advisors and magistrates.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by patcon
I also liked the drunken military advisor when you were kicking but in a war.

I'd forgotten all about him.

[Enigma_Nova]

If you can give them believable personalities, then it might work.
That drunken military guy is definately believable.

[La Diva]

Re: advisors and magistrates.

Civ has always had Advisors on various screens. A logical evolution would be the ability to appoint a Cabinet from a list of candidates with randomly generated attributes.

After a few turns, the effectiveness of these Advisors would start modifying the success of ventures in each Advisor's field (Econ, Mil, Culture, Dipl, etc.). The better the Advisor, the more that field benefits (faster production, more powerful, etc.)

You'd be asked if you wanted to hold a Cabinet meeting every 5 turns, where the Advisors would report progress, or you could call a meeting any time you want. You'd then have a chance to replace crummy Advisors or give more support to the geniuses and benefit from them, like initiating conquests while you have an Eisenhower on the job.

Even the great Advisors would have a limited term of service, say 20-30 turns in later ages, and then you'd have to start over. But watch out, because an occasional appointee could be an embezzler or a power-crazed rat who wants to overthrow you! This would be especially true for Advisors in fields different from your special civ traits - they can balance you out or take advantage of you.

This is a perfect place for AI to learn your style of play and micromanage certain elements of the game for you, with a random probability factor for the success or failure (or treason) of each Advisor.

Any form of government after Despotism could make use of as many Cabinet members as you like, with the proviso that if you pick the two in charge of your civ's specialized traits, you must pick at least one more. This increases the risk factor.


This idea would let you foster Advisors who could help strengthen the weaker facets of your chosen civ traits.

For those who despise meetings and micromanaging, even at this middle-management level, Game Setup should allow you to disable the feature.

I think the random elements of the concept add another layer of intrigue to gameplay.


Another twist: any Advisor can develop popularity with your citizens. If you replace one before the term of service is up, you could create unhappiness, either randomly or throughout your civ. The reverse could also be true, that they'd declare a national holiday in your honor.

* * *

An adjunct to this:

As sophisticated as this game is becoming, it should seem simple enough to let players import personal graphic images for certain uses - how cool to see my own mug at the top of the Diplomacy screen! Or choose a lizard, a Romulan, a werewolf, Marilyn Monroe, and the Blob for my Cabinet members.

[Dominae]

I hope you animated advisors supporters also voted 'yes' for Wonder movies...otherwise all your negative arguments are bunk.

[La Diva]

Dominae:

I didn't vote at all, because I figured the "polls" had closed before I found this website.

I think I did post a reply there, which says I liked the Wonder movies and would be happy to see them again, but only if it doesn't take away from the programmers producing some of the marvelous new ideas in these many threads.

I support the person who said this needs to have some bold new thinking rather than being Civ 3.1. I'm anxious to see what Firaxis comes up with.

[sykodude]

I registered just to say that this idea rules.

The way I'd want to see it is a big list of characters with random attributes - including both skills and a unique personality. You pick your cabinet and officials from among them. A good official gives bonuses, but an incompetant one - or possibly one with motives of his own - can cause problems. The bigger the potential problems, the happier it'll make me. I know not everyone will like the idea of yet another thing to go wrong, but I've often amused myself thinking about what would happen to my civ if half of my army suddenly turned against me.