Ranks in Civ Traits

[PeteAtoms]

I know this idea has been brought up a couple of times, but i havent seen any real responses on it. So here goes.

I think that each civ trait should have a "% rank". And that all civs have all the traits, but not at the same ranks, Germany might for example have a 50% rank in military but 0% in religion, or whatever.The civ's could have the preset traits but if the player wanted a truly unique civ, he could choose to distribute 100pts (%) among the different traits but with a limit perhaps (to keep the powergamers from going 100% military or 100% commercial). Maybe a limit like no more than 50% in a single trait.

I think that each civ should at least have a rank in all the traits because i dont think any civ was just commercial and scientific, the greeks for example, the greeks had a long history of war, Sparta held the art of war very highly, so why shouldnt they have a military ranking, even their leader Alexander the Great was a famous general that conquered a lot of land....

 

[El Loco]

you mean like in Empire Earth in which u have 100 points that u can use to ur civs benefit?

 

[PeteAtoms]

ive never played that game so i wouldnt know, but i mean at the pre-game setup screens

 

[ybbor]

maybe. how would 20% vary from 40% ?

 

[slothman]

It could be like each point is how much of a percent boost you get in each field. 30 points science and 70 military might make you research 30% faster than usual and fight 70% better. Even if something that precise isn't used something more than yes/no is good. Like a value from 0 to 5 or -1 to +1 even.

 

[Gatsby]

Dear PETEdaVIKING,
You have a pretty good idea here. It could be something like in Galciv, where you could allot a given amount of points between certain traits at the start of the game.
In Civ4 you could decide the allocation for both yourself and your AI opponents, or use pre-set defaults for the AI players. It is vague, shoddy and improbable for a civilization to be defined by 2 broad charicteristics, especially when 2 civilizations have the same charicteristics (eg C3tW). Your idea allows not only for far more uniqueness in civilizations, but would give CIV4 a very desirable boost in replayability.
This idea should definitely make it into the final Civ4.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Giving each trait a depth of two or maybe three ranks would be enough for me.

 

[El Loco]

it would definetly improve a civs advantage on military means

 

[Dragonlord]

I like it! It shouldn't be too finicky though, ranks of 1 to 5, maybe 1 to 10 would be enought, no 63% this, 18% that...

Also, there should be a civ-specific limit to single traits maximum/minimum, so that the flavor of different civilizations remains:
e.g. the 'militaristic' Germans could be optimized to 8 in military might, while a more peaceful civ like Babylon could only go to max 6, for instance.

Settings could thus be optimized to personal preferences but civs would stay unique.

 

[sealman]

this whole concept would not work under the current trait structure. as it is now, the traits just give you a bonus. For something like this, the trait advantages would need to besetup in some sort of staggared bonus system.

 

[jabancho]

I think it is an excellent idea. What will be needed is to define the level of benefits you will receive from assigning % or points from each civ. Ex. the higher you add to military trait it will reflect on the higher probability to get a ML and reducing the cost of the barracks. I will also add that at a certain level of assigned % of a trait you get a smaller advantage (ex a diff unit, etc)

 

[Yuri2356]

They'd need to use a system like they did in SMAC for the traits, where different values in each stat would have different bonuses. For example, your maximum limit for Military police was determined by your score in a "police" stat. Where 0 was no police, Each point above Zero was annother military police, and each point below was an unhappy for units out of your Cities. Each Civ could start with base points in traits, chosen by the player, and then different Government forms would modify them in various ways.

 

[dguichar]

I don't know how to find my previous posts, but i've already done something like this... with specific bonuses for a one to five scale on each trait.

David

 

[Mewtarthio]

you mean like in Empire Earth in which u have 100 points that u can use to ur civs benefit?

No, I don't think that would work in Civ (for those who aren't familiar with Empire Earth, at the start of each game the player is given 100 points. He then uses these points to "buy" various traits like "-10% cost on Bombers" or "+10% Stone Mining." To discourage players from specializing too much, the cost per trait goes up when traits in the same category [Bombers, Buildings, General, Foot Units - Sword, etc.) are purchased.)

@Yuri- I like that idea! It would allow for some nice Social Engineering.

 

[Håkan Eriksson]

I like this idea. I never liked how the traits for different tribes in the previous games were specified exactly and un flexible.

 

[Philips beard]

I really like it better that the Civs have particular traits from the start, based on that Civs history and what made them great.
My suggestion is that when you name a Cive yourself, then you may choose it's traits combination yourself too!

 

[Loppan Torkel]

I really like it better that the Civs have particular traits from the start, based on that Civs history and what made them great.
My suggestion is that when you name a Cive yourself, then you may choose it's traits combination yourself too!

I agree, but I wouldn't mind if they expanded the trait concept just a bit. They could for example distribute three or four points among the traits instead and give each trait a depth of two, like giving Germany 1 scientific, 1 industrial and 2 militaristic for example.

I dont' want to see the SMAC model or a precise percentage. I wouldn't like to see it become too statfocused...

 

[PeteAtoms]

yeah, i dont mean anything too much (0-100% was just an example) maybe 0-2. With 0 pts in a trait you would get no bunuses. with 1 point you would get minor bonuses and with two points you would get the same advantages as in Civ3.

 

[Yuri2356]

Maby you could take points out of one trait to put in annother, resulting in penalties in that area.

 

[PeteAtoms]

so maybe than a -1 to 2 pt range, i dont think that you should be able to penalize yourself too harshly