Anyone else think the way you get through Affinities is.. stupid?

[Potenzo]

Suddenly I realized affinity choice should be based on how you play, how you terraform, how you deal with the planet, how you actually develop a civilisation and deal with humans, it should be your philosophy and grand choice...

I was just coming to post the idea that improvements should be tied to the system, and the previous post mentioned it! That would be potentially the biggest thing that properly identifies how you're playing, since it'd have an immediate impact on how your land looks.

Maybe it could be something like, building a Biowell is +1xp towards Harmony, but -1xp to Supremacy, while a Terrascape or Manufactuary is +1 Purity and -1 Harmony. Building choice could be another one, instead of the "requires Purity 4" that means you just hit the threshold then spam them everywhere, building ones affiliated with a particular way of life could boost that and knock a point off each of the others.

How about this?

Alternative affinity point system

• Change affinity points to a cumulative points-per-turn resource like culture. Affinity "levels" need increasing number of affinity points to unlock, as with culture for virtues.
• Each advanced improvement (e.g. terrascape, biowell) generates +1 purity per turn, EXCEPT academy.
• Each academy improvements generates +1 supremacy per turn.
• "Alien Relations Officer" unit, which levels up with Harmony; attack has chance to convert alien unit to your side. +harmony points per alien controlled per turn. +more harmony for converting tougher aliens like siege worms, but you'll need to level up your Alien Relations Officers to recruit them.

Also:

I wonder if there's a way to mod the game so that only the dominant affinity applies - because I'm not sure if the game's balanced that well for the multi-affinity playstyle.

Every affinity point you earn reduces the other affinities by 0.5 points.

i.e. If you have 10 terrascapes you earn +10 purity this turn, but lose 5 supremacy and 5 harmony (minimum zero). If you have 10 terrascapes and two lvl 2 alien recruits that'll be +10 purity, -5 supremacy, -5 harmony, +4 harmony, -4 purity, -4 supremacy for a total of +6 purity, -1 harmony , -9 supremacy per turn.

Consequences of this:

• Purity players will concentrate on improving their tiles, and will get the best production and growth - which they'll need, because they'll have to build units the hard way.
• Supremacy players will spam academy everywhere, and tech fast but be gimped on production and growth due to lack of other advanced improvements. Their units will be the most advanced, but they'll struggle to build a lot of them.
• Harmony players will stick to basic improvements to avoid earning purity or supremacy points, but as they get their units from recruiting aliens instead of by building them they don't need so much production. Unit-wise they will be the zerg.

What do you reckon?

 

[Potenzo]

Oh - also, you should get love from other factions that are more similar to you in terms of affinities, and hate from those that are more different.

There are probably various ways to implement this, but the way that occurred to me is:

* +1 favourability for every affinity point you have in an affinity that is up to the the number of affinity points the other faction has in that affinity
* -2 favourability for every affinity point you have in an affinity that is over the number of affinity points the other faction has in that affinity

Examples

Spoiler :

So, if you have 5 purity, 4 supremacy and 12 harmony
Other civ has 7 purity, 0 supremacy and 10 harmony.

You get +5 favourabilty for the purity.
You get -8 favourability for the supremacy
You get (+10-4)=+6 favourability for the harmony.

Total: +5-8+6= +3 favourability with that civ.


You have 5 purity, 4 supremacy and 12 harmony
Other civ has 10 purity, 0 supremacy and 7 harmony
You get +5 for the purity
You get -8 for the supremacy
You get (+7-10)=-3 for the harmony

Total is +5-8-3 = -6 favourability with that civ

 

[HandyVac]

Alternative affinity point system

• Change affinity points to a cumulative points-per-turn resource like culture. Affinity "levels" need increasing number of affinity points to unlock, as with culture for virtues.
• Each advanced improvement (e.g. terrascape, biowell) generates +1 purity per turn, EXCEPT academy.
• Each academy improvements generates +1 supremacy per turn.
• "Alien Relations Officer" unit, which levels up with Harmony; attack has chance to convert alien unit to your side. +harmony points per alien controlled per turn. +more harmony for converting tougher aliens like siege worms, but you'll need to level up your Alien Relations Officers to recruit them.

Making affinity points a per-turn yield from tile improvements sounds like the best way to turn affinity into a consequence of gameplay choices. Founding cities and improving the land around them is kind of the fundamental gameplay mechanic of Civ games, so it seems appropriate that the way you do that dictates the affinity your people adopt.

I'd share out the improvements a little more evenly between affinities though, e.g:

Natural tiles Yield Harmony
+1 from unimproved tiles
+2 from unimproved basic resources
+3 from alien nests

Earth-like improvements Yield Purity
+1 from Farms and Mines
+2 from Domes
+3 from Terrascapes

High-tech improvements Yield Supremacy
+1 from Generators, Plantations and Paddocks
+2 from Arrays
+3 from Nodes

As a side benefit, you'd get a fair idea of which affinity a faction is just by glancing at their territory on the map

 

[Lord Tirian]

I really like that, it sounds like a nifty way to do it - just needs some subtle adjustment of the affinity curve.

I'd reshuffle it a bit and put miasma, biowells and paddocks into Harmony, though, better than "unimproved".

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Making affinity points a per-turn yield from tile improvements sounds like the best way to turn affinity into a consequence of gameplay choices. Founding cities and improving the land around them is kind of the fundamental gameplay mechanic of Civ games, so it seems appropriate that the way you do that dictates the affinity your people adopt.

I'd share out the improvements a little more evenly between affinities though, e.g:

Natural tiles Yield Harmony
+1 from unimproved tiles
+2 from unimproved basic resources
+3 from alien nests

Earth-like improvements Yield Purity
+1 from Farms and Mines
+2 from Domes
+3 from Terrascapes

High-tech improvements Yield Supremacy
+1 from Generators, Plantations and Paddocks
+2 from Arrays
+3 from Nodes

As a side benefit, you'd get a fair idea of which affinity a faction is just by glancing at their territory on the map

I had similar thoughts on improvements and affinities (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=537309), but I don't think harmony should gain from not improving but instead gain from not removing, i.e. keeping forests and miasma. I also thought of having the more supremacy type improvements add to city defense to match their networked military.
With regards to building things giving affinity points, I think the earliest affinity level restricted buildings which are the xenofuel plant, xenonursery, feedsite hub, and genegarden should give points instead of requiring them. They're all level 2 which is low enough that it's not really if you get to that level but when. It also seems like it's level 4 where you have some affinity towards and affinity because that's when you get access to a unique unit. Therefor I think the few things that require levels below that should instead push you towards that affinity. Maybe it should be a quest choice. Either get some standard bonus from the building or get more affinity points.