Ayup...
The biggest problem is that there is no difference between
your troops among
your people, and your troops among a
conquered people. In general, it does make people feel more secure to have their own military around. They called out the National Guard around the airports after Sept. 11 for a reason, and it had nothing to do with 'improving airport security'. Guys standing around with M16s can't do squat about bombs hidden in suitcases or shoes. I don't think it would have made people feel secure to see UN troops standing around the airports...
They parked some US Navy ships in New York harbor for the same reason.
So, morale boosting troops or ships make sense with your own race. Just not with other races. Possibly MM could make some sort of 'special modifiers' for the happiness of non-native races in your empire. When 'happiness' is above a certain level, troops or ships have one effect ('calming' because they intimidate people from rioting) but when 'happiness' is below a certain level they ought to have an opposite effect! Occupied people should quite reasonably be angered by really obvious signs of occupation.
To do this properly would probably require some sort of 'troop to population ratio' controls.
Beyond that, there ought to be some more 'persistent' attitudes for populations, as I have said elsewhere. Every race should not be the same in captivity. Nor should all conquered races become like you own race.
[ July 17, 2002, 21:51: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]