Olson
Warlord
Civ I's "civil war" mechanic was fun and with Civ IV's Religion, Culture, and Espionage mechanics, it's not difficult imagining a civil war like element being brought back into the game in some way. To do so, however, would be the challenge of making it 1) a fun; not frustrating challenge to manage, 2) difficult to exploit, 3) organic, 4) uncommon, and 5) not unprecedented in actual history.
Using the term "civil war" limits the defining characteristics of what the mechanic might be. The assumption of "empire division", instead, might be that expansive empires tend to collapse under the military, administrative, and economic weight needed to maintain its own cohesiveness while resisting the racial, cultural, and religious differences within it; which tend to pull away from the empire's traditional, original core. Expansive empires could break apart into two or many and either peacefully gradual or violently abrupt under varying and complex circumstances.
Unlike the game's victory conditions, which are "this one or that one", an Empire Division mechanic might be "some of this, some of that, but mostly those". Then a 'means test' applied to those parts of the empire with the weakest attraction to or strongest repellant from the empire's core when all the prerequisite conditions are met.
[Edit: Civ I's "civil war" mechanic was fun and with Civ IV's Religion, Culture, and Espionage mechanics, it's not difficult imagining a civil war like element being brought back into the game in some way. What do you think? ]
Using the term "civil war" limits the defining characteristics of what the mechanic might be. The assumption of "empire division", instead, might be that expansive empires tend to collapse under the military, administrative, and economic weight needed to maintain its own cohesiveness while resisting the racial, cultural, and religious differences within it; which tend to pull away from the empire's traditional, original core. Expansive empires could break apart into two or many and either peacefully gradual or violently abrupt under varying and complex circumstances.
Unlike the game's victory conditions, which are "this one or that one", an Empire Division mechanic might be "some of this, some of that, but mostly those". Then a 'means test' applied to those parts of the empire with the weakest attraction to or strongest repellant from the empire's core when all the prerequisite conditions are met.
[Edit: Civ I's "civil war" mechanic was fun and with Civ IV's Religion, Culture, and Espionage mechanics, it's not difficult imagining a civil war like element being brought back into the game in some way. What do you think? ]