Yeah, I like this idea. The power of the negative modifier should be in direct proportion that the UN has Militarily.
Yep, and also, make the founder of the UN decide how much of theeth the new institution is going to have. Also, in order to add more variety and less "determinism" to the system, it would be great to be able to vote in the UN if you want to upgrade or downgrade the UN power level. It would be nice to see an evil empire stripping the UN's power due to his latest conquests, or a coalition of small, peaceful countries supporting the UN and helping it to become a force to be reckoned with in order to mantain world's peace.
Without teeth, the UN has no ability to punish offenders. I just wouldn't go too crazy about unhappiness penalties. Propaganda (again) is a very useful tool.
I agree that unhappiness penalties are kind of a vainilla, lame penalty. However, I included them as a bit of an accesory penalty to the other ones. Keep in mind that a powerful UN would also have more control over the media and culture of the planet (on its highest levels, the UN would be the equivalent of the Star Trek federation), hence why the happiness penalties. Still, perhaps another way to solve this "vainilla-ness" would be to tie the strenght of the penalties to the civics: free speech would double it, police state would halve it. Another option would be to tie them to buildings:
You defy a resolution of a nascent UN:
Diplomatic penalty, trade embargo and
Radio stations causes 1 unhappiness (the media is influenciated by the UN)
You defy the resolution of a solid UN:
The previous effects plus army embargo and
Universities causes 1 unhappiness (the intellectual elites are likely to side with the UN)
You defy the resolutuon of a powerful UN:
The previous effects and
Theatres causes 1 unhappiness (the "liberal artists" are likely to side with the UN, as well)
I like your trade embargo idea. I like your weapons embargo idea. Some of the units ideas. The units idea made me think of this: What if one of the penalties was somethin along the lines of a few barbarian type troops pop up out of cottages that you have. You could call them terrorists or rebels if that is too strong, something.
That could also be a quite nice option, but I think that it would be better suited as a spyionage action (only avaible perhaps after defying a UN resolution?). However, I kind of find more interesting the periodical appearance of "peacetroops" in the cities of the civs that are being attacked after their agressors defied a UN peace resolution. The more the agressor civilization drags the conflict, the more reinforcements will arrive to the attacked civ. And even better, these reinforcements would be modern troops. Imagine your typical scenario: Moctezuma, in the other side of the planet, extends his empire by attacking a small, technologically backwards civ. That could seriously put him near a domination victory. But then, after a powerful UN tells him to stop (and he doesn't); he finds out that the small civ is not defending with crossbowman against their calvaries but with fully trained marines (tanks too?).
I like your ideas and I agree with the thread starter.
Yay ^_^