Governments in Civ 4?

[ringwraith18]

So let's pretend that Civ IV had governments...what ones would you want? What effects would you have them give? Personally I'd have something like this:

Empire

Prequisite tech -Bronze Working

*+5 free units
*-25% maintainance cost all cities


Republic

Prequisite tech - Writing

*+1 commerce on all tiles already producing at least 3 commerce
*+10% culture all cities

Feudal Monarchy

Prequisite tech - Hereditary Rule

*Farms produce +1 commerce
*+10 free units

Merchant Republic

Prequisite tech - ??

*Merchants produce +2 gold
*+25% production of naval units

Democracy

Prequisite tech - Liberalism

*+1 commerce all tiles that produce at least 3 commerce
*+1 hammer all tiles that produce at least 1 hammer
*+50% War Weariness

Totalitarianism

Prequisite tech - Fascism

*+3 happiness per city
*+15 free units

Obviously I would also change civics so that, for example, Free Speech no longer gives +1 hammers to towns, etc.

How would you guys handle them? What do you think of my ideas, or should I say, civ 3's ideas

 

[AW Arcaeca]

So let's pretend that Civ IV had governments...

There already are different governments in Civ4. But we prefer to call them "government civics".
We just have Despotism instead of Empire, Police State instead of Totalitarianism, and so on.

 

[Bjarkov]

Awesome Seeking inspiration in the older games is a great idea, and government stuff has been part of civ since the very first game.

I suppose that's why you already have 5 different categories of government (aka civics) in Civ 4..

 

[AdamCrock]

I think that is a great idea !!! - Moreso I've go another that when You adopt a certain combination of civics it gives You the ability to choose Government form civic from the new column called "Form of Government" For example

"Feudal Monarchy" prequisite tech - Feudalism - would require : Heradietary Rule and Serfdom civics and Vasallage -
than it would give You the option to adopt Feudal Monarchy from the new government form column which gives You said bonuses. (also to further un-nerf serfdom I propose +1 hammer from farms to go with Feudal Monarchy bonuses because servitude also involved some heavy labour )

further ideas:

"Empire" prereq. tech. Bronze Workind and required Slavery and Despotism as civics. bonuses looks good as You mentioned them.

"Republic" prereq. tech writing and prereq. civics - now this would require an overhaul in the civis enabling players to adopt some sort of a republic gov. civic earlier in game the other could be Caste System (as there were knowns castes in Early Republics)

"Merchant Republic"/"Merchant Princes"? - prereq. tech could be Astronomy and required civics would be Representation and Mercantilism (tarrifs and general trade market domination monopolies and protectionism - besides free market would get this overpowered ) , also I suggest unlimited merchant besides the bonuses You already proposed

"Democracy" - prereq. tech Liberalism and prereq. civics : Universal Suffrage and Free Speech and Free Market or Enviromentalism as an added bonus (beside those You mentioned) I would give Democracy +2 happy faces in all cities as well as a bonus 1 free specialist in cities when player owns Statue of Liberty (which would now have the net gain of 2 free specialists) -2 diplomatic relations with communists

"Communism" (new) - prereq. tech Communism and prereq. civics : State Property , Representation (of course with one Ruling Party with no opposition ) or Police State (to reflect Chinese Communism or Stalinism) and Bureaucracy or Nationhood (and never ! ever ! a free speech - censorship ) and of course Emancipation (everyone is equal .... maybe some are more equal than others but nvm hehe ) and Free Religion (there is no state Religion under communism)
bonuses - +2 food in the city square and +1 from citizen (collective farming) , +2 hammers in the city square and +1 from citizen (collective/forced labor), free citizen in all cities when The Cremlin is owned by the player, +25% espionage - superior spies (would net a nice +50% with nationhood), and "can spend gold to finish buildings" -6 diplomatic relations with Facist governments , -2 with Democracies

"Fascism/Totalitarism" prereq. tech - Fascism prereq. civics : Police State , Nationhood, Free Religion ("Fuhrer" is the religion ! ), cannot adopt emancipation ("we are the master race"), bonuses : "can spend gold to finish buildings" , +25% military units production (will net a whooping +50% with police state - Hey Hitler got his whooping giant army from scratch did he not ?) , +3 happiness per city and +2 hammers in a city square instead (forced labour). +50% production for the broadcast tower (superior propaganda) and + 1 happy face for each unit stationed in a city. -6 diplomacy relations with communists and -4 with everyone (nets -10 with communists)

 

[ringwraith18]

I love your idea because it adds benefits/drawbacks to the governments

I especially wanted a way of making Empire feasible throughout the game, but becoming a bigger and bigger burden as time goes on.

Awesome Seeking inspiration in the older games is a great idea, and government stuff has been part of civ since the very first game.

I suppose that's why you already have 5 different categories of government (aka civics) in Civ 4..

I see civics as more "national philosophies" than governments, by which I mean the executive and legislative bodies of a state, and the way that state is structured.

I also dislike that civics are all universally compatable and while some are very useful, some are almost irrelevent. Government type should always be a choice, following on from the civ 2/3 model of their being a liberal and a conservative form of government at every level. What choice do I have in this respect in vanilla civ 4? I almost always know exactly what civics I want, when I want them. And some I couldn't care less about at all.

 

[civfanchambers]

Why not have both predefined governments and civic policies? Governments unlocked via tech research and civics used to customize said governments to a specific purpose or play style.

 

[ThorHammerz]

You could always mod and rebalance them to your liking . I personally play with a slightly stronger version of Mercantilism (let's be honest.... in vanilla BTS its 1 free specialist.... vs foreign trade route goodness + corps + free trade route? pls), and then a more specialized free market/state property/environmentalism (with more pronounced trade/production/health bonuses and also more pronounced weaknesses - more upkeep/commerce reduction for state property/etc).

The XML files themselves allow you to add 1 more civic option to each category of civics, and its fairly easy to re-balance within the pre-set parameters/variables (although you'll need to dig a little into the SDK to do anything that's not already set as an XML variable).