafar etc)

And i realy don't see why the player would have to go to the planets themselves;
i have my doubts the officials increase defenses(which would be important for map-location)
and maybe they interact with the planet's specialization though i haven't read anything about that too.
Thus far what i read about your game the officials are mainly important to make the empire as a whole perform better so i would scrap the current mechanic.

But then it comes the interface, governors are displayed on the planet page. And when I see them (as a player) I GET THE URGET TO FIRE THAT IMCOMPETENT FOOL :D You are right, this decision does not make sense to be on planet panel design wise, but interface wise it makes sense. I guess I would remove the fire governors option altogether, still... as a player it makes me uncomfortable not being able to show my dissatisfaction with the planetary governor...

OK, I could replace the Fire button on planet interface with Manage button which brings you to some sort of screen where you could do something with governors.

Each turn(or X turns) there are elections, the people elect their REPRESENTATIVES, these have no power yet,
but the player uses them as an officials-pool to fill in positions he wants filled.

But I have doubt if the "pool of candidates" for governors is a good mechanic in the first place. I mean, the game is designed so you have up to 200 planets in the laste game, so... I don't see myself tossing governors around and deciding who goes to which planet :)

Also a thought, maybe divide those governors into sectors? Like you can manage governors but only within same sector/prefecture? So when you make a choice you have like 12 people to deal with at once (all being displayed on one screen without any scrolling or filters).

Sigh... I guess I will have to sacriface something I like in order to make it work :(

OK, let's look at it from a more broad perspective (it's not only about governors). Maybe start with the imperial court and other high rank officials?

Summary so far:

1) There should be a division into high and low rank officials, the player appointing them all directly and manually would not work. So, only high rank can be messed with freely while low rank are somehow dealt with indirectly or partially indirectly.

2) Civil branch and military branch should be strictly separated.

Power structure: (I could adjust it if you have a better concept, but reluctantly)

* Emperor (the player) nearly unlimited power but in practice unable to oversee everything personally so needs to rely on corrupted, disloyal and incompetent helpers :)

* 5 court factions - abstracted entity, each civil branch official (military does not do court politics) is affiliated with one faction, the faction's power depends on how many people from that faction hold imperial positions. The perfect balance is if all factions have a similar power (no trouble), so a balance of power mechanic. The Empire gets a bonus specific to the top factions (like if Warlords faction is among the most powerfull you get a combat bonus).

High rank officials (player can appoint them dirrectly)

* Imperial Court (12 courtiers, 12 because that's the number that fits perfectly the interface :) they are kind of like ministers, advisors and your direct helpers)

* Diplomats (around 10 ambassadors you have with other civilized races)

* Admirals (9 admirals, one per fleet, there are 9 fleets)

* Marshalls (1+, the game mechanics don't require them, any number is OK, they would just provide a plain bonus to army)

Low rank officials (probably too many to appoint directly)

* Planetary governors (Civil branch) (1 per planet, they manage their planets)

* Generals/Colonels (Army) (1 per planet, they coordinate local defences)

* Squadron Commodores (Fleet) (one per squadron, up to 20 squadrons per fleet, provide tactical bonus during space combat)

Possible twists:

- Admirals and Marshalls making a "war council"

- Civil Service College & War Acedemy providing a pool of candidates (for lower ranks)

Random questions/dilemmas:

- I have a bit unclear view on how the Imperial Court should function (other than it being made of 12 personas and being connected to factions)