Goal: I want to combine the concepts of nomadic peoples, minor civilizations, and barbarians. Those are all interesting concepts that would add much to game play, but having 4 different types of thjngs each with their own special properties seemed like it would cause more harm than good. Building on ideas I've seen both on these forums and at Apolyton, I have devised a single unifying scheme that combines major civilizations, minor civilizations, nomadic peoples, and barbarians.
Instead of a settler and a worker, each civilization starts with a new unit called a tribe. A tribe is like a hybrid of a city, a settler, and a barbarian village. Multiple tribes can be members of the same nation. These nations have a treasury, technology, and all other aspects of normal civilizations. They can negotiate with other nations (either nomadic or settled) just like other civilizations for right of passage, mutual defense, etc. Tribes generate no trade, however, so they have no regular income and cannot research technology. Since a tribe is not a city, it cannot have improvements or culture either. A tribe has no borders either.
A tribe has a population of 2 initially with a movement of 1 and no defense. A tribe can harvest resources of the tile it is on (furs, iron, etc.) and food in a 1-tile radius. Tribes can grow over time. At size 4, a tribe splits into two tribes. A tribe has a production of 1 per population per turn. This production can only be used to build military units and ships. Each tribe can support 1 other unit per unit of population. No tribe can be within the radius of another tribe.
A tribe can choose to settle in a particular location and build a city. If the tribe building the city has a population of 3, it creates a worker with the founding of the city. A tribe may ask to join another civilization, which means it founds a city that is under that other civilization's administration but is ethnically and religiously whatever it was before (with all the baggage that comes with that).
Sometimes, a tribe can be spawned from an existing civilization's cities. I'll call these tribes "refugees." Unhappy citizens may depart cities as tribes. Relevant Western historical precedents are the Puritans, Huguenots, and Mormons. They may take away some gold and will have some or all of the parent civilization's scientific knowledge. Tribes may also be formed by the conquest of a city. These tribes may become a nation, either new or recreating a vanquished one, and behave independently. They may also become units of the civilization that lost the city. A tribe cannot be built. All tribes are either in existence at the beginning, spawn from another tribe, or spawn from a city. A settled nation may send missionaries to convert tribes, but the reverse cannot happen.
A nation may have both tribes and cities in it, if it delays the founding of its first city long enough for the first tribe unit to spawn another one. Perhaps the initial part of the game can be tweaked so that is a feasible strategy. There may be tensions between the nomadic and settled parts of the civilization, however, and they may separate into two or more nations. A tribal nation's military units may conquer the cities of a settled nation just like any other civilization may do.
Conquering a tribe splits it into some number of workers, just like capturing a settler in civ3. However, it is an atrocity to attack refugees, which causes diplomatic problems and domestic unhappiness, tuned to whatever degree necessary to make you let them go most of the time. Attacking a tribal nation has the same repercussions as attacking a civilization.
All of this only indirectly addresses minor civilizations. A minor civilization would be just like a normal civilization except smaller. Other aspects of minor civilizations are better enabled through diplomacy, corruption (or whatever replaces it in civ4), and other game mechanisms.
In this vision, there are no longer barbarian tribes in the same way as in civ3. If you pop a goodie hut, instead of a settler, it will be a friendly tribe wishing to join your nation.
One implication is making destruction of a nation more complicated. Refugees keep the nation alive. Additionally, as long as members of that nation are still alive as citizens of some other civ, there's always the possibility of rebirth if they become unhappy enough that they want to leave.
Justification: realism, increased strategic depth by modelling barbarians, minor civilizations, nomadic peoples, the transition from nomadism to settled life, fleeing oppression, refugees from wars, etc.
Historical models: Puritans, Huguenots, Palestinians, Huns, Mongols, Native Americans, running away to join the circus, and many more.
Additional possible refinements:
If a tribe stays in the same location for some number of turns (TBD), it automatically becomes a city.
Perhaps tribes could spontaneously appear in empty areas the way barbarian tribes did in civ3, but I intuitively dislike the idea of people appearing out of nowhere.
Instead of a settler and a worker, each civilization starts with a new unit called a tribe. A tribe is like a hybrid of a city, a settler, and a barbarian village. Multiple tribes can be members of the same nation. These nations have a treasury, technology, and all other aspects of normal civilizations. They can negotiate with other nations (either nomadic or settled) just like other civilizations for right of passage, mutual defense, etc. Tribes generate no trade, however, so they have no regular income and cannot research technology. Since a tribe is not a city, it cannot have improvements or culture either. A tribe has no borders either.
A tribe has a population of 2 initially with a movement of 1 and no defense. A tribe can harvest resources of the tile it is on (furs, iron, etc.) and food in a 1-tile radius. Tribes can grow over time. At size 4, a tribe splits into two tribes. A tribe has a production of 1 per population per turn. This production can only be used to build military units and ships. Each tribe can support 1 other unit per unit of population. No tribe can be within the radius of another tribe.
A tribe can choose to settle in a particular location and build a city. If the tribe building the city has a population of 3, it creates a worker with the founding of the city. A tribe may ask to join another civilization, which means it founds a city that is under that other civilization's administration but is ethnically and religiously whatever it was before (with all the baggage that comes with that).
Sometimes, a tribe can be spawned from an existing civilization's cities. I'll call these tribes "refugees." Unhappy citizens may depart cities as tribes. Relevant Western historical precedents are the Puritans, Huguenots, and Mormons. They may take away some gold and will have some or all of the parent civilization's scientific knowledge. Tribes may also be formed by the conquest of a city. These tribes may become a nation, either new or recreating a vanquished one, and behave independently. They may also become units of the civilization that lost the city. A tribe cannot be built. All tribes are either in existence at the beginning, spawn from another tribe, or spawn from a city. A settled nation may send missionaries to convert tribes, but the reverse cannot happen.
A nation may have both tribes and cities in it, if it delays the founding of its first city long enough for the first tribe unit to spawn another one. Perhaps the initial part of the game can be tweaked so that is a feasible strategy. There may be tensions between the nomadic and settled parts of the civilization, however, and they may separate into two or more nations. A tribal nation's military units may conquer the cities of a settled nation just like any other civilization may do.
Conquering a tribe splits it into some number of workers, just like capturing a settler in civ3. However, it is an atrocity to attack refugees, which causes diplomatic problems and domestic unhappiness, tuned to whatever degree necessary to make you let them go most of the time. Attacking a tribal nation has the same repercussions as attacking a civilization.
All of this only indirectly addresses minor civilizations. A minor civilization would be just like a normal civilization except smaller. Other aspects of minor civilizations are better enabled through diplomacy, corruption (or whatever replaces it in civ4), and other game mechanisms.
In this vision, there are no longer barbarian tribes in the same way as in civ3. If you pop a goodie hut, instead of a settler, it will be a friendly tribe wishing to join your nation.
One implication is making destruction of a nation more complicated. Refugees keep the nation alive. Additionally, as long as members of that nation are still alive as citizens of some other civ, there's always the possibility of rebirth if they become unhappy enough that they want to leave.
Justification: realism, increased strategic depth by modelling barbarians, minor civilizations, nomadic peoples, the transition from nomadism to settled life, fleeing oppression, refugees from wars, etc.
Historical models: Puritans, Huguenots, Palestinians, Huns, Mongols, Native Americans, running away to join the circus, and many more.
Additional possible refinements:
If a tribe stays in the same location for some number of turns (TBD), it automatically becomes a city.
Perhaps tribes could spontaneously appear in empty areas the way barbarian tribes did in civ3, but I intuitively dislike the idea of people appearing out of nowhere.