Greetings all!
Today,
@Chopmist will be taking you through the mission trees for the final nation we’re covering in the Heirs of Alexander content pack: Macedon.
Before we deal with the bloodthirsty Kassander however, it’s time to explain some of the mechanics I’ve been teasing on twitter over the holidays.
Civilization Value
There are some significant changes coming to civ value. As an abstraction, it has never quite resonated with me - it is used at various points in the game to represent different things, and can be largely ignored beyond a certain point.
For the purposes of this rework, local civilization value is being more explicitly defined as the state of the infrastructure and sanitation of any given location. The monthly growth of civilization is not being changed explicitly, and this represents the education level and tradition of learning in a location. A territory with low growth will take longer to reach the cap, as before.
Where previously, civilization had a significant impact on the happiness of poptypes, this is being reduced. This is in part due to the cultural rework which focused on cultural poptypes and citizenship - after all, why should a citizen or noble resent living in a low infrastructure province if that is the norm for the area? Instead, the cultural impact of your pops will be far more important to the stability of your nation.
Civilization will now have a significant impact on the output capabilities of a province, and should be regarded as one of the most important local values. As such, we’re giving it pride of place in the new territory UI:
View attachment 669127
The effects of civilization are similarly important:
View attachment 669128
As you can see, the civilization value of a territory still has some effect on happiness, but far more impact on the overall output. Population output is now also tracked in the territory UI:
View attachment 669129
A territory will ‘break even’ at 30 civilization value, assuming no other modifiers are present. The output of territories where the dominant culture is not integrated will be subject to a further penalty, as will settlements:
View attachment 669130
(nb: the current starting max civilization level has not yet been adjusted for any territories - it will appear as over the cap in many of these WIP screenshots)
Pops will be relatively happy living in rural provinces, but will produce less compared to their urban brethren. This can of course be offset, as we will find out later.
Generating Civilization Cap
Along with these changes, an important change to the way in which we generate civilization cap is being introduced:
View attachment 669131
The contributions from government type and oratory technology have been drastically reduced, and are likely to be reduced even further. Instead, local factors become far more relevant - namely: buildings.
Most buildings will now contribute directly to civilization capacity in a territory, providing a huge amount more local variance in development levels throughout the map. Later in the game, you can expect to see flourishing capitals approaching 70-90% civilization, with values higher than this being reserved for those truly keen on eking the most out of their territories.
Building Changes
Related to the above, the building system is undergoing a minor refactor. As an addendum, I’d like to point out that while I’m aware many of you want a deep cultural building system, that is not something that we have the scope to address in this update.
View attachment 669132
City buildings have now been split into two categories -limited and unlimited. The top row of buildings are theoretically unlimited, and will function similarly to before - albeit with some rebalance, and now adding to civilization cap.
View attachment 669133
Most of the repeatable buildings will grant 2 civilization cap, with the notable exception of Aqueducts, which will function as before, granting flat local population capacity.
The bottom row of buildings are limited to a finite and unmodifiable (during gameplay) quantity. This functionality will of course be available to modders. Many of these limited buildings (with the exception of ratio buildings) will also require unlocking in the invention trees.
View attachment 669134
Pop ratio buildings are limited to 3, somewhat limiting the viability of mono-pop cities:
View attachment 669135
Finite buildings will be ‘capped’ visually to ensure you are aware you’ve reached the cap:
View attachment 669136
All the numbers you’re seeing are still subject to balance, of course. These changes aim to reduce some of the micromanagement and choice paralysis associated with having up to 16 unique buildings in an arbitrary number of cities, as well as adding some depth and progression to city building by tying buildings to the new technology system. In addition, the ‘gardening’ feeling is something that I know many of our players enjoy - playing tall and getting the most out of your pops should be enhanced by many of these changes.
Settlements will not be entirely left untouched by these changes, either. One of the big choices you’ll have to make during your campaign, if you head down the civic invention tree, is likely to interest those with a penchant for construction:
View attachment 669137
While still likely subject to balance, this exclusive choice will enable you to more definitively choose a ‘tall’ or ‘wide’ focus. Note that along with this change, all settlement buildings will still be unique - you are unable to sport a settlement with 2 mines, however you would be able to construct both a mine and a fort, or a barracks and tribal settlement.
/Arheo
