On my first full run, I kept Mirelle as Commerce Logothete. Expected her to be really good given the mining world, and I didn't understand what 30 meant on the minister scale yet. Later, discovered she was very good at Law, and started picking her up for this whenever I wasn't planning to pick Rejt.

Similarly, I took Ozara for Law early on, before discovering she was very good at Bureaucracy and taking her for that whenever I wasn't routing through the Heru system for Grojdana.

Science pretty much always goes to Stoyan or Lorkas, depending on my starting angle. Lorkas is the best I've found for Media, though Sola seems indistinguishably close if I need Lorkas for Science.

I haven't found anyone better than Khdarr for economics. Every time I've tried to offer her Law, she's indicated that there could be some very interesting things which happen, but I haven't yet found a way to win her approval enough to have that as an option. 

Speaking of spicier options, Erilott was quite good at Bureaucracy, and is absolutely radiating ulterior motives. I want to find out what happens there. Radomil has the best Galactic Relations of anyone I've found, but is extremely unhappy at the callout needed to make it possible. I want to find out what happens, but it's going to take a lot of planning to have the skills needed to bring him in early. I reverted a run where I picked up Krovos for Spiritual advisor after the backlash, but I want to find out what happens. I've mostly been investigating my Novan heritage, so I think I want to finish that before I start bypassing his personal quest. Very keen to see if having Krovos on board makes something interesting happen when meeting Stoyan or doing their personal quest.

Letting Kxenia go makes me feel like a terrible friend, so I haven't experimented much without her, unless I avoid appointing her in the first place. Having her around for her interest in Nova seems pretty important, too, though exactly what I learn can be masked by how or whether I interact with Nova or the shamans, or if we pursue a dramatic roleplay marriage instead. Out of character, I think I have a pretty good idea of what's up with my heritage and why, though I can't get myself to realize much before the election, and learning the most in a single run leaves me deeply upset and traumatized at the end.

I haven't had much luck trying to get anything out of the rumor Vasilly gave me after the opera. Going back with all-around high arts and maxed music wasn't enough, so I might see if I can make something happen by being in a particular mood. I wonder if something more happens if I'm crushing on him rather than Kxenia.

Most of the romance options have been unappealing. I tried an engagement with Fire to make would-be grandma happy, and mostly to see if anything interesting happens during the "exchange" if I already had test results by then. I don't think anything changed, though. I'm not unhappy with the finale with Fire, though the final transmission's commentary hurt, when I certainly didn't feel any shame with Kxenia.

The prospect of romance with Jade seems both scandalous, and extremely funny. I definitely didn't have the build for it at the time, but it is one of the first things I want to try on the next mechabird run. I don't know if I'll feel shame or pride at the end!

Sometimes I see the option of a romance with Krovos, sometimes I don't. I guess that depends on the skills taken before I first meet him? That might end up being even more of a wild run than a heretical advisor, though at least so far I haven't had an engagement be enough for someone to travel with you.

Generally, I don't think I've had any trouble with the election itself. Pretty much all of my runs involved taking basic empathy and etiquette, and just not being obviously rude when meeting people seems to be enough. On a very recent and unexpectedly lethal run, I was still facing assassins after publicly unmasking one conspirator, and Korundi couldn't say anything any more specific than ~"danger is everywhere don't take any risks be mindful of everything everywhere". I assume I somehow tripped quite a lot of flags. I finally managed to thread the needle through to the election, and despite the extremely intense electoral anger leading up to it, still got the rather interesting result of 20 votes for, 9 against, 0 abstentions.

In the one run I made since, I was deliberately rude I think greeting the mostly uncourted Myrkkans last while favouring all the races I didn't need to worry about, actively full passing social phases in the deep space spot nearest the removed neutral zone for every turn after the opera, giving terrible or "don't care" responses to the "what is your stance" questions, taking the "final chance to sway" option of giving a tone deaf speech with fairly low social skills about Novan heritage that ended in closing my eyes and standing presumably uncomfortably silent and still in front of everyone pretending I was radiating light (I assume it was pretending, given prior attempts had me opening my eyes to nothing) in the engineering outfit (which is absolutely adorable and I think I will struggle to not wear it even in very inappropriate situations when available oh my goodness even the screwdrivers are colorful and coordinated aaaaaa), fully prepared to deliberately lose the vote to smash, grab, and run for Nova with top tier understanding of operational systems, layout, and getaway piloting, still made me Empress with 18 votes in favour! I think I might rollback and try again after mentally bracing myself to deliberately denounce allies, but I've never lost the vote in any run, even actively trying here. I don't think this was intentional, but this feels much less a dramatic finale than the duel for the fate of Nova in OG LTTQ. Maybe I'm just not being evil enough? :(

...it occurs to me that, remembering LLTQ, I started planning out my emotions immediately after being shown where the bonuses were, and so my skills might be higher than expected. I also didn't put many lessons into knowledge skills, outside of a little Spirtuality before meeting her All-Holiness to make a good first impression, an emergency rollback lesson in Blade (Basic) to not die inside a frozen shattered planetoid, pushing Intrusion to 50 before a critical turn-locked test, or pushing my personal Science to know how to scare off a sea monster because my Logothete could not help me when I was off on a joyride, though I could still receive help evaluating beetles while alone. Not sure what the rules are there.

Though, high skills aren't always good. The Empire won't be as happy if Rippling Eternity likes me too much to ask a favor.

I wonder how I can learn more about Heru II. Even if I complete Robe of Ice/Starlight Needle's personal quest via Science, complete Chapadoc's personal quest, and have Khdarr in cabinet as the Logothete of Commerce, I somehow lack connections there in the end. Maybe something interesting happens if I finally work out how to have Khdarr accept the Law portfolio, or have One Bite on as a firebrand minister, or if I can make Chapadoc uncomfortable by staying many turns or hosting the election there, or if I'm there when space-COVID happens.

Just got my first success, and have been dutifully starting my spreadsheet. Absolutely love picking up Sola, immediately firing her, and still keeping her vote. Makes me laugh every time I think about it. I was wondering if anyone had successfully gotten Chapadoc or Radomil on your council (or has confirmation that they'll refuse). They're the only two I have not been able to get a firm 'no' or their stats from.

I've been absolutely devouring this game! I still feel like I've got so much to uncover.

I've firmly settled into my early game strategy of Myrkka II for the easy personal request -> get interaction stats to decent, emotion stats if I have the wiggle room -> Myrkka I to get the easy Vahter and Krovos votes, and hopefully try and finagle one of the more finnicky electors while I'm at the planet. I wonder if I'm missing any special events by not going to other systems early game.

As for romances: the one with Ixil's daughter was pretty cute + helped me snag an otherwise uncooperative elector. No particular feelings on Fire. Vasily was fun - especially having him as my concubine for Eve, which gave some neat epilogue text. Kxenia was adorable and I'm intrigued by her desire to have a villainess romance, but also it is rough having to tank her 30 skill points. Oletko's son was intriguing. 

Eve is the marriage I keep snagging on. The implications of her end card! Does anybody know if it's at all possible to marry her daughter, Star? I've tried proposing that, but Eve either wants me to marry her son or, if I insist I'm not interested in men, will just offer up herself. I'm decently convinced that Star is our half-sister via our mother, and that's why Eve is insistent upon us not marrying. The drama that genetic test result could bring...!

Eve in general is a character who I've struggled to figure out the motivations for. Once I was able to get a personal quest from her, but I didn't have the stats for it. In other runs, her negotiations either jump to marriage or just straight out deny me. No clue what variables cause her quest to become available! 

Also, I've found that the Viper is my safest pick for pet. The social moods it can auto get you to are useful for any sort of run.

Finally managed to win the election after seeing some advice on the other thread of how to go about winning the election

As I had put it to my friends, "high speech with low int is winning me the day so far".  I generally focused on getting high enough Empathy/Etiquette and then Rhetoric early enough before working too much on the other skills, since being able to talk to people well in a game about forging alliances is never a bad idea.

But yeah, as it turns out, having a competent cabinet really does make everything easier, since it's too time-consuming to get Zorana's own knowledge up to par compared to just hiring someone good. On my first run, I wanted to hold off offering cabinet positions until I met everyone, but then realized that the game is too short for that. I feel like prioritizing getting a good Science and Bureaucracy person as early as possible helps mechanically, though having a Commerce person early ended up making a lot of narrative things easier as well. 

I haven't been especially inclined to offer Zorana's hand in marriage to anyone, even her friends. I'm honestly super suspicious of her friends even though they've been nothing but helpful and kind to her, but that's probably just a me issue.

Pet choice absolutely ended up shaping how I approached things, since knowing which moods I can access the easiest had me planning out which skills/electors to go for first. The Hawk is my favorite pet, but the Viper is probably going to be my go-to since I prefer focusing on social stats. 

I got to the election once (after one loss at the election, and a few reloads for assassination reasons - they're a lot easier to deal with than in OG LLTQ but I can see how it might not seem so easy if you're stuck between two assassination attempts on the mood wheel). I went mostly Interaction+Emotion, which tended to be my go-to in LTTQ, with decent Stealth (and picked up the Leotard and the Training Outfit before the end as well).

I followed some advice on this thread - Myrkka II's personal quest, Myrkka I (where I tend not to do great. judicious Blackmail turned out weirdly positive), then after several turns of not feeling like I'm amounting to anything going for Draug for the Science, then down to Heru to open the planets, where I picked up Grojdana and got involved in Heru politics. I would love to delve deeper there. Then Neutral Space (the plot flew way over my head but some merchant goes free I guess), then Tharkas - which I hadn't even reached on my first attempt. 

After that I returned to Myrkka I in time for Turn 24 (I need to skip that to see how badly it hurts Zorana), then down to the Tharkkan sector. By this time there was only one vote to pick up there and delving into the Elector's background made her a natural fit for one of my only open position among my advisors (I'd retained my friends as advisors because Student stats are better than 0 stats). This was too late in the game to be truly useful but that was a strong Council.

Up to Mau for Tulisti and see if having completed Krovos' quest makes any difference in Muistis' quest, then back to Tharkkan sector on the way to Heru sector. Lukomir stole two of the votes on Heru III, where I was planning to spend the last few turns, but it was too late to change plans. There's precious little time between the announcement that you won't be able to move and being unable to move (I find the last turns pretty punitive), and it wasn't immediately clear to me that "sector" referred to the Electors on that planet and not the Electors of the planet group (ex: Myrkka I + Myrkka II as opposed to just Myrkka I)

Then I accepted Vasily's offer to make him my concubine and reached the election with 17 votes and no betrothal. I'd been feeling like I was playing pretty aggressively (I consistently had twice as many promised votes as Lukomir) and juuuuuust squeaking by makes me think I'm not playing this as intended, especially with all the hanging plot threads.

Are there mechanics to get people voting for Lukomir to drop out or is it something that needs to be solved before they vote for him? I haven't figured out yet why the option to dwell into their BG etc remain open once their vite is secured by our opponent, when we can't do the same with our cabinet members. I haven't tried to offer Lukomir electors a cabinet position, but could you offer them a cabinet position to bait them into trying to murder you, then use that against them to prevent them from voting?

Given the need to secure votes the game feels it's at a more break-neck speed to fulfill the plot than LLTQ (that might be inexperience speaking), like there's less time to get things done.

Otoh I love the personal quests. They're so varied and cool! I LOVED the Dungeon's Master, what an absolute treat of a character dynamic there. The physical stats seem like they mostly come into play here. I have no idea what Ixil wants and that makes her pretty scary ngl.

Spoilery super quick doodle, because I can’t not make the joke while I’m thinking about what to investigate next

https://imgur.com/a/TkrxxBs

I'm assuming that the political matters we're consulted on and get to make decisions about - like how the illegal clone children should be housed - impact our approval with certain electors. Or at least they're doing something - I don't think these events are just here for flavor text. I could be wrong, of course, this is just my gut instinct. 

Has anybody been able to figure out specific impacts of these choices? Any interesting events that can come from them? I know the Grib colony has a whole chain of events that it can cause, for example. 

Also, there are some characters who I have the option to propose an engagement to, but they always reject me (Stoyan, Rippling Eternity, Branekka, and Eve's daughter Star are the ones that come to mind). Is there anything I can do to make these engagements available? Or is the option just there for the realism of "sometimes you are going to get rejected, even if you're in line for the throne". 

For the first time, I attempted to negotiate with Chapadoc *after* having her background unlocked (max intrigue is a ton of fun), and I was able to unlock a new option for her quest. For anybody who hasn't already seen it: run, don't walk! It was an absolute delight. Plus, it's a way to get her vote that doesn't need you to invest in piloting and gunnery skills. 

V nz bofrffrq jvgu gur pbaprcg bs Rzcrebeirefr snasvpgvba. V ybir ubj qrgnpurq naq havzcerffrq Mbenan vf jvgu gur ragver guvat - abobql yrg ure bagb Nfgebabzvpny Nepuvir Bs Bhe Bja. 

I just started playing around, but it seems like no matter what I do Khdarr is hostile to me and won't even meet me for a cabinet position - is there an early story choice I'm missing that affects her feelings? 

I got the Election victory on my second playthrough, which suggests that it is a much easier game than LLTQ.

Whereas in the first run I tried to carefully manage relations, I disregarded them completely in the successful run. You are "hostile" towards me? Whatever, you still have a high Skill value, so welcome as my advisor! I also didn't try to find out the electors' allies and rivals. Maybe my advisors hate each other, I don't know, and it didn't seem to have an effect. Overall, I am not sure whether this is as it should be -- it feels strange that I can disregard this mechanic completely and still be successful.

My advisors were Grojdana as Chancellor, Ozara for Economics, Rejt for History, Stoyan for Science (all 75), Sola for Media (70) and Krovos for Spirituality (50), so with the Admiral and the Thresher taking care of Military and Intrigue, only Galactic Relations was lacking and I could focus on my other training. I found Rejt particularly useful for the lore.

I prioritized Interaction and Emotion, with a secondary focus on Spaceships and Big Guns, neglecting almost anything else. This also seems to be a good choice for RP as a successful imperial ruler.

Because I spent the first game on the right side of the map, I went to the lower left first, grabbed a few advisors and finished some easy quests, not bothering to level up for a more difficult one. When I came to Myrkka, almost everyone already pledged their votes for the other guy, so I added Krovos to the council (figured I wouldn't be able to get approval of the good guy) and finished on Heru.

I romanced Jade later on in the game. Was a bit unsure at first, but judging from the epilogue they seem to be a good couple.

My only regret is that I had Krovos on the council. In all other aspects, it was a good run, I think.