Politics Mod request

[cavilier210]

As i was at work thinking about politics, i wondered if this could be done.

In Galactic Civilizations 2 they have a politics system of elections, parties, and other such things. I was wondering if one of the talented modders i see on here would be interested in making a mod that would set up a political system for civ bts.

each political party could have different attributes. Bonus's if the leader (YOU) are in the same party, or detriments if the leader is in a different party then the majority in, say, the senate or parliament. It could also be limited to the civics of representative, and emancipation (i think thats the one).

I was just thinking that Civ is to focused on the military aspect, and I would love to see a mod that would make impirial politics and economics a larger focus.

Anyway, its just an idea, and it would be nice to see done. I don't know anything about modding Civ. Otherwise, could someone point me in the right direction to where i could get instructions on how to do something like this myself. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks

 

[Jerrymander]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=158

Creation & Customization. You could learn a lot there. Modding the political structure of Civilization IV might take a while, though.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Moderator Action: Moved to the Creation and Customization forum.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

This probably isn't any help, but maybe Events is the way to go.
You could have it like this-as soon as you select Representation or Universal Suffrage as your Government Civic, an event can pop up every few turns giving the people the chance to vote. Obviously its YOU who selects the outcome, but maybe something like

Its time to hit the hustings again as the people of <Civilization Name> go to the ballot boxes to elect their new government. In whom do the people place their trust?

(a) The Socialists: +1 happiness from Factories and Power Plants; -2 Gold from Corporations.

(b) The Social-Democrats: +1 Happiness from Universities and Laboratories; -2 Gold per turn (Welfare).

(c) The Green Party: +1 Happiness from Public Transport and Hospitals; -2 hammers from Factories.

(d) The Conservative Party: +1 Happiness per corporation in city; -2 Happiness in Factories.

(e) Hanging Chads!: +1 Gold from Courthouses; -1 Happiness.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Oh, and aside from the election event, you could have a number of politics related events (there are already a number of them in BtS) where you can add a little flavour to the actions of the government once its elected. Perhaps certain events might be linked to your choice in the previous event. For instance, selecting hanging Chad might lead to a "Political Instability" Event, or choosing the Greens might lead to an "Environmental Initiative" Event. Choosing the Socialists might lead to some kind of anti-foreign corporation event. Choosing the Social-Democrats might result in some kind of Welfare-based event, wheras selecting the Conservatives might get you some kind of Sex or financial scandal event to deal with. As I said, I know thats not what you were hoping for but, aside from a mod which deals exclusively with elections and politics in the Industrial-Modern era, I don't see any better way to do it.

Aussie.

 

[cavilier210]

actually, i think ur civics mod may kinda get at what i was looking for. but i like ur events idea

 

[Dom Pedro II]

I'm planning on tying events and civics into a new info type called Institutions which will represent things ranging from political parties to religious orders. They essentially represent any form of subnational entity that will be vying for power against the others.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

and, as with all your stuff DPII, I'm certain it will be an AMAZING MOD!!!! Which reminds me-I need to convert my Civics mod to v3.17, but I've been having trouble getting the new tags to work (even though they worked perfectly in Warlords ). So I was wondering, if I sent the finished product to you, could you just have a look and see if I'm missing anything?

Aussie.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

and, as with all your stuff DPII, I'm certain it will be an AMAZING MOD!!!! Which reminds me-I need to convert my Civics mod to v3.17, but I've been having trouble getting the new tags to work (even though they worked perfectly in Warlords ). So I was wondering, if I sent the finished product to you, could you just have a look and see if I'm missing anything?

Aussie.

Well, I'm looking to include your stuff in my upcoming release, so I would say that it's in my interest to get your components in working order

 

[GoodGame]

I think you need to narrow the focus of the mod. Does the OP want social factions/strata, evolving political parties (obviously facism, laissez-faire, and communism factions can't pre-date researching their respective techs), or a modern setting like GalCiv2 in which all parties are pre-existing?

Does the player get to choose one party as the embodiement of his people, and gets bonuses for keeping that party happy? Or do factions/parties come into being over time and try to force particular actions on the player like the old school Senate and the Garret's Revolutions mod? Does the player get to influence the development of parties/factions by making choices in pop-up windows?

EDIT: post not directed at DP2, but at the OP, of course.

 

[cavilier210]

I was thinking a system like Gal Civ 2 where its prexisting. I would think that would make it a little simpler to make, and get rid of the irritant of having to research your preferred party type. I think it couold work where ur party controls the senate/parliament at the beguinning of the game, and then when u research certain government types the people get more of a say in the government thru elections.

Maybe it could run something like how our own government works in that if u want to, say, send aid, start war, or trade with a country, ur senate would have to approve of the action if ur party isn't in the majority.

I would say 5 "parties" would be good. ones that reflect certain ideologies, instead of r/l parties (ie. instead of republicans, have conservatives). These are my ideas:

Communists: still working on this one

Fascists/Socialists: If fascists i would say a military bonus but and unhappiness cost. For Socialists i would have a massive gold cost, but raise happiness and health increase (universal medicine) but like i said HUGE gold cost

Liberals: still working on this one


Conservatives: still working on this one

Anarchists: The anarchists could force your civics to be changed to free maket, free religion, and maybe another civic that would reflect a lowering of government power.... maybe disband 20% of your military each election that they're in the majority (truly an unwanted party, lol)

There could be a random event of a coup, where one party overthrows another one (very rare), or another one where a party becomes treasoness.

some civics like police state could allow u to oppress competing parties

So, i guess my answer goodgame is that i would like a political structure very like that in gal civ 2, but that the skies the limit to me on the ideas and concept of this.

Edit: I think Green party might work better then Communist, seeing as communism is an economic system, not a governmental system

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Well, before I got caught up in testing of BtS last year, I had started moves towards expanding my original Mod by moving Ideologies out of Civics and up to the level of "Pseudo Religion". In some respects, though, Ideologies was going to look like a mixture of Religion and Corporations (obviously Corporations didn't exist in Civ at the time, so I was amazed at how similar they were to my Ideology idea). I'm hoping that the Corporation code will actually help me to finally complete my Ideology Mod-because I reckon it has potential (State Ideologies, Modern Diplomatic Relations being tied to shared or competing ideologies, attempts to spread your ideology to other cities etc etc). I'll need to look back, but I think the ideologies were: Fundamentalism, Militarism, Fascism, Socialism, Liberalism, Capitalism, Conservatism and Absolutism. Like the Ideology Civic column in my mod, each Ideology gave the city a certain bonus *if* it was the same as your State Ideology (with the choice if No State Ideology-of course). Though I hadn't fleshed it out completely, the hope was also to have certain "antagonistic" Ideologies which would result in penalties if they were in the same city together and/or if they exist in a city when you have the antagonistic ideology as your State Ideology.
On a related note, do a search for ArbitraryGuy, because a while back he was starting a new version of his EuropaEuropa mod which was going to have a political element to it. Unfortunately I haven't seen him around here for quite some time .

Aussie.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Oh, and here is the link if you're interested .

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=174751

Aussie.

 

[cavilier210]

thanks, i'll check it out

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Just so you know, though, he never finished it . It help enormous potential. Still, we do have the amazing DPII here with us. If anyone could make AG's original intent a reality-it would be HIM .

Aussie.

 

[cavilier210]

ya, his ideas for that mod were great. i'd love to see them come to fruition, along with ur mod. i liked the civic choices u had in your mod. very diverse

 

[Dryhad]

My idea for political parties is kind of similar. Like the above suggestions, it's a Religion/Corporation type mechanic. My thinking is, Religions are attached to the Religious civic category, and corporations are attached to the Economy civic category, so parties are attached to the Government category.

Under Despotism, Hereditary Rule, and Police State, political parties work rather like religions. You adopt one for your civ (the flavour being, that party is in power), it gives you certain benefits, and other civs with the same party in power like you more. Under Representation and Universal Suffrage, though, there are elections. Elections occur every X turns (not too often, or they'd get annoying). Elections basically count up the parties within your borders and (with a random variable or two thrown in to make things interesting) make your state ideology the majority party. Unlike religions, parties can spread to a city no matter how many parties are already present there. This prevents "democratic" civs from becoming one party systems.

Basically it's an attempt to make the democratic civics actually have some semblance of democracy, and hopefully it won't be as horrible as Civ2's bloody Senate

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Well, again I feel that Events have the best way of simulating a democratic government without bringing in the worst elements of the Senate system. For example, you might have an event which has an ever increasing chance to trigger the longer you're in a state of War-things like this:

A growing Dove Contingent in your Cabinet/Senate are attempting to pass a bill which will end this long war. Do you:

A. Accept-after all, the Senate are elected by the people [War Ends immediately; +1 Happiness in all cities for 10 turns]

B. Use your powers to veto the measure [War Continues; -1 happiness in all cities for 10 turns]

C. Use bribes and political favours to lure more Cabinet/Senate Members over to the Hawk Contingent [-500 gold; No change to War/Peace Status]

D. We're at war-who needs democracy-declare martial law [Switch to Police State, no Anarchy; -2 Happiness in all cities for 10 turns

Another one might work like this if you've been conscripting your population

Massive street protests are breaking out in <City Name> over the Draft. Do you:

A. Do nothing, its a free country [No change; increased chance of this event in another city.]

B. Send in the police to "crack some heads" [1 turn of anarchy in <city name>]

C. Promise to bring back all conscripts from <City Name> [+1 population in <City name>; increased chance of the event occurring in another city]

D. The lives of your people are too precious to lose, end the war immediately. [War Ends; +1 Happiness in all cities]

Just some ideas.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Hmm... this is sounding a bit different from what I'm intending. I was thinking about rival factions competing for control of the empire rather than opposing ideologies.

With one new XML file, you could potentially add military orders (like the Knights Templar), guilds, central religious institutions, political parties, secret police, nobles, etc.

They wouldn't all exist at one time obviously, but you'd encounter new factions through the ages and under different civics. It would open up the possibilities for new tech, building, civic and trait abilities to affect these factions. And basically you'd have to try to keep the peace and keep everyone in check. When combined with events, new civics features from pre-existing mods, and potentially jdog's Revolution mod, you'd get a rather complete internal political experience.

 

[GoodGame]

DP2's idea sounds like one I would prefer.

Would it run something like this(?):

Discover Agriculture and a farmer's faction is formed. Discover Hunting and a hunter's/nomad's faction is formed. And so on.

Each faction has it's own agenda, represented by pop-up choices. Indulging a request causes happiness, good things, and can increase the presence of the faction in your civ. However doing so requires resources/actions. Suppressing a request can cause anger, revolt, and decrease the presence of the faction in your civ.

Over game time, pop-ups related to the more dominant factions in your civ will occur more often. And over time some factions may become obsolete or upgrade into newer factions.

Some possible facitions: nomads (Hunting), farmers (Agriculture), slavers (Bronze Working), scholars (Literature), merchants (Currency), craftsmen (Guilds), royalists (Monarchy), theocratics (Divine Right), up to ideologists (Anarchists, Libertarians, Marxists, Abolitionists, etc...). Indulging a faction to a degree that it becomes dominant might unlock special abilities, national wonders, etc...

For instance the Slavers might unlock a Slave Market wonder and/or the ability to capture enemy units as slave workers. The Theocratics might unlock a Crusader/Templar UU. Farmers might unlock a Granary that sells excess instances of food resources at 1 gold each. Etc...