Ive read this post a while ago but i didn’t have an account. Now i do, ill give you guys my view, well I think that you should have an option to either have a government, a king/lord or a military leader. Governments/democracy creates disputes with each other but then come to an agreement the people choose who leads etc.) Kings/Lords don’t want to be overthrown but sometimes they go crazy and your people overthrow him do something else maybe communism/democracy but often they make your citizens proud and happy. Then finally a military leader who makes your citizens safe and secure, makes your soldiers has better morale and attack or defence but your military leader might turn to a dictator who does everything for himself and loads of riots start any more build-ons to this would be appreciated
-Gridnick
For me, I kinda feel like these sorts of things should be a bit more fluid … more cause and effect rather than tickbox.
As in, the way your settlement progresses in terms of leadership is a direct reflection on how you’re playing - so, if you pump a lot into your military, then your military become strong and dominant and your best soldier rises the ranks to some sort of village leader.
If you take a balanced approach to things then the outcome is a village council, things like this.
I appreciate this is all just ideas, and perhaps they’re not really much different to choosing options except you just don’t get to choose the option … but yer!
I know you all love me wading in so 
I love this idea and it would work but what happens if you want tow different types of leaders like a military leader and then council I don’t know but then what happens
Well it’s a tricky one because that also feeds into the argument of “well, what if I don’t want any leader?”
Such a game mechanic can very easily run the risk of dictating to people how they should run their settlement, or the way they should run it, and I’m quite against this, especially in Stonehearth.
So, I suppose you could handle it a few ways - either have no settlement leader system, so your settlers are equal, but there are obviously more skilled units that are better at their job, or offer a wide variety of leader systems that we can pick and choose from …
All in all it’s a pretty distracting idea 
maybe if you don’t have a leader then your people fight or they make their own government/ leader
My opinion would be, that a leadership system (that maybe encompassed government too) would make a fantastic mod. It just shouldn’t be in the core game. That way it’s super easy to decide if you want to have a leader or not; Mod Active, Mod Unactive.
I see this as a mod easy to make on a small scale, harder to make on a large scale, so might attract some advanced coders. Any way you go about it though, I see it as one of the early mods that doesn’t just add new models (which are great too) but adds a whole new layer.
I think it should be more subtle, where say, there’s a soldier getting more kills so in the next battle when he’s in trouble people will show up and defend him. As this happens more then more then just soldiers start acknowledge him, letting him have better things first, and such. As he gains more power he might get a guard, become a target for the Pirates/Ninjas/Politicians, and is having talks with other npcs and giving them boosts. This could happen with any class.
Just remember he could hire pirates/ninjas/politicians
Masterful. I could not have said it better. Perhaps this can lead to relationships as well.
I also think that alone these lines it might be a cool idea to be able to alter the moral compass of your soldiers and villagers. I dont know how obvious this would be as i dont know how often they will be making moral decisions (whether to spare a murderers life) but it would be cool to decide whether you wanted an army of lawful good knights or of lawful evil, or even chaotic nuetral soldiers 
good idea but then it should happen through the decisions you make. for example if you decide to trade and cooperate with the other people you meet instead of killing them of immediately the villager becomes more peaceful
Hey you should talk to @chimeforest about his Nobility mod, maybe you guys can combine both of your mods into something great!
In the last stream Tom said that it would be made possible to make more cities when that happen the leader class would make a lot more sense. he could be used to access some sort of bigger administrative screen of interaction between cities.
edit: though a adviser or administrator class could bused the same way
A [player] leader class doesn’t have to be there to do anything other than be a figurehead for the faction (and fulfill social needs in case settlers in Stonehearth have a social need).
Like having unlocked a new class that leads to new construction, instead of dictating how the player should run the settlement/nation, it should be something simple like “oh, I can make a barracks now” or “[leader] wants a wooden chair”.
Much like how the royalty of England do not hold much political power, the player’s leader in Stonehearth need not be there for much else other than having a character to pamper. Quite useless, yes, but makes a world of difference between having one and not having one.
As for non-player leaders, they need not be anything special either. During raids, a leader will spawn, leading the mob during the raid. Maybe it can have increased stats but nothing else is really expected other than an aesthetic look.
For non-player factions, their leaders will function in the same way as a player leader. No politics, etc. I’m assuming that non-player factions will receive instructions on deciding to be militaristic, trade-oriented, etc. from something other than a leader. (and a note to the developers: if non-player factions are the same over and over, that would make for a very boring experience. Don’t leave all the work to modders)
Other than that, I feel that the game does have a need for figureheads. As useless as they might possibly be, it just feels better than a game where all societies are somehow anarchist in similar fashion to The Shire)
I really don’t see how complicated it can be to add a figurehead. I mean, if it needs to have some use, make the figurehead a great fighter or something where being in the position of ‘leader’ will give great stat boosts.
(then again, I have no experience in game development. I’m sorry if I make it sound like a piece of cake to do. It isn’t)
This. I don’t think Stonehearth settlements need much in the way of a bureaucracy, but having a royal family / president’s family / senate / whatever would add a lot more character to the game.
I think I’ve said this before, but I think I’d rather see settlement leadership be more of an emergent gameplay aspect as your settlement develops. I think @naturalnuke was on the right track, where the actions of your settlers would place them in leadership positions. So if the higher-end classes gave ‘leadership’ benefits (settlement-wide boosts, bonuses to NPC interaction, scared the bejeesus out all enemy units, etc) then you’d see a natural evolution in your settlement; as it grew larger and could support higher-end classes those same classes would naturally be leaders of the settlement. So your most experienced villagers, who are the most powerful and presumably take the most resources to maintain, are your leaders. This eliminates the need for specific government mechanics, and the ‘flavor’ of your government will be based on which high-end classes you pursue.
-Will
Glad you liked my idea. 
I’m all for @naturalnuke’s idea of emergent gameplay but we have to factor in the developers.
As much as they are involved in the community, listening to our ideas, etc, I feel that many developers will not go out of their way to code something that might prove to be lengthy (sorry Stonehearth developers, that’s the way streamlined indie devs go for a lot of the time).
In any case, the ideal condition would be an emergent gameplay involving setters’ actions.
The least ideal condition would be useless figureheads that are “leaders”.
Agreed. 
I actually really love this idea, as when starting i had planned to have a sort of leader and then realized there was no such role.
and giving everyone bonuses as other classes do makes a lot of sense, especially since you sacrifice a worker for it it has to make it worth while,
very well thought out id definitely be in favor of something like this!