Dark Ages

[Joij21]

I have a suggestion to add dark ages. They essentially would be golden ages but the exact opposite (lower research, commerce, culture, happiness, healthyness, etc.). A dark age would be triggered if the dissent of your entire empire is above a certain threshold. Also upon creating a dark age you would lose one random tech that you have already researched. Certain world wonders could also reduce the amount of turns a dark age lasts just like how some can already extend a golden age. Maybe certain civics or tenets could also extend(or reduce)them. The Internet world wonder could also have the late game ability of preventing the loss of a tech from a dark age should one happen to you. So let me know what you guys think too OP, realistic, good idea, bad idea, any suggestions?

 

[Xyth]

I'd like to add dark ages, but I haven't yet thought of a way to it implement them that wouldn't just be frustrating. Penalty mechanics in general are tricky. They have to serve some purpose beyond realism and they need to be reasonably predictable and/or manageable if their effect is to be significant. Otherwise it just sucks fun out of a game.

Civil War is HR's big penalty mechanism. It works because it's predictable, somewhat manageable, penalizes over-expansion and under-investment, and has interesting diplomatic dynamics. If dissent also led to dark ages it would be too harsh, penalizing the player when they're already suffering. So if dark ages are to be added, they'll need to be tied to something else entirely.

 

[Joij21]

What if instead of being linked to dissent they would be linked to a brand new education system. Each population point you have in your cities would generate education points. Just like how food is consumed by population, education would would be consumed by the amount of techs you have researched multiplied by the number of cities you own. More advanced technologies would have a higher educational upkeep. The first techs on the tech tree should hardly cost much educational points per turn but later technologies like particle physics would provide a hefty demand for more education. As the number of your cities grows and the techs you research become more advanced eventually population alone will not be enough to meet the demand. Next you'll have to build academies and schools to multiply the education points you produce each turn. If demand for education exceeds what you produce by a certain amount(not sure what amount yet)then your empire will lose one tech and enter a dark age. If production exceeds demand then surplus education is converted to the great person point of the educational civic(yes there would be a new civic catagory too)that you are running. And then there's educational civics like oral tradition, religious scholarship, military tutelage, apprenticeship, intellectual elite, and compulsory education. They would provide different specialized ways of generating education points and each one would have their own unique great person points that they would generate from surplus education. Oral tradition would generate additional education points from each cities' cultural level with higher levels generating more. Surplus education would be converted to great artist points. Religious scholarship would generate education for every city that has your state religion and state religion buildings. It would also get an additional bonus from having control of your religion's shrine similar to the gold bonus it already receives. Surplus is converted to faith points. Military tutelage would generate education from forts and defensive/military buildings and wonders. Surplus is converted to great general points. Apprenticeship would generate education from workshops, windmills, watermills, and maybe the mill building and forge. Surplus is converted to great engineer points. Intellectual elite would generate education from the amount of wealth you produce each turn and from specialists. Surplus is converted to great doctor or scientist points (haven't decided which one should be here and what should go to compulsory education. The question is which is more elite? A doctor or a scientist?). And finally compulsory education would generate education from cottages in addition to doubling the base population bonus. The surplus would also go to the great doctor or scientist as I have previously mentioned. Kind of a lenthy explanation of ideas but I hope this will generate a conversation and more ideas and input from the community