Historically Innaccurate Civ Traits?

[Spoonwood]

America plays as expansionist and industrious... they have since Vanilla came out.

 

[Optional]

As Capnvonbaron said, civs go through various cycles. So you can make America expansionist by looking at that early settlement period. But then you can make any European nation expansionist, because they've all had their time of exploration and colonization, and you can see early America as an extension of that, and not something specifically American.
Where for me America truly stands out - apart from commerce - is communication. Because there have been so many people making up the American population - Italians, Poles, Irish and what not - they had to really work on communication to understand each other, and as a result developed a quality that you won't find anywhere else. It's both communication technology and culture. A lot of American culture is hugely accessible and influential. And then I'm certainly talking about movie pictures and things like that, about Steven Spielberg making more accessible movies than Rainer Werner Fassbinder, to mention an example. It's just not so easy to capture this in one of the traditional traits, and maybe Americans aren't too chuffed about this quality of theirs either, and rather see themselves as religious or agricultural. Perhaps a bit more time is needed for Americans to develop an identity that corresponds better with their true qualities.

Pyrrhos Scandinavians I can hardly not give the seafaring trait, but apart from that you can throw almost anything at them. Probably the Viking legacy is what most people remember Scandinavia by, and that's easy material for a game, so perhaps that's why Firaxis have gone for expansionist and militaristic in PTW, and swapped expansionist for seafaring in Conquests. A game like this can only use a charicature.

 

[Jokeslayer]

In case anyone hasn't figured it out yet, most civs can fit most traits at some point. Nobody playing the game completely ignores expansion because they're not playing an exp civ, or science because they're not playing sci civs.

 

[Cattivo]

do we have an expansionist/industrial civ in the game? If not, then maybe that would be a better (and moderately justifiable) change for the game.

America is industrial & expansionist in civ3. Perhaps in all the discussion of what America could be classified as, it was lost...

 

[battleaxe]

I still can't fathom America as expansionist. Where have they expanded? From east to west in north america... big deal. The spanish, portugese, english, french, mongols, romans to name a few all have a better case in my opinion for being expansionist - they

Expansionist is a trait I'd get rid of. For those civs famous for their conquests via land I think militaristic covers it, and for those that conquered/expanded via the sea, seafaring covers it.

 

[Optional]

Expansionist is a trait I'd get rid of. For those civs famous for their conquests via land I think militaristic covers it, and for those that conquered/expanded via the sea, seafaring covers it.

I can see that, but would you also want to get rid of expansionist as a game mechanic?

 

[Snarkhunter]

America is industrial & expansionist in civ3. Perhaps in all the discussion of what America could be classified as, it was lost...

Don't play it & don't ever look at it, so didn't realize it. I'd still say ag is a more applicable trait over more of American history. Are there any ag-expansionist civs, then?

It's quite true that successful civs that are still around can probably draw on half a dozen of the traits. The trick is to try to pick the 2 that are most characteristic for the most of the time. Or at least to avoid 2 that aren't particularly characteristic.

Of course, if you just want a compleat game, methodically pair up each of the traits & set to a "civilization", whether they fit historically or no.

(And if you are Spengler, all this discussion of civs--and not Cultures--is probably making you give conservation of angular momentum a real run for its money among your cemetery neighbors! )

kk

 

[Spoonwood]

re there any ag-expansionist civs, then?

The Inca. Spengler would have revolted to Fascism and lost population in the process.

 

[Snarkhunter]

The Inca. Spengler would have revolted to Fascism and lost population in the process.

Maybe not. He dissed Hitler seriously when the latter came to power, & became one of the earliest inhabitants of a concentration camp (which he did not survive). Autocracy is not one of the civ govs, so that's out. Perhaps he would have stayed in despotism. . . .

kk

 

[Argetnyx]

Err...

I think you'll find that most of the great scientific advances of the 20th century actually stem from the immense investment in education made by Imperial Germany during the late 19th Century. A good example of this is Velcro and Computers. Both originate with the Space Race and all the important research, with the exception of Tsiolkowsky, was done by German scientists at Peenemünde captured by the USA or the USSR at the end of the war. Stalin reportedly once said "Are their Germans better than ours?".

Those are not from Imperial Germany, they are from the Third Reich, in WWII (1939-1945).

 

[Bowsling]

Inca expansionist? I think it'd be more accurate if they where militaristic and agricultural then expansionist & agricultural.