Eddie Verdde
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2020
- Messages
- 94
As the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent ruler of a civilization, you can do whatever you want, wherever you want and whenever you want. This has been the classical approach of the Sid Meyer’s Civilization series, with a few minor exceptions. And it would make sense, if you were an authoritarian, immortal God-King that has his mind on final victory from turn 1. But as the game proceeds, you unlock different types of governments usch as Republic, Constitutional Monarchy or Representative Democracy, which in a real world would create a system of checks and balances that are incompatible with an autocratic rule. Therefore, under more liberal governments, you would need the support of the judicial power, of the legislative power and of the population to do everything you want to do, otherwise you’d have to abandon some of your actions or projects. In other words, there needs to be a trade-off between your actions and certain types of governments.
Therefore, I suggest a new yield – SOVEREIGNTY – that puts a limit on all the actions you can do on a single turn depending on the type of government (this system is partially inspired by the system of “orders” of the game OLD WORLD). The more sovereignty points you accumulate, the more actions you can do. Thus, sovereignty would be a measure of you legitimacy to rule. The more people recognize your sovereignty, the more orders you can give on each turn.
And how to you accumulate sovereignty points? By ensuring the safety, happiness and efficient administration of your society. If your population are well fed, entertained and feel secure and proud of your empire, you will be more entitled to give orders and do whatever you want, whenever you want and wherever you want. Under such system there would be several sources of sovereignty points, that would be multiplied by a government-dependent modifier, to give a pool of points that you could then spend by giving orders, until you ran out of points.
Here’s a sketch of possible sources of sovereignty points:
And then, the type of government would have implications on this system, along with other passive bonuses that each government might give (e.g., Feudalism > +1 production per citizen towards constructing castles). But essentially, the more autocratic or centralized government, the greater the modifier. The more democratic or de-centralized government, the smaller the modifier and the less power you have. Let’s consider the following governments:
Now let’s see how you would spend (or spare) sovereignty points.
Let’s assume that the people of your capital demand an aqueduct, but your are more interested in training an army. Then, you would have to spend sovereignty points to train the army. But if you decided to fulfill the wish of your citizens, you would not spend the points and could use them for other actions, such as moving a galley or improving a tile with a mine. If you spend all your points for that turn and you don’t make a decision on what to build in a settlement, the citizens would automatically start the construction of the building they want, whether you find it useful or not. If your people want to research Iron Working and you need to research Writing but have no more sovereignty points left, the research will be directed towards Iron Working. And so on.
Alternatively, instead of automatically constructing a building or researching a technology against your wishes, there would be no building or no research on that turn. This could work well in avoiding the typical snowballing effect from an early age, but I leave that for discussion.
Here’s a possible list of the cost of actions in sovereignty poins:
Let’s consider the case where you have 3 settlements with all the mentioned buildings in table 1, 3 luxury resources, 1 World Wonder, 2 of the mentioned policies activated, and your government is a Republic. You’d have a base pool of 50 sovereignty points, which would be multiplied by the modifier of Republic (x2), giving a total of 100 points.
Now let’s see how you could spend these points, You should be able to found a religion (20), found a settlement (20), declare war on a neighbor (15), switch a policy (10), establish a trade route (10), do some espionage (10), train a couple of units (2x5), construct one building (5) and by then you’d have spent all your points and wouldn’t be able to give more orders. So, if you think it was important to attack two enemy units (2x5) on that turn, you should start by doing that before you ran out of sovereignty points. In other words, you should focus on what’s really important at each turn, somewhat reducing micromanagement.
Naturally, these are just arbitrary values that might need adjustments, but I think you get the overall idea. My only question now is if you think that unused sovereignty points on one turn could be accumulated to be used on following turns, or if they should be lost forever, so, I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
Therefore, I suggest a new yield – SOVEREIGNTY – that puts a limit on all the actions you can do on a single turn depending on the type of government (this system is partially inspired by the system of “orders” of the game OLD WORLD). The more sovereignty points you accumulate, the more actions you can do. Thus, sovereignty would be a measure of you legitimacy to rule. The more people recognize your sovereignty, the more orders you can give on each turn.
And how to you accumulate sovereignty points? By ensuring the safety, happiness and efficient administration of your society. If your population are well fed, entertained and feel secure and proud of your empire, you will be more entitled to give orders and do whatever you want, whenever you want and wherever you want. Under such system there would be several sources of sovereignty points, that would be multiplied by a government-dependent modifier, to give a pool of points that you could then spend by giving orders, until you ran out of points.
Here’s a sketch of possible sources of sovereignty points:
TYPE OF SOURCE | BUILDINGS/EVENTS | POINTS PER TURN |
JUSTICE | COURTHOUSE | +2 |
JUSTICE | DUNGEON | +1 |
ADMINISTRATION | CITY HALL | +2 |
ADMINISTRATION | GUILDHALL | +1 |
WELFARE | GRANARY | +1 |
WELFARE | AQUEDUCT | +1 |
WELFARE | HOSPITAL | +1 |
AMENITIES | LUXURY RESOURCE | +1 |
AMENITIES | ARENA | +1 |
AMENITIES | AMPHITHEATER | +1 |
RELIGION | ALTAR | +1 |
RELIGION | TEMPLE | +1 |
CIV. PRESTIGE | WORLD WONDER | +3 |
CIV. PRESTIGE | DISCOVERING A NATURAL WONDER | +2 |
CIV. PRESTIGE | WINNING A BATTLE | +1 |
POLICIES | SEE MY THREAD ABOUT GOVERNMENTS (Mythical Ancestor, Free Speech, Senate, Plebiscit, Measure Standards, Propaganda, Triumphs, God Kind, Jus Soli, Jus Sanguinis, Rhapsodists) |
And then, the type of government would have implications on this system, along with other passive bonuses that each government might give (e.g., Feudalism > +1 production per citizen towards constructing castles). But essentially, the more autocratic or centralized government, the greater the modifier. The more democratic or de-centralized government, the smaller the modifier and the less power you have. Let’s consider the following governments:
GOVERNMENT | SOVEREIGNTY POINTS MUTIPLIER |
ANARCHY | x0.1 |
CHIEFDOM | x1 |
TRIBALISM | x1 |
REPUBLIC | x2 |
FEUDALISM | x2 |
AMPHICTIONY | x2 |
ARISTOCRACY | x3 |
THEOCRACY | x3 |
PLUTOCRACY | x3 |
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY | x3 |
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY | x3 |
CLASSICAL MONARCHY | x4 |
BUREAUCRACY | x4 |
DESPOTISM | x5 |
COMMUNISM | x5 |
FASCISM | x5 |
Now let’s see how you would spend (or spare) sovereignty points.
Let’s assume that the people of your capital demand an aqueduct, but your are more interested in training an army. Then, you would have to spend sovereignty points to train the army. But if you decided to fulfill the wish of your citizens, you would not spend the points and could use them for other actions, such as moving a galley or improving a tile with a mine. If you spend all your points for that turn and you don’t make a decision on what to build in a settlement, the citizens would automatically start the construction of the building they want, whether you find it useful or not. If your people want to research Iron Working and you need to research Writing but have no more sovereignty points left, the research will be directed towards Iron Working. And so on.
Alternatively, instead of automatically constructing a building or researching a technology against your wishes, there would be no building or no research on that turn. This could work well in avoiding the typical snowballing effect from an early age, but I leave that for discussion.
Here’s a possible list of the cost of actions in sovereignty poins:
ACTION | COST |
Moving a unit | 1 |
Pillaging a tile | 2 |
Engaging in diplomacy | 2 |
Improving a rural tile | 3 |
Slot resource to settlement | 3 |
Training a unit | 5 |
Constructing a building | 5 |
Building a district | 5 |
Attacking an enemy | 5 |
Creating a trade route | 10 |
Espionage action | 10 |
Switching policy | 10 |
Constructing a Wonder | 15 |
Declaring War | 15 |
Founding a settlement | 20 |
Founding a religion | 20 |
Let’s consider the case where you have 3 settlements with all the mentioned buildings in table 1, 3 luxury resources, 1 World Wonder, 2 of the mentioned policies activated, and your government is a Republic. You’d have a base pool of 50 sovereignty points, which would be multiplied by the modifier of Republic (x2), giving a total of 100 points.
Now let’s see how you could spend these points, You should be able to found a religion (20), found a settlement (20), declare war on a neighbor (15), switch a policy (10), establish a trade route (10), do some espionage (10), train a couple of units (2x5), construct one building (5) and by then you’d have spent all your points and wouldn’t be able to give more orders. So, if you think it was important to attack two enemy units (2x5) on that turn, you should start by doing that before you ran out of sovereignty points. In other words, you should focus on what’s really important at each turn, somewhat reducing micromanagement.
Naturally, these are just arbitrary values that might need adjustments, but I think you get the overall idea. My only question now is if you think that unused sovereignty points on one turn could be accumulated to be used on following turns, or if they should be lost forever, so, I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
