Government roulette

What would you like to see in Freeciv? Do you have a good idea what should be improved or how?
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adamo
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2014 6:48 pm

Government roulette

Post by adamo »

I would opt for a "government roulette". This is a custom option, which would randomize the game.

1. How would that work?

If the flag is on (GVT_ROULETTE=YES), the game actively changes the government types for all the players. All civs behave like they they "knew" all government types from the beginning and never has any periods of Anarchy between changes of the government (except for one case, descripted below), so any government can be implemented at any time. A player cannot cause the revolution and change the government by himself; instead, it's the game ("his people"), who does it randomly for him ("your people just got bored with Communism and wants Monarchy").

You can choose three things:

=> governments available (Anarchy is not recommended here),
=> minimum duration between government switch,
=> maximum duration between government switch.

First, all players starts with despotism, as usual. The game sets random period (number of turns) to the next overthrow (like 20-60 turns). This number can differ for every player (it's always random). When it comes to the revolution, the game sets up new, randomly chosen government. Then it sets a new number of turns for this government. And so on. There is no revolution (Anarchy) period between government switches.

2. Why?

Because it would randomize the gameplay, if someone is interested. And make game more unpredictable. Every random period you must adapt to new conditions. You have to be ready for everything. The changes are like the weather - which we doesn't have influence on: it's sometimes good, sometimes bad; you never know. But it's equal, because it affects all the players.

It's your people, who does the revolutions - not you!

The Anarchy period is restricted to the situation when your people are unhappy. I can imagine that the player could make people unhappy intentionally, just to cause the "fake" revolution and overthrown the government he doesn't like at the moment (ex: imagine, that you're preparing for a war, and suddenly you get democracy - what a surprise!; you'd like to change it to successfully provide a war at your conditions). To avoid that, this activity must not be profitable. We can solve it by a number of ways, for example:

=> long periods of Anarchy if revolution is caused by player's actions (citizen's unhappiness),
=> forgetting a science (during anarchy time, there's a turmoil, libraries plundering, decline of educational system...),
=> loss of reputation (civ with Anarchy is considered as a "failed state" by others),
=> loss of money,
=> maybe even some slight chance for a civil war outbreak (that'd be quite harsh punishment, but would definitely discourage player from undertaking this kind of activity),
=> etc.

IMO, this is worth to test.

Suppose there are 4 players and we pick Despotism, Monarchy, Communism, Republic and Democracy to be randomly changed between period of 20-60 turns. A typical timeline of ~300 turns would look like this (must be showed in full screen to be displayed correctly):

Code: Select all

Typical timeline of revolutions with 4 civs & random government (without anarchy) between 20-60 turns:

Game|Current gvt change     | AZTECS    +turns to| GERMANS   +turns to| CHINESE   +turns to| RUSSIANS  +turns to
turn|                       |            change  |            change  |            change  |            change  
    |                       |                    |                    |                    |                    
    |AZTEC/GERM./CHIN./RUSS.|*Revolution         |*Revolution         |*Revolution         |*Revolution         
    |                       |                    |                    |                    |                    
000 |A(ds) G(ds) C(ds) R(ds)|*Despotism +20 (20) |*Despotism +47 (47) |*Despotism +32 (32) |*Despotism +52 (52) 
020 |A(co)                  |*Communism +42 (62) | Despotism          | Despotism          | Despotism          
032 |            C(mo)      | Communism          | Despotism          |*Monarchy  +59 (91) | Despotism          
047 |      G(mo)            | Communism          |*Monarchy  +52 (99) | Monarchy           | Despotism          
052 |                  R(de)| Communism          | Monarchy           | Monarchy           |*Democracy +31 (83) 
062 |A(mo)                  |*Monarchy  +43 (105)| Monarchy           | Monarchy           | Democracy          
083 |                  R(co)| Monarchy           | Monarchy           | Monarchy           |*Communism +26 (109)
091 |            C(co)      | Monarchy           | Monarchy           |*Communism +39 (130)| Communism          
099 |      G(co)            | Monarchy           |*Communism +30 (129)| Communism          | Communism          
105 |A(ds)                  |*Despotism +51 (156)| Communism          | Communism          | Communism          
109 |                  R(mo)| Despotism          | Communism          | Communism          |*Monarchy  +22 (130)
129 |      G(ds)            | Despotism          |*Despotism +42 (171)| Communism          | Monarchy           
130 |            C(de) R(re)| Despotism          | Despotism          |*Democracy +38 (168)|*Republic  +50 (180)
156 |A(re)                  |*Republic  +42 (198)| Despotism          | Democracy          | Republic           
168 |            C(ds)      | Republic           | Despotism          |*Despotism +57 (225)| Republic           
171 |      G(de)            | Republic           |*Democracy +35 (206)| Despotism          | Republic           
180 |                  R(co)| Republic           | Democracy          | Despotism          |*Communism +23 (203)
198 |A(co)                  |*Communism +56 (254)| Democracy          | Despotism          | Communism          
203 |                  R(ds)| Communism          | Democracy          | Despotism          |*Despotism +60 (263)
206 |      G(mo)            | Communism          |*Monarchy  +21 (227)| Despotism          | Despotism          
225 |            C(de)      | Communism          | Monarchy           |*Democracy +30 (255)| Despotism          
227 |      G(re)            | Communism          |*Republic  +57 (282)| Democracy          | Despotism          
254 |A(de)                  |*Democracy +51 (305)| Republic           | Democracy          | Despotism          
255 |            C(mo)      | Democracy          | Republic           |*Monarchy  +43 (298)| Despotism          
263 |                  R(co)| Democracy          | Republic           | Monarchy           |*Communism +42 (305)
282 |      G(ds)            | Democracy          |*Despotism +38 (320)| Monarchy           | Communism          
298 |            C(co)      | Democracy          | Despotism          |*Communism +51 (349)| Communism          
305 |A(re)             R(ds)|*Republic  +57 (362)| Despotism          | Communism          |*Despotism +22 (327)
320 |      G(mo)            | Republic           |*Monarchy  +40 (360)| Communism          | Despotism          
327 |     ...               |     ...            |     ...            |     ...            |     ...           
349 |     ...               |     ...            |     ...            |     ...            |     ...           
360 |     ...               |     ...            |     ...            |     ...            |     ...          
362 |     ...               |     ...            |     ...            |     ...            |     ...          
Code description: as you can see, the Aztecs starts with Despotism. After 20 turns it changes to Communism (turn #20). After 42 turns it changes to Monarchy (turn #62). Monarchy lasts 43 turns (starting from turn #105) and then there's a period of 51 turns of Despotism (which starts at turn #156). Then there's 42 turns of Republic (#198), then comes a Communism for 56 turns (at turn #254), which is replaced by Democracy (which lasts 51 turns, start at #305). Then the Republic comes and will be changed after 57 turns. In turn #362 it will be replaced with something else (surprise, maybe we'll come back to Monarchy for a while?).

All in all, this option is for players, who likes an unpredictable surprises and likes to play risky. The difference between predictable and unpredictable gameplay is just like between playing chess and playing poker.
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