The 10 social policies

Semmel · Jun 17, 2010

In Civ5 previews, you read things like "Liberty, Tradition, Piety and things like that" for the social policies. I assume that this kind of formlulation was in the talk of the presentation. However, I wonder if we can collect all of them and make up their finluence on the civilization.

Social policy trees:
Tradition: Aristocracy -> Oligarchy -> Legalism -> ?
Liberty: ?
Honor: ?
Piety: ?
Patronage: ?
Autocracy: ?
Commerce: ?
Order: ?
Freedom: ?
Rationalism: ?

Effect:
Aristocracy: +33 percent bonus to building wonders
Oligarchy: ?
Legalism: ?

References:
Italic entries have no official reference
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...ilization-V-Breathes-New-Life-Into-the-Series
http://e3.gamespot.com/story/626533...a-first-e3-details?tag=topslot;thumb;1&page=1
http://www.gamestooge.com/2010/06/16/e3-10-preview-civilization-v-pc/

What are the missing policies and what will be their influence in the game? Sure, some will provide good synergy effects like "Honor" and "Piety" while others might contradict like "Autocracy" and "Liberty".

logarithm64 · Jun 17, 2010

The reference for the commerce branch can be found here.

Semmel · Jun 17, 2010

logarithm64 said:
The reference for the commerce branch can be found here.

Thanks, I added it to the list.

Ituralde · Jun 17, 2010

The Economics branch is referred to as Commerce by John Shafer in his interview on GameSpot.

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/626533...rst-e3-details?tag=top_stories;title;2&page=1

Also there was some more information on Social Policies here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...ilization-V-Breathes-New-Life-Into-the-Series

Especially this one is interesting

One example given of a social policy was that under the Tradition tree is a policy called Aristocracy, which gives +33 percent bonus to building wonders. The goal is for these policies to be important for everybody, and not just the culture players. "Even if you weren't going for a culture victory, if you're going for the military path or the science path, these are really powerful modifications that make your civilization really, really unique," said Shirk.

This gives a hint to how the effects could look.
Also a Military and a Science path are mentioned. Whether those are separate paths we haven't heard yet or just other names for a path like Honor or Liberty, who knows?

Thyrwyn · Jun 17, 2010

I think Military & Science paths are referring to "paths to victory." The have referred to the spaceship as a "science victory."

Semmel · Jun 17, 2010

Ituralde said:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...ilization-V-Breathes-New-Life-Into-the-Series

Especially this one is interesting

This gives a hint to how the effects could look.
Also a Military and a Science path are mentioned. Whether those are separate paths we haven't heard yet or just other names for a path like Honor or Liberty, who knows?

I wasnt aware that there are already information about supcategories or paths of the social policies... well, I will add that information too

Thanks!

Abraxis · Jun 17, 2010

John also mentioned that it was similar to "what players see in world of warcraft". I figured he means the skill tree

For anyone who's never played.

Should be very interesting!

migkillertwo · Jun 17, 2010

Ituralde said:
The Economics branch is referred to as Commerce by John Shafer in his interview on GameSpot.

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/626533...rst-e3-details?tag=top_stories;title;2&page=1

Also there was some more information on Social Policies here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...ilization-V-Breathes-New-Life-Into-the-Series

Especially this one is interesting

This gives a hint to how the effects could look.
Also a Military and a Science path are mentioned. Whether those are separate paths we haven't heard yet or just other names for a path like Honor or Liberty, who knows?

If there's a military policy tree, that would be badass.

Gee, do I get a gigantic army of infantry to throw at my enemies, or do I build a small, highly mobile force?

Ahriman · Jun 17, 2010

Gee, do I get a gigantic army of infantry to throw at my enemies, or do I build a small, highly mobile force?

Neither, you purchase both policies and simultaneously have a quantity-oriented quality-oriented army.

It seems like the only tradeoff in social policies is which tree to pursue. But hey, I could be wrong, so I will attempt to go back to reserving judgement.

AlpsStranger · Jun 17, 2010

Ahriman said:
Neither, you purchase both policies and simultaneously have a quantity-oriented quality-oriented army.

It seems like the only tradeoff in social policies is which tree to pursue. But hey, I could be wrong, so I will attempt to go back to reserving judgement.

Yeah, you'd have a quality-quantity oriented army. But then, given the same number of points spent, you'd have a nothing-nothing oriented commerce sector. Civilization is a very time-sensitive game, and you've have to think of the opportunity cost of piling up on military advances. Just my two cents.

Silverdawn · Jun 17, 2010

I saw a demo at E3 similar to the one described in the Escapist link above. This is what I wrote down for the social policies while the interface was being displayed:

Tradition - Aristocracy, Oligarchy, Legalism
Liberty
Honor
Piety
Patronage
Order
Autocracy
Freedom
Rationalism (poor handwriting. Is at least Ration...)
Commerce

Once you unlock 6 you can start work on the "Utopia Project" which is the route to a cultural victory

Rexflex · Jun 17, 2010

these are really powerful modifications that make your civilization really, really unique

What intrigues me is the use of the word "unique" - does this suggest for instance that there may be limitations on how many civs can get a social policy? Does it suggest that certain bonuses will only apply to those that get the policy first? Or is he simply implying that no civ is really expected to be able to get all the policies and each civ is likely to chose a different combination in their social policy "research" priorities?

I think it will be door number three, but my experience from Civ IV was that people's tech research priorities had become less and less "unique" as it became apparent which research priorities would actually win a game.

Lillefix · Jun 17, 2010

I wonder what opportunities this will open for the modding community. This can be interesting for anyone who wants to wants a more rpg inspired civ.

AlpsStranger · Jun 17, 2010

Rexflex said:
What intrigues me is the use of the word "unique" - does this suggest for instance that there may be limitations on how many civs can get a social policy? Does it suggest that certain bonuses will only apply to those that get the policy first? Or is he simply implying that no civ is really expected to be able to get all the policies and each civ is likely to chose a different combination in their social policy "research" priorities?

I think it will be door number three, but my experience from Civ IV was that people's tech research priorities had become less and less "unique" as it became apparent which research priorities would actually win a game.

There is a fine line to be walked here. If a game doesn't have any "ideal" research/talent/spec/feat/whatever paths then the game is likely to be a bit limp in the competitive department, but it the tree isn't designed with enough powerful alternatives you might see the path totally calcify. The best scenario is one that provokes constant debate and causes a few dozen competing "best" policy paths to enter the metagame, along with somewhat novel paths that are a shade different than the "good" paths.

I am fairly certain you won't be able to play "pin the tail on the donkey" with your social advances and win. I am equally certain that I wouldn't want to play a game where this was possible. Hopefully they find the happy medium and we can get down to the nitty-gritty of debating the "ideal" set of policies.

KrikkitTwo · Jun 17, 2010

Rexflex said:
What intrigues me is the use of the word "unique" - does this suggest for instance that there may be limitations on how many civs can get a social policy? Does it suggest that certain bonuses will only apply to those that get the policy first? Or is he simply implying that no civ is really expected to be able to get all the policies and each civ is likely to chose a different combination in their social policy "research" priorities?

I think it will be door number three, but my experience from Civ IV was that people's tech research priorities had become less and less "unique" as it became apparent which research priorities would actually win a game.

Well the diference between research and social policies is

1. there was only one tech tree, you had separate branches, but they intermingled so the 'multiple different paths overlapped

2. Certain things on the tech tree you NEEDED to get (ie you needed to get decent military units at some point, so you had to go to that part of the tree)

Based on those differences, I anticipate that people will probably tend to go up the Social Policy Trees separately... some will be better than others, but that's what patches are for.. to rebalance it.

So the uniqueness is in the fact that you wil probably focus on 3-4 policy trees out of 10... there are a lot of different combinations there (especially with how the policies might interact)

Never · Jun 17, 2010

I suppose the ideal set of policies would be dependant on how you want to win the game? Whether militaristically, scientifically, space-race, diplo etc.

Rexflex · Jun 17, 2010

Never said:
I suppose the ideal set of policies would be dependant on how you want to win the game? Whether militaristically, scientifically, space-race, diplo etc.

This is likely, but in that case the use of the word "unique" was an exagerated description since players don't have to chose different ways to win the game from each other - "diverse" might be better.

Ahriman · Jun 17, 2010

Tradition - Aristocracy, Oligarchy

So, you can simultaneously get benefits from aristocracy and oilgarchy?

Liberty
...
Freedom

What's the difference here?

I guess one could be about social rights (censorship etc) and the other about labor policy (slavery, serfdom, etc)

Never · Jun 17, 2010

Well if there are as many as 10 different branches, and assuming we get to pick 4 at any one time to focus on, more than likely every civilization will be 'unique' in that their social polices will be different to every other civilization simply due to the number of possible combinations (especially if one civilization has focused on a particular policy branch opening up new policies that others can't get for some time).

Silverdawn · Jun 17, 2010

Ahriman said:
So, you can simultaneously get benefits from aristocracy and oilgarchy?

What's the difference here?

I guess one could be about social rights (censorship etc) and the other about labor policy (slavery, serfdom, etc)

They didn't go into much detail during the talk so I don' know the differences. The Aristrocracy, etc. were different sub items in that first one. Didn't describe how they worked relative to each other.

The 10 social policies

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Warlord

Guardian at the Gate

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Prince

Tyrant

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Prince

Prince

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Chieftain

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