What I find with each game of C2C I play is that all threats are external. The only thing that threatens both the player and AI are other civilizations, with revolutions spawning a few barbarians here and there at best, and I think that should be changed. There needs to be internal threats added to compound the external threats, and this is something the Revolutions mod doesn't really introduce as revolutions are a nuisance rather than a danger. One factor I propose to be added to the Revolutions mod is a second property called Volatility.
What is volatility? It is exactly as its name implies, volatility is essentially how close your citizens are to using force and violence against each other, as apposed to stability/instability which is how close citizens are to using force and violence against the establishment and your government. This is a variable that is supposed to compound the stability/instability variable that the Revolutions mod uses, rather than replace it. The basic idea of how works volatility is as follows:
Volatility is CAUSED by
-Multiple cultures existing in the same city, the more cultures the more volatility (Ethnic tensions, xenophobia, racism and distrust of foreigners)
-Multiple religions existing in the same city, the more religions the more volatility (Religious tensions, superstitions, intolerance, and violence caused by conflicts in belief)
-Nationalism worsens the amount of volatility generated by multiple cultures in the same city
-Wars between two nations causes the cultures present in each others cities to worsen the amount of instability generated
-Theocracy and Intolerant worsens the volatility generated by multiple religions in the same city
-Civics that stress division as apposed to unity (Confederacy, as people of the same nation are divided by their allegiance to which leaders; Superhumanism, which causes society to be divided into the augmented and non-augmented; Nationalism, which causes people to be segregated based on their country of origin; Slavery and Serf Labor, as society is divided into slaves and masters; Burgeouis, Corporatism, and Aristocracy as society is divided by social classes and nobility; Open Borders, as illegal immigrants of different cultures and ethnicities settle alongside the native population; Matriarchy and Patriarchy, as society is divided by gender)
-Certain crimes such as Hate crimes (For obvious reasons) Gangs (As gangs are based very largely on ethnicity), Organized Crime (As organized crime rings, like gangs, are heavily based on ethnicity and/or national origin), Vigilantism (As a result of lynchings), Sports Riots (As fans maul each other based on their team allegiance)
-Leader traits (Aggressive, Barbaric, Fanatical, Anti-Clerical)
-Certain Housing (Ghettos, Projects, Slums, Refugee camps; As the inhabitants of these types of housing are almost always religiously, racially, or ethnically segregated)
-National and Great wonders (Berlin wall, Reichstag, Pearl harbor, The Alamo)
Volatility is NEGATED by
-Only one culture existing in the city (Unless Marxism is adopted, in which case cities do not generate any volatility by the number of cultures present)
-Only one religion existing in the city (Unless Secular is adopted, in which case cities do not generate any volatility by the number of religions present)
-Open borders, defensive pacts, and embassies with nations reduces the amount of volatility generated by those civilizations cultures in each other's cities
-Civics that stress unity, cooperation, and cohesion among the people (Free Church, Federal, Pacifism, Egalitarian, Democracy, Republic, Secure Borders, Seperation of Powers)
-Education, as people learn the futility and folly of tribalism and peacefully respect each-other's differences
-Culture level of the city, as people learn to appreciate and admire each other's differences
-Leader traits (Philosophical, Humanitarian, Idealistic, Foreign, Politician)
-Ordinances created by Judges (Hate crime act, Discrimination act, Affirmative action act)
-National and Great wonders (Olympic Games, Apostolic Palace, Shwedagon Paya, Rosetta Stone, Hippocratic Oath, Marco Polo's Embassy, Red Cross, United Nation, Ellis Island, Congress of Vienna, UN mission, Human Rights Declaration, Womans Sufferage, Gateway Arch, Statue of Liberty, Woodstock)
Now, that's all about what causes and negates volitility. What does it actually do? Well, like I said before, it compounds the stability property of Revolutions mod. The basic idea is:
No Instability + No Volatility = All is well
Instability + No Volatility = Rebels spawn and take over the city as a new civ, same as what happens already
No Instability + Volatility = Genocide/Ethnic Cleansing/Inquisition in the city
Instability + Volatility = Civil War
What do these cause? The effects of each of these are calculated as following:
Ethnic Cleansing:
Only occurs in cities that have foriegn cultural influences above 5%. Population is decreased based on the dominant culture's percentage compared to other culture's percentage in the city. Say you are Sumeria, and you have a city that is 76% Sumerian, and 24% Egyptian - If an ethnic cleansing takes place the city's population and food stores are reduced by 24%, and every building has a 24% chance of being destroyed. On top of this, Sumeria would suffer a -2 diplomatic penalty with all known civilizations, and suffer a -6 diplomatic penalty with Egypt. The only benefit of this is that, afterwards, the city and all its tiles has 100% Sumerian culture. Sumeria then suffers increased instability (and volatility) in every city that has above 5% Egyptian cultural influence. Adopting Marxism prevents this event from ever happening.
Inquisiton:
Only occurs in cities that have non-state religions. Every religious building other than the state religion building is destroyed (This includes holy wonders built by prophets) and every religion other than the state religion is removed from the city and cannot spread back to the city for many turns. For every non-state religion that existed, the population is decreased by 5% and each building has a 5% chance of being destroyed. So a city that had 5 non-state religions would have a population reduced by 25% and lose 25% of its buildings. Suffer a -2 diplomatic penalty with all civilizations, -4 if their state religion was removed by the inquisition, further to -8 if the religion removed was their state religion and they owned the holy city. Increased volatility and instability in every city that has the religions removed by the inquisition. Adopting Secular prevents this event from ever happening.
Genocide:
A step up from ethnic cleansing, this follows the same rules, but the amount of population and buildings lost is doubled - so instead if the Sumerian city had 24% Egyptian cultural influence, then 48% of the population and food stores would be removed, and every building would have a 48% chance of being removed. On top of this, Sumeria suffers a -4 diplomatic penalty with all known civilizations, a -12 diplomatic penalty with Egypt, and is forced to declare war on Egypt. Note that the genocide was considered an act of war, so Sumeria is considered the aggressor in this situation and Egypt the defender, and the AI will react accordingly. Volatility, instability, unhappiness and crime in every city that has above 5% Egyptian cultural influence is MASSIVELY increased, and if a second genocide takes place the entire world will most likely declare war on you. If multiple cultures are removed by the genocide, then multiple civilizations will declare war on you!
Civil War: This is the end-all in terms of the Revolutions mod, or at least it should be. Civil War usually only occurs from the above mentioned genocide and resulting declaration(s) of war, and is very, very ugly. When a civil war breaks out, the volatility and instability of every city is calculated, and a percentage assigned based on those two properties. This percentage, ranging between 0% and 100%, then determines how many of the units stationed in or near that city either defects to another civilizations' army, or becomes a barbarian unit if the percentage is high enough. The same percentage is then applied to the city itself to determine if the city either flips sides to another civilization, or is razed to the ground if the percentage is high enough. If the city does NOT flip, or is not razed, then that percentage is then used to determine how many civilians and buildings are destroyed.
The main idea here is that instability and volatility are both dangerous in their own unique way, but when they are combined together and a city has both high volatility AND high instability, the results are catastrophic not just for the city itself but for the entire civilization.
Whaddya think?
What is volatility? It is exactly as its name implies, volatility is essentially how close your citizens are to using force and violence against each other, as apposed to stability/instability which is how close citizens are to using force and violence against the establishment and your government. This is a variable that is supposed to compound the stability/instability variable that the Revolutions mod uses, rather than replace it. The basic idea of how works volatility is as follows:
Volatility is CAUSED by
-Multiple cultures existing in the same city, the more cultures the more volatility (Ethnic tensions, xenophobia, racism and distrust of foreigners)
-Multiple religions existing in the same city, the more religions the more volatility (Religious tensions, superstitions, intolerance, and violence caused by conflicts in belief)
-Nationalism worsens the amount of volatility generated by multiple cultures in the same city
-Wars between two nations causes the cultures present in each others cities to worsen the amount of instability generated
-Theocracy and Intolerant worsens the volatility generated by multiple religions in the same city
-Civics that stress division as apposed to unity (Confederacy, as people of the same nation are divided by their allegiance to which leaders; Superhumanism, which causes society to be divided into the augmented and non-augmented; Nationalism, which causes people to be segregated based on their country of origin; Slavery and Serf Labor, as society is divided into slaves and masters; Burgeouis, Corporatism, and Aristocracy as society is divided by social classes and nobility; Open Borders, as illegal immigrants of different cultures and ethnicities settle alongside the native population; Matriarchy and Patriarchy, as society is divided by gender)
-Certain crimes such as Hate crimes (For obvious reasons) Gangs (As gangs are based very largely on ethnicity), Organized Crime (As organized crime rings, like gangs, are heavily based on ethnicity and/or national origin), Vigilantism (As a result of lynchings), Sports Riots (As fans maul each other based on their team allegiance)
-Leader traits (Aggressive, Barbaric, Fanatical, Anti-Clerical)
-Certain Housing (Ghettos, Projects, Slums, Refugee camps; As the inhabitants of these types of housing are almost always religiously, racially, or ethnically segregated)
-National and Great wonders (Berlin wall, Reichstag, Pearl harbor, The Alamo)
Volatility is NEGATED by
-Only one culture existing in the city (Unless Marxism is adopted, in which case cities do not generate any volatility by the number of cultures present)
-Only one religion existing in the city (Unless Secular is adopted, in which case cities do not generate any volatility by the number of religions present)
-Open borders, defensive pacts, and embassies with nations reduces the amount of volatility generated by those civilizations cultures in each other's cities
-Civics that stress unity, cooperation, and cohesion among the people (Free Church, Federal, Pacifism, Egalitarian, Democracy, Republic, Secure Borders, Seperation of Powers)
-Education, as people learn the futility and folly of tribalism and peacefully respect each-other's differences
-Culture level of the city, as people learn to appreciate and admire each other's differences
-Leader traits (Philosophical, Humanitarian, Idealistic, Foreign, Politician)
-Ordinances created by Judges (Hate crime act, Discrimination act, Affirmative action act)
-National and Great wonders (Olympic Games, Apostolic Palace, Shwedagon Paya, Rosetta Stone, Hippocratic Oath, Marco Polo's Embassy, Red Cross, United Nation, Ellis Island, Congress of Vienna, UN mission, Human Rights Declaration, Womans Sufferage, Gateway Arch, Statue of Liberty, Woodstock)
Now, that's all about what causes and negates volitility. What does it actually do? Well, like I said before, it compounds the stability property of Revolutions mod. The basic idea is:
No Instability + No Volatility = All is well
Instability + No Volatility = Rebels spawn and take over the city as a new civ, same as what happens already
No Instability + Volatility = Genocide/Ethnic Cleansing/Inquisition in the city
Instability + Volatility = Civil War
What do these cause? The effects of each of these are calculated as following:
Ethnic Cleansing:
Only occurs in cities that have foriegn cultural influences above 5%. Population is decreased based on the dominant culture's percentage compared to other culture's percentage in the city. Say you are Sumeria, and you have a city that is 76% Sumerian, and 24% Egyptian - If an ethnic cleansing takes place the city's population and food stores are reduced by 24%, and every building has a 24% chance of being destroyed. On top of this, Sumeria would suffer a -2 diplomatic penalty with all known civilizations, and suffer a -6 diplomatic penalty with Egypt. The only benefit of this is that, afterwards, the city and all its tiles has 100% Sumerian culture. Sumeria then suffers increased instability (and volatility) in every city that has above 5% Egyptian cultural influence. Adopting Marxism prevents this event from ever happening.
Inquisiton:
Only occurs in cities that have non-state religions. Every religious building other than the state religion building is destroyed (This includes holy wonders built by prophets) and every religion other than the state religion is removed from the city and cannot spread back to the city for many turns. For every non-state religion that existed, the population is decreased by 5% and each building has a 5% chance of being destroyed. So a city that had 5 non-state religions would have a population reduced by 25% and lose 25% of its buildings. Suffer a -2 diplomatic penalty with all civilizations, -4 if their state religion was removed by the inquisition, further to -8 if the religion removed was their state religion and they owned the holy city. Increased volatility and instability in every city that has the religions removed by the inquisition. Adopting Secular prevents this event from ever happening.
Genocide:
A step up from ethnic cleansing, this follows the same rules, but the amount of population and buildings lost is doubled - so instead if the Sumerian city had 24% Egyptian cultural influence, then 48% of the population and food stores would be removed, and every building would have a 48% chance of being removed. On top of this, Sumeria suffers a -4 diplomatic penalty with all known civilizations, a -12 diplomatic penalty with Egypt, and is forced to declare war on Egypt. Note that the genocide was considered an act of war, so Sumeria is considered the aggressor in this situation and Egypt the defender, and the AI will react accordingly. Volatility, instability, unhappiness and crime in every city that has above 5% Egyptian cultural influence is MASSIVELY increased, and if a second genocide takes place the entire world will most likely declare war on you. If multiple cultures are removed by the genocide, then multiple civilizations will declare war on you!
Civil War: This is the end-all in terms of the Revolutions mod, or at least it should be. Civil War usually only occurs from the above mentioned genocide and resulting declaration(s) of war, and is very, very ugly. When a civil war breaks out, the volatility and instability of every city is calculated, and a percentage assigned based on those two properties. This percentage, ranging between 0% and 100%, then determines how many of the units stationed in or near that city either defects to another civilizations' army, or becomes a barbarian unit if the percentage is high enough. The same percentage is then applied to the city itself to determine if the city either flips sides to another civilization, or is razed to the ground if the percentage is high enough. If the city does NOT flip, or is not razed, then that percentage is then used to determine how many civilians and buildings are destroyed.
The main idea here is that instability and volatility are both dangerous in their own unique way, but when they are combined together and a city has both high volatility AND high instability, the results are catastrophic not just for the city itself but for the entire civilization.
Whaddya think?
Sounds interesting!
