An idea: leader and governor units

[ThEmArTiAnIsT]

I thought it would be really cool to create a couple of new units. Say an actualy moveable unit for your leader so for the Romans: Julius Caesar. Another unit you can make multiple ones of them: a governor. When you create a governor you can select a certain amount of cities say 5-10 depending on the size of your empire. This collection will become a sort of province over which this governor will oversee defensive operations and worker projects and over which you as leader have ultimate executive authority and veto power. This would be extremely helpful because when you have a huge empire and you are busy campaigning for new lands you do not want to be focusing on the barbarians attacking your borders you want to be on the war front with your main armies conquering. To make this creation more interesting there should be the possibility of governors becoming military magnates within their sphere's of influence and if, as emperor, you fail to win the hearts of a governor and those whom he controls, he can potentially rise against you and take the throne.... that is if perhaps taxes are too high and laws are too oppressive, etc. Thus, there should be two requirements for this governor to take over... killing "you" i.e. your leader unit and taking the capitol. Now these governor and leader units should have an extra high withdrawal bonus and some stealth capabilities as we all know leaders do tend to escape rather easily. It should be made difficult to eliminate a leader in a game or else you'd lose very easily. The popularity of leaders in the empire should also play a key role on their ability survive during a civil war like this. Thus ,say a governor has risen against you and has even taken your capitol you as the original leader can take your armies away from the front and march back toward the capitol raising loyal armies along the way to retake the empire. This i think would be a very exciting new element to incorporate into the game and I wonder if anyone has thought of it and if so is there way of making it happen? or is there a way of notifying the actually game developers about it?

[Seryoz]

I've thought of this idea ever since king units were introduced into Civ3. I like your idea, very much. I miss the days when empires could be divided in half by the loss of a capital. I've thought of this idea mainly as a part of a scenario, but it would be so much better as an element to the full game. Here are some ideas I have regarding your system:

1. Governors could be created randomly either by the Great Person generation system or by a formula related to number of cities and land area.

2. Governers, maybe like the King, should have special, random, abilities such as industrial, economic, environmental, boosts to the regions they are stationed in.

I have other ideas, but I'll have to think a bit to lay them out coherently.

One aspect I'm concerned about is, whether it is necessary to modify the AI to deal with new special units, like the ones mentioned here. I have another unit idea posted in this forum that falls under the same category; the (food) Supply Convoy. It would be a real letdown to develop these units and then find that the computer totaly ignores or misuses them completly. I'm going to look into the details of unit creation today. Provided we get some information regarding the AI and Special Units; I'll be happy to help you develop this idea and the units themselves.

-Seryoz

[ThEmArTiAnIsT]

unfortunately ideas are as about as far as i can go. I have no modding capability. Further, i suppose you are not on mac os and thus whatever you might succeed in developing i would not be able to use. Nevertheless, i certainly still think it is worth pondering and pursuing.

[Seryoz]

I do have the tools to make the mod. And Python is easy enough to use, the XML will take practice. Mac users can't run mods made on the PC?

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Ok, I looked up Mod compatability for Mac OS', (Civfanatics Forums) and from what I understand, we can the make mod compatable for use under Mac OS. That is if I can't get it to work, we can find someone to help.