Politics Expanded

from GalCiv2 Forums
One of the areas I always thought could do with some serious jazzing up was the system of choosing your government type. It seems a shame to just have a number of options in which you simply weigh up freedom and economic strength like the current systems do when there is such a massive amount of inspiration out there for different political systems in a sci-fi setting. Sure, it might be a prohibitive amount of work to put so much complexity into this part of the game, and the idea is probably best suited for a sequel at best, but I think it could add a massive amount of replayability, and since games and politics are my two passions, I've writen my ideas for different systems anyways!


Democracy. This would essentially by the system we have now. Elections could be spiced up pretty easily by adding pre-election events with options to make promises, which could be to do with spending, or foreign affairs, in order to win votes, and then post-election events with options to fulfil them for ongoing support.

Pros
- Greatest economic potential for pure profits
- Potential for a loyal and happy population if you give them what they want and keep them prosperous
- Extremely good relations with other democratic species
- Ability to outsource projects to private companies (rushing them), as you can in the current system
- Least likely system to be plagued by violent revolt, as citizens have other avenues to express disillusionment
- Being ruled by a party rather than an individual means immunity to the negative effects of rulers deaths inherent to some other systems
- Potential for great research investment

Cons
- At the mercy of voters at election times, with penalties scaling upward depending on the loss of control in government.
- Need overwhelming governmental control to commit to certain treaties or wars without support from other parties or referendums
- Potential for economy to fail miserably, creating poverty and unrest, depending on player choices and management


Autocracy. Simply rule by one individual with ultimate power.

Pros
- Various nasty ways to insure loyalty in your population so you can work in peace
- Power! Unlimited power! The ability to do whatever you want without the constraints of political opponents and the democratic process
- Potential to rush projects cheaply by throwing manpower at it
- Strong leaders with bonuses
- Potential for very strong military thanks to the freedom to go spend-crazy

Cons
- When each leader dies (which they should eventually do), events could trigger civil wars or other succession problems
- When people are pushed too far, they sometimes explode, making violent revolution a real possibility in mismanaged autocracies
- Weak leaders with penalties
- Somewhat stunted research in non-military fields
- Strained relations with democracies (depending on just how nasty you are)


Theocracy. Rule by the heads of a religion or cult. This system could include a game mechanic to measure devotion, which could go up and down depending on the fortunes of the empire, event choices, buildings, being at war (especially being threatened) etc.

Pros
- Fanatical loyalty and moral from the military
- Devotion of the masses
- Potential to build military machine in a hurry thanks to fanatical volunteers.
- Planets potentially very difficult for others to occupy

Cons
- Trouble with conquered ‘heathen’ populations
- Stunted social and political research
- Extremely poor relations with other theocracies
- Strained relations with everybody
- The spread of ideas from outside can turn devoted citizens into dissidents, especially if you’re a weaker power
- Immunity to the deaths of individual leaders


Hive. A biological or technological hive mind.

Pros
- Money doesn’t exist, the only resource is the time to build things
- Moral and happiness never an issue
- Potential for the strongest military
- Population growth
- Ability to be absolutely pragmatic in approach to expanding into the galaxy
- Your planets can never be conquered and used against you without wiping your entire population out

Cons
- Very few diplomatic options whatsoever
- Inability to reap any benefits from conquering previously settled systems, as other species are completely incompatible with your way of life, leaving only extermination and re-colonisation. Alternatively, eating the locals might provide bonuses to population growth
- Poorest research potential. Advancement is more a matter of adapting to outside influence and enemies and ‘learning’ from exposure to the technology of others.
- Inability to ‘rush’ projects, as everything already built as fast as your species is able


Feudalism. Rule by one individual, but with the support of nobles, or their equivalent. Feudalism could be implemented with a mechanic similar to that of governors, with individual sectors or planets being ruled by nobles (or generals or noble houses) of your ruler, with you only having overall control of empire-wide affairs, foreign relations and your home planet or sector and its ‘royal’ fleet. In effect you would be ruling a number of mini-empires, but with limited control over certain things. This might be too complex to ever implement, but it’s a fun idea. It would certainly make for an experience unique in the genre.

Pros
- Bonuses for strong rulers
- Very limited constraints on your choices in foreign relations
- Keeping the common people under control delegated to your nobles, giving better overall stability than an autocracy
- Strong bonuses for strong nobles, as they are focused on their own individual fiefs
- Ability to override nobles if you choose to do so, for more absolute control
- Minimal military upkeep (payed for by individual fiefs)
- Border nobles can expand outward without cost to you

Cons
- Penalties for weak rulers
- Negative effects for undermining nobles
- Need to deal with nobles loyalty and ambitions of strong nobles
- Penalties for weak nobles
- Succession related conflicts and unrest
- Limited specific control over the military unless fief militaries are summoned into the personal fleet of your ruler


Those are my ideas for a better and sexier political system for Galciv. Each one would play very differently, and I think they could all be a lot of fun. But thats just me  
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You had a lot of good ideas there. Not sure how the Feudalism would be enacted without use of npc characters, but still a useful idea.


So to continue with politcs...

History shows us that the greatest empires die from within, not from external threats.


Some internal political ideas i'd like to see besides an expanded number of governments (because star democracy just doesn't really work for a race of hive minded bugs) is the ever popular cival war.

- Civil war - While we already have planets switching sides in the game, what happens when you have planets that are always unhappy, but too far away to join another faction? What if you have several planets like that? If you had a string of planets that were constantly unhappy it'd be nice to see them split off and form a new empire. Not just a minor race, oh we are pathetic, but a full blown major race. If you had 10 planets, and 4 rebeled, they should get 40% of your money, ships, ip and have all the same technology as you do, as well as use the same ship styles.

Sure, humans may learn to get along in 200 years, but empires like rome have shown us that even the most logic minded people of their times are corrupted by greed.

Now for external politics. These are some things I'd like to see tossed in.

- Get that ship out of here! - Alien ships use your empire as a shortcut running their army right by your planets. What's to stop them from dropping a spore ship or two on a couple of your worlds as they fly by? A mass army building on your border, buzzing around your planet? Dial up your neighbor and tell them to get those ships out of your personal space. Most likely if they are about to invade you they will tell you to stick your tanslator where you probably shouldn't, but that is useful to know that you are about to become space dust.

- War Pacts - So you tell your buddy to attack an enemy, but the kind of dilly dally about it. With a war pact, it gets you friend to actually attack with a bit more omphf. It'd also prevent your friend from ducking out of the war too soon, or you if someone gets you to join in their war. Your partner can make peace at the same time as you when you make peace with your enemy, but to prevent your partner from leaving the war to soon there would economic and political downsides for ducking out.

- Coordinated Attacks - Why does the computer waste time and energy on planets that are useless? During war talks with your parter races, why not be able to select planets for them to attack to make them somewhat useful towards your campaign.

Just some thoughts, but politics both internal and external are in need of a little love.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah, thats a hard one. I was basically in fantasy land by that stage. Still, the others make more sense. I hope.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Some more political ideas.

Dynamic Alien Species and Ethnic Relations

I always found it a bit strange that when you conquer a planet inhabited by aliens, they are completely wiped out without so much as a 'what the' from the intergalactic community even if you are aligned with 'good', and that surrendered worlds accept their position as second class citizens in empires ruled entirely by members of another race. I think this is because there isn’t anything in the game that identify different populations as being of a different race. I think expanding in this, and having populations identified as being of a certain species, either in units or in terms of percentages, could add a lot to the game, from the potential for more interesting random/triggered events, to whole new and interesting features.

Examples could include:
- Outbreaks of violence on worlds with mixed species
- Worlds of a different species breaking away/attempting to break away from their parent empire, joining empires ruled by the same species, empires more friendly to their species, more multicultural empires or becoming an independent entity in their own right
- Random occurrences of new ‘species’, or, more accurately, ethnic identities, amongst your own population, especially on far out or isolated planets or sectors, with chains of events and options for granting independence or autonomy, or waging wars of independence with your rebellious worlds
- The ability to become a whole different ‘empire’ by peacefully joining with other races, or to become a multi-species state through peaceful migration or refugees (from influence), similar to the Federation in Star Trek or the Republic in Star Wars (but having to deal with separatist issues inherent to those systems).
- The ability to build an empire based on species superiority, with bonuses and options for the use of client or conquered species as slaves, soldiers, or food


Expanded United Planets

The United Planets is a cool idea, and it has a lot of potential for expansion and improvement.

For example:
- I always found it a little silly that this institution pops out of nowhere as soon as the player meets any other alien race, so what if the UP wasn’t created automatically, but as a joint and conscious effort of a number of political entities? This could be in some sort of treaty, through events with options, or a bit of both.
- On the same note, if there were enough powers in the galaxy, there might end up being more than one such institution, with members of vastly different political systems and alignments sticking together
- It would be nice of the policy agenda weren’t completely random, perhaps some sort of influence scale could be used to decide agendas for upcoming meetings
- It would also be nice to be able to set preferences for policy options, so that you might get your second choice, rather than being stuck with the complete opposite because everyone voted for something different