950+ SP/Civ intersections to play with

[SeismoGraf]

After release, I expect a lot of strategy discussions to center around a particular civ picking certain social policies. There will be synergies between a civ's UA, sometimes also the UB and UU on one hand, with certain SP on the other hand.

Knowing how active these forums are, I could lose the overview very quickly, so I created a table with all civs and SP. Later I want to hightlight the interesting areas, "hot spots", maybe put little numbers refering to notes or links into some individual cells.

The table rows are the 50 SP, columns are 18+1 civs, giving a total of 950 intersections. When a certain civ picks a certain number of SP (i.e. intersections), I'd call this a configuration.

Without saying more, and well aware that we don't have all info yet, let me just throw in a few questions, to get the discussion started:

• Have you already identified some "hot spots" or promising configurations, maybe less obvious ones?
• Do you think that there will be especially uniteresting intersections?
• Will SP/Civ interplay have a big impact on balance and the metagame?

Edit: above I forgot to include the 10 SP branches, so there are 60, not 50 SP in total

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Well, more interestingly, there is 116 combinations of 5 active SP branches, 80 combinations of 6 active branches, 17 combinations of 7 active SPB & 2 combinations of 8 active SPB !

 

[craig123]

Remember that you have to unlock a branch before you buy the policies within it. So there are 60, not 50, policies in total.

 

[Zhahz]

Well, more interestingly, there is 116 combinations of 5 active SP branches, 80 combinations of 6 active branches, 17 combinations of 7 active SPB & 2 combinations of 8 active SPB !

Yep, even mroe replay than ever IMO.

There may be optimal combos for certain civ traits, but IMO it'll be more cool that you can adapt to any situation or goal by tweaking and "growing" your SPs, such that the "optimal path" on paper isn't necessarily what you'll do depending on actual game circumstances.

I'm looking forward to "building" up my civs via SPs in lotsa different ways.

 

[SeismoGraf]

Remember that you have to unlock a branch before you buy the policies within it. So there are 60, not 50, policies in total.

Oh, what an embarrassing mistake. Thanks for your hint. Now even the thread title is wrong

 

[Louis XXIV]

Either way, there's a "whole lot"

 

[HarryLime]

I think the social policies are the most exciting new feature in the game and I can't wait to try them out. What do you guys think the best combination of policies will be for a cultural victory?

It seems like people here are saying that Liberty is a must, but that doesn't make much sense to me because a cultural victory seems to rely on having a small but powerful empire so the cost of policies doesn't skyrocket.

I actually think cultural victories are going to rely heavily on help from cultural city states. So the best combo in my mind is:

Tradition: For help with wonders and making the most of your small empire.
Piety: I mean, this just seems designed for cultural victories.
Patronage: To keep those cultural city state bonuses coming.
Commerce: I actually think this SP will often go hand in hand with Patronage. Any kind of financial boost to keep them on your side is going to be welcome.
Freedom: Even though we're not entirely sure what the whole branch consists of, that 30% reduction of SPs is going to be a must have.

What do you guys think?

 

[Blackfang]

From the top of the head, the one interesting combination:
Indian UA: Unhappiness from number of cities doubled, Unhappiness from number of Citizens halved.
+
Order->Planned Economy: Unhappiness from number of Cities reduced by 50%.

The effect of the combination is not completely obvious: will it be 100% or 150% unhappiness from number of cities for India with Planned Economy? (will the modifiers stack or multiply?)
Either way, Planned Economy will be doubly important for India, if it wants to expand.

 

[SeismoGraf]

Usually the SP get more powerful deeper down a branch, where more SP points are needed to unlock them. Some bonuses you get when unlocking a SPB seem negligible, when unlocking them late (e.g. Tradition +1 food in capital, Piety +2 happiness in the empire).

This makes me wonder about the pros and cons of a "deep" (put points in a few SPB) versus "broad" (unlock many SPB) approach to picking SP. With a lot of SPB unlocked, you will have more options to chose from, when spending a new SP pick, so it gives flexibility. With the deep approach some of the most powerful SP are accessible earlier.

Once a civ has decided, which SP are the most desirable at a given time, it will depend a lot on how these SP are distributed in different SPB. This may result in challenging trade-offs between going deep or broad.