Social Policy Grid

[Ramesses]

If you've ever played Final Fantasy X, you may be familiar with its level up system, the Sphere Grid. I think a system based off of this would be perfect for Social Policy selection.

Here's a source of information for those unfamiliar with the Sphere Grid.

Basically, you have a grid consisting of 50 (or maybe 60) nodes, each containing a Social Policy. You start in the center, and gradually move out toward the edge. The organization of policies would be based on the Political Compass: Rationalism to the West, Autocracy to the North, Piety to the East, and Liberty/Freedom to the South, with the other branches mixed in. The further out you go, the more advanced the policies become. Some outside factor will restrict how far out from the center you can go at any point (either Technology Age or something else).

The method of progression through the grid is very different from progressing through the Tech Tree. You have a token which moves down paths, much like a piece on a game board, and the path it takes is highlighted in violet. Each time you accumulate enough culture, you earn a "move", which you can spend by moving your token to any connected node, or buying the policy your token is on. Alternatively, you can retrace your path up to two nodes without cost, or three nodes at the cost of ending your "move".

What do you guys think?

 

[Sneaks]

I would certainly try it. However, I would say we are at least 2 months off from seeing an SDK from allowing this. I would really suggest making these sorts of suggestions in the Modding subforums, where people with the abilities to do this can see it.

 

[cccv]

It sounds good at first, but it would have to be revamped a bit. The way the FFX grid works now, you have to follow a particular path for so long until you're able to connect to another. That or you have to waste a ton of points backtracking. So if Civ V used the FFX grid, you'd have to follow piety for a bit until you could connect to commerce, or wait a bit longer to connect to liberty, etc. I don't think it's realistic or good gameplay to restrict a civ to following growth in one are while neglecting others. So how do you revamp it? Make it so you can move on different paths simultaneously. And that gives us... exactly what we have in Civ V now, only longer and curvy.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

omg... sooooooo complex, you'd need a three feet thick diploma in Mathematics just to comprehend the scope of such a monster.
However - if you can still remember - Re_Search used hexes to represent the whole cEvo tech-tree... in a sense, even i wasn't able to limit node connections *by design*.
Key here i guess is to find proper balance between features & userfriendly.

 

[Sonereal]

If you've ever played Final Fantasy X, you may be familiar with its level up system, the Sphere Grid. I think a system based off of this would be perfect for Social Policy selection.

Here's a source of information for those unfamiliar with the Sphere Grid.

Basically, you have a grid consisting of 50 (or maybe 60) nodes, each containing a Social Policy. You start in the center, and gradually move out toward the edge. The organization of policies would be based on the Political Compass: Rationalism to the West, Autocracy to the North, Piety to the East, and Liberty/Freedom to the South, with the other branches mixed in. The further out you go, the more advanced the policies become. Some outside factor will restrict how far out from the center you can go at any point (either Technology Age or something else).

The method of progression through the grid is very different from progressing through the Tech Tree. You have a token which moves down paths, much like a piece on a game board, and the path it takes is highlighted in violet. Each time you accumulate enough culture, you earn a "move", which you can spend by moving your token to any connected node, or buying the policy your token is on. Alternatively, you can retrace your path up to two nodes without cost, or three nodes at the cost of ending your "move".

What do you guys think?

I really like the idea. Brings me back to when I played FFX.

Seems like it would take a long time to design though.