How would generational ships manifest in gameplay?

[Minor Annoyance]

We know at least one of the new sponsors did not have hypersleep technology, so the people who land on the planet are not the people who left earth. Generations lived and died on their ship while in transit and never set foot on a planet. So what effect could that have in the game?
Firstly I'd guess the ship setup options could be different. Specifically the colonists. Currently there is a specialized profession for the colonists, however the people getting on other ships were chosen to colonize a world, while for the generational ship they were chosen to live on a ship their whole lives. Would there be a new 'spaceborn' colonist type.
I'd imagine a generational ship would make them very efficient. Everything they have and ever will have is on the ship so nothing would be thrown away unless it was actually dangerous, like toxic waste. Could they have some bonus with resources?
Also I'm wondering if they might have a specialist focus. Specialists were nothing special in the base game so they might make a point to add to that and then make a faction to highlight that. It follows logically that farming in the sense of a tract of land with crops isn't what they're familiar with. They would have had hydroponic on board the ship running for generation. So I'd guess that they'd be better suited to working in a more centralized setting rather that out working the fields, or mines etc. which sounds like specialists to me. Thoughts?

 

[Galgus]

Way before Rising Tide was announced I remember someone had an idea for a Venice-like single city colony based on a generational ship.

The idea was that they would have a deep psychological tie to the ship as home, and that the sentiment would transfer to the city it founded.

The end result would be them just building up a massive megacity rather than spread out traditionally.

If that were to be actually implemented, perhaps their megacity could have an outright insane maximum border range with improvements to access resources buildable far from it.
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While I could see there being another colonist type, I could also see some heritage of the original colonists being passed down - which is more or less the idea with normal seeding ventures mid-late game.

I could definitely see the descendants of a generation ship having a culture of frugality and efficiency shaped by absolute necessity, and skill at working with confined spaces would lend itself well to specialists.

 

[Ryika]

Well, from a logical point of view I'd think they'd probably have a rather big tech and social advantage, after all they had tons and tons of time to be creative, to socialize and de-/refine their "society" without the threats of war, without annonymity, greed (as there's not much to get), etc - and to do scientific research, although it may very well be questionable if they really had the funds to equip these ships with proper equipment for the latter one.

Obviously for balance reasons that will most likely not get translated into gameplay, although some kind of "Headstart"-Civ with some drawback that comes into play later on would certainly be interesting.

I also agree that both, a Specialist Focus (although I really hope they make them useful with the patch and not just for "that one sponsor") as well as a "One City"-Sponsor (or at least "Heavily focused on the capital"-Sponsor) would probably make sense.

 

[iki]

Honestly I see them starting with an old earth relic or getting bonuses for building them.

 

[ZTZaorish]

Honestly I see them starting with an old earth relic or getting bonuses for building them.

Although this could work. I do hope they are a bit more creative than this. (since their lack of creativity/vision is partly what caused BE not to be a successful as it could have been in the first place)

 

[iki]

Although this could work. I do hope they are a bit more creative than this. (since their lack of creativity/vision is partly what caused BE not to be a successful as it could have been in the first place)

If they make them more powerful then they really should 're balance the other Sponsors

 

[Ryika]

Well, let's face it: The addon will once again ruin the little balance that is there atm anyway. I think stronger bonuses overall would be cool, as right now sponsors don't really have that much influence on your gameplay at all.

 

[iki]

Well, let's face it: The addon will once again ruin the little balance that is there atm anyway. I think stronger bonuses overall would be cool, as right now sponsors don't really have that much influence on your gameplay at all.

While I'm inclined to agree. And half expect the originals to be fixed after release.

It's true in any civ game there are better ones and weaker ones. The expansions tend to have a higher power of Civs.

I think that I had a Solar collector under The Slavic Federation that lasted so long I was like oh damn when it fell.

It's kinda there but since the patch it was fairly odd.

 

[Galgus]

If they make them more powerful then they really should 're balance the other Sponsors

It could be interesting to counterbalance strong bonuses with drawbacks, as a potential option.

That said I wouldn't mind the original sponsors having stronger abilities.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I imagine that having several generations worth of people on a space craft would yield a much higher initial population for their new colony.

 

[iki]

I imagine that having several generations worth of people on a space craft would yield a much higher initial population for their new colony.

Possibly but part of me feels that cramped spaces and an isolated enclosed space, in a generation ship would create problems that might limit the population somewhat.

 

[GenyaArikado]

Or not, they'd have limited resources after all.

 

[iki]

Or not, they'd have limited resources after all.

They would still have to deal with things such as possible Dysentery, if they had a way to collect water and purify it on the way most of everything else would probably be okay.

It also depends on how it's powered, if it has faster than light or sub light travel, even going at light speed it could take hundreds of years to cross the void of space.

 

[Lord Tirian]

I think the biggest difference would be that they already have a culture. The hypersleep colonists are not a cohesive society. Even if they all trained together and were selected from groups with social ties, they are still members of a larger mission with relatively loose ties.

A generational ship is a town. There are families or even dynasties, there are uncles and grandmothers and children and cousins. There are generations of friendship or feuds between families, perhaps even full-fledged social castes. They don't have a chain of command, they have a government. They have history.

In game, this could be reflected by free (or very rapidly acquired) virtues and/or much higher culture output to show that these people aren't building a new society, they are a society appearing wholesale.

 

[iki]

I think the biggest difference would be that they already have a culture. The hypersleep colonists are not a cohesive society. Even if they all trained together and were selected from groups with social ties, they are still members of a larger mission with relatively loose ties.

A generational ship is a town. There are families or even dynasties, there are uncles and grandmothers and children and cousins. There are generations of friendship or feuds between families, perhaps even full-fledged social castes. They don't have a chain of command, they have a government. They have history.

In game, this could be reflected by free (or very rapidly acquired) virtues and/or much higher culture output to show that these people aren't building a new society, they are a society appearing wholesale.

That's a very interesting idea kudos! Like Franco-Iberia?

I see the culture getting some sort of additional options at some point. Free culture is the Cytome But I like it very fitting.

 

[groorg1]

I think the biggest difference would be that they already have a culture. The hypersleep colonists are not a cohesive society. Even if they all trained together and were selected from groups with social ties, they are still members of a larger mission with relatively loose ties.

A generational ship is a town. There are families or even dynasties, there are uncles and grandmothers and children and cousins. There are generations of friendship or feuds between families, perhaps even full-fledged social castes. They don't have a chain of command, they have a government. They have history.

In game, this could be reflected by free (or very rapidly acquired) virtues and/or much higher culture output to show that these people aren't building a new society, they are a society appearing wholesale.

I like this idea. I imagine them being very advanced in cultural and artistic ways, but perhaps dogmatic in their thinking in a way that is harmful to their survival on the planet. Maybe they are less efficient at first at working tiles, or they have already evolved along a certain part of the tech tree but have penalties for the rest?

 

[iki]

I like this idea. I imagine them being very advanced in cultural and artistic ways, but perhaps dogmatic in their thinking in a way that is harmful to their survival on the planet. Maybe they are less efficient at first at working tiles, or they have already evolved along a certain part of the tech tree but have penalties for the rest?

I don't know. Maybe they should gain Culture from resources that generate energy or something but every tile would be really truly powerful.
And crippling themselves working tiles could work in a balance.

They could also be really slow expanding due to familiar ties.

Having them have bonuses to tech or negatives would really push you to a specific type of Afinity unless it's done right.

I really wish they would reintroduce religion as they could have bonuses to this.

 

[Endar]

Way before Rising Tide was announced I remember someone had an idea for a Venice-like single city colony based on a generational ship.

The idea was that they would have a deep psychological tie to the ship as home, and that the sentiment would transfer to the city it founded.

The end result would be them just building up a massive megacity rather than spread out traditionally.

Cultists of Eternal End from Endless Legend

The have quite peculiar gameplay. Just one city for 4X game is... bizarre.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

I don't get the logic of them having an advanced culture because they lived on a spaceship. The colonists that arrive through hypersleep aren't newborn babies. They had a culture the brought to the new planet too. Earths culture. Which they partly leave behind to start anew. That's where the new virtues start. They develop from live on a new planet. A generational ship wouldn't get a jump on new-planet-culture because it's still a new planet for them as much as anyone else.
Also no one is arriving as a blank slate. Their sponsor bonus represents what they're bringing to the planet before they develop a new culture. PAC are builders, Polystralia are traders etc. A generational ship would bring something very different than other sponsors, but I don't see why it would be expressed through existing virtues.

 

[Promethian]

Way before Rising Tide was announced I remember someone had an idea for a Venice-like single city colony based on a generational ship.

The idea was that they would have a deep psychological tie to the ship as home, and that the sentiment would transfer to the city it founded.

The end result would be them just building up a massive megacity rather than spread out traditionally.

If that were to be actually implemented, perhaps their megacity could have an outright insane maximum border range with improvements to access resources buildable far from it.

You got me thinking about this concept and how it would work.

Replace the settler unit with a unit that creates a special tile improvement that serves as a "government node." The gov't node can only be placed on a tile that is the minimum possible distance a city can be built from the megacity central tile or another gov't node. It will claim the tiles around it at the same rate as an outpost. These gov't nodes reduce the growth cost for the megacity by (insert carefully calculated and tested formula here). The nodes will need to come with specialist slots since they normally come from buildings. I'd have them give slots of every kind but can only have so many filled at a time per gov't node.

Give these gov't nodes health and an attack like a city but keep the power about what the average of a military unit of that level would be but with higher health. Destroying the gov't nodes can cause effective growth penalties (losing the bonus would spike the growth costs quickly and stall the city out) and will become an outpost for the opponent. Claiming opponent outposts and cities creates a gov't node for the megacity.