Variant OCC Prime Directive

[KrikkitTwo]

An idea for a variant where the rules are based on the Prime Directive
the idea is to leave the planet with as minimal impact to the natives as possible

Based on that
1. OCC (don't want to spread our influence)

2. Units may not move outside of cultural borders

3. The Only thing you may do in the diplomacy screen are
Accept Peace
Accept Tech gift

You may not give up Tech, give Or accept Gold or Resources under any conditions
No Open Borders, Defensiv Pacts, Vassals, You may not declare war

4. You must Abstain 'or Defy' on all UN/AP votes

5. No State Religion 'eliminated'

6. No Founding Religions (because they will spread spontaneously)

You Can found corporations (good for making up for resource deficiencies) but you can't spread them (obviously)


Only possible wins are
Space
Time (Very unlikely)
Conquest (if the barbarians eliminate everyone)
Diplomacy (if everyone else votes for you.. can't vote for yourself)

Choose whichever difficulty/map type/leader seems best

Changing to due to making sure that you definitely don't take part in international organizations, and realizing that you will only get one religion (since you can only get it spontaneously)

 

[Quechua]

That sounds insanely difficult, I like it

I certainly wouldn't try it above Prince, and I think I'd want philosophical and expansive.

 

[KMadCandy]

diplomacy OCC is one of my favorite variants, but i trade a lot. i really don't see how you can get enough resources with the limited land in OCC to have a decent city if you're not allowed to trade, so count me out. hard is fun but too hard is frustrating .

as far as "6. No Founding Religions (because they will spread spontaneously)" keep in mind only one will ever spread spontaneously. if the world is peaceful, the AIs will send you missionaries. they send a heck of a lot more on the highest levels than the lower ones.

 

[r_rolo1]

Crazy stuff... I like it, but seems hard as hell.

I wouldn't try above Monarch and use Bizzie ( aka Bismark )

 

[Gooblah]

I would think someone Financial for the tech boost and... Protective (Aggressive or Spiritual for Vanilla)? Dunno. The thing is you're going to do are get Aggressive Civs annoyed due to your refusal to pay tribute. The Archers are gonna come in handy.
I'm thinking either Mansa Musa, Catherine, or Gandhi for the quick peace to war civic changes (Mansa and Gandhi) and the tech rate (Mansa and Catherine)

I'm leaning for Mansa. Hope this works out..
Also, what about a Cultural Win? If you get declared on, can you fight back, or only defend? The UFC sure fought back when the Dominion attacked them in DS9!

 

[Welnic]

diplomacy OCC is one of my favorite variants, but i trade a lot. i really don't see how you can get enough resources with the limited land in OCC to have a decent city if you're not allowed to trade, so count me out. hard is fun but too hard is frustrating .

as far as "6. No Founding Religions (because they will spread spontaneously)" keep in mind only one will ever spread spontaneously. if the world is peaceful, the AIs will send you missionaries. they send a heck of a lot more on the highest levels than the lower ones.

But their missionaries aren't going to get in with the closed borders.

 

[KMadCandy]

But their missionaries aren't going to get in with the closed borders.

haha double no way then! i hope y'all have fun tho

 

[Quechua]

I can understand why not founding a religion fits the theme, but why no state religion? That seems like a purely internal choice.

Also, if you turn on 'no tech trading' it may make space a more realistic option.

 

[Welnic]

I'm trying a game of this. Standard size Pangea, 12 civs, epic speed, playing as Gandhi. Those are my standard OCC settings and I've dropped back to prince from monarch. I did turn tech trading off especially for this game.

It took me till 800 AD to get a religion. But now I have to question why "No State Religion"? I can see why you wouldn't found one, but it does seem that running a state religion really doesn't affect anyone outside your borders.

It does make for a very fast game. No exploring, no tough diplomatic choices, no looking for good tech trades.

 

[reknaw]

Not founding a religion is a tougher stipulation than I first thought, I tried this on noble and failed miserably (unsurprising since I'm not that great yet). Having to wait for an AI to tech to CoL before I was allowed to was a pain because I had REXed and was bleeding gold without courthouses.

 

[Quechua]

I also tried a game of this on Prince, playing as Peter (phil/exp). It was on quick speed, tropical fractal map, and I checked no tech trading. I didn't adopt a state religion, but I don't see why not, Pacifism would've been nice.

I decided the game was a loss, I simply didn't think I could launch a ship in time. I've only played one OCC game before though, so hopefully Welnic can pull it off.

Honestly though, I don't understand how to win this variant. You're not allowed any diplomatic options so good luck getting 2/3 of the world to friendly. I was the tech leader for most of the game, but the AI started to catch up around Sci Meth. And after my population was capped following Medicine, I simply had nothing to leverage. To make matters worse I had no aluminum or copper.

Hopefully some OCC master can pull this off, or there's some tricky loophole in the rules I don't see.

EDIT: Reknaw, I had the same situation with delaying COL and philo, but how did you REX? You're only allowed one city.

 

[reknaw]

Oh dear, I didn't play OCC. Oh well I'll try again with the correct settings.

 

[oyzar]

set the barb spawn rate to 1000* normal and hack away to a conquest victory with a protective leader. I supose a space race victory is very doable with peter or Bismark for example but no pacifism hurts. Also playing bts/warlords is a tough choice given the only possiblity of unlimited health in BTS.

 

[vicawoo]

I don't think this is possible in most situations in warlords/monarch. You won't be able to stop their launch.

 

[Cer]

I think y'all may have underestimated how hard this would be. I agree with the person who said that it's probably impossible to get a diplomatic victory if you don't give/trade away any tech/gold/open borders. And unless you totally change the game (like making the barbs spawn 1000x faster) conquest isn't going to happen. So that leaves space race. I'm an Emperor level player, and I think I might be able to win space race on noble with these limitations.

 

[oyzar]

I am emproer myself and i am thinking monarch is doable(assuming you select no tech trading/no huts/raging barbs or something).

 

[LlamaCat]

why not just play a variant where you are not allowed to do anything... you can't hit "next turn"
these variants are getting kind of ridiculous.. why play the game if you can't use half of the fun features?

 

[Welnic]

You have to abstain on AP/UN votes? You can't choose to defy? You are not really participating, you're just ignoring the outcome of the vote. I'm going to miss running Caste System, Emancipation sucks if you haven't built a cottage. And it sucks even if you have in OCC since they are all towns by then anyway.

 

[Quechua]

Is anyone still trying this? Krikkitone never followed up for some reason. Anyway, I played a normal OCC space race on emperor to get my confidence back, and I have some new ideas about the end game. So I decided to give the Prime Directive another shot, same settings as in my previous post.

Here's my current save (It's vanilla HOF mod). You'll see some of the unusual features of the variant right away.

 

[TeraHammer]

I like these settings, I'll try a game out this evening, on quick speed (being a multiplayer addict). I'm still doubting whether to pick Peter (phi/exp), Qin (ind/fin) or Bis (ind/exp).

If I succeed I may try to play with Toku for the roleplay effect (though his traits are totally wasted).

Islands may be best to play, avoiding pushy civs early.