I have far more ideas than I do have skill to implement them. But I've done what I can to have a starter mod that people can poke around with. I'd love to expand the units, styles, buildings, tech tree, etc. There is quite a lot left to do, but I need help to do it all. In
my previous thread I brainstormed outloud about new features. Here are some of my thoughts about new features:
I'll try to get something up tonight.
I have some more brainstorming though on expanded/tweaked features.
New Territory Model - Eliminating Culture
Someone else posted a thread a sec ago about how to stop culture from changing borders when it'll mess things up for a historical scenario. That got me thinking about the issue of culture for this game. Like Vermont for example. It'll just be one small city in this mod and surrounded by Boston, New York, Buffalo, and Montreal. Vermont could quite easily get gobbled up by the other's culture. Or they could really invest everything into culture and end up dominating all those major cities with its culture. Neither situation is terribly realistic. Linking culture with taking territory isn't a good mechanism with established civs where borders are determined by treaties.
Another example is how Canada owns a lot of western or nother canada on the map, but probably won't have settlements all through it, or if they do they will be rather small outposts. So the question would be whether we'd want the territory to be completely open with a few spotty settlements here and there, or make some backwards outposts juggernauts in culture so they can take up the appropriate amount of land. That would be awkward as well.
So one thought is that we eliminate the standard culture system altogether. I place the cultural borders at the start of the game and I remove culture from all the buildings and specialists who produce it. For frontier towns, they could instead build a building like "Suburbs" or "Urban Sprawl" or "Advanced Administrative Techniques" that would grow their borders up to level 2 so they could work the fat cross.
We'd have to get rid of the creative trait though, or find some other function for the trait. I'm sure that could be figured out. Maybe a happiness bonus, since creativity/culture has more of a connection (in the real world) to happiness than to territory acquisition.
Enhanced Forts
We'd have to think of other mechanisms as well for the western nations whose borders aren't at all defined like the more established countries. Allow culture for them, but not others? That could be abused.
Maybe... maybe we could change the effect of forts. Forts were used to hold and maintain territory. So maybe we could have them do so in the game too. Forts could start with a ring of culture around them like cities do, and you just need to string a chain of forts together around land you wish to claim. To stop abuse, we could require that a unit from that civ has to be placed in the fort to gain this effect. So lets say Deseret builds a fort, it creates nine squares of Deseret territory when they place a rifleman in it. California sends some units in and capture the fort. By placing their unit in the fort, the 9 tiles flips to California territory. This could also create the need and desire for strategic warfare instead of always fighting to take major cities. If a border fort is sitting on some gold, just take that fort and take the resource.
There could be a substantial boost for pillaging forts that we could give to the natives to highlight their strategy/motivation of stopping the white man's effort to take territory.
That could change their approach altogether. Since, for example, the land the Sioux was on was technically owned by the United States, but they lived on it. That is a tough fact to emulate. But if they lived entirely off of their camps (like in the Genghis Khan scenario) and they were allowed to pass through national borders, then there could be a civ entirely alive and contained within the borders of another civ. The Five Nations however are more settled and would have cities. But this is definitely something we could play with.
For the forts, you could invent different techs that would upgrade the forts and expand the reach of their borders. Or we could give fort bonuses to expansionist civs. They could build them quicker, or they could each hold more territory. You could have some types of military units build forts too, instead of just workers.
Advanced Diplomacy System
I don't want the map to include Europe and Asia, it would be too much clutter/too big, but certainly you can't tell the story of America without including some kind of foreign policy. So I was thinking of a creative way to simulate that without actually having any foreign civs in the game.
So I'm thinking of creating a new type of specialist - the diplomat.
I have a few ideas on how to implement it, I'm not sure which would be best. Both sound like they would be difficult to code. Maybe TheLopez could help out.
First is to have diplomat specialists produce some special type of yield. "diplo-points" or something like that instead of hammers, science, gold, etc. These "diplo-points" could be used to build diplomatic projects. These specialists could also create GPP and spawn a Great Diplomat who can finish a diplomatic project or do other elements of diplomacy (stop wars, sign permanent alliances, etc). Another thought is the "diplo-points" could be used to build regular diplomats (instead of diplomatic projects) and they could do smaller things like be sacrificed to boost relations with a civ, or sign defense treaties, etc.
To implement this first idea we'd need to create an entirely different type of yield and accommodate a second build box in the city (one for standard production, and one for diplo-point projects). That could be a bit too complicated/intensive for us. So that leads me to my second idea - replacing great people with the diplomacy system.
Instead of great scientists, engineers, merchants, etc, we could have just one type of great person - the great diplomat. You could still place scientist, priest specialists, but they wouldn't create GPP (they'd be compensated with a boost to their yields). All GPP would go towards creating master diplomats.
This would be simplier in that we wouldn't need a new type of yield. But we'd lose other great people and it'd be entirely reliant on the great diplomats instead of using minor diplomats. Unless perhaps a great diplomat could either be sacrificed to create like half a dozen minor diplomats, and/or he could create a building that spawned minor diplomats every few turns. Anyhow... one thing this system would allow us to do is create more types of great diplomats.
For example you could have an English diplomat, a French diplomat, a Spanish Diplomat, etc. And those would be able to broker agreements with those individual nations.
For example, during the Civil War (the real one), one thing that could have turned the tide for the South would have been support from England or France. They worked on it, but couldn't pull off an agreement. For this scenario imagine there are all sorts of smaller American nations all jockeying for support from the great powers.
So ok, lets say Texas is at war with California and builds a French embassy and places 2 French diplomats (or ambassadors or whatever). They build French diplomacy points and after some time a great French diplomat spawns. That great diplomat can be used for actions to help in the war vs. California like:
1. War support - Free units spawn to help Texas with their war effort.
2. Blockade - California's trade reduced greatly.
3. Sever relations with enemy - All French diplomat points that California has built up are erased. And/or all French embassies in California are removed.
4. Remove Blockade - A blockade that California had placed on Texas (like from England or Japan or whoever) is removed.
5. Trade partnership - Additional trade routes in Texan cities.
6. Supply agreement - Texas gets free resources (iron, coal, etc).
7. Sign peace treaty - The war with California ends (text could be, "French diplomats broker a peace agreement between California and Texas, Treaty of Paris signed)
8. Build permanent French consulate - Free minor French diplomat specialists placed in a Texan city
Using the Great Person system allows us to combine different nations this way. Lets say you place 2 Spanish diplomats and 1 English diplomat. Then you roll the dice to see which great diplomat you get. And there can be all sorts of buildings and modifiers that affect the results.
Oh! Another thought. Trade has always been incredibly important for the United States. International trade needs to take on more significance here too. Not just trade routes, but resource trade as well. So lets say the Confederacy has a lot of cotton it wants to sell. It is at war with the USA and none of the smaller powers can offer enough for it. The CSA could either use a diplomat, or build a building that consumes one cotton resource and produces X amount of gold. Or produces a different resource it needs. That would simulate trading that resource with a European power.
Then diplomats could be used to break off that trade, or sign exclusive trade agreements. Lets say Texas and CSA are both selling cotton to England. CSA creates a great English diplomat who signs an exclusive cotton supply deal with England and from then on no other power can sell cotton to England.
Events could be used to spice things up as well.
Various Ideas/Concepts for the Mod:
This is such a cool period in American history and there are so many cool things we can incorporate. This was the wild west gunslinger era, so I'd love to incorporate some of the famous bandits as special units who would be invisible (except for some law men who could spot them) and be able to rob banks (deduct your treasury). Maybe we could use the espionage system to implement it.
Outlaws & Lawmen:
Wild Bill Hickok
Calamity Jane
Billy the Kid
Jesse James
Butch Cassidy
W. B. 'Bat' Masterson
Wyatt Earp
Doc Holliday
Other important parts of this era to incorporate somehow:
Cattle rustling
Cattle drives
Oregon Trail
Santa Fe Trail
Gambling
Saloons
Mountain men
Buffalo Bill Wild West Show
Gold rushes
The Homestead Act
Pony Express
Railroad
Transcontinental Railroad
Traveling Circuses
Hatfield-McCoy feud
Telegraph
Telephone
Phonograph
Barbed Wire
Radio
Titanic
Smith & Wesson
Colt
Gatling Gun
Robber Barons
Labor Unions
Strikes
Pinkertons
Haymarket Riot
Second Industrial Revolution
Automobile
Flight
Assembly Line
yellow journalism
Ellis Island
Statue of Liberty
Immigration
Chinese Exclusion Act
Abolitionists
Woman Suffrage Movement
Prohibition Movement
Progressive Movement
Muckrakers
Populist movement
Dawes Act
World Exhibitions
Ku Klux Klan
Gold standard
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890
McCormick
Great White Fleet
Assassinations
National parks
World War I
Baseball
Pro Sports
People from this era:
Christopher "Kit" Carson
General George Armstrong Custer
Crazy Horse
Pancho Villa
Alexander Graham Bell
George Westinghouse
Thomas Edison
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Boss Tweed
The Wright Brothers
John D. Rockefeller
Andrew Carnegie
J.P. Morgan
Henry Ford
Samuel Gompers
Mark Twain
Joseph Pulitzer
William Randolph Hearst
Eugene Debs
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. DuBois
John Brown
Susan B. Anthony
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Upton Sinclair
William Jennings Bryan
Henry Cabot Lodge
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
Gen. John J. Pershing
Woodrow Wilson
Ulysses Grant
Robert E. Lee
(and many, many more civil war generals)
John Henry
Paul Bunyan
Other tall tales
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_of_Mexico
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Juárez
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_(1865-1918)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Old_West
Immigration
Balancing this thing will be difficult since for this time period the USA and CSA are so much bigger, more populous, and better developed than any of the other nations in the game. A major northern city like Boston or New York probably had more people than the entire territory of Oregon or California.
So we will definitely need to use the immigration mod to balance things out. Does the immigration mod take population too? Or just add? It would be nice if population from back east actually left and joined western cities. It would help balance greatly.
We can script this with events as well. Like a gold rush can bring in lots of people. We could also incorporate the diplomacy system into this as well. Lets say California is hurting for people, so they use a great diplomat to sign some open borders treaty with china to add one population to each city. Or spawn X amount of settlers (no doubt covered wagons for this scenario).
I'm thinking of something special with Deseret since their nation is so tied to Mormonism we could also tie their immigration to their religion. If Mormonism spreads to non-Deseret cities, those cities are more likely to transfer population to Deseret. Maybe siphon off wealth too.
Mormonism
Oh! Idea! (if you haven't noticed I have a tendency to brainstorm outloud here). Mormonism spreads to Atlanta lets say. One or two gold is deducted from Atlanta and goes to Salt Lake City (tithing, etc). That means there is a penalty for the Confederates for having Mormonism, so they change civics or stamp out Mormonism in Atlanta (hello inquisitor mod) and that leads to a population loss that goes directly to Deseret. (i.e. persecuted Mormons flee back to safety in Deseret). So the more developed eastern nations (or anyone really) has a choice, allow Mormons to sap some of their cash, or drive them out and lose population. A win-win for Deseret (who is gonna need the help the most with their crappy land).
The other religions probably won't have any holy cities. Realistically the general protestant religions America has aren't centrally organized, or if they are, their base is in Europe somewhere. They'd still be useful for diplo-modifiers, but would only give cash to Deseret. As the owner of the only religious shrine in the game spreading it would be central to their strategy. I figure their UB would be a Mormon temple too. A beefed up temple.
Hmmm... I bet I should add polygamy as a civic option too. It should help population growth somehow since that will be a major deficiency for Deseret. Despite being land locked and stuck with crappy desert & mountain land, Deseret will definitely be one of the more interesting civs to play.
Slavery Civic
Speaking of civics.. the Confederacy and Texas will obviously have slavery as a civic, but I want to tweak it as well. It'll have the general population sacrificing qualities of slavery, but it should also give bonuses to plantations (of which the South will have plenty of). I'm also thinking of a mechanism for capturing units.
More brainstorming... lets say the United States (and other civs potentially) are able to - with a certain civic/tech/building - create Black units. Like a Buffalo Soldier unit. They could be cheaper versions of regular USA units. If a slavery civ defeats a buffalo soldier in combat there is a 100% chance they will be enslaved. However there is a civic option (or wonder or something) for the Emancipation Proclaimation (or maybe Brown vs. Board of Education or something similar) that stops the nation from building black units but gives all its regular units +1 strength (integration of the military). A definite bonus. But it comes with the downside. Now ALL units defeated in combat by a civ with the slavery civic are at risk (25% lets say) of being enslaved (since there are now Black soldiers in all units and are able to be captured and enslaved). So this is a big potential downside that has to be weighed against having that +1 strength.
I think I'd prefer it if the captured units didn't turn into workers, but remained military (or maybe the civ would get a choice). Since the Confederacy had a habit of putting Black slaves into the military and making them fight for their side. Plus it gives a larger bonus then simply having 10 million workers sitting around. OR... if they were workers, they could be sacrificed for production. Anyhow, if they become military units, then I think they should get some promotion that weakens them (Enslaved unit, -10% strength) and also has a percentage chance the unit will abandon that civ's control (Like Chaos Mauraders in FfH2).
Civics like slavery or polygamy would of course have a diplo penalty where appropriate.
