I am not a modder (although I am a programmer and if someone sincerely picked up this project I would be happy to help.) Anyway, I would love to see a real socioeconomic system based on world system theory put into place
- Make the AI aware of hegemonic power and react appropriately. The main power will attempt to use its economic and military power to ensure that it remains in power. AIs which are heavily benefitting from the military and/or economy will tend to support the hegemon and see that keeping the hegemon in power is in their own interest. Neutral and enemy nations will tend to form alliances with the intent of displacing the hegemon and replacing it with one more powerful. Some of the most dramatic instances of the interplay of hegemons in recent history have been the cold war between Russia and the United States and the now (somewhat) unrestricted actions of a lone and unrestricted hegemon (the United States.) It would be great to see this kind of interplay in CIV.
- Add more realistic beneficial diplomatic agreements such as most favored nation status, free trade agreements with individual nations, etc. These would provide benefits to both nations, drawing them together economically.
- Add more realistic exploitative diplomatic agreements such as one-way foriegn investment agreements, one-way defensive pacts, forced trade of resources, low cost manufacturing/labor agreement (available in modern ages) etc. These would primarily benefit only the more powerful nation, but would still provide some economic benefit to the subjugated state, at the expense of happiness in the subjugated state.
- Addition of a third slider reflecting the conflicting goals of economic competitiveness vs. social freedom. It is well established that in any society that the goals of business and the goals of the public are for the most part incompatible in the short term. This is expressed and debated more in free societies where the public has more power in that it can either demand legislation or protest directly, but since the dawn of time if the powered exploit even the weakest there is a consistent pattern of revolution (in one form or another.) CIV doesn't acknowledge this conflict within societies at all, and I think it could be an interesting facet to maintaining a nation. At the business end of the slider, there are bonuses to commerce and penalties to happiness, and at the other side penalties to commerce and bonuses to happiness. Maintaining a competative economy will require maintaining a "naturally" happy populace allowing the nation to keep this slider at the maximum.
These changes would allow some amazing global political situations to unfold naturally within the game. What happens when a weak nation is providing a powerful nation with Oil, and you intend to weaken that major power. What do you do? You can attack the nation with the resources, claiming them as your own and then sell them to the nation (thereby adjusting the balance of power.) If you are weak militarily but with decent cash reserves you could offer the weak nation a better trade deal than the exploitive one currently offered by the rival power. You could also use your financial resources and donated military units to sponsor a war between a more friendly subjugated nation and the nation that is providing the resource to your rival, thereby "keeping your hands clean."
Ultimately, I'm sure this stuff will eventually make it into some version of CIV. Whether that is in Civ 8 or Civ 4 I guess is up to the modding community.
http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/courses/WORLDSYS.HTML
The mark of the modern world is the imagination of its profiteers and the counter-assertiveness of the oppressed. Exploitation and the refusal to accept exploitation as either inevitable or just constitute the continuing antinomy of the modern era, joined together in a dialectic which was far from reached its climax in the twentieth century.
- Make the AI aware of hegemonic power and react appropriately. The main power will attempt to use its economic and military power to ensure that it remains in power. AIs which are heavily benefitting from the military and/or economy will tend to support the hegemon and see that keeping the hegemon in power is in their own interest. Neutral and enemy nations will tend to form alliances with the intent of displacing the hegemon and replacing it with one more powerful. Some of the most dramatic instances of the interplay of hegemons in recent history have been the cold war between Russia and the United States and the now (somewhat) unrestricted actions of a lone and unrestricted hegemon (the United States.) It would be great to see this kind of interplay in CIV.
- Add more realistic beneficial diplomatic agreements such as most favored nation status, free trade agreements with individual nations, etc. These would provide benefits to both nations, drawing them together economically.
- Add more realistic exploitative diplomatic agreements such as one-way foriegn investment agreements, one-way defensive pacts, forced trade of resources, low cost manufacturing/labor agreement (available in modern ages) etc. These would primarily benefit only the more powerful nation, but would still provide some economic benefit to the subjugated state, at the expense of happiness in the subjugated state.
- Addition of a third slider reflecting the conflicting goals of economic competitiveness vs. social freedom. It is well established that in any society that the goals of business and the goals of the public are for the most part incompatible in the short term. This is expressed and debated more in free societies where the public has more power in that it can either demand legislation or protest directly, but since the dawn of time if the powered exploit even the weakest there is a consistent pattern of revolution (in one form or another.) CIV doesn't acknowledge this conflict within societies at all, and I think it could be an interesting facet to maintaining a nation. At the business end of the slider, there are bonuses to commerce and penalties to happiness, and at the other side penalties to commerce and bonuses to happiness. Maintaining a competative economy will require maintaining a "naturally" happy populace allowing the nation to keep this slider at the maximum.
These changes would allow some amazing global political situations to unfold naturally within the game. What happens when a weak nation is providing a powerful nation with Oil, and you intend to weaken that major power. What do you do? You can attack the nation with the resources, claiming them as your own and then sell them to the nation (thereby adjusting the balance of power.) If you are weak militarily but with decent cash reserves you could offer the weak nation a better trade deal than the exploitive one currently offered by the rival power. You could also use your financial resources and donated military units to sponsor a war between a more friendly subjugated nation and the nation that is providing the resource to your rival, thereby "keeping your hands clean."
Ultimately, I'm sure this stuff will eventually make it into some version of CIV. Whether that is in Civ 8 or Civ 4 I guess is up to the modding community.
http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/courses/WORLDSYS.HTML
The mark of the modern world is the imagination of its profiteers and the counter-assertiveness of the oppressed. Exploitation and the refusal to accept exploitation as either inevitable or just constitute the continuing antinomy of the modern era, joined together in a dialectic which was far from reached its climax in the twentieth century.
