This is playtest feedback, sort of, but it's about Fall From Heaven. If you read all my posts, you know I had been avoiding playing FFH because I was afraid it would be a big time sink. Well, in the US this is a three day weekend and I decided to download it and start playing.
Boy, it will be a huge time sink.
Welcome to my world. I would be interested to know how you feel, after playing FfH a bit more about my idea of switching the Armageddon Counter (AC) to something like a Cultural Counter (CC or what ever it would be called) to represent the 'light of civilization' coming back on. So when Civ's do 'bad' things (raze cities, enact slavery, perhaps start using blood/death sports as entertainment) the counter would go down and perhaps this would provide certain advantages to certain Visions and give disadvantages to others. I mean it's okay if Hopeville is pushing for A Better Tomorrow(tm) and the Gaians...uhm, I mean Aquarians are pushing to rebuild Earth. However, it would be harder to convince people of the possibility of this Vision coming to pass when the bulk of the other Civ's are burning, looting, taking slaves, and feeding people to the lions for fun and entertainment.
On the other hand, if the CC is high, it would work the other way around. As cultural levels go up and people feel like the Period of Darkness is ending, Civs who do 'bad' things would be looked down upon as only barely a step up from the roving barbarians.
Plus as I've said, perhaps certain buildings could only be build if the CC was at a certain level to show that until that point, it wasn't safe enough to enact them. Of course, it might be that the CC would apply only to your civilization. Thus what ever course you take, up or down the CC ladder, would open or close certain doors.
Plus, taking the time to build cultural things to raise the CC might be another way players who want to go the less martial route might use to help hinder the aggressive Civs. Of course the danger in that is if that aggressive Civ comes in and burns down a lot of your stuff, the CC would take an enormous hit and then you'd be the one in trouble!
Oh, in deference to
Refar, I'm not saying that this would turn
Fury Road into a good versus evil battle. I'm just stating that this counter would represent that actions most civilized nations would consider 'bad' would lower the counter and those that would be considered 'good' would raise the counter. However, these are hard times that require hard choices. Can your civilization survive if you cling to the morals and laws of a modern world?