re: ops,etc., and morale
Instead of a simple 'restriction' (technofixes don't solve problems), how about adding an 'option' (options solve problems).
How about regarding morale as an indicator of an empire's population's readiness and willingness to respond to events, be it by ops / spells / attacks.
And how about we allow the option for players and fams to select how their empires' morale might be affected in response to events as a means of strategy?
By providing the option for players and families to choose how their empires and their fam's morale as a whole might be affected by events, we could create a means by which individual players and fams as a whole could orient themselves to respond strategically to enemy ops / spells / attacks / strategic conditions of the round as a whole.
Consider how the extent to which an empire's population's morale and thus the empire's capacity to respond to ops / spells / attacks could depend on many additional factors than are available currently. Here are a few:
A. Successful or Unsuccessful / Discovered or Undiscovered: whether or not a certain op / spell / attack is 1. successful and undiscovered, 2. successful and discovered, 3. unsuccessful and undiscovered, and 4. unsuccessful and discovered would all determine how ops / spells / attacks would affect an empire's populations' morale.
B. Type of op / spell / attack: This is very complicated. Basically, each type of op / spell / attack would have different effects (both positive and negative) on the morale of both the targeting and targeted empire, as well as the morale of the targeting and targeted empire's fams. Ops / spells / attacks would affect, 1. the morale of the targeting empire, 2. the morale of the targeted empire, 3. the morale of all empires of the family of the targeting empire, and, 4. the morale of all empires of the family of the targeted empire.
C: 1. Amount, and, 2. racial traits of vulnerability and sensitivity of an empire's population. 1. amount - basically, the more the population, the less sensitive that population is to their morale being affected either positively or negatively by ops / spells (and other events), and thus the more costly it is to change sensitivity levels, 2. racial traits primarily determine the vulnerability and sensitivity levels of an empire's population, however. Therefore, the effects of an op / spell / attack as well as how morale is affected is adaptable according to what racial traits are decidedly developed over the course of a round. For every kind of op / spell / attack this 'floating variable' would apply to both the targeting empire and the targeted empire, as well as all the empires of both families. Specific to vulnerability and sensitivity: the racial traits of different types of population would determine the impact of the op / spell / attack and its effect on morale. Here are four scenarios of how a population's racial traits could affect an empire's vulnerability to the effects of the op / spell / attack itself and the sensitivity to the op / spell / attack affecting morale 1. The racial traits of a population might make an empire entirely desensitized to its morale being affected by a certain type of op / spell / attack but make an empire vulnerable to incurring devastating effects of that same op / spell / attack. 2. The racial traits of a population might make them highly sensitive to their morale being affected by a certain type of op / spell / attack but virtually invulnerable to any effects of that op / spell / attack. 3. The racial traits of a population might make an empire entirely desensitized to their morale being affected by a certain op / spell / attack AND entirely invulnerable to the effects of that op / spell / attack. 4. The racial traits of a population might make them highly sensitive to their morale being affected by a certain type of op / spell / attack AND highly vulnerable to the effects of that op / spell / attack.
D: Both positive and negative effects to morale can be incurred by both targeting and by being targeted by ops / spells / attacks, all according to A, B, and C above. Specific to vulnerability and sensitivity levels: these would be essentially customizable by individual players each tick as the rounds progresses. The player could adjust sliding scales to determine the direction their population's racial traits will change / adapt / evolve the next tick. An algorithm (or a set of algorithms from which players to choose from) for AI to provide such adjustments automatically each tick could be created for players who don't want to micro-manage this).