[WIP] Sovereignty Revised

[JFD]

I have updated the OP with a list of Miscellaneous Changes - these are still only made in relation to the changes to the Social Policy system, but are not exclusive to any one branch or policy.

Additionally, I added the effects of the Solomon's Temple, the Divine Right exclusive Wonder, to the OP. Solomon's Temple will allow you to employ two unique specialists, Sages, which generate Faith and points toward Great Prophets.

I also removed the Culture from Holy Sites in Monastic Education and removed the effect altogether. Although a later policy will generally boost GPIs, I don't feel this culture is necessary this early with the higher incentive to generate faith for the sake of faith.

 

[Alan H]

It's this mod ready for test?

 

[JFD]

Nope. And it won't be until it's complete, which will have to wait until after the Fall Patch.

 

[JFD]

A small update, as I have just been converting the mod into SQL, so have little new content to show for it.

With the upcoming patch, I will be changing two policies; Slavery and International Forums. For Slavery, Slaves will be a 'purchase only' unit; which I feel is more flavoursome and hopefully more interesting. For International Forums, the Diplomat will be also be a 'purchase only' unit, rather than one you are given for every policy. In this way, I can make the Diplomat the focus of the policy and reduce the increase to the resting point to 10 from 15/20; I was honestly expecting the patch to remedy the Pledge to Protect + Consulates exploit, but oh well. Of course, the name 'International Forums,' will be changed to coincide with this; though I'm not sure how so yet.

I've started to implement aspects of Monarchy and Republic; notably the Great Monarch and the Great President (try not to think about the implications too much). The Great Monarch will act as a unique combat unit (up until the Industrial Era), whilst the Great President will act as a unique General (with an additional Medic promotion). Both will also increase Local Happiness and potentially yields when/if garrisoned in a city and the Great Monarch will be able to begin Golden Ages whilst the Great President will be able to go on Trade Missions (with a higher influence return over gold). The idea is that Great Presidents will have longer lasting, moderate benefits, while Great Monarchs will have more significant, but temporary benefits.

Most civs will also have unique Great Monarchs if I can help it (graphically speaking, but also potentially with ethnic-sensitive names, too).

 

[JFD]

I've updated the OP with a tentative Republic tree. Note that the Administrative, Merchant and Noble policies are intentionally packed with effects, because they compensate for the fact that Monarchy gets, effectively, 12 policies over Republic's nine.

Originally, I had intended for Republic to increase influence from gifts of gold (equivalent to Monarchy's decreased rate of decay), but I thought the influence from pledges of protection (currently in the Freedom tree) was more active and interesting - and flavoursome. At this point, I see no reason as to why I should remove the tenet from Freedom, so the two will freely stack - erhm, sorry...

I have made a few changes to Divine Right, as well. The State Religion policy, notably, I've changed to require some more active participation of the player - such as the prerequisite of a Temple for non-religious citizens to naturally convert and the switching out of the automatic conversion of newly founded cities to the partial conversion of newly conquered cities. I've also included the Grand Temple as a part of the Mandatory Tithes bonus, and added a new Reformation belief, to compensate for the replacement of the Heathen Conversion belief as a follower belief. This new belief, Religious Law (not really a Reformation concept, but oh well), will allow you to purchase Magistrate's Courts, High Courts and Courthouses with faith.

I have also added an Essclesiocracy policy to the tree, to act as a counterpart to the Theocracy policy. The two are naturally incompatible, but have similar effects, and the distinction is mostly a flavour/R-P thing. I also wanted an excuse to have the Prince-Archbishop title.

The mod is still a long way off, but I have come to gain a significant understanding of Lua and SQL that I did not begin with. This will undoubtedly hasten its completion and has allowed the project to grow, hopefully, into more of the experience that I - and others who share the same disposition as I - have always wanted with the Social Policy system.

EDIT: Oh, and the International Forums policy is now called Patronage, and Diplomats are to be called Patrons.

 

[ante185]

How's the mod going? from what I've read this sounds quite exciting!

 

[JFD]

All the bugs have been resolved for Divine Right, Might and Law, and the Great Sovereign generation works successfully. Otherwise, I'm taking a Pokemon break for a bit.

 

[ante185]

ah, nice! keep up the good work and good luck with everything!

 

[Feodora]

Wow I'm really excited about this mod! Looks awesome, hope you will do it
aand I'm happy to translate this your mod too when it will be ready

 

[JFD]

Wow I'm really excited about this mod! Looks awesome, hope you will do it
aand I'm happy to translate this your mod too when it will be ready

That would be very cool. Thanks for the offer.

 

[Feodora]

That would be very cool. Thanks for the offer.

Anytime. Just contact me on Steam (Сабрин&#1072 or here when you'll complete it
Good luck with your project anyway

 

[JFD]

I'm starting to get back into the mod and wanted to share some screenshots to prove such a fact.

First is the Government Policy screen:

Spoiler :

Unfortunately, it seems to be hard-coded, or at least well-hidden, as to what sets a panel on the first-row to "fade-out" when unavailable. I tested this by moving Monarchy and Republic temporarily to the bottom row, and sure enough, they faded out just as the vanilla policies unlocked by later eras would. I don't think it's a big deal, however.

If anyone knows of an image for Republic of a greater quality, I would appreciate being pointed to its direction. The one that I have is a little stretched and a little more grainy.

Next is the "advisory pop-up":

Spoiler :

This is mostly aimed at immersion-seekers. In any case, I hope these little pop-ups will add a little more depth to your game - and will make the choices of others civs more interesting and diverse.

I also wanted to showcase the Great Presidents as they appear in-game:

Spoiler :

From left to right: the American (Native) Great President, the Middle-Eastern Great President and the European Great President. The icon art is, of course, a placeholder.

I haven't yet found anything for an Asian Great President, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

That's about everything for now.

 

[TPangolin]

This looks amazing! I've gone to the liberty trouble of finding and editing some better republic pictures:

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

Also, what graphics are those great people? Are they settlers? I'm needing a GW replacement for my Australia mod that are essentially Prime Ministers. Can't find any people in suits, or anything vaguely modern looking which is a shame.

 

[JFD]

This looks amazing! I've gone to the liberty trouble of finding and editing some better republic pictures:

Also, what graphics are those great people? Are they settlers? I'm needing a GW replacement for my Australia mod that are essentially Prime Ministers. Can't find any people in suits, or anything vaguely modern looking which is a shame.

I see what you did there, lol. The first image is very nice - I'll see what it looks like in-game, but I think it'll contrast better than the one I have now. Thanks. I'll be sure to add you to the credit list for finding/editing it.

Yes, they're from the Settlers. I was originally intending for the graphics to update in the modern era to a suit-wearing President, but could never find one. The closest thing is the Archaeologist, but that hat just doesn't work. I also use one of the figures (the second one, according to the graphic files) from the Great Artist (the BNW Great Artist, that is) as a Patron unit. It's not exactly Prime Minsterial looking, but it does look diplomatic.

 

[TPangolin]

Perhaps there is a unit from Civ IV (or a mod of it) that I can use. I'll keep an eye out.

 

[JFD]

A screenshot of the updated Government Screen. Thanks to TPangolin for the Republic art:

Spoiler :

Also, a draft of the Parliament screen:

Spoiler :

 

[JFD]

I've added a few details on the middle-game social policy changes to the front page, but I'll reiterate them here:

Parliament:

Your parliament is the screen that "houses" your middle game options for Social Policies. When you adopt Parliament (or, "open"), Social Policy culture costs will be fairly reduced (the exact amount will be determined through testing), but every policy will have some secondary cost - most will be of gold, but some of faith and happiness. Many of these costs won't be fixed - rather they will be dependent upon factors pertaining to the specific policy/the "department" that the policy falls under. For instance, policies under the Welfare "department" will cost gold based upon the number of population in your civilization, whilst policies under the Industrial "department" will cost gold based upon the number of cities you have (and maybe a bit of happiness too). This will hopefully increase the value of late-game gold, late-game faith and excess happiness.

I haven't completed drafting the Parliament policies yet, but I will list some ideas that I have for those interested.

Security: Security policies can be adopted from the Medieval Era.

Martial Law: Receive a free Great General at your capital and a small, era-sensitive army. This policy is renewable.

Maritime: Maritime policies can be adopted from the Medieval Era.

Expeditionary Funds: May purchase Explorers. Explorers may be used to build Trading Posts to claim foreign territory and Resources. They also have greater sight and movement.

: Allows you to see Hidden Antiquity Sights. May purchase Admirals with Faith beginning in the Industrial Era. Receive a free Great Admiral. Great Admirals gain +2 Movement.

Industry: Industry policies can be adopted from the Industrial Era.

Synthetic Oil Factories: May build Synthetic Oil Factories with Coal to produce Oil.

Ammunition Factories: May build Ammunition Factories with Coal and Oil to increase Military Unit production by 25%.

On top of that, I've made a few updates to Republic. Now, the finisher will be just being able to purchase Great Merchants and Scientists with Faith from the Industrial Era (where before the intention was to include Great Admirals as well). This is unfortunately done because the purchasing of Great Admirals with faith is hard-codded-ly tied to the uncovering of Hidden Antiquity sites; hence that effect has been moved to a Maritime policy.

In addition, the Republic opener has been slightly altered. Instead of an increase to influence from pledges of protection, which didn't work out well in testing, Republic will take Monarchy's original effect; which was that influence will degrade 20% slower. Monarchy's opener will now include the changes between Grand Principality, Kingdom and Empire as outlined on the front page, rather than those changes being displayed through individual policies.

Finally, the Great President will be able to build the State Manor improvement. This is basically France's Chateau improvement. So, for France, they have been given a unique building - the Chateau - instead, which, whilst replacing the Castle, grants Culture and a Pikeman whenever one is built, and does not require Walls. It also grants Tourism after Flight, similar to their former Chateau.

 

[Shoryn]

This looks tremendously awesome. Exactly the way CiV sould've been since its beginning. I really hope this isn't dead. Please.

 

[JFD]

No, it's not dead. I've just taken a little break to get my civs updated.

 

[ante185]

how far with the mod have you gotten so far?