Idea about balancing Monarchy vs Democracy

[Barchan]

Originally posted by Tuberski
I understand what you are saying and I agree with you.
But the limit on the amount of units should be slightly different than what you suggested, seems to me it should be based on the number of cites, just like Army production, i.e. 1 unit outside your territory for every 4 cities.

That sounds like a good idea, but I think you'd have to allow a certain base number of units regardless of empire size or you'll either really neuter smaller empires or larger empires will still rampage. Perhaps the "standard map" default would be 10 units +1 for every 3 cities?

If this sounds like it'd be tough to wage war, that's the point. I'd try to make it a real choice between democracy and autocracy; if you want growth and low corruption, go democratic, but if you want war go autocratic. IMHO, it's too easy to have it all with republic.

[realpolitic]

Originally posted by alexman
It's a good idea because Communism is still too weak, but I'm afraid that it would unbalance the Religious trait, which is already one of the best.

I stay in Republic and conduct Oscilating wars to keep WW from getting out of hand, with Universal Sufferage and Police Stations I don't have to switch to Communism until the Modern Era (16 civs, HUGE map) I also attack My technological competitors until they go Communist, well before I have to choose between Communism and peace and my tanks and Modern Armor will keep them out of the Space Race.

Democracy has to have several free units per city to compete. With Communism, all my units are free well into the Modern Age (Ive built a lot of Hospitals), but for someone who doesn't making all units free would make Communism viable earlier.

[BillChin]

A new post on this interesting thread. Alexman and the cast of thousands has these changes slated for the next version of the AU mod:
1) Monarchy - three free unit support (Imperial Guard).
2) Republic - increase corruption level one notch.
3) Democracy - 0/1/2 unit support (0 per town, 1 per city, 2 per metropolis).
4) Communism - free maintenance on all buildings (ironic side effect is that Adam Smith Wonder becomes useless for Commies). 50% faster workers.

These changes help even out Republic, Monarchy and Democracy without changing the overall feel of each government. Monarchy becomes more competitive as the first government. Democracy gets a measurable tech and gold edge over Republic, especially for large empires. Communism still looks weak, but is considerably stronger with free maintenance on all buildings. I believe all of these changes strengthen the AI, while also making human player choices less clear. The governments are distinct enough that Religious does not become superpowerful with the one turn switches.

For large empires a late game switch to Democracy becomes attractive. I'm still not sure where Communism fits, especially in multiplayer, but it is definitely up two notches with free maintenance on all buildings. Perhaps a pop-rush wasteland with a bunch of cities with many buildings and no population is the best case for a Communist. (Can you say yuck.) Unfortunately, this is a common enough sight when the AI switches and is losing.
- Bill

[gsmoove23]

ugh, a harder Demo would be difficult for me to bear. I'm not an expert player and I usually go staight to republic and then demo throughout the game so I don't know how hard it is to be commy. Demo is always a struggle for me, keeping up with scientific achievement and trying to stay out of wars because they tend to screw up my whole economy and set me back tech-wise.

When I do go on the offensive it always has to be short and quick or it ends up being Vietnam. The fact that I usually have a small army(cause I usually expend a huge effort imroving my cities to capitalize on the trade benefit) means my standing army is small, which limits my offensive capabilities. I see an objective that is worth attacking(a resource, a strategicly placed city) and I have to spend many turns to mobilize my forces at which point the situation has usually changed, limiting my ability for effective military action. Sometimes I wish I could go on a rampage but I always seem to gravitate towards demo. Maybe I'm a pacifist at heart.

The way I see it though, Communism or Fascism(what it really is with a few modifications) is not viable in the long term anyway, I'm talking real-world, except perhaps in the short-term where military conquest is the aim. Perhaps the answer is to make regime change a little less drastic, back to the game-world. Improve anarchy or make the period shorter so its a viable option to have a military coup followed by rapid mobilization and then a long string of wars. Later when cooler heads prevail a switch back to republic or demo.

-or just make commies better.