AeEsBii
04-02-2011, 03:55 PM
This is probably next to impossible to mod, but for the sake of putting forth an idea about game depth I was thinking that population and citizen management could be made a bit more dynamic.
To start with, specialists could require training, which depending on the type of specialist will cost some production, science, and/or culture. You could assign a regular citizen to a specialist slot, but doing so would have some penalty, like 1 unhappiness. Specialists assigned to the wrong slot generate 2 unhappiness (ie, an artist in an engineer slot). You can re-train a specialist, but this takes twice as long compared to training a regular citizen; you can also un-train a specialist, but this takes as long as it would to train. (Don't think of un-training as making the "same" citizen lose their skills, but rather that the next generation didn't follow the same path.)
Additionally, drop workers as units. Citizens can be assigned to work a tile. They can further be ordered to improve the tile, which still takes a number of turns. Engineers can build most improvements faster, but then are unhappy if they're used as farmers or something (so they'd have to be swapped out for a regular citizen; or maybe that step could be automated). Engineers in a city have the additional option to design a road, where you lay down each section of road and confirm the project.
When you pillage a tile, there's the possibility of capturing a citizen (since there aren't workers anymore). These captured citizens can either be slaves, who generate unhappiness but can be sent to one of your cities to work; or prisoners, which requires a prison to send them to, but they don't generate extra unhappiness (they will consume food, though, and prisons themselves have maintenance and a limited number of slots). When a slave or prisoner is set free it will always return to its civilization of origin (unless that civilization has been conquered, in which case it just disappears). Capturing a city full of slaves or prisoners gives you the option of keeping them or releasing them.
A new type of specialist could be the "soldier", which can be assigned to forts, walls, etc. for improved defense; or possibly improve the defense of any unit on a tile to which they're assigned. When a military unit is trained, a soldier specialist is placed in a dummy building representing active-duty soldiers. Initial training of the soldier specialist can include a gold cost, but after that it costs food in upkeep (mechanically already in place because it's a specialist citizen in a city). Perhaps gold maintenance of units could be removed for most units, then, since they'll cost food. If a city is starving, then active-duty soldiers are the last citizens to die (and their corresponding units will die when active-duty soldier slots die). Soldiers can be moved to other cities with better food production.
On that note, it should be possible to relocate citizens, perhaps at a temporary (un)happiness penalty. (Except the above-mentioned soldiers.)
I think these ideas would create a better distinction between the empire/city management part of the game, and the tactical/war part of the game (although they obviously still influence one another). Likes? Dislikes? Amendments?
To start with, specialists could require training, which depending on the type of specialist will cost some production, science, and/or culture. You could assign a regular citizen to a specialist slot, but doing so would have some penalty, like 1 unhappiness. Specialists assigned to the wrong slot generate 2 unhappiness (ie, an artist in an engineer slot). You can re-train a specialist, but this takes twice as long compared to training a regular citizen; you can also un-train a specialist, but this takes as long as it would to train. (Don't think of un-training as making the "same" citizen lose their skills, but rather that the next generation didn't follow the same path.)
Additionally, drop workers as units. Citizens can be assigned to work a tile. They can further be ordered to improve the tile, which still takes a number of turns. Engineers can build most improvements faster, but then are unhappy if they're used as farmers or something (so they'd have to be swapped out for a regular citizen; or maybe that step could be automated). Engineers in a city have the additional option to design a road, where you lay down each section of road and confirm the project.
When you pillage a tile, there's the possibility of capturing a citizen (since there aren't workers anymore). These captured citizens can either be slaves, who generate unhappiness but can be sent to one of your cities to work; or prisoners, which requires a prison to send them to, but they don't generate extra unhappiness (they will consume food, though, and prisons themselves have maintenance and a limited number of slots). When a slave or prisoner is set free it will always return to its civilization of origin (unless that civilization has been conquered, in which case it just disappears). Capturing a city full of slaves or prisoners gives you the option of keeping them or releasing them.
A new type of specialist could be the "soldier", which can be assigned to forts, walls, etc. for improved defense; or possibly improve the defense of any unit on a tile to which they're assigned. When a military unit is trained, a soldier specialist is placed in a dummy building representing active-duty soldiers. Initial training of the soldier specialist can include a gold cost, but after that it costs food in upkeep (mechanically already in place because it's a specialist citizen in a city). Perhaps gold maintenance of units could be removed for most units, then, since they'll cost food. If a city is starving, then active-duty soldiers are the last citizens to die (and their corresponding units will die when active-duty soldier slots die). Soldiers can be moved to other cities with better food production.
On that note, it should be possible to relocate citizens, perhaps at a temporary (un)happiness penalty. (Except the above-mentioned soldiers.)
I think these ideas would create a better distinction between the empire/city management part of the game, and the tactical/war part of the game (although they obviously still influence one another). Likes? Dislikes? Amendments?