micbic
Optimistic Pessimist
I think this post from Disenfranchised makes for an excellent starting point for civics discussion. And since it would be strange to ruin the Civs Discussion thread...
Well merchant republic is a pretty good civic, especially if you ignore the stability cost function like the AI does.
Personally I'm not a fan of the current merchant republic civic, as it still gives bonuses for lots of cities – the positive effect should be linked to the capital only.
I agree that we should take a look at all the civs and try and differentiate them both in effects and aims, maybe choosing what they represent and pciking 1 clear bonus and 1-2 clear disadvantages:
Government
Despotism: Same as original RFC. Default setting.
Electorate: Espionage bonus (10%). Specialists give 1 extra science and culture. -1 stability for each city beyond capital. Low upkeep.
I did assume this was showing the elected and advised kingships of early northern Europe and the middle east, plus the circles of the HRE, and maybe the golden liberty of Poland. Its kinda hard to say what effects would represent that but I think these ones really don't except for the decreasing stability. I do think this is more a military early game civic than anything else, so perhaps the barracks happiness bonus, and +2 experience (since the intriguing and having to be a warleader to get the throne helps experience).
Divine Monarchy: +1 happiness per military unit in cities. Specialists give +2 extra culture. High upkeep.
Constitutional Monarchy: Can buy production with gold. Very stable for large civs. Medium Upkeep.
Representation: +3 science per specialist. +3 happy in 6 largest cities. Medium Upkeep. Same as original RFC
These other three are pretty much fine
Legal
Tribal law: Same as original RFC (just renamed). Default setting.
Feudal law: 5 free units. New units receive +2 Experience. 10% culture penalty. Low upkeep. Incompatible with merchant republic.
This is the ruler distributing power to his vassals, allowing more force to be called when necessary, but loosening control over outlying regions. Secondly feudal levees often found themselves outmatched by professional armies so I'm unsure about the experience. Perhaps we should enable drafting with Feudal law to show the calling up (also makes it good for surviving early game barbarians and threats) whilst increasing the culture penalty.
Bureaucracy: +50% hammers, +50% gold in capitol. High Upkeep. Same as original RFC.
Bureaucracy is pretty okay, but I think it should have a clear disadvantage too – perhaps unhappiness in all non-capital cities to show the centralisation of power? Additionally the first applications of bureaucracy was towards the army, can we have Bureaucracy give extra experience to siege units?
Religious law: 25% reduced cost for buildings with state religion. 25% penalty to research. +1 happiness in cities with state religion; -1 happiness for other religions present. High upkeep. Incompatible with electorate.
Rather overlaps with several of the religion civs. I think it should thus loose the reduced building cost flag, and instead give +1 gold and -5% upkeep to all of the state religion buildings. Thus assisting in the running of large religious empires whilst offering synergy with Organised Religion and Theocracy
Common Law: 10% bonus to research; +2 trade from town. -1 happiness for each military unit. +100% great person birth-rate. Low upkeep. Incompatible with feudalism, theocracy.
This fine, though the research bonus could easily be removed to simplify things
Labor
Tribalism: Same as original RFC. Default setting.
Serfdom: Workers complete tasks 50% faster. -50% Cottages, hamlets, and villages growth. +1 food from Farm. Low upkeep.
Its always struck me as a bit odd that serfdom, a mechanism for tying people to the land, boosts the size of your cities in the early game. I think we should drop the cottage growth reduction (which goes to guilds) in exchange for plus 2 unhappiness to keep cities small, and changing the CIV slave revolt event to a 'serf revolt' event
Free peasantry: +100% growth for cottages, hamlets, and villages. Medium upkeep. Incompatible with feudalism and theocracy.
This is good
Apprenticeship: Unlimited artists, scientists, merchants. Workshop gives +1 hammer. High upkeep.
fine as well
Free labor: +5% production and commerce. +1 hammer from town.
This kinda clashes thematicly with free-peasantry at the moment, since they're both giving bonus to towns. I think this should represent the influx of rural labour to the cities of the 16th century onwards, and thus have a bunch of city based bonuses. There are a number of ways you could represent this, but I think that modelling it as like 'power' in regular CIV is the best – giving a bunch of advantages to late game buildings (+10% commerce to textile mill, wharfs and warehouses, +10% production to forges, tanneries, builders yards and shipyards) whilst its disadvantage would be +1/2 unhealth in all cities.
Thus for cottage economies you stick with free peasantry, but shift to free labour if you have well developed cities.
Economy
Decentralization: Same as original RFC. Default setting.
Manorialism: +10% military unit production. -1 Trade route. +1 commerce from farm. Low upkeep.
Yeah this one is fine
Guilds: +10% gold bonus. 1 free specialist in each city. High upkeep.
Traditionally guilds were very anti-competitive minded and routine smashed up workshops in outlying towns – we could make this a very clear 'use this with specialist economy!' civic by adding the -50% Cottages, hamlets, and villages growth to it. Also replace the gold bonus with a 'reduced corporation cost' flag which we're currently missing out on using.
Mercantilism: +20% gold bonus. No foreign trade routes. Inflation +100%. +1 trade route per city. Medium upkeep.
This is the keeping of bullion within the country to improve local industries and resource production, so you should choose it if you have a highly productive hinterland. Perhaps +2 gold to workshops and mines as the advantage, and no foreign trade routes and +50% inflation as the disadvantage.
Merchant Republic: +50% unit build costs; each unit requires 1 extra gold in maintenance cost/turn. +25% research and gold production bonus. +100% penalty to war weariness (twice as powerful). -2 stability for each city beyond capital. Medium upkeep.
Merchant republic is meant to be for a small city state with far flung colonies, and shouldn't have bonuses beyond the capital. Thus I think it should be changed to: Advantages: +400% commerce from trade routes in the capital, no distance upkeep. Disadvantages: quadruple number of cities upkeep, each unit requires 1 extra gold upkeep, +100% war weariness.
Religion
Paganism: Same as original RFC. Default setting.
Organized Religion: + 1 happiness per city (with state religion); cities with state religion construct buildings 25% faster; High upkeep.
This is fine, though the bonus overlaps with religious law we should change that civic rather than this one
Theocracy: Gold production increased 25%, research decreased 25%. Stability bonus for small empires (+12 (1 city), +9 (2 cities), +6 (3 cities); stability penalty for large ones (-2 for each city above 3?) No spread of non-state religion. Medium upkeep.
Whilst I get what people were going for here, the small medieval religious states were often hives of intellectual activity, and the research cost is already covered by religious law. So why don't we make this civic work more tightly with our mods new mechanics – having theocracy adds +75% to your faith points score making theocracy have a religion dependent bonus! Loose/reduce the gold and research parts but keep the size based stability thing
State Religion: +2 experience points, +1 happiness in cities with state religion; Med. upkeep.
I'm not sure why this gives experience boosts, especially when compared to organised and theocracy at encouraging the men. How about we get it so acts of piety boost stability when you're running State religion, I.e. a weak version of the Orthodox faith bonus say +1 stability per 7-10 faith points. Keep the extra happy bonus as well.
Free Religion: +1 happiness per non-state religion, +10% research. Low upkeep. Same as RFC original.
This free religion makes very little sense in a pre-1800 context where nearly every state had some associated religion and state secularism was unheard of in Europe. Thus I think this one should be renamed to Tolerance, and instead give +5% commerce and +5% culture per religion in the city, let you keep a state religion, but have no happiness bonus itself.
Expansion
Subjugation: Same as in RFC – default setting.
Vassalage: +8 stability for each vassal. Distance maintenance costs increased 25%; stability penalty for expansion decreased 25%. Medium upkeep.
Occupation: +2 additional stability pts. per conquered city. Same as in RFC.
Imperialism: +2 stability points for cities founded outside the Core area. Same as Resettlement in RFC.
This is kinda weak considering the crowdedness of the map and how it comes quite late, perhaps a 50% bonus to culture production as well?
Colonialism: Allows construction of colonial projects; +1 trade route in each city. High upkeep.