[WIP] Sovereignty Revised

Sovereignty Revised​

I had an idea for the way I wanted Social Policies to be for quite some time. I wanted Social Policies to reflect politics - which, whether for better or for worse, is the foundation of human civilization. The vanilla Social Policy system begins to blur in this regard and so I wanted to change that. I shelved this idea for a while because the Social Policy layout didn't really work - there weren't enough branches, but I didn't really know how - or whether i wanted - to add additional pages. Then came Brave New World, which enabled two new branches and made adding additional pages a little more modular.

Of course, the Social Policy system is designed in a very specific way and I'm not going to stray too far from this. My Social Policy branches are still tooled toward specific styles of play and the main cost of your decisions remain one of opportunity - with a few, reserved exceptions. There are a number of features that will appeal only to the RPer, or to those with interest in political science, but I endeavour to give the player interesting choices with this mod.

This is the way I want my Social Policies in any case. Perhaps there are others out there who feel the same and would be interested in the mod when it is complete.

If you have any ideas or suggestions I'd love to hear them.

The first two branches, Tradition and Liberty, are now renamed to Monarchyand Republic and are the most important of branches. The full details of these branches are a WIP.


The next three branches, Honor, Piety and Patronage, are now renamed to Might, Divine Right and Law.


I'm very weary of straying too far from overhauling the Social Policy trees and do not add anything that I don't feel lends itself to my changes. This is a list of those such things.

Technologies:

Code of Laws: A technology that stops rushes through the Classical Era (allowing for time to be taken to adopt a formal government) and, more importantly, unlocks the Magistrate's Court, the Supreme Court and Capitol National Wonders (exclusive to Law), and the Advisory Court/Cabinet National Wonder (exclusive to Monarchy/Republic).

Buildings:

Magistrate's Court: A Classical Era building. Increases Production toward Buildings by 10%.

High Court: A Renaissance Era building. Increases Production toward Buildings by 15%. +1 Happiness.

The purpose of these two Legal Buildings is to act as a counterpart to the Shrines and Temples, which receive benefits from the Divine Right tree, whereas these receive benefits from the Law tree. They will also help players like I who have a compulsive desire to build everything and then end up with no military.

Wonders:

The Pantheon: Cities with a majority religion also get the Pantheon belief bonus of the second most popular religion. +4 Faith.

This Wonder's primary purpose was to add a Religious Wonder to the Classical Era, but it also found purpose in shouldering the - to me - horrible Religious Tolerance effect from the vanilla game, which had no place in Divine Right and would have just wasted space for later trees. Now this effect will be perfectly optional and, I think, rather appropriate. It is also intended to keep the secondary effect of the Divine Right opener - 20% production when building Religious Wonders - somewhat useful in the Classical Era.

Religious Buildings and Beliefs:

Mandir: +1 Faith on River Tiles. +1 Faith and +1 Culture.

Synagogue: +1 Faith, +2 Culture, +1 Happiness and 1 Merchant specialist.

Basilica: +2 Happiness, +3 Faith and +1 :c5culture Culture.

Here, I had to add at least one new Religious building to compensate for the removal of the Monasteries belief (and replacing it as a policy). I then added two more. Beliefs that unlock means to spend your faith are generally superior to other beliefs, so it's important that powerful Religions have at least one - and this is especially in SR, where the Divine Right tree encourages you to generate as much faith per turn as possible.

Heathen Conversion: Missionaries may convert adjacent barbarians. Because of the lateness at which Reformation beliefs now come, this belief has been moved to an enhancer belief; it probably won't go the way of putting it on par with other beliefs, but it buffs it slightly, I believe.

Religious Law: May purchase Magistrate's Courts, High Court's and Courthouses with Faith. This is a new Reformation belief added to compensate for the loss of Heathen Conversion.

UAs

Rome: +15% Production towards any buildings that already exist in the Capital. Begin with 2 sources of Iron in your Capital.*

France: Chateau - Does not require Walls. 1 Pikeman when built. +2 Culture. +3 Tourism after Flight. Takes longer to build.**

*With the addition of the Magistrate's Courts and the High Courts, Rome needed to be changed so as not to overpower them.

**The Great President will be taking the vanilla Chateau as a 'State Manor' improvement.

The Social Policies:​

There are eight Social Policy trees, divided between their availability:

Medieval Era: Commerce, Maritime, Security and Welfare.

Renaissance Era: Science and Culture.

Industrial Era: Industry and Religion.

The three Ideologies will be looked at as well.

Republic:

Titles:


Opener: Free Great President (Effects TBD. Each turn, the number of GP points you generate is calculated by the number of Republic social policies you have and is effected by certain policies and wonders. May build the Advisory Cabinet national wonder (+50% Great President points) and the Doge's Palace wonder (+2 Great President points, 1 International Trade Route, +2 Culture on Harbours). /influence with City-States degrades 20% slower.

Democratic: +1 culture per city. Social policies cost 10% less culture to acquire.
Disables Oligarchic.
Switched to Oligarchic by the Order Ideology.

Oligarchic: +1 production per city. 1 free Social Policy.
Disables Democratic.
Switched to Democratic by the Freedom Ideology.

Direct Vote: +0.2 Great President points per population in all cities. Happiness contributes 50% more towards Golden Ages.
Disables Indirect Vote.
Must have Democratic or Oligarchic Republic.

Indirect Vote: +1 Great President point per city. Golden Ages require 20% less Happiness.
Disables Direct Vote.
Must have Democratic or Oligarchic Republic.

Federal: +33% Production when building Settlers. -15% unhappiness from number of cities.
Disables Unitary.
Must have Direct or Indirect Vote.

Unitary: +1 Happiness for each city connected to the capital. Newly founded cities begin with +1 population.
Disables Federal.
Must have Direct or Indirect Vote.

Administrative: Each city you found will increase the Culture cost of policies by 30% less than normal and the cost of Social Policies will not increase when your civilization is unhappy. Newly founded cities begin with Monuments.
Disables Merchant and Noble Republic.

Merchant: +4 Gold on International Trade Routes with City-States. Newly founded cities begin with Markets.
Disables Administrative and Noble Republic.
Requires Currency.

Noble: +5% Science on Defensive Buildings. Newly founded cities begin with Walls.
Disables Administrative and Noble Republic.
Requires Masonry.

Finisher: May purchase Great Merchants and Great Scientists with faith.

Declaring your Might to rule will enhance your civilisation's offensive capabilities. If Might is your primary right, Military unit Production is increased by 5% per policy from this tree. You will incur a small diplomatic penalty with any civilizations that have adopted a Monarchy.

Titles:


Opener: +25% bonus vs Barbarians and you will receive notifications of nearby Barbarian Encampments. Allows you to build the Statue of Zeus wonder.

Martial Discipline: +10% Combat Strength for Melee and Gun Units which have another Military Unit in an adjacent tile. Receive a free Great General near your Capital.

Militarism: Cities require 30% less Culture to expand into nearby tiles. Earn culture for each barbarian killed.

Mandatory Volunteerism: Garrisoned Military Units cost no maintenance. Military Units cost 20% less maintenance. The effect of this policy is negated by the Freedom Ideology. If Freedom becomes influential in your civilization, receive +2 unhappiness.

Elite Training: Land Units (except Siege) earn 50% more experience from combat and gain 10% defence against Ranged Attacks. Earn Great Generals 20% faster.
Requires Militarism.

Military Junta: Conquered cities are in Resistance for half as long. +1 Local Happiness for each garrisoned unit.
Requires Martial Discipline.

Slavery: May purchase Slaves. Receive 1 "free" Slave. Slaves build improvements 50% faster than regular Workers and may be expended to boost Production in a city, but contribute unhappiness. The effect of this policy is negated by the Freedom and Order Ideologies. If either of these ideologies become influential in your civilization, receive +2 unhappiness.
Requires Mandatory Volunteerism.

Stratocracy: Barracks, Armories and Military Academies yield +1 Local Happiness. During wartime, these buildings are constructed 100% faster and yield an additional +1 Culture and +1 Happiness. Great Generals gain +2 Movement.
Requires Militarism and Military Junta

Finisher:

Declaring your Divine Right will enhance your civilization's Religion.

Titles:


Opener: Grants you the Faith necessary to found a pantheon. If you already possess a pantheon, it will grant a 20% Production bonus when building Religious Wonders. Also allows you to build the Solomon's Temple wonder, which alllows you to employ two Sage specialists (+2 Faith and 3 Great Prophet points).*

Consecrated Government: +50% Production when building Shrines and Temples. Shrines and Temples yield +1 Faith.

Mandatory Tithes: Shrines, Temples and the Grand Temple increase the Gold output of a city by 10% and Holy Sites yield +2 Gold. The effect of this policy is negated by the Freedom Ideology.

Monastic Education: Allows building of the Monastery, a building which increase a city's Faith, especially if the city is near to improved Incense and/or Wine resources. It also possess a Scientist specialist slot and increases a city's Science output by 5%.

Infallibility: Religious purchases require 20% less Faith. Receive a boost of Faith whenever one of your cities is converted by a foreign Religion. The effect of this policy is negated by the Order Ideology.
Requires Mandatory Tithes.

Holy War: Ranged, Infantry and Mounted Units may be improved with unique promotions. Newly trained units receive half of your Faith in a city as experience.
Requires Monastic Education.

State Religion: One-non religious or pagan citizen in a city with a Temple is converted to your Religion each turn. Conquering a foreign city converts 33% of that city's population to your religion. +1 Faith from specialists in Holy Cities that follow your religion. The effect of this policy is negated by the Order Ideology.
Requires Consecrated Government.

Ecclesiocracy: +1 Science and +3 Faith on Holy Sites. 33% of Faith becomes Culture.
Requires Infallibility and State Religion
Disables Theocracy

Theocracy: Receive a free Great Prophet at your Capitol. 33% of Faith becomes Culture.
Requires Infallibility and Holy War
Disables Ecclesiocracy

Finisher: May choose a Reformation belief.

*The AI will always receive the production bonus, as it already gets a frustrating advantage in gaining an early pantheon.

Declaring the rule of Law will enhance your civilization's culture, happiness and influence.

Titles:


Opener: Begins a 10-turn Golden Age and a We Love the Sovereign Day event in the Capital. Allows you to build the Knossos Palace wonder, which allows you to move Production along Trade Routes through your civilization.

Diplomatic Missions: +33% more Influence from Quests and Diplomatic Missions with City-States.

Civil Law: Receive a free Magistrate's Court in the Capital. Magistrate's Courts yield +1 Culture.

Common Law: Buildings cost 10% less gold maintenance. Tiles are 25% cheaper to purchase. The effect of this policy is negated by the Autocracy Ideology.

Patronage: May purchase Patrons with Gold. Patrons may be used to conduct Diplomatic Missions with city-states for influence. Resting point for Influence with City-States is increased by 10. The effects of this policy is negated by the Autocracy Ideology.
Requires Consulates.

Separation of Powers: Allows you to build the Capitol and the Supreme Court National Wonders. The Capitol increases Culture in a city by 50% and the Supreme Court decreases Social Policy cost by 10%. The effect of this policy is negated by the Autocracy Ideology.
Requires Civil Law.

Natural Justice: +1 Local Happiness from Magistrate's Courts and High Courts. Unhappiness in non-occupied cities is reduced by 5% and in occupied cities by 10%.
Requires Common Law.

Meritocracy: Receive a Great Person of your choice at your Capitol. Rate of Great People generation is increased by 10% during a Golden Age.
Requires Separation of Powers and Natural Justice

Finisher: 1 free Social Policy and 1 free Spy.

Parliament:

Your parliament is the screen that "houses" your middle game options for Social Policies. When you adopt Parliament (or, "open"), Social Policy culture costs will be fairly reduced (the exact amount will be determined through testing), but every policy will have some secondary cost - most will be of gold, but some of faith and happiness. Many of these costs won't be fixed - rather they will be dependent upon factors pertaining to the specific policy/the "department" that the policy falls under. For instance, policies under the Welfare "department" will cost gold based upon the number of population in your civilization, whilst policies under the Industrial "department" will cost gold based upon the number of cities you have (and maybe a bit of happiness too). This will hopefully increase the value of late-game gold, late-game faith and excess happiness.

I haven't completed drafting the Parliament policies yet, but I will list some ideas that I have for those interested.

Security: Security policies can be adopted from the Medieval Era.

Martial Law: Receive a free Great General at your capital and a small, era-sensitive army. This policy is renewable.

Maritime: Maritime policies can be adopted from the Medieval Era.

Expeditionary Funds: May purchase Explorers. Explorers may be used to build Trading Posts to claim foreign territory and Resources. They also have greater sight and movement.

: Allows you to see Hidden Antiquity Sights. May purchase Admirals with Faith beginning in the Industrial Era. Receive a free Great Admiral. Great Admirals gain +2 Movement.

Industry: Industry policies can be adopted from the Industrial Era.

Synthetic Oil Factories: May build Synthetic Oil Factories with Coal to produce Oil.

Ammunition Factories: May build Ammunition Factories with Coal and Oil to increase Military Unit production by 25%.

JFD said:

Mandatory Volunteerism:

Click to expand...

Was that oxymoron intentional?

Irkalla said:

Was that oxymoron intentional?

Click to expand...

Yes. Being forced to volunteer is always a boggling experience.

Can't wait for this to be actual modded in BNW, looks very promising. Coudl you show us one of the other trees?

MrL567 said:

Can't wait for this to be actual modded in BNW, looks very promising. Coudl you show us one of the other trees?

Click to expand...

I'm still filling in the gaps for the other trees, but I will write them up as I have them. Some can't be filled until Brave New World. For instance, I need to know how powerful extra Gold on International Trade Routes will be before I know how to reallocate it.

This is an update on the progress of sovereign revisal.

So far, I have the hardest part of the UI reworking complete. The Social Policy screen will look like this:


Of course, the stretched image will not be there and other art will be finalized at a later date, the Divine Right, Law and Might trees will be fuller and the rest of the Government Policies will be established. But the point is that I managed to successfully turn the final five policy trees into one big branch, which will allow both the player and the AI a greater freedom for their choices; much more to the design that I envisioned.

The only trouble I am having is that somehow the AI is choosing policies from both Republic and Monarchy and yet anarchy still occurs for the player if they (I) attempt to do so. Therefore, either the AI is subjecting itself to Anarchy or it is cheating. This is something I will continue to work on and hope that it is not a symptom of BNW's changes to policy branch disabling and the like.

The other thing that I have done is I've managed to implement a more dynamic titling system, so that your choice between Monarchy and Republic can be longer lasting - i.e. there are no titles from the other Branches, with the exception of Divine Right (which you acquire if you take the Theocracy policy) and the Ideologies. Also, Japan has a unique title if they choose Might.

I've also given a number of civs unique titles, based upon historical flavour. Currently, this list is contained in the following spoiler. If anyone has any suggestions, please share them, but bear in mind I'm going for flavour, rather than political accuracy.



I am also considering whether I might instead change the civ names, rather than the titles (e.g. the Empire of X/the Commonwealth of X).

What would be the default titles? Am I correct to assume King and President? While King is universal, a President would sound troublesome in ancient eras, so I hope it's a different term.

My suggestions:

Arabia, Egypt: Jumhuri (Republic) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumhuriya

Byzantium: Magistrissa (Republic) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magistros#Byzantine_Empire

Poland, Russia: General Secretary (Order)
Poland: Wódz Naczelny (Autocracy) - Supreme Commander-in-Chief
Poland: Król (Monarchy)
Poland: Premier/Prime Minister (Republic) - I thought about the term Marszałek Sejmu (Marshal of the Sejm), as it was the most important position in the parliament before the partitions, but it's a bit lengthy and brings up the Sejm without much purpose. Sole "Marszałek" can be confused with a military title.

Ottomans: Vizier OR Başbakan (Republic) (I know Vizier is not really connected to republic, but I think that when a title sounds nice and has a certain ring to it, why not use it?)

The Netherlands: Stadhouder (Monarchy) - I'd suggest changing States-General to something more personal, as it is the whole Dutch parliament at the moment. Representative, perhaps?

JFD said:

I am also considering whether I might instead change the civ names, rather than the titles (e.g. the Empire of X/the Commonwealth of X).

Click to expand...

Why not both? The more the better, I think - at least in the case of unique titles.

JFD said:

The only trouble I am having is that somehow the AI is choosing policies from both Republic and Monarchy and yet anarchy still occurs for the player if they (I) attempt to do so. Therefore, either the AI is subjecting itself to Anarchy or it is cheating. This is something I will continue to work on and hope that it is not a symptom of BNW's changes to policy branch disabling and the like.

Click to expand...

Hi JFD, this project seems really mindblowing, I'm very impressed! Just to check, did you apply the <AIMutuallyExclusive>true</AIMutuallyExclusive> tag to these trees - or is what you're saying that this tag doesn't work anymore post BnW?

I wonder whether it would work better to play into the Ideology system as opposed to the Social policies, which would eliminate the issue of the AI picking and choosing from multiple trees as without pressure they'd be locked in to the policies.

kaspergm said:

Hi JFD, this project seems really mindblowing, I'm very impressed! Just to check, did you apply the <AIMutuallyExclusive>true</AIMutuallyExclusive> tag to these trees - or is what you're saying that this tag doesn't work anymore post BnW?

Click to expand...

No I did not. Thanks! This will solve the problem.

Pouakai said:

I wonder whether it would work better to play into the Ideology system as opposed to the Social policies, which would eliminate the issue of the AI picking and choosing from multiple trees as without pressure they'd be locked in to the policies.

Click to expand...

The Ideology system has a hardcoded diplomatic affect that I don't want, as well as the fact that the supplantation of Ideologies over governments is something that I still want to occur in the modern era. I've yet to fully test the AIs behaviour, but I believe it will work according to how I would like it to.

janboruta said:

What would be the default titles? Am I correct to assume King and President? While King is universal, a President would sound troublesome in ancient eras, so I hope it's a different term.

Why not both? The more the better, I think - at least in the case of unique titles.

Click to expand...

I hadn't thought about that, but I'll be sure to look into having the title of President change.

I'm a bit weary of having too many unique titles, lest it dilute the effect of some, but I'll be sure to use your suggestions. Thanks. And I may us both a title and state description, but it may clutter the screen too much - and too much for lower resolutions. But I'm considering giving the state title to a few civs who don't really sound right with a sovereign title (Ghandi, for instance, would become Ghandi of the Kingdom/Republic, rather than King Ghandi).

JFD said:

And I may us both a title and state description, but it may clutter the screen too much - and too much for lower resolutions. But I'm considering giving the state title to a few civs who don't really sound right with a sovereign title (Ghandi, for instance, would become Ghandi of the Kingdom/Republic, rather than King Ghandi).

Click to expand...

After thinking about it a bit, I agree that custom titles for leader and civ could be a bit much when used at the same time. You have the point about Gandhi (and probably some other ones), but this also creates an interesting opportunity of both policy- and era-specific civ names. I don't know how hard would it be to implement, but it could create a quasi-RFC feeling of a state's continuity.

Here's a few samples:

Catherine with a Monarchy, with both titles:


Augustus with a Republic, with just the title of his realm. There's something very pleasing about this one, but it could just be that Caesar is his title, so both titles are in, but not in a cluttersome way (of course, I mean despite the missing article).



Attila with a Monarchy, with just his sovereign title:


William with a Monarchy and a Commonwealth, with both titles (but for Commonwealth a sovereign title is hidden):


Gustav with a Republic and a Unitary State, with both titles (before the Renaissance):


As you can see, some leaders will have a problem - Gustav would have a problem when he became a President in the Renaissance. I could reduce the size of his name to Gustav Adolphus, but I think this generally indicates that it might be too much to have both titles at the same time.

I'm just wondering whether it should be by default the realm (so Elizabeth would be Elizabeth of the Kingdom of England, not Queen Elizabeth of England) and then those with unique titles (such as Sultan Suleiman of the Ottomans) and unique realms (the United States of America for Federal Republic, for instance).

EDIT: I think it will be the leader title until the Industrial Era (except Commonwealth, which will supplant the leader title) and then from the Industrial Era will become the country title (either Ideological or reflective of policy choices), to reflect the evolution of the concept of statehood.

janboruta said:

After thinking about it a bit, I agree that custom titles for leader and civ could be a bit much when used at the same time. You have the point about Gandhi (and probably some other ones), but this also creates an interesting opportunity of both policy- and era-specific civ names. I don't know how hard would it be to implement, but it could create a quasi-RFC feeling of a state's continuity.

Click to expand...

It would be possible, but perhaps a bit of a mammoth task. Besides, I'm not sure how they would evolve whilst maintaining political neutrality, so the importance of the distinction between a Kingdom and Republic is preserved. That said, I planned for the Ideologies to take over the naming conventions with, for instance, the People's Republic (for Republics which go Order), the Socialist Kingdom (for Kingdoms which go Order) and the Divine Socialist State (for Theocracies which go Order, as unusual as that would be).