Great citizens instead of great leaders

[Laertes]

History has been to a large extent affected by the prowess of great citizens. Some of them scientists, philosophers, religious leaders, politicians (not many of those) artists etc. One or two have been represented by Wonders (e.g. Michalangelos Chapel) and the Great Leader concept for victorious armies.

I think it would be interesting if there were a small number of great citizens, say 2 or 3 per era, who could be born randomly or pseudo-randomly into a city in any particular civ.

Their presence in the city/civ would gain appropriate bonuses e.g 50% extra science, for a period (lifetime, century after death, until end of era) perhaps enhanced or dependent on the presence of city improvements.

It may be that their birth city should be pseudo-random - the larger the city/civ, the more chance of producing a great citizen. Also, maybe the presence of improvements or other preconditions should be necessary e.g. democracy govt required for Winston Churchill who increases defensive power of units by 25% while alive.

The key thing obviously is that the great citizens would NOT be forcibly linked to their real-life civ - Churchill could be a Zulu, Neil Armstrong a Korean.

edit typo

[GePap]

It is a nice idea overall- I would tweek it in a few ways.

One, larger civs should NOT be more likely to get these- the possiblities should also not be tied to any improvements either. If the idea of civ traits is kept, that should be a factor in terms of what kind of citizen appeared. Tech level should play a factor as well.


But I think it is a nice modable idea.

[Laertes]

I think you are probably right about larger civs and improvements as it would probably accelerate the lead of the top civ

[Brent]

goes along with some of the things I want...

[lajzar]

I think that each civ should have a pool of great citizen names (or perhaps have them generated by a pseudo-random name constructor), and when a great guy is called for, have it be chosen from that civ's name file.

So the system calls for a great scientist citizen, and England is chosen. It could be Newton or Dawkins, but it won't ever be Einstein.

[Brent]

Some should be prenamed, some should be random.

[Vince278]

How about a Great Worker who completes tasks faster? A Great Settler who plops down a pop 3 city? A Great Explorer? This is an idea that has possibilities.