Modding Stream And GalCiv3 Governments

from GalCiv3 Forums

 

Stardock will be holding a special Galactic Civilizations stream Monday at 2pm EST at www.Twitch.tv/GOGcom

We will have a few people streaming including Paul Boyer (lead designer) and Alan Batsford (AI programmer). I (caffeinated nair-do-well) will also be streaming the creation of a mod. I'm hoing to try adding governments to the game as a mod.

There will be 3 first tier government types (Polystate, Technocracy and the Overcouncil) and each of these has 2 specializations. I'm implementing these as improvements (player wonders which are exclusive) so players can choose where to house their government headquarters and I can use them to play with the Adjacency system.

This is my rough design for what I want to add. Tune in Monday and check out how its done, ask questions, or generally cause trouble.

 

Polystate- Bonus Influence. Boosts to adjacent Approval and influence buildings. +Benevolent ideology. Tech: Galactic Governance
“A government is a collection of people, not regions. Where our citizens are, so exists the state.”

Liquid Democracy- Bonus Approval. Reistance penalty. +Benevolent ideology. Tech: Interstellar Democracy
“Our citizens directly and immediately vote on all measures, or assign a delegate to represent their vote at any time. This is truly a government of the people, but consensus is difficult and it makes us slow to respond to emergencies.”

New Agrarianism- Bonus food. Lower military production, Boosts adjacent population improvements. +Benevolent ideology. Tech: Pacifist Party
“The health and happiness of our citizens is directly drawn from the health of our worlds. We cannot attend to one and ignore the other.”

Technocracy- Research bonus. Large boost to adjacent research improvements. +Pragmatic ideology. Tech: Galactic Governance
“We are defined by our information, not our wealth. We are no longer bound by roads and space lanes, but by communication networks. The physical world is only the bedrock that the infinite virtual worlds will be built upon.” 

AI Autocracy- Large research bonus. Lower growth. +Pragmatic ideology. Tech: Technologist Party
“Our society has grown too complex for individual minds. By turning our government over to the AI the costs of bureaucracy are gone and each citizen will receive direct care from the government.” 

Information Oligarchy- Approval bonus. Increased colony maintenance. Bonus to adjacent approval improvements. +Malevolent ideology. Tech: Population Diversion
“By harnessing the power of our communication network we have discovered that we don’t need a perfect government to make our citizens happy. We only need the propaganda of a perfect government.”

Overcouncil- Increased production. Boosts to adjacent military and production improvements. +Malevolent ideology. Tech: Galactic Governance
“Our government will be managed by our most powerful citizens. They have more to gain and lose by the success of our society.”

Corporatocracy- Increased trade rate value. Bonus to adjacent wealth improvements. +Pragmatic ideology. Tech: Mercantile Party
“We have replaced our politicians with the corporations they represent. A citizen is only a cog in the wheel. Our corporations are eternal.”

Dark Enlightenment- Increased resistance. Lower approval. +Malevolent ideology. Tech: War Party
“Governments are prone to failure when the society must trust each citizen to survive. This is an opposition to the natural order, the king should rule the empire, the strong should rule the weak.”

 

I'm also going to featuring Deathwynd's Galactic Diversity Custom Traits mod (https://forums.galciv3.com/467967) and Gauntlet03's Custom Races mod (https://forums.galciv3.com/466227). If you haven't had a chance to try these 2 mods you should check them out, they are awesome!

 

33,684 views 20 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Yey.  Penalties for Bene.

There's something I'll never use.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Derek none of these Government types offer a chance to increase Economy which Pragmatic 'should' follow or allow.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

 

Just a mod of course. the important part is sharing the ability on how to do this stuff more that the actual impact (that way everyone can set it up however they want).

Originally I had Corporatocracy giving a straight wealth bonus, but I switched it to higher trade route value and boosting adjacent wealth improvements. It's intended to be the wealth focused government type.  It is in the "Overcouncil" line instead of the Technocracy line becuase it seemed to fit more into the evolution of that government type. But it may be interesting if I have Corporatocracy give a pragmatic boost and Cyberocracy give a malevolent so we can have some inner tree variance.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Could they not be added as potential upgrades to the Empire Capital?  I've tried doing this myself, but the game seems to hate having more than 1 possible upgrade per building, and also doesn't seem to take kindly to colony hubs being upgraded. Would be nice to see if I was doing it wrong, or if that's actually just unavoidable.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Corporatocracy should be Pragmatic, especially if the corporations keep their 'cogs' well-oiled.

Cyberocracy screams Malevolent.  Perfect propaganda?  Come on, you know those guys are evil.

Switch those and you might have something interesting here.

Side note:  "Cyberocracy" seems like an odd name for the propaganda machine.  Maybe "Information Oligarchy" or "Network Authority".  Or something else. *shrugs*

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Control of all the information sources is obviously Mediacracy.  ;)

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting naselus, reply 4

Could they not be added as potential upgrades to the Empire Capital?  I've tried doing this myself, but the game seems to hate having more than 1 possible upgrade per building, and also doesn't seem to take kindly to colony hubs being upgraded. Would be nice to see if I was doing it wrong, or if that's actually just unavoidable.

I tried this too, and ran into exactly the same problem. Thematically I like the concept of upgrading the civ capital into the various government forms but the game assumes that there is only 1 upgrade for a building. I added engine code to support multiple upgrade paths. It had to handle not auto-upgrading if there are multiple paths (I want he the human to make the decision) and needed changes in the UI to support it. It would have required QA testing before I could put that functionality out.  In the end I went with them as stand alone but blocking improvements because:

1. It didn't require new code (the secret to modding is always about making the most of the functionality you have available).

2. It made the the improvements effect much more clear (with capital upgrades the bonuses all stacked so it was hard to see the difference between the various type because fo the 12 things a capital does only 2 were different).

3. I was better able to tie into the adjacency system by allowing the player to select a new place for his AI Autocracy Hub or New Agrarianism Senate.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting doubledeviant, reply 5

Corporatocracy should be Pragmatic, especially if the corporations keep their 'cogs' well-oiled.

Cyberocracy screams Malevolent.  Perfect propaganda?  Come on, you know those guys are evil.

Switch those and you might have something interesting here.

Side note:  "Cyberocracy" seems like an odd name for the propaganda machine.  Maybe "Information Oligarchy" or "Network Authority".  Or something else. *shrugs*

I agree, I'll change it. Information Oligarchy has a delightfully dark feel to it.

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Finally, FINALLY some new governments, at least little bit!

Looking forward to this one, despite its just a mod :)

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I loved your other modding stream, I'll try to catch this one (if my IP lets me).

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Cool, I look forward to seeing you all!

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Will this stream be somewhere on Youtube like the usual dev streams?

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hi Derek, it was very interesting. Where can we download the mod?

And can´t you make a part of official 1.5 patch? :)

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting lyssailcor, reply 12

Will this stream be somewhere on Youtube like the usual dev streams?

They were guests on someone else's channel, so I suspect it would be up to the host as to whether it ends up on Youtube and not Stardock.  However, the host, GOGcom, have an archive of the stream on their twitch page.  Be forewarned there were audio issues throughout the stream where the second Stardock person was quite low in volume.

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting The, reply 14


Quoting lyssailcor,
reply 12

Will this stream be somewhere on Youtube like the usual dev streams?



They were guests on someone else's channel, so I suspect it would be up to the host as to whether it ends up on Youtube and not Stardock.  However, the host, GOGcom, have an archive of the stream on their twitch page.  Be forewarned there were audio issues throughout the stream where the second Stardock person was quite low in volume.

Ok, thanks.

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Derek Paxton is wasted just being a suit.This is the sort of immersion that should have been in the game.

Reply #18 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Derek, I am also interested in installing this mod. Is your stream instructions on how to do so or do you have an actual mod with an install (exe) uploaded somewhere (looks at nexus mods)...

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 18

Derek, I am also interested in installing this mod. Is your stream instructions on how to do so or do you have an actual mod with an install (exe) uploaded somewhere (looks at nexus mods)...

 

It wouldn't need an exe, it's just a few xml files that need to be changed. It'd be very easy to recreate, tbh; I've not watched the stream but adding new buildings is not difficult and makes for a good first-time modding lesson.

Reply #20 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Ill give it a whirl this weekend.