Suggestion: Civilization De-Buff "Cultural Envy"

[Mathias Hansen]

I've seen quite some games now and want to make a suggestion on a de-buff.

In our actual game there´s a civilization with one mega overpowered player who could dominate every other civ all by himself. Every other player in, what he called HIS civilization is an average one or slightly above average. Even I call myself just average. However noone is even close to this one player. He holds 75% of the ministries for all the time (is crying in chat when he looses a ministry because he would do a better job than the actual minister) and sponsers nearly the whole army by himself. I mean respect to him for being so good and see through the whole game but I think it isn't fair. We have about 40 players (about 30-35 are equal in Ranking), they 15-16 (1-2 totally overpowered players) and they wipe the floor with us.

Yes, I'm complaining and whining about the fact that this is possible. In our civilization we play so that everyone has a voice and everyone is a part of the whole thing.

So I'm thinking about a penalty called "Cultural Envy" or somthing like that which punishes the whole civilization. Maybe giving about -75% of all resources and maybe limit the dominate player in any terms of playing (have to think about actual examples) as long as there aren't at least 50% - 60% of all players of this civ close to each other in ranking.

What do you think about my suggestion? Is it a good one? Do I need to work on it, I welcome constructive criticism. Or is it just overreaction, how do you see it? I think it's a social game and not a One vs. World

[Lagwolf]

Yes, there is a tendency for a few people to dominate & make the game a bit irrelevant for the rest of us. There is a serious game balance going on and it would be help if there were some sort of leveler.

[Mythdracon]

I think putting caps on resources would help, so that things can't be sold for TRULY ridiculous prices all because of one person. Or maybe limit the no. of times you can sell a resource in a day.

[angelar]

If it was me I'd be working with the rest of the civ to depose him as much as possible if this was the case. Or, as I've done before, walk out of a civ if I felt a team mate was working to stab me in the back.

Sometimes people end up in the top position a lot as a side effect of them, well, just knowing what they are doing rather than chasing glory. Or, in my case, I can be on during some of the 8 hours of the day the rest of the civ are asleep and I just get on with doing some stuff and promotion is a natural side-effect of that. But I try to make sure the less experienced players have a good chance of getting era wins in the top spots. I have to say I have deliberately stolen a defense ministry off someone, but only because I knew they would be offline during the next battle and I would be around.

Personally, I think the way to go is to work with people so they learn the game mechanics and can do as good a job as possible. In the beta we need to show and explain the winning strategies to other players so that the game stays competitive and enjoyable. That sort of domination means it's difficult to find people to work with you in future either 'cos they won't play with your or play against you.