Ikael
King
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 873
One of the main constant criticism to the game since its release has been how very little flavour and character the current factions have, and I agree with it.
Flat bonuses, extremely similar gameplay styles, no negatives, all around personality blandness... let's solve this! I will try to re-design the different factions and try to give each one of them a cohesive series of bonuses that will heavily alter the gameplay and confer character to each leader by the virtue of asymetrical balance.
Each faction would present the following characteristics:
The already present bonus + 2 additional bonuses + 2 negatives per faction
Now, let's all do this!
>> Franco Iberia
Pros:
The second renaissance: Free tech per 10 virtues
Energy efficient buildings: Domes, terrascapes, academies, Nodes and biowells cost 50% less energy to mantain
La grandeur du La Coeur: Doubles the yields of wonders inside your capital. Doubles yields of Improvements adjacent to your capital
Cons:
Antimilitarism: -10% to the melee combat of your units
Elitism: -2 health in your occuppied cities
A leader for tall builders and long term planners, you will struggle if pushed towards military conflict, though
>> American Reclamation Company
Pros:
Industrial spyionage: Gain one additional agent
Backdealing lobby: Gain one favour with one faction of your choosing for each level of affinity that you gain
Pioneering entrepeneurship: Your exploration units gain a scalable amount of energy whenever they complete an exploratory mission, have +1 movement
Cons:
Unloyal mercenary army: Your units have a 10% chance of deflecting to your enemies when defeated, are easier to recruit for enemy agents
Contractor boondogle: +20% to the production costs of buildings (rushbuying them might be a more attractive option for you...)
Great for diplomatic games and for exploration, you will need to adapt your gameplay to the overrealiance in energy spending in order to overcome ARC's shortcomings
>> Pan-African Union
Pros:
Farming microcredits: +15% growth in cities when healthy, cities starts with 1 extra popullation
Popular self-defense army: Your units regain health after attacking inside your territory, +30% to the strenght of your cities (both attack and defense)
Nationalized soil riches: +2 production per improved strategic resources worked by your cities, will discover one extra resource next to your city right after your outpost becomes a colony
Cons:
Red tape: +30% to the time needed for outpost deployement and +50% to colonist costs
Social inequality: -2 energy per negative health point, outposts will consume health as if they were a city
A civ built for tall building and turtling, you will struggle inmensely in order to build new cities, but if you manage to accomplish it the reward will be inmense, making PAU a kind of a high risk, high reward type of faction
>> Slavic federation
Space race: +30% to satellite duration, free tech when launching first satellite
Federal intelligence agency: Your agents are 50% more effective at stealing tech while your military units and cities are harder to flip
Slavic planetary society: Your explorers gain a scalable amount of science when they complete a mission, are toughter and gains extra bonuses from resource pods
Tsarist bureaucracy: -15% production in all your cities with a popullation of 6 or lower
Unfriendly business enviroment: +25% to the costs of rushbuying
Tech trought exploration, tech trought spacefaring, tech trought spyonage! The Slavic Federation is extremely polivalent when it comes to science, but you will have work harder in order to get your colonies productive and running properly. Very powerful on the long term, but difficult at the beggining of the game
>> Kavithan protectorate
Pros:
Mesianic mission: You gain squares and develop outposts 50% faster
The greater pilgrimage: Your colonists have 1 extra movement and vision, cost 50% less to build
Promised land: +1 culture to working non-improved land hexes, cities have +2 health if adjacent to miasma
Cons:
Reverence for nature: -25% damage dealed against alien forces, can't build sonic fences, manufactories nor terrascapes
Chronic engineering shortage: +50% to worker building costs, +25% to improvement building times, can't buy workers
Expand as if God himself would have told you so, drowning your rivales in... people. You will think latter about how can you feed and defend that said people, and all these other pesky, irrelevant dettails
>> PAC
Megaproject planning: +25% to the building of wonders and improvements
Industrial prowess: +1 production in mines and resource improvements, autolants have no manteinance costs
Engineering schools: +1 science in hexes that generates 3 or more production, +1 science in quarrys
Cons:
Enviromental de-regulation: -1 health in all your new cities, -1 health per manufactory
Planet enemity: Cities have -50% to tile adquisition rate via culture, aliens acts far more agressively towards you and your colonists
Great production and scientific output means great potential for taking this civilization into almost any direction possible, but you must be careful about when and how to expand, or else your risk drowing yourself into pollution and hostile angry aliens
>> Brazilia
Pros:
Integral military training program: +10% to melee combat for all you units, your outposts can defend by theirselves
Loyal allys: Allied stations levels up 50% faster. Units heal completely when resting next to or over a friendly station hex
Survivalist doctrine: Each melee unit can carry out one single exploratory mission. They gaing XP when recovering pods or completing said missions, earn twice the XP when fighting on non-claimed territory
Cons:
Lack of diplomatic tact: Can't trade or gain favours
Spartan mindset: Your cities can have only 1 specialist each
Straightfoward thinking. Forget about buying favours or tinkering with fancy specialists, Brazilia will thrieve by taming this world by sheer brute strenght and protecting its lesser allys
>> Polystralia
Pros:
Center of commerce: +2 trade routes in your capital
The breadbasket of the sea: Doubles the yields of sea resource tiles, +1 energy to non-resource ocean tiles
Experimental vessels: Recieve a free naval unit with two "experimental promotions" on it for each 4 discovered techs. +1 movement to all your sea units
Student protests: -15% culture and growth in your cities when at war
Open society: Enemy spies are twice as effective when operating in Polystralia
Place your cities looking towards the seas, rule them with your cutting-edge fleet, and prosper. However, pick your battles well: a prolonged war effort can seriously hampen the development of your ideal democratic society...
Thoughts and suggestions?
Flat bonuses, extremely similar gameplay styles, no negatives, all around personality blandness... let's solve this! I will try to re-design the different factions and try to give each one of them a cohesive series of bonuses that will heavily alter the gameplay and confer character to each leader by the virtue of asymetrical balance.
Each faction would present the following characteristics:
The already present bonus + 2 additional bonuses + 2 negatives per faction
Now, let's all do this!
>> Franco Iberia
Pros:
The second renaissance: Free tech per 10 virtues
Energy efficient buildings: Domes, terrascapes, academies, Nodes and biowells cost 50% less energy to mantain
La grandeur du La Coeur: Doubles the yields of wonders inside your capital. Doubles yields of Improvements adjacent to your capital
Cons:
Antimilitarism: -10% to the melee combat of your units
Elitism: -2 health in your occuppied cities
A leader for tall builders and long term planners, you will struggle if pushed towards military conflict, though
>> American Reclamation Company
Pros:
Industrial spyionage: Gain one additional agent
Backdealing lobby: Gain one favour with one faction of your choosing for each level of affinity that you gain
Pioneering entrepeneurship: Your exploration units gain a scalable amount of energy whenever they complete an exploratory mission, have +1 movement
Cons:
Unloyal mercenary army: Your units have a 10% chance of deflecting to your enemies when defeated, are easier to recruit for enemy agents
Contractor boondogle: +20% to the production costs of buildings (rushbuying them might be a more attractive option for you...)
Great for diplomatic games and for exploration, you will need to adapt your gameplay to the overrealiance in energy spending in order to overcome ARC's shortcomings
>> Pan-African Union
Pros:
Farming microcredits: +15% growth in cities when healthy, cities starts with 1 extra popullation
Popular self-defense army: Your units regain health after attacking inside your territory, +30% to the strenght of your cities (both attack and defense)
Nationalized soil riches: +2 production per improved strategic resources worked by your cities, will discover one extra resource next to your city right after your outpost becomes a colony
Cons:
Red tape: +30% to the time needed for outpost deployement and +50% to colonist costs
Social inequality: -2 energy per negative health point, outposts will consume health as if they were a city
A civ built for tall building and turtling, you will struggle inmensely in order to build new cities, but if you manage to accomplish it the reward will be inmense, making PAU a kind of a high risk, high reward type of faction
>> Slavic federation
Space race: +30% to satellite duration, free tech when launching first satellite
Federal intelligence agency: Your agents are 50% more effective at stealing tech while your military units and cities are harder to flip
Slavic planetary society: Your explorers gain a scalable amount of science when they complete a mission, are toughter and gains extra bonuses from resource pods
Tsarist bureaucracy: -15% production in all your cities with a popullation of 6 or lower
Unfriendly business enviroment: +25% to the costs of rushbuying
Tech trought exploration, tech trought spacefaring, tech trought spyonage! The Slavic Federation is extremely polivalent when it comes to science, but you will have work harder in order to get your colonies productive and running properly. Very powerful on the long term, but difficult at the beggining of the game
>> Kavithan protectorate
Pros:
Mesianic mission: You gain squares and develop outposts 50% faster
The greater pilgrimage: Your colonists have 1 extra movement and vision, cost 50% less to build
Promised land: +1 culture to working non-improved land hexes, cities have +2 health if adjacent to miasma
Cons:
Reverence for nature: -25% damage dealed against alien forces, can't build sonic fences, manufactories nor terrascapes
Chronic engineering shortage: +50% to worker building costs, +25% to improvement building times, can't buy workers
Expand as if God himself would have told you so, drowning your rivales in... people. You will think latter about how can you feed and defend that said people, and all these other pesky, irrelevant dettails
>> PAC
Megaproject planning: +25% to the building of wonders and improvements
Industrial prowess: +1 production in mines and resource improvements, autolants have no manteinance costs
Engineering schools: +1 science in hexes that generates 3 or more production, +1 science in quarrys
Cons:
Enviromental de-regulation: -1 health in all your new cities, -1 health per manufactory
Planet enemity: Cities have -50% to tile adquisition rate via culture, aliens acts far more agressively towards you and your colonists
Great production and scientific output means great potential for taking this civilization into almost any direction possible, but you must be careful about when and how to expand, or else your risk drowing yourself into pollution and hostile angry aliens
>> Brazilia
Pros:
Integral military training program: +10% to melee combat for all you units, your outposts can defend by theirselves
Loyal allys: Allied stations levels up 50% faster. Units heal completely when resting next to or over a friendly station hex
Survivalist doctrine: Each melee unit can carry out one single exploratory mission. They gaing XP when recovering pods or completing said missions, earn twice the XP when fighting on non-claimed territory
Cons:
Lack of diplomatic tact: Can't trade or gain favours
Spartan mindset: Your cities can have only 1 specialist each
Straightfoward thinking. Forget about buying favours or tinkering with fancy specialists, Brazilia will thrieve by taming this world by sheer brute strenght and protecting its lesser allys
>> Polystralia
Pros:
Center of commerce: +2 trade routes in your capital
The breadbasket of the sea: Doubles the yields of sea resource tiles, +1 energy to non-resource ocean tiles
Experimental vessels: Recieve a free naval unit with two "experimental promotions" on it for each 4 discovered techs. +1 movement to all your sea units
Student protests: -15% culture and growth in your cities when at war
Open society: Enemy spies are twice as effective when operating in Polystralia
Place your cities looking towards the seas, rule them with your cutting-edge fleet, and prosper. However, pick your battles well: a prolonged war effort can seriously hampen the development of your ideal democratic society...
Thoughts and suggestions?
I am pretty sure that people on these forums have some really cool ideas for remodelling the existing factions or even creating new ones from scratch. Don't be shy, theorize! 
