Alignment - Shouldn't it be locked & have restrictions

[Blakmane]

surely you could do it quite simply by having a value from -100 to +100 (or any range of values) that has set amounts subtracted or detracted from it according to triggers. For example, having a death node may lower the value by 15 points, converting to the order may raise this by ~100 points (or perhaps even set it at a certain value). If you then set a parameter that changed the alignment of values over or under certain margins, you could then get a dynamic aligment system.

This could open up a whole new area of flavour and strategy. For example, once a civ converted to the order, to maintain that religion as a state religion they must keep their alignment within the 'good' values (or junil rejects them). This would add a new dimension to choosing your religion- if one wants to convert to the order then they'll actually have to tackle the bad guys to keep the bonuses, rather than just randomly backstabbing fellow order civs (basium anyone).

 

[Silverkiss]

Kael already said he doesn't want to make a aligment system too complicated, that he likes the one that is implemented currently.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Yes, but an action based alignment system would make a great modmod.

 

[Soam]

Out of curiosity for the people who think that the civs don't play the way they "should". Have you tried playing with Tech Trading off? I find that with it off progress is slower but the civs tend to follow their paths more rigidly. This of course makes some civs weaker then others though such as the Kuriotates. As for death magic being essential I've never really used it but I only play on Emperor/Immortal is there something I'm missing?

 

[Pandemonis]

Why not use the D&D alignments? I always thought of Balseraphs as Chaotic Neutral rather than pure evil, and of Lanun as Chaotic Good instead of Neutral. It would make a complicated system and probably not implented, but just my 2c.

 

[Kael]

surely you could do it quite simply by having a value from -100 to +100 (or any range of values) that has set amounts subtracted or detracted from it according to triggers. For example, having a death node may lower the value by 15 points, converting to the order may raise this by ~100 points (or perhaps even set it at a certain value). If you then set a parameter that changed the alignment of values over or under certain margins, you could then get a dynamic aligment system.

This could open up a whole new area of flavour and strategy. For example, once a civ converted to the order, to maintain that religion as a state religion they must keep their alignment within the 'good' values (or junil rejects them). This would add a new dimension to choosing your religion- if one wants to convert to the order then they'll actually have to tackle the bad guys to keep the bonuses, rather than just randomly backstabbing fellow order civs (basium anyone).

Yeah, from a game design perspective this is called a "sliding scale" mechanic. In general Im not a fan of them because they tend to require a lot of tuning and dont make things very fun. So you could create an example when a player can run slavery as long as he spams a lot of the +alignment activites to keep his alignment up. Or even more dangerously you create a situation where a casual player loses the religion he wants to play because of reasons he doesnt understand, which is just frustrating.

Sliding scale mechanics tend to be really fun to design, but not fun to play.

Im not saying it cant be made to be fun. Just that there is some risk to doing it, and adding in a sliding scale for alignment doesnt inherently make anything better (it is only what you do with that scale). But I would love to see a mini-mod that tries it out.

 

[Vulcans]

I'd also like to see a mini mod to try it out. I’d like to see mana nodes having an effect on the alignment, actions could also have an effect, eg your contribution to the Armageddon scale, eg if bannor suddenly decides to go around razing cities then his alignment could start to drop. But I agree with kael, it is probably too difficult to implement, and could possibly cause too many complications


Is there also a command you can put at the start of a WB text file to purposely change specific AI leaders alignment to something different then they normally are?
I know leaders can have a different alignment in random personalities, but the designer doesn't have control over that.