Affinity progression rework - Affinity points for all technologies and virtues.

[Galgus]

First, remove all affinity gains from researching technologies.

Second, make researching all technologies and adopting all virtues grant generic affinity points to specialize as one wishes.

Third, limit more bonuses and buildings to having a certain affinity level.
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Altogether, this would provide more freedom in tech choice with less beelining.

It would also tie Affinity into culture, making focusing on it more viable and acknowledging that Affinity is about technological capability and social response.

 

[legalizefreedom]

Even having techs that give different amounts of multiple affinity xp would be an improvement.

 

[Halbbruder]

An interesting proposition. If I may add to it:
- certain buildings should grant affinity points when you first build one, but not when you build more of them.
- More affinity quests and the ability to refuse them. Also fix any that are broken and set up more types of affinity quests.
- nerf progenitor ruins. Make them give a small amount of xp in the affinity of your choice instead of free levelup.

 

[Galgus]

@legalizefreedom

I agree, though some techs granting affinity while others do not inherently promotes beelines and reduces variety.
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@Halbbruder

I like that idea, though other encouragements exist for affinities to focus on certain buildings.

Personally I'd prefer a system where players use, for lack of a better term, quest points to select quests to take with more unique rewards from quests.

Players start with some quest points and obtain more by completing quests.

It may potentially harm immersion, but on the plus side it would make the game less tied to luck by removing randomness while potentially allowing a single playthrough to use all quests.

Thematically quests would be selected as incident reports that players choose to investigate, like the fall of a strange satellite or the discovery of derelict settlements.

Choosing how you progress through quests would be similar in this system to choosing how you progress through the tech web.

Tying into that, I'd like Progenitor Ruins to be rewarding, but things you need to defend hold onto that civs will compete for rather than a short excavation away from a large affinity bonus.

See my post further down in that thread for that and other quest ideas of mine.

 

[Makenshi]

I still say Affinity XP should be calculated as something like:

[Science+2xCulture]/3

If in 10 turns I accumulated 50 science and 20 culture, then I accumulated 30 Affinity XP.

[50+2x20]/3 = [50+40]/3 = 90/3 = 30

 

[Galgus]

I still say Affinity XP should be calculated as something like:

[Science+2xCulture]/3

If in 10 turns I accumulated 50 science and 20 culture, then I accumulated 30 Affinity XP.

[50+2x20]/3 = [50+40]/3 = 90/3 = 30

I'm not sure on the exact average numbers of science and culture points generated a turn to judge the math, but I agree that culture should have a role.

 

[Makenshi]

Yeah, the above math is just an example out of my head, I didn't propose it to be exactly that. The point is that Affinity XP should be separated, like "religion XP" in CiV; but it should be derivative of science and culture, instead of an independent counter.

 

[Ryika]

I did try a very similar thing in a mod I did a while ago (basically splitting the web into 3 areas, one for each affinity) and the outcome wasn't really that there were no beelines anymore, the outcome was just that the beelines became less obvious.

I think the "beeline"-Issue won't be solved unless you include elements that change the "ideal" path in every game, like linking it somewhat to the terrain.

Also, the way quests work right now would still create quite a lot of "needed" techs, which would still make the techs around that more valuable than the rest of the tech web. So I think an overhaul would need to go a lot deeper than just moving Affinity Progress.

Moving part of the Affinity-Progress into culture is something I agree with. I would even go further and also put some Progress directly into City Infrastructure.

 

[Galgus]

Barring tying optimal paths to terrain, wouldn't the idea be to purposefully make multiple paths that get to the end game at equal speeds?