Feedback: Civics

I'm going to stick my neck out here and suggest that Environmentalism should be scrapped and replaced with State Property.

Centralism + Social Welfare kind of stands in for SP... but not very well. Assuming HR is using the existing Global Warming routine, then Environmentalism is a complete misnomer. Reducing the impact of :yuck: enables players to build more :yuck:-producing buildings and thus accelerate GW. That's not a criticism of HR, just a recognition of the weird way Civ 4 works GW. With the GW system being as it is, by far the best way IMO to represent the growing contemporary concern for the environment would be through late-tech buildings that either replace :yuck:-producing buildings, or else reduce the :yuck: production of other buildings and factor this into the GW mechanic (not just net city health).

Also, Ecology is an early Industrial tech. I struggle to think of many major governments today that put the environment on a higher priority than attracting international business (or, for that matter, proving that their state-owned enterprises can produce loads more widgets than the private sector of capitalist economies)... let alone any that were doing so around the time of the adoption of steam power, electric lighting or refrigeration.

Don't get me wrong, extra income from preserves is cool, and does a nice job of representing a government blessed with fascinating local flora and fauna seeking tourist revenue and donations. But couldn't this be a blanket effect from Mass Media and Telecommunications (representing people who saw the plight of the French Elephants or unspoilt beauty of the Toku Forests on Discovery or Facebook)? Likewise, other techs or Civics could affect Windmills; Composites, perhaps.

This would open up a Civic slot for a government policy which had an importance in the 20th century that is difficult to overstate (it framed the diplomatic clash between three massive spheres of influence, countless wars and proxy wars, and the brink of nuclear war), whilst still providing an incentive to be more enlightened with endangered flora and fauna - that grows with the development of media sources educating people in that issue, rather than a load of Civs going Green and setting up wind farms before they've even heard of factories. True, it's interesting when the UN tries to force everyone to adopt Environmentalism, but IMO the Kyoto protocols squabble is nowhere near as interesting a part of modern history as the Cold War.

I originally posted this as part of an proposition for new Wonders - the IMF and Comintern - in a thread about Victories. I thought it worth reposting here for discussion.
 
With regard to the Environmentalism diplo stuff, the UN could have a resolution that causes surplus city unhealth to add to
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, and the various 'green' buildings to add +1
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(or perhaps some kind of revenue etc). That'd do a pretty good job of pressuring polluters to get their houses in order.
 
This is a very late reply to Xyth's reply on my suggestion for Environmentalism "2 more cents on Environmentalism", 1 July 2012, post #97. Now that the subject is again on the agenda, I've reread what I said then and I think that it deserves reconsideration. I suggested no direct monetary effect, but happiness, health and science boosts:

  • +5 happy faces
  • no :yuck: from industrial buildings and mines
  • +25%:science:
I'm not concerned so much with the exact numbers as the non-monetary aspect.

Some long-overdue answers:

There's other ways we can look at it too. Under an Environmentalist government perhaps wind generation is more generously subsidised and with regulations allowing wind farms to be bigger and nearer population centres. The NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) are told to shut up. Wind power becomes reliable and cheaper and the economy is thus stimulated. Then the neocons get back into power, decide Wind farms are eyesores and cut their numbers, bow to the bribes of the coal and oil companies and remove subsidies and incentives, for clean wind power. Economic benefit is lost because wind farms revert to niche generation and economic gain is lost to environmental and health degradation, not to mention providing fat bonuses to coal and power company execs.

...

What matters is gameplay balance and theme; you expect Agrarianism to be related to Farms, Environmentalism to be associated to Wind Turbines. Slavery being related to Quarries and Plantations makes sense.

I find this a strawman argument. It talks about wind turbines as if they were Environmentalism in a currently-in vogue economic framework based on cheap fossil fuel and divestment of government ownership of utilities. It's what currently passes for discussion as environmentalism in some developed countries but it's not relevant to the bigger historical picture or to alternative forms of government. A government running state property wouldn't think of it.

I don't associate Environmentalism with Wind Turbines. They are a means of production of electricity. In some economic situations (for instance, depending on the price of fossil fuel) they will be an obviously cheaper choice. That is quite independent of an Environmental philosophy.

Environmentalism is not a philosophy that has a direct financial benefit. It's about the expansion of traditional economic theory from the consideration of money alone to include maximising health and happiness, which implies the need for sustainability.


Other connections are less strong but they're for gameplay reasons. If we focus too much on the 'how', a lot of civics and other game mechanics stop making sense.

...

Ultimately though I'm not too worried about the strict realism of it; the same analysis can be done from different angles with similar conflicts and flaws for any improvement altering civic. There are no right answers.

Surely the point of Civilization is to model reality in a playable way and things that don't make sense should be changed so that they do? It would be nice if the Civilopedia articles had both encyclopedic and implementation sections --- describe the historical or philosophical background and then how this is modelled.

So, I still feel that my suggestion to give Environmentalism a non-monetary flavour would add a distinctive, realistic aspect to the civic. I'd appreciate input from others on this.
 
Jurisdiction
Requires Civil Liberties
Medium Upkeep
• No maintenance costs from distance from Palace
• +1:espionage: per Specialist

After mulling this over for a while, I would like to suggest changing this to -75% maintenance for distance (and possibly reducing the upkeep to low to compensate).

Eliminating the distance cost entirely also removes colony maintenance for overseas holdings and makes Versailles and the Seasonal Palace completely useless, both of which strike me as poor design.
 
State Property

I'm not wanting to bring State Property back at this time. Like capitalism, communism is not something that can be defined by an economic civic alone, and I feel the economic aspect of communism is already represented by Redistribution or Centralization.


Environmentalism

As mentioned elsewhere, I'd like to review or replace the Global Warming mechanic at some point, and the Environmentalism civic will likely be redesigned alongside this. Another mechanic that the civic could be connected to is resource depletion, but I'm still not sure if I want to add that or not.

In the meantime I agree that health is not an effective tool to model environmentalism and thus I've removed most health aspects from the civic. It's worth noting too that Environmentalism already has a happiness effect: it incentives construction of Nature and Marine Reserves which provide happiness.

I also agree that Environmentalism is available too early; it used to be unlocked in the Modern era but was shifted forward when modern part of the tech tree was condensed. That part of the tree still needs some work and I'll aim to shift it later again.

Overall I'm not disgreeing with the concerns raised, nor claiming Environmentalism is modelled perfectly as it is. I just have to work within the technical limitations of BTS and keeping civics as a whole balanced (for example, by ensuring certain bonuses aren't stackable). If we modelled all civics on realism alone many of them wouldn't be desirable at all.


Jurisdiction

Note that the distance maintenance reduction bonus is being unlocked quite a bit later than it was at Confederation (early Medieval vs. mid Renaissance), and also that the Seasonal Palace will be buildable a lot earlier in 1.19 than it is in 1.18 (late Classical vs. late Medieval). So there'll be a considerable period of the game where the Seasonal Palace is the only option for reducing distance costs.

That said, I don't think changing the reduction to -75% is unreasonable. I'd leave it at medium upkeep though.
 
I noticed in the game I just wrapped up that Pluralism doesn't turn off the state religion. I still have to manually convert to "No State Religion" (with the attendant unrest).

Was this intentional?
 
I noticed in the game I just wrapped up that Pluralism doesn't turn off the state religion. I still have to manually convert to "No State Religion" (with the attendant unrest).

Was this intentional?

It uses the same mechanism as Free Religion in BTS, with no changes by me. So I'm not sure what's going on here.
 
I wonder if you could re-examine Slavery civic? Although it has some interesting aspects, I think it is under valued for the monumental effects and changes it had on civilization in general. The Civic should be the most sought after and hard to let go civic in the game. It should empower nations, but cause horrible internal and external strife. Slavery lasted for over five thousand years and caused more than civil wars but both epic building projects as well as destroying nations.
 
Following on from discussion earlier in the thread, I've reassigned many leaders' favourite civics. Let me know if you have any further suggestions.


[TABLE="head"]Civic | Leaders
Despotism| Shaka, Tiglathpileser
Monarchy| Brian Boru, Casimir, Clovis, Elizabeth, Joao, Knut, Le Loi, Peter, Ramkhamhaeng, Sargon, Yekaterina
Theocracy| Abu Bakr, Lalibela, Songtsen Gampo, Topiltzin
Aristocracy| Herod, Julius Caesar, Maximilian, Robert the Bruce
Confederation| Dharmasetu, Dido, Hiawatha, Rajendra, Willem van Oranje
Democracy| Churchill, De Gaulle, Kossuth, Perikles, Washington
|
Tradition| Cetshwayo, Jingu, Kamehameha, Po'pay
Proclamation| Gilgamesh, Nebuchadnezzar, Pacal, Piye, Solomon
Authoritarianism| Qin Shi Huang, Stalin, Timur
Codification| Hammurabi, Justinian, Napoleon, Yaroslav
Jurisdiction| Askiya, Bismarck, Corvin, Lincoln, Marcus Aurelius, Suleiman
Equal Rights| Ataturk, Nzinga
|
Tribalism| Logan, Salamasina, Tin Hinan
Agrarianism| Agamemnon, Huayna Capac, Suryavarman, Trung Sisters
Slavery| Djoser, Montezuma, Shammuramat
Caste System| Asoka, Chandragupta, Musa, Wang Kon
Industrialism| Meiji, Nasser, Victoria
Social Welfare| Selassie, Roosevelt
|
Reciprocity| Kochininako
Redistribution| Hatshepsut, Hattusili, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong
Professionalism| Argantonio, Filipe, Hayam Wuruk, Henrique, Kadphises, Shehe Mvita
Centralization| Harun al-Rashid, Louis, Pachacuti, Taizong, Wu
Free Market| Abu'l Mawahib, Hiram, Michiel de Ruyter
Environmentalism| Sitting Bull
|
Militia| Viriato
Clan Warfare| Attila, Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Ragnar, Te Rauparaha, Vercingetorix
Mercenaries| Amanirena, El Cid, Ramesses, Suppiluliuma
Vassalage| Darius, Karolus, Mehmed, Richard, Sobieski
Warrior Code| Arp Arslan, Crazy Horse, Leonidas, Saladin, Tokugawa
Standing Army| Alexander, Ashurbanipal, Augustus, Hannibal, Scipio
|
Paganism| Boudica, Sundjata
Orthodoxy| Joshua, Kanishka, Mbemba, Xoc
Fundamentalism| Isabella
Altruism| Ezana, Gandhi, Jayavarman, Lobsang Gyatso
Rationalism| Frederick, Khosrau, Mongkut, Sejong, Yaqub al-Mansur
Pluralism| Akbar, Constantine, Cyrus, Mangammal
[/TABLE]
 
In one of my games I had Pluralism as one of my civics but I still had a state religion.

I found what was causing this. Attached is a single file fix, it replaces /History Rewritten/Assets/XML/GameInfo/CIV4CivicInfos.xml. Will possibly be incompatible with games in progress.
 

Attachments

Following on from discussion earlier in the thread, I've reassigned many leaders' favourite civics. Let me know if you have any further suggestions.


[TABLE="head"]Civic | Leaders
Despotism| Shaka, Tiglathpileser
Monarchy| Brian Boru, Casimir, Clovis, Elizabeth, Joao, Knut, Le Loi, Peter, Ramkhamhaeng, Sargon, Yekaterina
Theocracy| Abu Bakr, Lalibela, Songtsen Gampo, Topiltzin
Aristocracy| Herod, Julius Caesar, Maximilian, Robert the Bruce
Confederation| Dharmasetu, Dido, Hiawatha, Rajendra, Willem van Oranje
Democracy| Churchill, De Gaulle, Kossuth, Perikles, Washington
|
Tradition| Cetshwayo, Jingu, Kamehameha, Po'pay
Proclamation| Gilgamesh, Nebuchadnezzar, Pacal, Piye, Solomon
Authoritarianism| Qin Shi Huang, Stalin, Timur
Codification| Hammurabi, Justinian, Napoleon, Yaroslav
Jurisdiction| Askiya, Bismarck, Corvin, Lincoln, Marcus Aurelius, Suleiman
Equal Rights| Ataturk, Nzinga
|
Tribalism| Logan, Salamasina, Tin Hinan
Agrarianism| Agamemnon, Huayna Capac, Suryavarman, Trung Sisters
Slavery| Djoser, Montezuma, Shammuramat
Caste System| Asoka, Chandragupta, Musa, Wang Kon
Industrialism| Meiji, Nasser, Victoria
Social Welfare| Selassie, Roosevelt
|
Reciprocity| Kochininako
Redistribution| Hatshepsut, Hattusili, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong
Professionalism| Argantonio, Filipe, Hayam Wuruk, Henrique, Kadphises, Shehe Mvita
Centralization| Harun al-Rashid, Louis, Pachacuti, Taizong, Wu
Free Market| Abu'l Mawahib, Hiram, Michiel de Ruyter
Environmentalism| Sitting Bull
|
Militia| Viriato
Clan Warfare| Attila, Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Ragnar, Te Rauparaha, Vercingetorix
Mercenaries| Amanirena, El Cid, Ramesses, Suppiluliuma
Vassalage| Darius, Karolus, Mehmed, Richard, Sobieski
Warrior Code| Arp Arslan, Crazy Horse, Leonidas, Saladin, Tokugawa
Standing Army| Alexander, Ashurbanipal, Augustus, Hannibal, Scipio
|
Paganism| Boudica, Sundjata
Orthodoxy| Joshua, Kanishka, Mbemba, Xoc
Fundamentalism| Isabella
Altruism| Ezana, Gandhi, Jayavarman, Lobsang Gyatso
Rationalism| Frederick, Khosrau, Mongkut, Sejong, Yaqub al-Mansur
Pluralism| Akbar, Constantine, Cyrus, Mangammal
[/TABLE]

What does a favorite civic do for the civilization?
 
What does a favorite civic do for the civilization?

A leader is more likely to choose their favourite civic when choosing civics in its category. It's not a drastic effect, the AI wont cripple its economy over it. Flavour mostly.
 
Clan Warfare
Requires Riding
Low Upkeep
• +2:mad: in enemy cities when at war
• +100%:gold: from pillaging and capturing cities

Upkeep reduced, and enemy city penalty reverted back to 2:mad:. The AI won't adopt this civic unless it is defined as their favourite but I'm fine with that. Makes playing against certain leaders quite flavourful!

Apparently the AI *will* adopt this even if it isn't their favorite. See attached screenshot.
 

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Apparently the AI *will* adopt this even if it isn't their favorite. See attached screenshot.

Interesting, will have to keep an eye on that. Taking it over Militia is plausible, but if any AI leaders are choosing it over the other military civics (when it's not their favourite) I'll have to make some tweaks.
 
Paganism doesn't seem to be giving the +1 :food: for having state religion present.

Hmm, I tested that one pretty thoroughly. Could you post a saved game perhaps?
 
Attached below.

I also just noticed that I don't appear to be getting the cottage growth bonus for my Progressive trait either.
 
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