[Complex] (6-20b) Nuclear Non-Proliferation Triggers Special Session Sanction Vote

[FishAvenger]

Current:
All Civilizations are prevented from constructing new nuclear weapons (Atomic Bomb and Nuclear Missile). Weapons already constructed, however, are not disarmed.


Original Proposal (6-23):
All Civilizations are prevented from constructing new nuclear weapons (Atomic Bomb and Nuclear Missile). Weapons already constructed, however, are not disarmed.

Any Civilization that uses nuclear weapons will cause All Civilizations to declare war on that Civilization instantly.

NOTE: Vassalized civs that the offender owns are released and all Defensive Pacts that the offender has are also canceled.


Counterproposal (6-23b):
All Civilizations are prevented from constructing new nuclear weapons. Production cost is tripled and uranium strategic resource requirement is doubled for constructing new nuclear weapons. Weapons already constructed, however, are not disarmed.

Deploying a nuclear weapon in combat immediately cancels all defensive pacts with the aggressor civ. Deployment also triggers a special session of the World Congress with a vote whether to sanction the aggressor civ.

Edit: There is a 5 turn cooldown per civ (i.e. a special session of the World Congress can only be convened at most once every five turns for each civ). Maximum of 3 civs may be subject to a sanction vote per special session. If more than 3 civs launch nukes in a given turn, Nuclear Non-Proliferation is automatically repealed.


Rationale:
Building and using nuclear weapons is now expensive, but not impossible, preserving a unique late-game mechanic.

Trade/diplomacy oriented civs are discouraged from using nuclear weapons, but warmongers who are already universally hated are free to continue warmongering with abandon.

Assuming the code to implement the trigger is not too complex, this is a relatively lightweight way to impose penalties for using nuclear weapons.

 

[usadefcon1]

Wouldn't an automatic sanction make more sense? The Congress already voted in favor of Nuclear Non-Proliferation.

 

[adan_eslavo]

I like it. It also looks pretty simple.

 

[FishAvenger]

Wouldn't an automatic sanction make more sense? The Congress already voted in favor of Nuclear Non-Proliferation.

There could be in-game situations where it is justified to use nukes (e.g. against a universally hated warmonger), in which case an auto-sanction seems too punishing to me.

 

[Recursive]

Deployment also triggers a special session of the World Congress with a vote whether to sanction the aggressor civ.

How would this be handled if 10 civs use nukes all on the same turn? Would there be 10 consecutive turns of special sessions? What happens if a civ uses nukes multiple times?

 

[Stalker0]

How would this be handled if 10 civs use nukes all on the same turn? Would there be 10 consecutive turns of special sessions? What happens if a civ uses nukes multiple times?

MAGI: @FishAvenger I do think we need to resolve this question to make this a viable proposal.

 

[FishAvenger]

How would this be handled if 10 civs use nukes all on the same turn? Would there be 10 consecutive turns of special sessions? What happens if a civ uses nukes multiple times?

I think what we want to avoid is a never-ending stream of special sessions. In terms of practical design, I think that will depend on the devs and what the code can handle. Any ideas are welcome.

Spitballing ideas for individual concerns:

What happens if a civ uses nukes multiple times?

A cooldown might be a good idea. For example, say Gandhi launches a nuke on turn X, then the special vote won't be triggered for Gandhi again until turn X + 5, but it could still trigger for anyone else.

How would this be handled if 10 civs use nukes all on the same turn?

How about a single session with up to three civs on the chopping block. This will keep things on par with the regular proposal limit. If more than three civs launch nukes in a given turn, then non-proliferation is de facto not working and should be automatically repealed. This could be accompanied by a large diplomatic penalty against the civs that launched the nukes so there is still a drawback.

 

[Captain Carrot]

I think what we want to avoid is a never-ending stream of special sessions. In terms of practical design, I think that will depend on the devs and what the code can handle. Any ideas are welcome.

Spitballing ideas for individual concerns:

A cooldown might be a good idea. For example, say Gandhi launches a nuke on turn X, then the special vote won't be triggered for Gandhi again until turn X + 5, but it could still trigger for anyone else.


How about a single session with up to three civs on the chopping block. This will keep things on par with the regular proposal limit. If more than three civs launch nukes in a given turn, then non-proliferation is de facto not working and should be automatically repealed. This could be accompanied by a large diplomatic penalty against the civs that launched the nukes so there is still a drawback.

Even if these are just ideas, you should probably amend your proposal to include them and just be ready to amend it further. The veto-hammer has been quite active this session (rightly so imo, but still) and I like this version of 6-20 the most so far, would be a shame to see it gone.

One thing to add to the cooldown would be something like "if Gandhi isn't sanctioned on the turn X session and keeps using nukes and evading sanctions on turns X+5, X+10 and so on until some X+5k (unlikely as it is with the diplo penalties from multiple nukes), consider the world fine with it and repeal the resolution", but it probably needs some fine-tuned additional checks to account for a true war of survival or those nukes being only singular uses or something. I say leave it be for now and if it's implemented and found too exploitable, try to balance it next congress.

 

[FishAvenger]

@Stalker0 @Recursive @Captain Carrot -- I've edited the original post to address the issues raised above.

Any other snags anyone can anticipate? I strongly suspect this is one of those things that will get ironed out through play testing. For the devs: anything else needed to make this sponsorship ready?

 

[Recursive]

For the devs: anything else needed to make this sponsorship ready?

I have my strong doubts this will get sponsored due to the complexity of messing around with the World Congress code.

Maximum of 3 civs may be subject to a sanction vote per special session. If more than 3 civs launch nukes in a given turn, Nuclear Non-Proliferation is automatically repealed.

Not a fan of the first part of this because multiple civs using nukes at once dilutes the power of the sanctions vote, and the second part because no other proposal works like this. Not veto-worthy, but feels really janky and weird.