Improving Autocracy.

[lindsay40k]

Given that Autocracy is a bit weak when it comes to Culture and other ideologies get bonuses to Tourism, it seems like it might benefit from some kind of counterpoint to the discontent caused by a tourism heavyweight. The ideology is heavy on the military, but mostly in a conquest kind of way. Thing is, an awful lot of autocratic regimes spend more time oppressing their own people at home rather than subjugating entire continents. Perhaps a 'Paramilitaries' tenet that reduces unhappiness from influence would be a handy asset, and a historically flavourful one at that?

I can see recruiting Freikorps to keep the population under control being a useful option for fascist regimes on large maps where it's not practical to conquer a half dozen or so Order civilizations before their puppet partisans cripple your economy.

 

[Krajzen]

Autocracy is perfect for domination games, happiness from courthouses/military buildings and all those military bonuses are cool.

The problem is, I really don't see why would I take that ideology for any other victory...

 

[Arachnofiend]

Autocracy is great as it is. The "problem" with it is that a lot of players quit in situations where Autocracy is your best bet; it's for when you're approaching the Modern period and you're still behind in tech compared to the leader and your only choice at this point is to cripple him/her yourself. Mobilization is obviously really great for this, since it allows you to build up an army quickly in a situation where you didn't originally intend to declare mass war (or did if that's your thing). Industrial Espionage can singlehandedly solve all of your tech problems and allow you to push towards bigger and badder weapons without even needing Plastics.

Your problem is that you're playing on a map that the game isn't balanced for. Autocracy's happiness benefits are more than enough to stay afloat in a standard game.

 

[Silverman6083]

In my opinion, the devs nailed it with Autorcacy I think it's about perfect as-is. The only improvement I can think of is ramping up the Futurism benefit from 250 to maybe 1000, other than that it is dead on perfect

 

[redwings1340]

I think autocracy is really good as it is actually. It is a fantastic tree if you're behind entering ideologies. Industrial espionage is probably the best comeback policy in the game, the level 2 autocracy policies are really good and can easily offset ideological pressure to switch while improving your empire, and get you in a position where you can actively engage in war to get the results that these other free or order societies have.

If I were to change it, I would probably balance out autocracy a little more between t1 and t2 benefits (other than industrial espionage, it's skewed towards t2), but all ideologies have good and bad policies in them. If you only take the good policies this is less of a problem, and is one of the things I like about ideologies. There's no time where you ever have to take a useless policy in ideologies, because you have so many choices and can form them in whatever way you want.

 

[GoStu]

Autocracy is very strong, I agree with the above posters. It's absolutely the best thing for an underdog.and grants a huge amount of military power.

You don't take Autocracy for a Culture victory. You take it to cut some throats and come back for a win... By any means necessary.

 

[cpm4001]

Autocracy is actually eerily strong, as everyone else in this thread has stated. Industrial Espionage will pretty much save you Science-wise, which means that you can put the bonuses to your military units to more efficient use to conquer your enemies (hopefully stealing their Great Works, which makes a Culture Victory not out of the question if you don't want to go full Domination.)

 

[MattZed]

It's widely acknowledged that most cultural victories are part-domination as you usually need to take out your top cultural competition. Autocracy is perfect in this regard.

As for reducing unhappiness for influence, that's what Prora is for.

 

[apocalypse105]

autocracy is good the only thing that needs to be changed is futurisme it has to be a lot more tourisme lets say

at least 500 for each great person that is born

 

[GhostSalsa]

Given that Autocracy is a bit weak when it comes to Culture and other ideologies get bonuses to Tourism, it seems like it might benefit from some kind of counterpoint to the discontent caused by a tourism heavyweight.

I agree with the other replies that autocracy is actually a really solid, balanced tree. But to address this point specifically, it's true that Autocracy can leave you with a lot of public opinion unhappiness, and potentially force you to fight through troop unhappiness penalties.

In fact I had to do just this in one Immortal game, conquering Ethiopia under huge pressure from their Freedom, but I found that it worked out fine. As long as you are actually about to mobilize on and conquer a culture leader (ie the civ whose tourism is making you unhappy), rather than sitting around and focus on internal culture, you will pull back into happiness by stealing great works. It can be risky but why shouldn't it be.

Freedom is more risky, because if you end up alone and outmatched on tourism there is really nothing you can do - Freedom's tenants punish you more in unhappiness if you conquer. And Order is risky too because, despite building happiness, it can leave you struggling to keep city-states.

 

[Barghaest]

Perhaps a 'Paramilitaries' tenet that reduces unhappiness from influence would be a handy asset, and a historically flavourful one at that?

Autocracy already provides more Happiness than the other Ideologies (with the proper choice of tenets) to counter opposing influence. Never been forced to flip (despite heavy influence) when playing Autocratic empires.... which I do quite frequently because the unit maintenance and large happiness bonuses really fit my play style (regardless of which victory condition I'm pursuing).

And there's also their World Wonder - the Prora available at Flight - which provides even more Happiness.

 

[joncnunn]

Autocracy is fine as is for it it is intended for (using your military ...) it doesn't need improved.

What's weak is Honor; it might be a good idea to mod this one to require reaching the Classical era just to save the AI from itself.

 

[civ54lyfe]

What's weak is Honor; it might be a good idea to mod this one to require reaching the Classical era just to save the AI from itself.

LOL!!! omg that is a great observation actually

 

[reddishrecue]

Autocracy is strong, other ais who adopt this ideology with one will tell you. Autocracy doesn't share similar social policies as freedom or order. Since order is military and freedom is diplomatic, they share the same victory purpose.

 

[bcaiko]

And there's also their World Wonder - the Prora available at Flight - which provides even more Happiness.

I'd go so far as to say Prora is one of the best things about Autocracy. A free social policy and a friggin TON of happiness. Those two things will help no matter what victory type you're going for.

 

[njmfff]

It's widely acknowledged that most cultural victories are part-domination as you usually need to take out your top cultural competition. Autocracy is perfect in this regard.

As for reducing unhappiness for influence, that's what Prora is for.

Yep. Just because you're spreading your culture doesn't mean you must be peace-loving Gandhi.

Autocracy is fine if one is planing to fight a lot. There's enough happiness bonuses, Autocrats will have the best military (obviously) and there's even +250 tourism per GP to keep foreign influences at bay until you take over their GWoA.

 

[Arachnofiend]

I'd go so far as to say Prora is one of the best things about Autocracy. A free social policy and a friggin TON of happiness. Those two things will help no matter what victory type you're going for.

You can get Prora instantly if you went Tradition too, which further aids in the "my regular game went horribly wrong and I need to fix it quick" flavor of the Ideology. It's certainly more useful than the Statue of Liberty and the hilariously bad Kremlin.

Grumble grumble the Order wonder should have been the Buzludzha Monument and should have awarded an internal trade route bonus

 

[GhostSalsa]

You can get Prora instantly if you went Tradition too

Actually I'm starting to think most of the people praising Prora must be playing tradition starts. It's not a super easy wonder to get without an engineer, since shoreline cities aren't always super productive and flight is the default AI beeline. I've only hit it on 50% of my Autocracy (Immortal) games.

 

[Arachnofiend]

Prora is kind of flavored for tall empires with a lot of puppets anyways since the happiness bonus relies on # of social policies (as another note for that the main happiness tenant for Autocracy favors puppets as well because puppets tend to heavily prioritize defensive buildings). If a wide, Liberty-based civ wants more happiness they're generally better off with Order either way.

 

[Gamewizard]

All 3 ideologies are plenty strong in the right situations.

To those saying that Futurism needs a buff, I think you are wrong. It is not meant to get you to a Culture Victory, but rather keep the other pressures off your back. It is particularly awesome when combined with full Aesthetics tree and a strong faith producing religion. A couple thousand tourism to each Civ over the course of an endgame is nothing to sneeze at IMO.