I foresee that the next big imbalance in Civ V would be that of puppet cities. As it is, puppets are already superior to building your own cities almost every time. The new patch makes it even less attractive to build many cities of your own, given the changes to happiness and SP costs.
At the same time, the patch fails to change the underlying mechanics of having science and gold being determined primarily by your population. That being the case, the only sensible strategy to keep social policy costs low while maintaining a scientific and economic lead, would be to have very few cities of your own and many puppets.
This would be a tragedy - there should not be one clearly superior way to play the game. Thus, puppet cities need to be nerfed, so that they are more balanced with cities of your own. Here, I point out two main methods to go about doing it:
1) Put a cap on how many puppet cities a player can have. For example, you might be limited to 2 puppets for every non-puppet city you own. Players will then be forced to build more of their own cities (or annex enemy cities). That way, you can't have your cake and eat it too - if you want a large empire, you must be prepared to forgo social policies.
2) Introduce more disadvantages to owning puppet cities. Some possibilities include:
A) Puppets generate more unhappiness
B) Puppets produce hammers/gold/science at a reduced rate
C) Puppets spawn rebels occasionally
D) Puppets have a chance of flipping back to their original owners
E) Puppets do not assign citizens to become specialists
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Personally, I favour the first option of putting a cap on puppets, even though it is less interesting than the second option. It is more straightforward and less likely to result in unforeseen consequences. You don't need to balance it that much - for the second option, you will need to make sure that any nerf to puppet cities must be balanced by the benefits of puppets, and the game developers are apt to screw it up. Finally, it puts a stop to the absurd situation where 90% of a civ's empire is made up of puppets (often seen with the AI).
Discuss.
At the same time, the patch fails to change the underlying mechanics of having science and gold being determined primarily by your population. That being the case, the only sensible strategy to keep social policy costs low while maintaining a scientific and economic lead, would be to have very few cities of your own and many puppets.
This would be a tragedy - there should not be one clearly superior way to play the game. Thus, puppet cities need to be nerfed, so that they are more balanced with cities of your own. Here, I point out two main methods to go about doing it:
1) Put a cap on how many puppet cities a player can have. For example, you might be limited to 2 puppets for every non-puppet city you own. Players will then be forced to build more of their own cities (or annex enemy cities). That way, you can't have your cake and eat it too - if you want a large empire, you must be prepared to forgo social policies.
2) Introduce more disadvantages to owning puppet cities. Some possibilities include:
A) Puppets generate more unhappiness
B) Puppets produce hammers/gold/science at a reduced rate
C) Puppets spawn rebels occasionally
D) Puppets have a chance of flipping back to their original owners
E) Puppets do not assign citizens to become specialists
-----
Personally, I favour the first option of putting a cap on puppets, even though it is less interesting than the second option. It is more straightforward and less likely to result in unforeseen consequences. You don't need to balance it that much - for the second option, you will need to make sure that any nerf to puppet cities must be balanced by the benefits of puppets, and the game developers are apt to screw it up. Finally, it puts a stop to the absurd situation where 90% of a civ's empire is made up of puppets (often seen with the AI).
Discuss.
