Need to add it to the Mechanics post, but it affects resource production and dice, in that your worker die are affected by the multiplier, EG the 2x would make every Civc Workforce would have 1 die instead of 0.5.
Oof, well, civic workforces we don't have yet, we can turn the drugs off once we are poised to get those civic workforces. Harsh could be worth it though in that case if we don't want to have something resembling a civilization.
I'll be honest, i am sad we aren't just leaning full into Combine methodology. Everyone on this planet are either criminals or slaves, being lenient feels like its just aski g for problems here.
It's lenient for the Combine, which is let them have some semblance of a civilization and things like personal possessions rather than total disruption and annihilation of civilization, which is actually helpful for becoming the new boss and pretending we're vaguely normal to the outside galaxy. Remember that it's 'don't let them have personal houses and ship them around so they can't get attached to anyone and form groups' type stuff for the usual Combine.
I understand that many want to punish and enslave because criminal society, but frankly, they aren't going to be allowed to get away with shit and we will still be setting up various checkpoints and things and later turn some of them into policing forces while we brainwash them all.
Lenient, moderate, harsh isn't about how secure the populace is, we're still gonna have forcefields and patrolling forces once we build them, it's about how
hard we work them into the ground.
That being said, I'm not particularly upset about a potentially moderate focus, it means less focus on keeping a population satisfied with things like 'homes for the cooperative that aren't bare minimum concrete apartment blocks' or 'food better than dog kibble'. But it
does leave the population in the negative in compliance right now and hampers my desires to present a friendly face to the galaxy a little bit. Can work around that of course.