Making Civ Switching Optional: Identity Mechanic

[moondog385]

I’ve come up with what I think is a good solution for keeping civ-switching but also making it optional. This doesn’t work in the context of Civ 7 as we know it — this would either require a total rehaul or only work in Civ 8. But I think that civ-switching has some merit and its primary issue lies in its implementation, especially how it is forced on the player.

Anyway, let me know what you folks think! This is from a fan-game document I’m working on so my apologies if some of the language is unclear.

Note: Ages do not function like they do in 7. Rather than hard cuts, they’re more like 6’s guideposts or markers representing technological leaps. Additionally, every Civilization is playable in any Age. You could play America all the way through the game or switch from Brazil to Britain to Babylon to Byzantium (though it would probably turn out poorly).

IDENTITY SCORE​

Identity Score is a metric tracked over the course of the entire game and is most important at the turn of an Age. It measures the strength of peoples’ association with their Civilization. A player’s Identity Score is represented by a pendulum that teeters from Melting Pot (1-10 points; representing monocultural assimilation) to Cultural Mosaic (20-30 points; representing multicultural coexistence). A score in the middle (11-19 points) represents Loss of Identity.

Identity Score is affected by most activities you do throughout the game, including:

• Trade: internal trade reduces the score while trade with other Civilizations increases the score
• Faith: a single Faith present in 70% or more of your Civilization reduces the score while competing Faiths increase the score
• Conquering: taking other Civilizations’ territory reduces the score until 30% or more of your Settlements are not founded by you, at which point it begins to increase the score
• Discoveries & Research: being the first Civilization to discover a territory or research a Technology or study a Civic reduces the score slightly while engaging in Endeavors with other Civilizations increases the score greatly
• Alliances: rejecting Alliances will reduce the score (other friendly interactions do not affect it), while entering into Alliances will increase the score
• Settlement Proximity: settling close to your Capital or another major City (population varying depending on Age) decreases the score, while settling next to other Civilizations will increase the score
• Settlement Diversity: covering a limited range of biome diversity with your territory (e.g. just settling in Grassland or on Coast) will reduce the score, while settling in a wide variety of biomes will increase the score
• Great Works: patronizing Great People and taking Artifacts from other Civilizations increases your Identity Score, while earning Great People and digging your own Artifacts reduces your Identity Score
• Happiness: low Happiness in your Civilization moves your Identity Score into the middle danger zone; it does not move it into either of the two extreme sections
• Crises: players are faced with Crises throughout the game that affect Identity Score
  • Migrant Crisis: manage Housing during a Population influx into Cities. Failure to adequately do so will result in a Happiness penalty
  • Plague Crisis: manage the spread of Disease among your people. Handling it all on your own is difficult but doing so heavily reduces your Identity Score. Cooperating with other Civilizations makes it far likelier your people will survive and increases your Identity Score. A failure results in a Happiness penalty
  • Disaster Crisis: weather events occur throughout the game, but a Disaster is a particularly challenging one. Disasters vary depending on your geographic location. The Settlement that is affected must have its population back to its previous number within 20 turns to suffer no Happiness penalty
  • Inequality Crisis: this can occur when your gold far surpasses that of other Civilizations’. Sufficient Infrastructure must be invested in your Civilization within a period of 10 turns to prove to your people that wealth is not being hoarded by the upper class or a Happiness penalty will be suffered
  • Faith Crisis: this can occur when a previously dominant Faith in your Civilization has been significantly reduced in influence. Districts and Improvements in Settlements will be destroyed. The player must endorse a State Faith or declare Freedom of Faith. Endorsing a State Faith requires the player to have 60% of their Civilization following that Faith within 25 turns. Declaring Freedom of Faith requires the player to successfully quell all violence for 15 turns. Failure to do either results in a Happiness penalty
  • Colonial Crisis: this Modern Age-exclusive Crisis occurs in some Distant Land Settlements that want independence. Choosing to continue direct rule may result in an uprising that needs to be dealt with and a Happiness penalty if you fail to do so within 20 turns. Succeeding decreases your Identity Score. Granting the Settlements independence makes you the de-facto Suzerain of the former City/Town and increases your Identity Score
  • Revolution Crisis: this is a wildcard crisis that tends to help the player as you can choose a Transitionary Government during the revolution. Revolutionary Authoritarianism substantially reduces Identity Score while Revolutionary Republic substantially increases Identity Score

While your Identity Score in the Modern Age, by virtue of it being the last Age, does not affect your Civilization Abilities, it does affect your ability to win a Victory. Without a solid sense of Identity (either Melting Pot or Cultural Mosaic), your people will not be able to rally behind any of the game’s Victories. You must stay “in the green” in either Melting Pot or Cultural Mosaic for 10 turns before any Victory is declared.

CIVILIZATION ABILITIES​

Civilization Abilities represent the strengths of the particular civilization your people feel an affinity with at any given point in the game. At the turn of each Age, your Identity Score determines what happens to your Civilization Abilities.

• Integration (Melting Pot Identity): At the dawn of a new Age, your Civilization retains its original identity and develops it further. You add an additional Ability consistent with your Civilization’s heritage (e.g., the Etruscans gain a second Etruscan Ability upon entering the Classical Age). Integration represents the strengthening and deepening of a culture over time.
• Synthesis (Cultural Mosaic Identity): When entering a new Age, your Civilization fuses elements of another culture into its own. You gain one Ability from another Civilization of your choice. In the Classical Age, selections are limited to Civilizations within nearby Heritage Regions*, while in the Medieval and Modern Ages you may choose from any Civilization. Synthesis reflects cultural exchange, borrowing, and adaptation.
• Succession (Loss of Identity): As your Civilization transitions into a new Age, it sheds its original identity entirely. You lose your existing Abilities and replace them with two new Abilities drawn from another Civilization. From this point forward, your civilization is considered that new culture (e.g., Etruria becomes Rome in the Classical Age). Succession represents the dissolution of old traditions and the rise of a new dominant identity.

* a Heritage Region is a geographical region, e.g. Caucasus, West Africa, SE Asia. Heritages have unique abilities but I didn’t feel the need to get into that for this post