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I quite like the whole Colony concept in BtS. In our history new "civilisations" have sprung up when liberated from their motherland. While the Colony mechanic captures the end result of this I don't think it captures the driving forces behind Colonies getting freed in the real world. The game models the driving force as one of cost - it costs more maintenance to hold onto these Colonies and so it becomes too costly for the motherland to hang onto them. I think the opposite was generally true in our history, Colonies were very profitable and so the motherland fought to hang onto them. The force driving independence was grass roots support by citizen's of these Colonies that they should be independent. The end result was often violent uprising but not always (my own country was made independent through an act of British parliment).
The sort of thing I wouldn't mind seeing is if Colonies developed an independence movement over time. This could either be something that just happens or a result of a random event. The random event would be kind of like the Slave uprising event when you run slavery, if you have something that qualifies as a colony there might be a spark of uprising. I think a combination of the 2 would be best, with the event giving a big bump to the independence sentiment.
This independence movement could then manifest itself like foreign culture in a city. If you get enough "independence culture" in your city then it would behave a bit like conquered cities do and ask to be made independent. You could, of course, refuse. I'm not sure of how the uprising mechanics would work but building off the culture idea, giving it a chance to culture flip to a brand new civ based on the normal culture flip rules. I think there possibly needs to be something like in Civ 2 where you could have an armed uprising appear out of no where and these units would seek to liberate the cities desiring independence. Civ's gaining independence in this way would be automatically at war with their parent civ and start off with a negative relationship modifier. I think this gives incentives to grant colonies independence before they get nasty but it also gives a military solution for those who want to hang onto their colonies.
If there is enough people interested in this idea I might go all out and try to make a mod.
Comments?
The sort of thing I wouldn't mind seeing is if Colonies developed an independence movement over time. This could either be something that just happens or a result of a random event. The random event would be kind of like the Slave uprising event when you run slavery, if you have something that qualifies as a colony there might be a spark of uprising. I think a combination of the 2 would be best, with the event giving a big bump to the independence sentiment.
This independence movement could then manifest itself like foreign culture in a city. If you get enough "independence culture" in your city then it would behave a bit like conquered cities do and ask to be made independent. You could, of course, refuse. I'm not sure of how the uprising mechanics would work but building off the culture idea, giving it a chance to culture flip to a brand new civ based on the normal culture flip rules. I think there possibly needs to be something like in Civ 2 where you could have an armed uprising appear out of no where and these units would seek to liberate the cities desiring independence. Civ's gaining independence in this way would be automatically at war with their parent civ and start off with a negative relationship modifier. I think this gives incentives to grant colonies independence before they get nasty but it also gives a military solution for those who want to hang onto their colonies.
If there is enough people interested in this idea I might go all out and try to make a mod.
Comments?
While possibly more realistic I think I will keep it simple and try to get it so that each "colony zone" has just one generic movement. I favour fun over simulation.
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