Unlocking Social Policy Branches?

[Apollo XI]

Hello all,

I have a question about exploring social policy branches. Simply put: how the hell does it work? I don't get this system at all.

I'm playing a game as the Japanese so, of course, being the great war/military civ they are, I picked sensible branches like Honor, Piety, etc., but I've had those policies for at least a few eras and they have not unlocked further beyond the first two policies ("Organized Religion" and "Mandate of Heaven" for Piety is all I still have for example, and I'm in 1854AD). I'm currently dominating roughly half the world now (have my own continent and slowly taking over the only other one) but, being the growing powerhouse I am, happiness is starting to become a concern, and I'm wondering when the rest of my Piety branch (among others) will finally kick in, so I don't have to keeping building/buying dozens of Colosseums/Circuses/Theaters everywhere.

If needed, my other policies are: Tradition, Patronage, Order, Autocracy, and Commerce. All are still only in their first 2/3 branches.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Rex_Mundi]

You earn points towards your next social policy for every culture your cities produce, and you get bonus points from every culutural city state you befriend or ally with.

The price of the social policies increase for every social policy you get, it will also increase for every city you found or anex. Puppeting cities does not increase the cost.

 

[blac]

So basically you have to keep your city count low, which is hard in a domination game. Social policies are more meant for smaller peaceful civs, as it gives them an advantage over large ones who can out produce and research them. I'm at around turn 400 and playing as a big civ and I only have around 11 SPs I think. And that is after I invested heavily in culture. If you are trying to win by military just try and grab as many SPs as you can before you get to large. You should really only be worried about the Honor, Piety and Autocracy branches a military anyways, I would mostly just ignore the other ones, unless you feel like you need them

 

[KrikkitTwo]

If you want a massive empire with lots of Social Policies you need to Puppet all your conquests.

 

[fromar]

When you conquer a city, puppet it.

The puppet city will produce gold, research, and culture on its own. It will only cost you happiness.

I find the no-policy cost hit of a puppet encourages me to take cities much more often, even if I'm going for a cultural victory. Maybe the number-crunchers will disagree, but I find a late-game puppet city can be worth much more to you than a late-game new city.

 

[Raiki]

I think I understand what you're asking...and social policies within branches don't need to be "unlocked" by any means other than purchasing their prerequisites (the policies that have lines leading to them). I was a bit confused by the interface there as well when I first started, but just because the picture is greyed out for the 2nd and 3rd row of policies doesn't stop you from selecting them...it's just poorly presented.

As an example, if you want to further progress in the Order tree, you would (after unlocking it) have to adopt the "socialism" policy before you could adopt "planned economy" before you could adopt "communism".

Hope this helped.

~R~

 

[Michl2602]

Hello all,

I have a question about exploring social policy branches. Simply put: how the hell does it work? I don't get this system at all.

I'm playing a game as the Japanese so, of course, being the great war/military civ they are, I picked sensible branches like Honor, Piety, etc., but I've had those policies for at least a few eras and they have not unlocked further beyond the first two policies ("Organized Religion" and "Mandate of Heaven" for Piety is all I still have for example, and I'm in 1854AD). I'm currently dominating roughly half the world now (have my own continent and slowly taking over the only other one) but, being the growing powerhouse I am, happiness is starting to become a concern, and I'm wondering when the rest of my Piety branch (among others) will finally kick in, so I don't have to keeping building/buying dozens of Colosseums/Circuses/Theaters everywhere.

If needed, my other policies are: Tradition, Patronage, Order, Autocracy, and Commerce. All are still only in their first 2/3 branches.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I'm playing a similar style and would estimate that you now need about 6-7k culture for your next policy. Otherwise I don't get what you mean.

 

[Camikaze]

Don't expect to fill out all the trees. Even for a culture victory (i.e. a victory that revolves around social policies), you only fully run through five of the trees. You need to be selective in what you choose, because it may be a while between social policy opportunities.