Characters II

[Mark_Everson]

Well, I was opposed to the tack Dominique was taking on most of the Characters thread. If you see something you really like that was said, you can bring it up again. I Really didn't like the idea of lots of characters swimming around, being needed to run provinces etc...

[Lord God Jinnai]

I did think it was a good idea, but i also thought that the player shouldn't have to micromanage who gets what province if they don't want to and allow the AI to pick the best ones from the pool.

Remember that since char as supposed to be optional those that don't want them won't have to worry about assigning them to gov.
[This message has been edited by Lord God Jinnai (edited November 17, 1999).]

[Richard Bruns]

I think characters should be rather rare overall. My view is that a character should be a unique person that does something special. A good guide would be to think of how many important people you can remember from history and fix the game so that an average player would get about that many. About once every fiften turns, the player would get a character. This is of course influenced by player policies. Once the character arrives, the player would only have to make one decision, like attaching a good general to a certain task force or assigning a good administrator to a certain province that.

How does that sound? This approach should add to the game while not requiring micromanagement. Also, not having too many people means that each one can get a good name. The naming system could be something like this:

Each major culture group has a list of about 100 names. When a character arrives, it is given a name and a surname based on what type of character it is. For example, Yamamoto the Wise would be a Japanese philosopher while Domitian the Brave would be a Roman general. Enemy characters could be given surnames based on culture, like Atilla the Hun.

[Lord God Jinnai]

The main prob with having very few characters comes in conflict with dynasty's. Since with a dynasty there's always going to be atleast one character in the dynasty at a time, it basically totally rules out the possibility of a new char coming in. Anyway I'll explain more when the text file is sent.

[Mark_Everson]

LGJ
>
Remember that since char as supposed to be optional those that don't want them won't have to worry about assigning them to gov.
>

That's true but then the AI must be done to accomodate moving lots of characters around into a large variety of positions. A few is doable, as you get more and more, it becomes much more calculationally intensive. I am emphatically opposed to putting in things that the AI can't handle well. That is IMO the Major defect in CivX. You Must micromanage everything because the AI is so feeble there is a Large penalty for turning anything over to it.

Richard:

That's close to my take on it, although there will certainly be people that want more. BTW, I want not only individual names, but custom pictures for each! Using mix-and-match facial characteristics... That's a great job for some aspiring artist we take on. (Needless to say, not until release 25 or so )

LGJ II:

I think the ruling dynasty should possibly be an exception to the sparse-characters approach. Only playtesting will tell for sure. Certainly a few characters or dynastic members at a time would not be difficult. Its when you get characters all over the place, say of order 5-10 that it starts getting tougher IMO.

[alms66]

Originally posted by Lord God Jinnai on 11-17-1999 09:57 AM
The main prob with having very few characters comes in conflict with dynasty's. Since with a dynasty there's always going to be atleast one character in the dynasty at a time, it basically totally rules out the possibility of a new char coming in. Anyway I'll explain more when the text file is sent.

This doesn't have to be true. Characters are suppossed to be exceptional people who will be remembered throughout history. But our past has been litered with leaders who have been forgotten. It was said in the model that when an office was without a character a "John Doe" with average stats would fill the void. It could be the same case with rulers. Thus keeping the characters rare and meaningful, which was the intent of characters in the first place.

[Mark_Everson]

We've got a new writeup of the Character/Dynasty model courtesy of Lord God Jinnai.

Please post any further comments (after reading the new synopsis) in the Current Character/Dynasty Model thread. Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Mark_Everson (edited November 22, 1999).]