Mod project: Realistic, deep civics!

[Optimizer]

In my opinion, a good mod is characterized by addition of realism, game atmosphere and/or strategic depth without too much complexity. There has been a lot of discussion on civic modding, but few mods concentrated on civics. Those that exist just adds complexity - this mod will be an attempt to add realism, game atmosphere and strategic depth.

General principles for this mod

• XML only (simplicity)
• No more than 5*5 civics (simplicity)
• Minor additions and changes in other game concepts (simplicity)
• Each civic should be the best option at some occasion, even the default ones (strategy)
• Civics should promote different playing strategies (strategy)
• All civics should be well represented in world history (realism)

New terrain improvement: Industry
-1 food - +3 production - +1 production with Railroad - Workshops, Lumbermills and Watermills develop to Industries - Can be built from scratch with Steam Power

New unit: Pioneer
Can found cities - Requires Bank (or Nomadism) - 100 shields - builds 50% faster with Cow & Sheep cumulatively - Combat: 4, cannot attack - Recon unit

GOVERNMENT CIVICS
City States (default, no upkeep)
50% upkeep for number of cities * +50% Great People * +1 gold/military unit
Hereditary Rule (Monarchy, medium upkeep)
2 happy faces in 5 largest cities
Representation (Civil Service, no upkeep)
+25% science in capital * +25% culture in all cities
Police State (Fascism, high upkeep)
Can build Spies without Scotland Yard * +7 happy faces with Scotland Yard * +3 happy faces with Jail
Universal Suffrage (Democracy, no upkeep)
+100% culture * +2 commerce from Town * +50% war weariness

Spoiler :

City states: In the beginning, each populated area was more or less autonomous. The only forces historically able to merge small units are conquest or an external threat. Some famous city-state alliances are ancient Greece, renaissance Italy and the German League. These are famous for having produced many of the greatest thinkers and artists of history, might be because the decentralized power allows for intellectual competition.

Strategic comment: City States allows for fast expansion, but only as long as it is peaceful!

ARMED FORCES CIVICS - this category replaces the Legal one.
Warrior Class (Medium upkeep, default)
+1 happiness per military unit * -50% War Weariness * +2 production from Fort
Nomadism (No upkeep, Horseback Riding)
Can build Pioneer (upgraded Settler) in any city * +2 experience for all units * Builds units with food * -1 food for Farm, Windmill, Watermill * -1 production from Mine, Workshop * -3 production from Industry
Militia (Code of Laws, no upkeep, can be enforced by UN resolution)
Can draft 2 units * 20 free units
Conscription (Nationalism, medium upkeep)
Can draft 5 units * +10% military production
Professional Army (Military Tradition, low upkeep)
+2 unit experience

Spoiler :

Warrior class: Before the rise of regular armies, military and civilian leadership was often the duty of a privileged class. To prevent corruption, this class followed a "warrior code".

Nomadism: There are several kinds of nomads. This civic represents pastoral nomadism, which is based on livestock herding. Nomads can expand quickly and are formidable warriors, but sedentary civilizations can use their infrastructure to beat them in the long run. The infrastructural punishment makes the civic less useful in the late game (until the enemy has pillaged away everything you've got).

LABOR CIVICS
Primitive Communism (default)
+25% production in capital
Slavery (Bronze Working, high upkeep)
+20% food * -20% commerce * Can sacrifice population
Feudalism (Feudalism, medium upkeep)
+1 production from Farm, Windmill * Free units for 20% of population
Capitalism (Economics, no upkeep)
+1 production from Town, Mine * +4 gold per specialists * Can hurry with gold
Socialism (Communism, medium upkeep)
+3 health * Unlimited Scientist, Artist

Spoiler :

These civics are named from Marx's theories on historical modes of production. Might change names such as "feudalism" to follow the custom to give different names for techs and civics.

Primitive Communism: The citizens work for the leader because of personal connection, and because they can see the common good. Works best in small scale.

Slavery: In an agricultural society with plenty of empty land, labor is the critical factor of production - so the ruler allows himself to own people.

Feudalism: With plenty of workforce available but shortage of land, slavery became obsolete. The rulers acquired the land instead - which left the landless people with no choice but working for their landlords.

Capitalism: As agricultural surplus increases the volume of manufacturing and services, the critical factor of production becomes capital - including buildings, machinery and mineral resources. Power based on ownership of such items is called capitalism; critics say that all self-proclaimed socialist states have been "state capitalists".

Socialism: Marx predicted that the workers would make a socialist revolution and take the means of production. However, none of the acclaimed socialist states allows the workers to control their industries. He did not predict the labor movement, which has used worker parties and trade unions to gain education, health care, vacation and some other benefits which used to be a privilege of the wealthy.

ECONOMY CIVICS
Tax Farming (default, high upkeep)
+20% gold
Mercantilism (Currency, medium upkeep)
No foreign trade routes * Unlimited Merchant
*+2 commerce from Plantation, Mine
Free Trade (Banking, no upkeep)
+100% improvement upgrade rate * No city upkeep from distance
State Property (Communism, medium upkeep)
+50% worker speed * +1 production from Workshop, Watermill, Lumbermill, Industry
Environmentalism (Medicine, low upkeep)
+6 health * +3 commerce from Camp, Windmill

Spoiler :

Tax Farming: Ancient empires cared little about economic development, buth they knew the need of tax collection. Governments often had too limited range to collect them by themselves, so they gave vassals a permission to collect certain amounts from their "turfs". This system provided good revenues, but was open for corruption and could be disastrous for the population.

Mercantilism: The mercantile system was the first major attempt to control the economy. The government issues direct control of certain businesses and products. This generates income (through taxes and tariffs) and employment (through elimination of foreign competition).

Strategic comments: Good if you happen to have plenty of resources in your territory and you cannot or will not sell them.

RELIGION CIVICS
Syncretism (default, medium upkeep)
+50% Great People with State Religion * +1 happiness for each religion
Leader Cult (Monotheism, high upkeep)
no state religion * no religions spread * +20% military production * 3 happiness with Colosseum
Theocracy (Theology, medium upkeep)
no non-state religions spread * +20% food * Can build Missionaries in any city
National Religion (Divine Right, no upkeep)
+25% building construction with state religion
Free Religion (Liberalism, no upkeep)
no state religion * +30% science * unlimited Priest

Spoiler :

National Religion: Represents a religious institution controlled by and suited for government, such as the Church of England or Japanese Shinto.

Please comment!

 

[Optimizer]

I have been cleaning up the post to make it more readable.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Hey Optimizer. You might like to know that I have gone 'Back to Basics' with my own civics mod. You can check out the initial results at http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=179729 . I would very much like to know what you think.
As I mention in the thread, the mod is in 3 stages-with stage 1 complete, and stage 2 almost half done. Stage 1 is a simple balancing of the existing civics-no more than that. I have made certain that ALL options get 2 effects (not counting penalties), and I have altered the effects and penalties where I felt they were warrented.
Stage 2 will involve addition of 2 new civics options to each category. Aside from Labour and Religion, this is about giving people more civics options in the Ancient and Classical Ages. So government options like Theocracy and Oligarchy, and Economy Options like Barter and Cash Economics. Labour will be more about filling the gap between Serfdom and Emancipation (which, quite frankly, I am thinking of scrapping. Emancipation is more about rights than it is about labour IMO). So civics options like Professional Labour (Guilds) and Organised Labour (Communism or Industrialism).
Stage 3 will include the addition of 3 brand new civic categories-Philosophy/Ideology, Rights and Organisation. I might add a Military category, but feel it will be adequately covered by the other civics (like Vassalage and Professional Labour).
Anyway, I will be very interested to hear your views. I have always had great respect for your opinion.

Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Leif]

Hey Optimizer, it’s always great to see someone trying to make a better and more realistic version of the Civics, I really like your attempt, however naturally people are going to find things that they personally disagree with, and I am no different. So here’s my Critique.

Uber Alles (over all):
You made the default civics honestly a good idea to keep, while obviously it could blow up in any given player’s face, it’s definitely possible.
Having a tad more upkeep per city, +50% more GPs, paying more per military unit, getting +1 happy per military unit, having half the normal war weariness, more production thanks to the fort, +25% production in the capital, +20% gold in total and 50% more GP with each that have a state religion and +1 happy per religion sounds really good. While many romanticists would argue against this point, society certainly has gotten better over the years, we’ve found new ways to organize ourselves and accomplish more epic things, be they works of great art and architecture or weapons of war.

I believe that the base civics should do nothing or at least have no benefits, thus giving incentive to research new government based techs.

Also, I believe that each category of civics should be somewhat related to the other ones, but combine things that would go together already. For example, you can’t have Capitalism without free trade or Communism without Socialism.

If I were making a civics mod, I would make the categories
Power (who calls the shots)
Structure (how the machine works)
Production (How things are made)
Balance (How power is divided)
Beliefs (What role the govt. plays in the opinions and faiths of the people)

Now to the specific areas

Govt:
Nerf starting civic and make it moderate in price.
Hereditary rule, or the base of government off of a royal bloodline, doesn’t really seem like it would have any favor of one city over another, except for the royal palace. Maybe a bonus to the capital might be more appropriate. Put price to low because it’s relatively simple.
Representation doesn’t really equate science to me, but a culture bonus does make sense due to the things done by parties or groups to get elected. Put price to moderate due to a slightly more complex system.
Police State seems slightly underpowered to me, maybe a bonus to military production at an expense to happy might work better.
Please cut the bonus to culture from Universal suffrage in half. Put price to high due to the large number of areas that need funding in a real democracy.

Armed Forces:
Nerf starting civic and make it moderate in price.
Warrior class might work better with a bonus to happy with the barracks, because with too many warriors in one city, and if they follow a certain code, they might start fighting.
Nomadism (isn’t a word according to spell check) is an interesting idea, I like the idea of an upgraded settler, but I don’t think the fact that people wander around makes them better fighters (with more xp)
I like Militia, but I think it is basically an extension of conscription.
I like conscription. I think professional Army needs a +x GP per military unit add on.

Labor:
Nerf starting civic and make it moderate in price.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a red, but I don’t think that primitive communism means that things are only done in the largest city, maybe renaming it to something less friendly would work better, forced labor maybe?
Slavery, to me, doesn’t equate to more food.
Feudalism doesn’t make much sense to me, what does the free units thing do?
Capitalism needs more of a bonus to making money, but should cost some more (unless there is no regulation)
Socialism, while a personal favorite of mine, should work differently. Sharing the work doesn’t mean it makes you healthier. I think a health bonus would be great, but have it work slightly differently, maybe not having health as the core of it.

Economy:
Nerf starting civic and make it moderate in price.
What is tax farming and why is it so expensive?
Mercantilism makes sense, I like how it’s implemented.
Free trade doesn’t make sense, I don’t get the thing it gives you, I don’t understand how buying and selling makes cities cost less to operate (unless they are literally owned by a corperation). Also, it should cost to regulate.
State property is done well.
Environmentalism = socialism? Also, doesn’t it cost a lot to regulate businesses to not dump stuff?

Religion:
Please explain Syncretism and how it gives you +50% gp
Leader cult seems like it’s more modern, like 20th centaury.
Theocracy makes sense and is done well except for the part about having extra food and thus more growth.
Nation building, why is it free and what does it have to do with religion?
Free religion makes sense, although I think a low cost would work better.

That’s it; I suppose I was rather critical, but I’m working rushed.

I look forward to the next development in your mood, good luck!
-Leif

 

[Optimizer]

OK, I will take a look.

Playtesting of my mod goes fine, seems like the AI understands how to choose terrain improvements from each civ. This means changing civics will not only have a cost in anarchy, but also a cost in infrastructural inertia.