First of all, I'm confused about the thematics for Oligarchy. Why extra food and gold? Actually technically Oligarchies don't function any different from Monarchies, except they are far more corrupt.
It's about time someone called me on that!
. Look, I'll level with you. I had an idea for a civic mechanic and I had an idea for a civic concept. The fact that they don't really fit together is just bad luck.
Allow me to suggest a kind of City States approach - decentralized government. You might want to change the name, but what you'd get was increased maintenance from number of cities, but a little extra science and culture, with No Upkeep. Naturally this has no bearing on the civic itself, but I guess it's ok - even if it doesn't make much sense.
Makes sense. I'll consider it.
Thought control is a little weird, but it gives a lot of bonuses. I'm shocked, really. Either tone it down or make a Super-High Upkeep to balance it.
Do you really think so? I suppose adding in the unlimited spies might tip it over the edge, but it never struck me as inherently broken. Which effect would you remove?
Cybernetic should be high upkeep. It seems a little powerful, but then one recalls the unhappiness penalty from non-Emancipation. However, when you have civics like Thought Control and Hereditary Rule, then that point is rendered moot. I don't see why at all it should give +100% culture, and I kind of understand the +100% science*.
*This is actually a much greater bonus than you might think.
If I get a civic at Robotics, it had better be overpowered. I'm well aware of how powerful +100%
can be (memories of an earlier draft of Atheist State, *shudder*) but what are you going to be using it for at this stage of the game? Future Technology? As for the culture bonus, it's a nod to the pedia entry (which some might notice is taken from SMAC).
Corporatism - I mean, the idea of corporatism - seems a little biased. It's kind of like feudalism thematically, but I digress. In practice you've balanced it best of all your new civics, as it is kind of the polar opposite to Environmentalism. But as of BTS Environmentalism is the superior economic civic, so to give Corporatism a little more leverage I'd suggest a large decrease of corporate maintenance, like -50% or -75%.
Ah Corporatism. A relic of an earlier age. This was really my way of independently filling the "hole" that was later filled with, yes, corporations. It's fitting, therefore, that BTS would render it obsolete. I didn't want to make it reduce corporate maintenance, because it's already basically Free Market with other stuff tacked on. Ideally it would give some benefit to corporations, but there's no way to do that without SDK modding. So yeah.
Atheist State is a great idea, and I kind of like how you did it. It's got some good designs, HOWEVER, it doesn't seem to me like it's at all worth it. I mean, there's no way to get rid of religions, so you get all the blazing unhappiness plus the major culture vacuum for - for what? - a measly +25% science. It's rather jarring to see you make such an unbalanced civic as Cybernetics and then counter it with a civic which I would never want to have. Free Religion gives approximately the same bonuses, with the all-important happiness. I suggest you zap the -50% culture, because first of all that is an unbased bias, and second of all it makes the civic wholly worthless.
I assure you, removing the culture penalty will make it unbalanced. I've tried it. I could perhaps reduce it, but I spent so much time balancing it that I'm loath to change it now. Remember what you said earlier about the power of
boni, +25% is a lot more than it seems. Even +15% (the difference with Free Religion) is hefty.
