returnofbabylon
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2018
- Messages
- 51
Apologies if someone has posted about this elsewhere. I thought this was a problem based on the streams but wanted to actually play GS a little before bringing it up. Unless I'm missing something, I don't think the way the WC tallies votes makes sense.
Imagine a game with Macedon, Mali, and Russia, and no one else (for simplicity's sake). The WC resolution comes up that allows you to make producing military units cheaper/more expensive for a particular currency.
Mali is planning a war with Macedon, and is rolling in gold. They're planning to purchase an army and don't anticipate any problems on that front, so they vote to make it harder for Macedon to make units. They put all their favor into making units more expensive with production, and can cast 10 votes.
Macedon is likewise planning a war with Mali. They have several high-production cities, so they decide to vote to make it harder for Mali to purchase units. All their favor goes into making units more expensive with gold, and they can cast 11 votes.
Russia is on a different landmass entirely, and is planning on going on a city-state conquering spree. They've built the Grand Master's Chapel and have lots of faith, and they want to make it easier to faith-buy their army. They put all their favor into making units cheaper with faith, and can cast 20 votes.
What should happen: I think this is fairly straightforward and intuitive. Russia should win. They're putting almost double the votes into their desired outcome as the other two outcomes are getting. Macedon and Mali should get their favor refunded. Simple.
What happens currently: The game acts like there are two rounds of voting happening, even though there is only one. It first decides whether units will become cheaper or more expensive; in doing so, it construes Mali and Macedon as being on the same side of this initial vote, even though overall they have diametrically opposed objectives. It then decides which currency to apply the change to - Macedon has submitted one more vote than Mali, so the result will be that units become more expensive to purchase with gold.
Russia will get its favor refunded, even though it should've won the resolution, and vice versa for Macedon. This isn't great, but ultimately isn't necessarily a *huge* problem.
But think about Mali. I believe Mali will get half their favor refunded for winning the "first vote" and losing the "second vote" (can anyone confirm this is how it works?). So, in essence, Mali will spend half its diplomatic favor to pass a WC resolution specifically designed to screw Mali. This is, to use a technical term, pretty dumb.
The game should stop acting like there is a first round of voting with 2 choices, followed by a second round with 3 choices, and determine who wins based on how the voting works in reality: a single round with 6 choices. The only downside I can see to this is that it will make ties much more common, especially for the resolutions that have even more options. Personally I think that's a small price to pay to make the mechanic operate in a more fair fashion.
Is there an aspect of this I haven't picked up on or something I have wrong in the above that makes the current way of doing it reasonable? Sorry again if this has already been addressed somewhere.
Imagine a game with Macedon, Mali, and Russia, and no one else (for simplicity's sake). The WC resolution comes up that allows you to make producing military units cheaper/more expensive for a particular currency.
Mali is planning a war with Macedon, and is rolling in gold. They're planning to purchase an army and don't anticipate any problems on that front, so they vote to make it harder for Macedon to make units. They put all their favor into making units more expensive with production, and can cast 10 votes.
Macedon is likewise planning a war with Mali. They have several high-production cities, so they decide to vote to make it harder for Mali to purchase units. All their favor goes into making units more expensive with gold, and they can cast 11 votes.
Russia is on a different landmass entirely, and is planning on going on a city-state conquering spree. They've built the Grand Master's Chapel and have lots of faith, and they want to make it easier to faith-buy their army. They put all their favor into making units cheaper with faith, and can cast 20 votes.
What should happen: I think this is fairly straightforward and intuitive. Russia should win. They're putting almost double the votes into their desired outcome as the other two outcomes are getting. Macedon and Mali should get their favor refunded. Simple.
What happens currently: The game acts like there are two rounds of voting happening, even though there is only one. It first decides whether units will become cheaper or more expensive; in doing so, it construes Mali and Macedon as being on the same side of this initial vote, even though overall they have diametrically opposed objectives. It then decides which currency to apply the change to - Macedon has submitted one more vote than Mali, so the result will be that units become more expensive to purchase with gold.
Russia will get its favor refunded, even though it should've won the resolution, and vice versa for Macedon. This isn't great, but ultimately isn't necessarily a *huge* problem.
But think about Mali. I believe Mali will get half their favor refunded for winning the "first vote" and losing the "second vote" (can anyone confirm this is how it works?). So, in essence, Mali will spend half its diplomatic favor to pass a WC resolution specifically designed to screw Mali. This is, to use a technical term, pretty dumb.
The game should stop acting like there is a first round of voting with 2 choices, followed by a second round with 3 choices, and determine who wins based on how the voting works in reality: a single round with 6 choices. The only downside I can see to this is that it will make ties much more common, especially for the resolutions that have even more options. Personally I think that's a small price to pay to make the mechanic operate in a more fair fashion.
Is there an aspect of this I haven't picked up on or something I have wrong in the above that makes the current way of doing it reasonable? Sorry again if this has already been addressed somewhere.