Adding more offices?

DaveShack

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When we chose the tribal government style, I think we had two goals in mind. One was to get started without a long argument over what positions to have and their responsibilities, and the other was to let the game flow a bit and then see what we're missing.

I think we've seen a couple of areas which need a dedicated leader. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to identify what leaders you think should be added. I'll hold mine back a bit to give y'all the chance to be first. :)
 
One thing I'd like to see, and I don't know if this should be an office unto itself, or if it should fit under a pre-existing one, is a person who is in charge of making sure polls are issued on important topics that citizens absolutely need to discuss before turnchat sessions, such as technology, where to put a settler, etc. People on the forums have been doing a generally good job with this, but when a poll doesn't end up getting made, then the decision seems a bit arbitrary, and none of us like that.

Of course citizens would still have the right to post their own polls, this is just as a safety check.
 
That's one of the primary roles of an official, in the DG tradition. For example, an official in charge of domestic affairs might be in charge of organizing all settlement decisions. That would mean starting discussions, deciding if there is concensus on an issue or if it needs to be polled, posting the poll as neeed, and posting instructions.

We have shown so far in this game that the citizens can operate in an area without a designated official, but it might not be as focused as it could be. When we do have an official, another responsibility is becoming an advocate for that area. Taking the settlement issue again, the official in charge of that might also go into other threads like the tech one or the build queues one and advocate getting the techs we need to decide settlement, or building settlers and escorts.
 
One thing i'd like, i dont know if it would be too long or maybe we're already doing this because i dont know its my first game, but a military office could be cool. maybe we could rename pretty much all the units with divisions name or etc. do like in Civ 2 with the belicist party. Plus it could decide what to build when the city council made the decision to build a unit.
 
Everything's been fine so far. I'd imagine that if we do add some officials, the change would occur so that the new positions could be elected for term 3.

That said, here's my proposal, which I dub the 'Tribal Council.'

The low number of elected officials have been admirable (to this point) as it has kept the turf conflict to a minimum. That said, if we do go ahead and add new leaders, I'd only like to see the addition of two. Keeping with the tribal theme, they'd be the Warlord and Shaman, all while retaining a (demoted) Chieftain. The three co-equal leaders would form the new executive branch, the Tribal Council. The Warlord is responsible for military policy, the Shaman for domestic policy, and the Chieftain for foreign policy.

The system would be otherwise unchanged. The trio would be collectively responsible for the administrative tasks the Chieftain is currently responsible for - running the DP pool, elections, appointments to vacant official positions, etc. They would retain the ability to appoint their own subordinates and delegate tasks as necessary.
 
I'm a little bit concerned about that idea as well, having 3 people do the work that has so far been well handled by one, seems an unnessecary complication, however it may be useful as the game expands, and the cheiftan's role becomes larger
 
Military and Domestic Officers shall be surely needed.

When must they begin is another question.

Best regards,
 
Domestic isn't really needed, elders do the job. Military might be good though, I think that fogbusting will be important this game.
 
We do need some sort of Culture and Religious office of some kind. Eventhoughy we have not founded a religion yet, it's still good to plan ahead and establish an office.
 
Well, we don't have a religion yet, and we haven't got a way to create culture, so we don't need that office yet.
 
Yeah, the first thing I thought of was the Tri of Demo I. Let's not go back to that.

If anything, we should get rid of some positions. I recommend we get rid of all positions. Then we should appoint myself as Grand Marshall. I will then appoint (and fire) other officers as I see fit. Mwa ha ha ha ha.
 
I'm a little bit concerned about that idea as well, having 3 people do the work that has so far been well handled by one, seems an unnessecary complication,

I would like to remind you this is not a 1 player game, if i wanted to see a 1 player game i would go play one. Lets have many offices i say :

Foreign affairs
Domestic
military
trade
science
culture/religion
 
All previous Demogames have had handled by by several offices...

It's not an unnecessary complication, as to me, it's one of the things that makes the demogame more interesting.

These positions give other people a chance to participate in beyond just being a citizen. Allowing them to take on more responsibility, it also helps make sure the one person doesn't get over loaded.

Dividing up tasks between such officials also allows for a unique level of micromanagement that is actually fun. Detailed discussions of each area are facilitated by the officials, and detailed decisions are made.

In a Single player game, 1 person is micromanaging many cities at once. Here each cities micromanagement is divided between different people allowing people to just focus on their city and ensure they get the best possible citizen allocation and the best queue.

Similarly it's true for the higher offices. For example when we get into, few are willing to find the best options for EVERYTHING, given time constraints... maximizing Trade deals in of it self takes up alot of time, let alone planning out military upgrades, attack strategies and managing domestic affairs all at once.

EDIT:
As a starting point I'd like to suggest the Executive Section from the Traditional Government initiative during the pre-game.
Section II: The Offices of the Executive Branch

  • The President – The President is the overall head of the Executive Branch. He/She is responsible for planning when game sessions are held and determining who will play the save. When there is no adviser assigned to a specific task the President is responsible for ensuring that the task is done and instructions are posted for that task, either by the President, one of his/her ministers, or the DP playing the save.
  • The Domestic Adviser – The Domestic Adviser is responsible for overseeing the Governors and planning worker assignments. He/She ensures all Governors are working towards the overall goals of the country. They also mediate any arguments between Governors over land usage. Specifically if the city radius' of two cities, under two Governors overlap and each governor wants rights to work a specific tile. The Domestic Adviser is also responsible for planning out the borders of any new provinces and what cities are within those borders. If a new province or city has not been assigned a Governor the Domestic Adviser shall manage that province or city until a Governor is elected to mange that province or city.
  • Governors – Working with the Domestic Adviser, Governors are responsible for planning the build queues and overall micromanagement of the cities within their province. At the start of a new Demogame a Governor shall be elected to run the capital city and capital province of our first city.
  • The Military Adviser – The Military Adviser is responsible for planning troop movements and upgrades. He/She is also responsible for working with both Domestic and the Governors to ensure the needed military units are being recruited and trained.

Now obviously Terminology would have to changed to fit the Tribal government, along with other minor tweaks to fit into the Tribal government framework. The part about Governors and President would probably be eliminated, since those are already fairly well defined in the current government, though we may still want to do some tweaking to the Elder and Chieftain if necessary to flow better with these new offices, though it may not be needed. But, this is a good starting point I think on which we can use as a basis for any new offices, and add upon.
 
exactly this is my first game...its only real soon but I thought there was more people deciding things. I see that there's about 3 or 4 people really playing. I thought in my head each citizens would have been alotted a city and then take decision with his city council or be in the capital and be acquinted for the federal council of some sort.
 
At this point in the game we really only need a small amount of officers. As the game progresses and our empire grows and meets other rival civs, than yes, we're going to need a lot more officers. But for now, a small handfull is all we need.

Right now I can see the need for a military advisor, as we're starting to build up our military. The other offices that are eventually going to be needed can for the moment be controlled by the current government. I'd say about mid-April we're going to start needing many additional offices.
 
My system wouldn't pan out like the triumvirate of last term, I think. The system I propose is much lest complicated, with only one layer of government to deal with. In their individual duties, the three leaders would be independent in their actions - I'm only proposing an act as trio for those mundane tasks that our current Chieftain has wisely delegated to other officials, and I imagine that they would act in a similar fashion. I think a well-planned, well-implemented triumvirate is a good way to reduce the overall number of elected officials.

Of course, if people are really opposed to the idea of a triumvirate, we could just add one more elected official - a 'Khan' to oversee all the administrative functions.
 
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