Idea: Cultural sphere

[usi]

There were times when some civilizations became so influential that many other civilizations decided to accept their customs, religions, languages and so forth. Greece, China and Egypt are few examples of such great civilizations. My idea here is that when there is an outstanding civ, the civ and some of its neighbors will form a cultural sphere. A cultural sphere brings happiness to the great civ and "enlightenment" (i.e., tech boost) to its members. In other words, my idea is to expand the effect of open borders in the TR.

I thought of two goals:
1) Avoid the problem that advanced civs keep becoming more and more advanced, while weak civs keep falling behind. Instead, we should let weaker civs learn from great civs, and let great civs suffer from corruption.
2) Allow great civs to create large cities (like Rome) earlier.

Here is my idea of how a cultural sphere will be formed and developed (sorry, it's very complicating!):
1) The civ with the highest score at 2000BCE forms its cultural sphere. One of its neighbors will be a member of the cultural sphere. However, if it has no neighbor, the cultural sphere will not be formed.
2) At 1500BCE, civs which already have their cultural spheres get another member of their cultural spheres, if they have one or more neighbors which are in no cultural sphere. Then, either 2a or 2b happens.
2a) If the civ with the highest score at 1500BCE does not have its cultural sphere, it forms its cultural sphere. One of its neighbors will be a member of the sphere. If it has one or more neighbors which are in no cultural sphere, one of the neighbors will be a member of the cultural sphere. If it has no such neighbor, the cultural sphere will not be created.
2b) If the civ with the highest score at 1500BCE already has its cultural sphere, the civ in the second place on the score forms its cultural sphere. If it has one or more neighbors which are in no cultural sphere, one of the neighbors will be added to its cultural sphere. If it has no such neighbor, the cultural sphere will not be created. If the civ which formed its cultural sphere is in the cultural sphere of another civ, it will get out of the former cultural sphere.
3) The same thing to 2 happens at 1000BCE, but this time the civ in the third place can form its cultural sphere if the civs in the first and second places on the score have already formed their cultural spheres.
4) The same thing to 3 happens at 500BCE, 200BCE, 100CE, and so on. However, no more than 3 cultural spheres can exist at the same time. If there are already 3 cultural spheres, no civ can form its cultural sphere until one of the 3 cultural spheres collapses.

A cultural sphere collapses:
1) If it loses all of its members (the great civ which formed the cultural sphere is not counted as its member)
2) When one of the members of the cultural sphere has a higher score than the great civ at a critical date (e.g., 1500BCE, 1000BCE, 500BCE...)

When a cultural sphere collapses:
1) All of its members and the great civ will no longer be in the cultural sphere and might join cultural spheres of other civs in future
2) +3 unhappiness in cities of the one used to be the great civ, and +1 unhappiness in the cities of the former members of the cultural sphere. The unhappiness lasts [the number of the member it had before it collapse] X 10

Merits that a cultural sphere brings to the great civ:
1) +1.5 happiness in its capital city per each member of the cultural sphere
2) Favorable attitude from its members
3) Higher spread rate of your state religion to its members

Demerits that a cultural sphere brings to the great civ:
1) - [the number of the member] X 10% production
2) - [the number of the member] X 5% research
Both 1 and 2 will not go below -50%.

Merits that a cultural sphere brings to its members:
+100% research speed if the great civ has already researched the tech

Demerits that a cultural sphere brings to its members:
1) +2 unhappiness in all cities if your state religion is different from that of the great civ
2) +1 unhappiness in all cities per each government civic you adopt different from the great civ
3) -20% culture in all cities

 

[Inverted]

Merits that a cultural sphere brings to the great civ:
1) +1.5 happiness in its capital city per each member of the cultural sphere
2) Favorable attitude from its members
3) Higher spread rate of your state religion to its members

Minimal benefits.

Demerits that a cultural sphere brings to the great civ:
1) - [the number of the member] X 10% production
2) - [the number of the member] X 5% research
Both 1 and 2 will not go below -50%.

Brutal negative side. Apart from balancing, it is rather hard to explain how exactly it reduces your output that you have "followers".

And this leads everyone to the conclusion that being the leader of a cultural sphere is a very bad thing (which is not too realistic) and players should try to do anything to break their own sphere. For example, you like to live peacefully building your empire, and you happen to be good at it. But then those pesky neighbors start to copy your ways which forces you to reduce their number to the minimum, preferably 0 unless you want to sit and watch your civ getting ruined...

 

[usi]

Minimal benefits.
Brutal negative side.

True. But, I am not trying to balance merits and demerits because one of the goals is to “Avoid the problem that advanced civs keep becoming more and more advanced, while weak civs keep falling behind.” Merits and demerits can be modified, but a great civ needs to suffer, and its followers need to benefit at the end of the day.

Apart from balancing, it is rather hard to explain how exactly it reduces your output that you have "followers".

Corruption -- Rome and China are good examples. Being a great civ makes the civ vulnerable to corruption as well as influential.

And this leads everyone to the conclusion that being the leader of a cultural sphere is a very bad thing (which is not too realistic)

Becoming too influential is, I presume, a bad thing. For instance, China gained very little from tributes from Korea, Japan and some other Asian civilizations; on the other hand, Chinese culture made Japan pretty strong. Also, Rome did not learn a lot from “barbarians,” but the “barbarians” learned a lot from Rome.

players should try to do anything to break their own sphere. For example, you like to live peacefully building your empire, and you happen to be good at it. But then those pesky neighbors start to copy your ways which forces you to reduce their number to the minimum, preferably 0 unless you want to sit and watch your civ getting ruined...

If you reduce the number of your followers to 0, you will suffer from the nasty +3 unhappiness for 10 turns. Then, after some centuries, you might be forced to form your cultural sphere again if you are high on the score. Instead of doing such thing, you probably want to make your followers fight with one another (just like the US does).

 

[Anaztazioch]

I dont like the fact "highest scorer". The can be several civs with same score/culture (there is such possability) and thus how will you declare the "higest" one.

Other thing is what if the "highest cultured" is only 3 points infront of 2nd and 10 points infront of 3rd ? Will this make those "just behind" drawned into cultural sphere instead of creating its own, or stay independant ?

And most importand for me - I dont have a sligthest idea how to meke such component... ask Square-Enix for me k ?

 

[usi]

I dont like the fact "highest scorer".

Actually, I do not like the fact either. I hope we can calculate, say, score + gold/10 + [SQRT soldiers] + [SQRT culture]. But I am not sure if the system allows us to do it.

The can be several civs with same score/culture (there is such possability) and thus how will you declare the "higest" one.

If the system cannot know how many civs have the highest score, my idea does not work. But, if the system can do that, then we can pick up one of the civs randomly, and let the chosen civ form its cultural sphere.

Will this make those "just behind" drawned into cultural sphere instead of creating its own, or stay independant ?

They might be drawn into a cultural sphere, if they are lucky enough to be the neighbor of the one creating the cultural sphere. Nevertheless, the fortune will probably make the cultural sphere collapse, and they will probably be the next candidate to form a cultural sphere.

And most importand for me - I dont have a sligthest idea how to meke such component... ask Square-Enix for me k ?

Thus, it is just an idea. But, I know the TR team is great like Square-Enix.