Machiavelli24
Mod creator
- Joined
- May 9, 2012
- Messages
- 818
I've been experimenting with a new Health system. Currently in Rising Tide you only have Health pressure in the early game. As city populations grow it becomes easier and easier for the local health to offset the one time 4 unhealth of the city. Access to global health also increases as the game goes on as you get more traits and Virtues online.
What I'm experimenting with is having citizens cost 1.2 unhealth but cities cost only 1 unhealth. Water cities would also lose their health difference with land cities. The result of this is that local health will never be enough alone to keep an empire healthy. As the aggregate population grows more and more global health will be required. This change will be coupled with more local health sources in the early game to help players stretch their initial 9 global health.
As a result of these changes players should be able to expand rapidly throughout the early and mid game without inherently crashing their Health so long as they keep their populations relatively small. However, in the mid game (especially if going tall) players will need to find more and more sources of global health (likely from their affinity) to remain afloat.
Flavor wise this system is trying to capture one of the story aspect I could only hint at in the "Affinity Rising" upgrade for New Horizons. Something the colonists discover over the generations of living on the new planet is that their genes are degrading more and more with each generation due to exposure to the ecosystem. The effects include genetic disease, blindness and most worrying -- accelerating levels of infertility that threaten to end humanity.
Each of the Affinity pose a different solution to this problem. Purity seeks to revert the evolutionary effects and restore the body to what it was like on Old Earth, before it was corrupted by the new planet. Harmony seeks to engineer the body to fit in with the new planet instead of being corrupted by it. Supremacy seeks to replace failed biological parts with tech.
What I'm experimenting with is having citizens cost 1.2 unhealth but cities cost only 1 unhealth. Water cities would also lose their health difference with land cities. The result of this is that local health will never be enough alone to keep an empire healthy. As the aggregate population grows more and more global health will be required. This change will be coupled with more local health sources in the early game to help players stretch their initial 9 global health.
As a result of these changes players should be able to expand rapidly throughout the early and mid game without inherently crashing their Health so long as they keep their populations relatively small. However, in the mid game (especially if going tall) players will need to find more and more sources of global health (likely from their affinity) to remain afloat.
Flavor wise this system is trying to capture one of the story aspect I could only hint at in the "Affinity Rising" upgrade for New Horizons. Something the colonists discover over the generations of living on the new planet is that their genes are degrading more and more with each generation due to exposure to the ecosystem. The effects include genetic disease, blindness and most worrying -- accelerating levels of infertility that threaten to end humanity.
Each of the Affinity pose a different solution to this problem. Purity seeks to revert the evolutionary effects and restore the body to what it was like on Old Earth, before it was corrupted by the new planet. Harmony seeks to engineer the body to fit in with the new planet instead of being corrupted by it. Supremacy seeks to replace failed biological parts with tech.