SMACest gov for Civ IV

[Trifna]

I wanted to discuss this subject further, so here's what I also posted in the List but wished to start a discussion about:

skywalker, governments will work the same in the future as they worked in past in their general rules.

Here's a very basic example of SMACest government transposed to history and Civ IV:


*system of valors*
religion - science - nobility [goes from European nobles to Confucius] - individualistic freedom - nationalism

*statecraft*
totalitarian [includes king only or pope, depending on "power justification"] - oligarchic [includes king + nobles or whattever else] - moderate democracy [some have more power, like actual democracies] - total democracy

*power structure*
centralized - federation - republic - [Switzerland-like] - decentralized [includes anarchist local self-government, tribal local governance...]

*economics*
communism - soft-line communism [not following completely] - wealth state - moderate capitalism - complete capitalism

*justification of power*
theocratic - nationalist - militarily enforced - representativity - self-governance - nobility - technocratic

*justice system*
theocratic - oligarchic - martial - tribal or local - free for all [each locality organized itself as they wish and could]


This is ONLY something I wrote rapidly. It may not be simplified enough or over-simplified, as a whole or in part. Of course, I saw some incompatibilities but I have no time to look at what to do with this now. I already put too much time on this, now I need to go back to exams


edit: Belief system could also be a possibility, monotheist religions not bringing the same cultural traits as polytheist, science or buddhist/taoist/conficius-like. But it gets a bit touchy to bring this in a game... Also, someone can wonder if diversity is also possible in such a game, like for India, China or USA. It gets harder to conceptualize simply.

[Kuciwalker]

double-post?

[Trifna]

Like I mentioned skywalker, I thaught it could have a thread for itself. I do not intend to get 4 discussions at the same time in the government part of the List. If I lurn it is not appropriate, I guess I'll change, but while my answer in the List was only to answer you, this is specifically designed to further how this could be arranged.

It's less messy I think. I'll write something again in the List when I'll have a more complete vision of this (I prefer to write final ideas in the List instead of forcing the threadmaster to read the same thing 10 times).


PS: Am I wrong in my conception of the List threads as places to put new ideas and cnclusions less than complete discussions? This is something to be specified in the future sticky "General info about the List" thread.

[Fosse]

This is a verbait post of mine from the other thread:

skywalker... you would limit it technologically the same way you do in Civ 3 or SMAC. You have to discover a technology that unlocks a certain government chioce option. Just like you research Monarchy in Civ 3.

Azazel: Good question. I'll try to throw out some ideas.

SMAC had: Economy, Efficiency, Support, Morale, Police, Growth, Planet, Probes, Industry, Research.

If we wanted a straight, one to one conversion we would have: Economy, Corruption, Support, Military Preparedness(?), Police, Growth, Environment, Special Ops, Industry, Research.

That would work out fine, I think, but we might be able to do better.


"Happiness" could impact how bad a city has to get before it riots, and how likely it is that the citizens would move away to other countries, perhaps.


There could be a happiness factor. Running a communist dictatorship would mean working harder to keep people happy than a controled free market democracy, for example.


The Civ 4 system could use new quirks too, compared to SMAC. Someone once suggested having "The People" with their ideal set of government choices, and deviating from those would cause discontent. I like that, so long as the penalty isn't HUGE. If you run a free market and start doing a terrible job, then your people might start disliking free markets, for example.

[Fosse]

And Trifna, the way I saw it was that the "Official" threads could be used for discussion, and the thread managers would simply update the top post to reflect the ideas in the pages of discussion.