Make your own civics contest!

OK, so here we have a contest to create your own category of civics! The Rules:

1) each civic and the category must have a name.

2) the other categories can be changed to reflect balance with the others, but cannot be re-named and should retain their original feel.

3) There must either be four civics in the category, or five, in which case there needs to be an effect (possibly negative?) added to the "default civics." If not negative, the "defaults may need to be attached to a tech, (in which case, hypothetically speaking, you would start with a "none" under that category.)

4) Entries will be graded on: Originality/Balance/Realism/Popularity/and community support. The winner will be chosen by myself on Tuesday, August 28, two weeks from now.

Ready...Set...GO!!!

 

Cuisine

• Raw foodstuffs. Default. No Upkeep.
• Spicy food. +3 from spices, +5% in all cities, +2 in cities without aqueduct. Medium Upkeep. Requires Calendar
• Gourmet dining +15% in all cities. High Upkeep. Requires Guilds
• Junk food +3 in all cities, +5% from Market, Grocer, +2 from Cow, Wheat, Sugar. Medium Upkeep. Requires Economics
• Healthy diet +6 in all cities, +2 in all cities. Medium Upkeep. Requires Medicine

National Pastime

• Thumb Rolling.. Default. No Upkeep.
• Gladiatorial Games.. +1 with Colosseum, +1 if run concurrent with Slavery civic. Medium Upkeep. Requires Construction
• Binge Drinking.. +5 in all cities, -25%, in all cities. No unhappiness in cities with Sugar, Corn. Medium Upkeep. Requires Guilds
• Couch Potatoing. +2 all cities, +4 all cities, +2 without Broadcast Tower. Medium Upkeep. Requires Mass Media
• Net Surfing. +1 all cities, +15% in all cities, -5% in all cities Medium Upkeep. Requires Internet

 

I came up with these for a thread suggesting drug resources. In short, the drug resources, such as opium, marijuana, and cocaine, would provide huge commerce with a plantation and + happiness but also + unhealthiness.

Unregulated (No Upkeep): base civic

Universal Ban (High Upkeep): Available with Code of Laws. Plantations cannot be built on drug resources, although the tile can still be worked. Existing plantations are destroyed. Drug resources can not be obtained through trading. All cities get +10% production and +1 free specialist.

Legalization (Medium Upkeep): Available with Liberalism. Plantations can be built on drug resources and tiles can be worked. Each drug resource gets -3 commerce. Each city gets +1 trade route.

Medicinal Use (Low Upkeep): Available with Medicine. Plantations can be built on drug resources and tiles can be worked. Drug resources give no happiness or sickness, but instead yield +1 health. Drug resource tiles get -2 commerce.

Decriminalization (Low Upkeep): Available with Economics. Plantations cannot be built on Opium or Coca tiles and those two resources cannot be traded for. Plantations can be built on cannabis and cannabis tiles can be worked. Every city gets -25% maintenance costs.

 

Currency

Barter System
- Default
- Low Upkeep
Metal Coin
- Iron and bronze mines generate 1 extra commerce
- + 100% in domestic trade route
- Medium Upkeep
- Requires Currency
Gold Standard
- Gold and silver mines generate 5 extra commerce
- Markets, Grocers and Banks each generate 5% more gold
- Inflation rate X 1.5 (inflation re-adjusts when switch)
- Medium Upkeep
- Requires Metal Casting
Paper Money
- +100% in domestic and foreign trade routes
- Banks generate 25% more gold
- Inflation rate X 2 (inflation re-adjusts when switch)
- High Upkeep
- Requires Printing Press
Digital Credits
- +1 trade route
- Corporation Headquarters yield +50% more gold
- Inflation rate X 1.5 (inflation re-adjusts when switch)
- Low Upkeep
- Requires Computers

Politics

Self-Interest
- Default
- Low Upkeep
Legalism
- Reduces maintenance another 10%
- Low Upkeep
- Requires Code of Laws
Isolationism
- Unlimited Engineers and Priests
- Cannot trade with foreign nations (does not affect team members)
- High Upkeep
- Requires Divine Right
Conservatism
- Courthouses and Jails + 1 happiness
- -2 foreign trade routes (that means at least 2 trade routes are domestic)
- +2 relation with other civilizations that share this civic
- Medium Upkeep
- Requires Representation
Liberalism
- Factories, Industrial Parks, Coal Plants +1 unhappiness
- Village and Towns yield +2 commerce
- +25% War Weariness
- Low Upkeep
- Requires Liberalism

 

This is good stuff, you guys, keep it coming!!!@ Infantry: I like your politics category, it seems post realistic and fun, HOWEVER...I am unsure as to whether Isolationism eliminates foreign trade routes or all trade including tech trading. In non-team games, a high-upkeep civic @Divine Right that denies tech trading seems UP to me...although it has GREAT synergy with an SE, particularly in combination with Representation, Caste System, and the Sistine Chapel/Statue of Liberty...I dunno, maybe it would work out...I would have to play test it...

 

-25% and change to Requires Facism

yeah I'm a liberal

 

Foreign Policy:

Pragmatism: Default
Low Upkeep

Isolationism: Requires Civil Service
High Upkeep
+1 per city with no foreign influence
-10% science
Cannot sign open borders, defense pacts, etc. with other nations

Imperialism: Requires Nationalism
Medium Upkeep
-25% war weariness
+1 relations with your vassals
+10% per vassal

Jingoism: Requires Fascism
No Upkeep
-50% :war weariness:
-2 relations with other civs
+25% production
-10%

Universal Cooperation: Requires Computers
Medium Upkeep
+2 relations bonus with all civs
+1 per open borders and defense pact
+1 foreign trade route in each city
-25% production
+50% war weariness

 

Wats the prize?

 

I like this idea a lot. I'm all for more civics!

In fact, I wish you could select multiple civics in each column. I don't see any reason why you can't run Representation alongside Universal Suffrage, or Organized Religion with Theocracy. Or Representation and Hereditary Rule to create a constitutional monarchy. The possibilities would be endless!

The penalty for running multiple civics would, of course, be increased maintenance. Some combinations would not work so well together (Theocracy and Free Religion, e.g.), so they would have an even higher cost and/or lmited effectiveness (for example, Theocracy would remove the happiness-from-any-religion bonus in FR to account for the fact that while all religions would be legal, not all would allow a position in government, etc.; you would keep the science bonus, however). Finally, some would be completely incompatible (Slavery and Empancipation come to mind).

Just a thought.

 

Someone should make civics regarding how the government manages culture.

 

Culture Management

• Primal Myths. Default. No Upkeep.
• Legends and Epics. +12 in city with National Epic, Heroic Epic, -5% from War Weariness. Low Upkeep. Requires Mysticism
• Public Poetry Recitals +1 from Artists. +1 from Market, Forum. Low Upkeep. Requires Literature
• Avant-Garde Art Exhibitions 1 free Artist in all cities. Medium Upkeep. Requires Aesthetics
• Reality Television +6 in all cities, -10%, in all cities, +10% from Broadcast Tower. Medium Upkeep. Requires Mass Media

 

There should be a religious Civis other than Paganism, which is a religion, and free Religion, which is all religions. State atheism, for instance, or state agnosticism

-5% per religion in city
+10 research per university
Can "buy back" all religious buldings, gain gold for them, but lose positive effects

 

I'm giving you a well-deserved . I wouldn't play a game with these, but they certainly gave me a cheap laugh. Good times.

 

Health Care

*Natural........../NONE..../no effect
*Shamanism...../NONE...../Mysticism/ +1 in cities w/ jungle/
*Hospice........./NONE...../Divine right/ +1 in cities w/ aqueduct
*Subsidized...../MEDIUM./Medicine/ +2 in all cities w/ hospital// Coal Plant, Factory + (Max +1)
*Public-Funded./HIGH...../Radio/+3 in all cities

Education Policy

*Natural................./NONE...../no effect
*Oral Tradition........./NONE...../Calendar/ Monument +1
*Apprenticeship......./LOW....../Feudalism/ Market +10%
*Scholastic............./HIGH....../Education/ All cities +2, Town +1
*Dynamic Learning..../HIGH...../Computers/ All cities +20%, Town +2, +10%

Obviously, not fleshed out a lot, but just a thought...

 

Children's entertainment

• This club is not a toy? You sure?, default, no upkeep
• Hide and seek, +1 in each city with at least 3 forests in the BFC, +1 if no forest in the BFC (we can't hide!), low upkeep, needs hunting
• No time for playing at school!, +1 from library (children are not happy ), +1 free scientist from library, university (but they are studying hard ), high upkeep, needs alphabet and mathematics
• Playmobil, +1 in each city, +1 with supermarket, high upkeep, needs plastic
• Video games, +3 in each city, -10% in each city (who said only childrens play?), -10% in each city, +10% from supermarket, medium upkeep, needs computer; if fiber optics, +3 additional , -10% more and lose supermarket bonus if you don't own The Internet

 

I dislike the fact that the default civics in civ don't have a built in advantage in having no upkeep. They should do. All civics should have some advantage. Why shouldn't a strapped-for-cash empire of 420 million decide to revert to a barbaric despotic pagan tribe with a decentralised economy?

Also, I was going to make a set of civics, but couldn't get further than this:

Military

Disorganised rabble (default) 0 for upkeep, no other effect
Suicide Troops 5 for upkeep, no war from troop death (requires literature)

Feel free to complete that, if you have any ideas.

 

I think a military option needs to be included too! Some ideas:
Tribal militias: default, low upkeep.

Vassalage: Port this one over from the Legal civics, where it never belonged in the first place (will give replacement below).

Mass levies: Military units are constructed using food as well as hammers in the same way as Settlers and Workers. -1 happiness in all settlements. Low upkeep. Requires Monarchy.

Professional armies: +100% great general points produced. Barracks grant an extra +2 experience. -1 gold support cost per military unit in enemy territory. High upkeep. Requires military tradition.

Volunteer armies: Drafting units does not generate unhappiness. All units in combat gain +20% strength within their cultural borders. +50% war weariness. Medium upkeep. Requires Democracy.

And finally, something to replace Vassalage in the Legal civics:
Aristocracy: Hamlets, villages, towns: -1 commerce, farms: +1 commerce. Medium upkeep. Requires Code of Laws.

 

Some of these are great, but I'm seeing a recurring problem--Penalties in civics. If you look at all 25 civics currently in the game, only two have penalties: Environmentalism (+25% Corporate Upkeep) and Mercantilism (No foreign trade routes). Otherwise they all provide a bonus.

The balancing should be the cost, not a drawback. If the civic is strong enough that it needs a drawback, then it's too strong to be a civic.

EDIT: Another thing that doesn't look right to me is that some of the later civics on certain chains seem to entirely replace previous ones. Giving a +Y bonus instead of the earlier civic's +X. Again, looking at the 25 civics in the game, there aren't "better" or "worse" civics, only different ones. You might get more use out of Slavery than Caste System, but that doesn't mean Slavery entirely over-writes Caste System--It just does something different that is more helpful.

 

+1 per farm is far too powerful. Make it +5% production in all cities or something like that. Or perhaps farms generate +1? (to simulate taxes on the aristocratic estates..)

Oh, yes, and I think your Military Civics are the best idea here!

 

Not a bad idea. It's difficult to judge with something like that. I was trying to emphasize the tendency of aristocratic/feudal societies towards farming and production, rather than commercial enterprise.

Additionally, I wanted to differentiate the legal aspects. Currently, besides barbarism we have bureaucracy (extremely centralized), vassalage (decentralized aristocracy), nationalized (new concept of states/peoples applied to an aggregate mass) and free speech (individualized). So I wanted to put something in Vassalage's spot to represent a legal system oriented towards the rights of decentralized nobility.

I like your thinking though. How does this sound?
hamlets, villages, towns: -1 commerce. Farms: +1 commerce. Medium upkeep.

This civic would be a good choice for larger empires still developing and dealing with providing enough food and production rather than more commercially-apt empires. It also fits much better with a specialist strategy, which is fine. Finally, it means plains-dwelling empires (which, to keep everyone fed tend towards lots of farming) wouldn't be as disadvantaged against grasslands-based empires while running this civic.