After writing my thoughts on economy I thought to myself while out walking
and as such I am here going to present an idea to create custom governments to make species even more unique.
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As I see it the government types can be deconstructed using 4 properties
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Focus of Power
This is fairly evidence what this entails, is it ruled by majority, minority or just one? If we focus on who holds the power we can reduce the number to just 2 alternatives, either a group of people holds the power or just one. A senate, a president etc. This would require some rework as I see it because as it is now, I feel oligocracies and democracies don't differ enough, it's just the time between elections and that is not how they differ. As such we have this in my idea
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Duration
How long does one collection of rulers, or one ruler, last? I should note that finite just means any arbitrary non-zero number while ∞ simply refers to the ruler(s) sitting for life. For an oligocracy this means each member sits until they die at which a new one is choosen.
This is where our concept of democracy comes in, as said the DoP is only where the main power is, not how the person or people acquire it. Clearly Duration = ∞ means not democratic? No, even in monarchies we have had elections, elective monarchies anyone? So you can have a democratic system where the ruler sits the entire time until they die. So there would be a checkbox that says wether or not it is an elective system. Along with a slider that decides the time one leader sits, where it starts with for life and then goes 5 years, 6 and so onward up to 200 years or something like that.
A natural question is how does one have a finite ruling time without any election? It can be done by having for example (I am just conjuring now a system) where a predetermined line of successors are decided according to some rules and once your time is up, the next one is up in line. In the game it would play out as every 15 year let's say you suddenly get a new leader you have no control over like clockwork, unless they die.
The elective box/alternative would be, compared to the modern system, sensitive to individualist/collective ethos.
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Ruling class
Every society have a ruling class of people, our modern society it shows less but it tends toward merchants/businessmen often being the ruling class. Please don't go on this and start a political thing that's not the point! Anyway this was more prominent in the old days where you had different people more stratified. Either way here it determines which group of people hold the primary power in society? Which ones have the greatest influence? An old saying is "You can see what the ruling class of a society is by watching who has the biggest buildings".
Typical examples of ruling classes through history are
In the game this would play out in several ways
Individual bonuses
This is a section to pick the pros/cons beyond merely how thegovernment works, are you focused on tech, admin efficiency etc. This would be like traits where you purchase certain bonuses with points to tailor it more into what you want it to be.
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Now I will go into Giving examples from the current list of governments and what they would be here, I ignore the bonuses as they are evident, I use the descriptions of their idea more than their current gameplace.
Military Dictatorship:
FoP: Autocracy
Duration: ∞
RC: Military
Science Directorate:
FoP: Oligocracy
Duration: Finite or ∞
RC: Gnostic
Direct Democracy:
FoP: Autocracy
Duration: Finite
RC: None
Indirect Democracy:
FoP: Oligocracy
Duration: Finite
RC: None
Some might find it strange that I assigt Autocracy to a democracy but the reason there is, as I understand that one, is that they use a president that contains all the primary power, hence it is a one man rule for short periods of time, hence the placement. Indirect one specifically say people to represent the people so naturally it is a group so Oligocracy.
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I feel like this could give us more options to do governments to fit our playstyle as well more options! A few additional things one can think of, related to this, is a wargoal called "enforce government" where you force a an empire to take on your government type. A similar interaction would exist for vassals logically. However I imagen such an act on a vassal might not bother the nation too much but can make the people quite pissed off and hence give it problems that risks it flipping back.
There are options and possibilities in this that has not been used by the current forms of governments which would make it more fun and interesting, also imagen the roleplaying capabilities! You can give histories to how it came to be. If you can designate what the titles are, governor and all, then it could reflect even more for immersion into your empire!
For these kind of custom governments I'd say the icon would just be the coloured circle (choosen perhaps or determined) and the small empires symbol on it.
"Why only limit freedom to species, ethos and economy? Governments could be done too!"
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As I see it the government types can be deconstructed using 4 properties
- Focus of power, That is oligocratic or autocratic.
- Duration, finite or ∞.
- Ruling class of people
- Individual bonuses
-------------------------
Focus of Power
This is fairly evidence what this entails, is it ruled by majority, minority or just one? If we focus on who holds the power we can reduce the number to just 2 alternatives, either a group of people holds the power or just one. A senate, a president etc. This would require some rework as I see it because as it is now, I feel oligocracies and democracies don't differ enough, it's just the time between elections and that is not how they differ. As such we have this in my idea
- Autocracy: Clearly one ruler holds the entire power, their properties determine entirely the bonuses one gets from there
- Oligocracy: A group of people rule, here I'd say rather than those elections (which I get to later) all it means is that there is a small group of entities that sit in a council. Here each one adds a bit of bonuses but they are not as potent as the autocratic ones. You got more that can be spread out but are all smaller in value.
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Duration
How long does one collection of rulers, or one ruler, last? I should note that finite just means any arbitrary non-zero number while ∞ simply refers to the ruler(s) sitting for life. For an oligocracy this means each member sits until they die at which a new one is choosen.
This is where our concept of democracy comes in, as said the DoP is only where the main power is, not how the person or people acquire it. Clearly Duration = ∞ means not democratic? No, even in monarchies we have had elections, elective monarchies anyone? So you can have a democratic system where the ruler sits the entire time until they die. So there would be a checkbox that says wether or not it is an elective system. Along with a slider that decides the time one leader sits, where it starts with for life and then goes 5 years, 6 and so onward up to 200 years or something like that.
A natural question is how does one have a finite ruling time without any election? It can be done by having for example (I am just conjuring now a system) where a predetermined line of successors are decided according to some rules and once your time is up, the next one is up in line. In the game it would play out as every 15 year let's say you suddenly get a new leader you have no control over like clockwork, unless they die.
The elective box/alternative would be, compared to the modern system, sensitive to individualist/collective ethos.
-------------------------
Ruling class
Every society have a ruling class of people, our modern society it shows less but it tends toward merchants/businessmen often being the ruling class. Please don't go on this and start a political thing that's not the point! Anyway this was more prominent in the old days where you had different people more stratified. Either way here it determines which group of people hold the primary power in society? Which ones have the greatest influence? An old saying is "You can see what the ruling class of a society is by watching who has the biggest buildings".
Typical examples of ruling classes through history are
- Military
- Priesthood
- Merchant
- Blueblood (Also known as nobels)
- Academic/Gnostic
- Bureaucrats
In the game this would play out in several ways
- It determines what kind of pool the rulers come from, the general/admirals, scientists or governors
- In electives it gives us a choice to have in our government. Whom has the right to vote? All vs Ruling class, all represent a proper democracy as we view it, ruling class is the older kinds we are familiar with.
- It can also add bonuses and determine bonuses.
- The choices up there is obviously sensitive to ethos.
Individual bonuses
This is a section to pick the pros/cons beyond merely how thegovernment works, are you focused on tech, admin efficiency etc. This would be like traits where you purchase certain bonuses with points to tailor it more into what you want it to be.
-------------------------
Now I will go into Giving examples from the current list of governments and what they would be here, I ignore the bonuses as they are evident, I use the descriptions of their idea more than their current gameplace.
FoP: Autocracy
Duration: ∞
RC: Military
FoP: Oligocracy
Duration: Finite or ∞
RC: Gnostic
FoP: Autocracy
Duration: Finite
RC: None
FoP: Oligocracy
Duration: Finite
RC: None
Some might find it strange that I assigt Autocracy to a democracy but the reason there is, as I understand that one, is that they use a president that contains all the primary power, hence it is a one man rule for short periods of time, hence the placement. Indirect one specifically say people to represent the people so naturally it is a group so Oligocracy.
-------------------------
I feel like this could give us more options to do governments to fit our playstyle as well more options! A few additional things one can think of, related to this, is a wargoal called "enforce government" where you force a an empire to take on your government type. A similar interaction would exist for vassals logically. However I imagen such an act on a vassal might not bother the nation too much but can make the people quite pissed off and hence give it problems that risks it flipping back.
There are options and possibilities in this that has not been used by the current forms of governments which would make it more fun and interesting, also imagen the roleplaying capabilities! You can give histories to how it came to be. If you can designate what the titles are, governor and all, then it could reflect even more for immersion into your empire!
For these kind of custom governments I'd say the icon would just be the coloured circle (choosen perhaps or determined) and the small empires symbol on it.
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