I've never seen it suggested before. But here is an idea that I have had in my head for some time. How about we abandon the idea of playing a lone leader? Ex: George Washington. Now I know some of your faces look like this right now, but think about it... Does it make sense for me to set sail for the New World as George Washington in 1492, and still be George Washington in 1776 when I declare independence? Not only that, but the King of England is still the same old King. My entire New England colony is subject to a king and a colonial leader who live for over 300 years a piece. And to top that off, our French neighbors are in the same boat, as well as the natives and everyone else.
Now everyone says that we should not seek to replace a troubled system, without having a good system to replace it with. So here is my idea, and perhaps a few of you guys agree. Maybe we could put a group, or collection of people into the leader head graphic, instead of a lone leader. Research would have to be done to find appropriate groups for each nation, but I know of one at least. Instead of playing as Adriaen for the Dutch, how about playing as the Dutch West Indies Trading Company. Playing as the Dutch Trading Company makes more sense when you consider the length of time each game plays. When encountering a native tribe in diplomacy, instead of seeing a lone leader, how about seeing teepees and a camp fire, and Indians dancing around the fire?
Just some ideas, let me know what you think.
As discussed in other thread this would be my ideas for a working system:
1) Set a Historical European King/Queen at the start
(OptionaL) 1a) Working in conjunction with Historical starting dates for nations2) Set a starting Historical Colonial Leader (1st explorer or colonist?) or consider the colonial leader as a XXX West Indies Company or any other variation for every nation. This abstract leader doesn't change until revolution
2a) Historical Leader at start becomes a Colonial Company after some turns.
3) Replace King/Queens periodically after some turns or predefined events.
3a) With historical successors.4) Colonial leader/Colonial Company (whatever implementation used) is replaced by historical Colonial Leader during the revolution.
3b) Some type of rand calculation to extract the new king amongst a row of possible successors.
4a) Multiple Revolutionary leaders to choose according to nations.
How this traduces in game:
-You play with New Spain.
-Your starting leader would be an historical famous explorer (Pizarro for ex.).
-Your starting Queen/King (in this case the 1st) is set according to the historical date of the Spanish Colonization. Isabella I. (This can be implemented with the Historical Starting Dates for nations)
After building some colonies and reaching a number of turns your leader would be replaced by the Spanish West Indies Company or another "abstract object" in representation of all the succession of government in your colonies until the revolution.
During the game the king/queen would be replaced by his/her successors according to the previous game mechanics. Dynamic interaction with Europe Leaders.
When you start the revolution your abstract company is replaced by a Historical Revolutionary Leader, here we could chose amongst:
José María Morelos y Pavón, Simón Bolívar, José Gervasio Artigas or José de San Martín
Each one associated to different nations, traits, events, units, or whatever we want.
In fact this part would work like the beginning of Vanilla game, but at the Revolution.