Rise and Fall of Empires
Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 2:33 am
I don't know if this is the right place to post this kind of thing, but I would like to sugest new mechanics for Freeciv.
I've played lots of different games, like Europa Universalis and Civilization (and Freeciv, of course), and, although I like all of these games, there is always one thing that bothers me: there is always one empire that will "rule" the world. For example, if you watch any timelapse of EU4, in the end of the video, you'll have an empire that covers most of the world, and you know there's no way this empire can fall. And things didn't work this way troughout history: ALL of the largest empires the world has ever seen, all of then came and disappeared. Rome fell, Alexander's conquests were split among his generals, and even the Brittanic Empire, one that got very close to "rule the entire world", even they went away. No empire lasts forever, as we can see. Of course, I might be looking to much on the realism side here, but what about the gameplay? Well, I believe that if this scenario comes true, there'll be lots of improvement for the gameplay too, because we would have a truly never-ending game.
So, how can we achieve this? It seems that all of these empires I talked about (Mongols, Rome, etc.), all of then were victims of their own size. They were simply "too big" to maintain. Rome had to split in eastern and western halves, the Mongol Empire was divided later on, too. This happens because huge empires are an admnistrative nightmare, and sooner or later, problems will arise. So, how can we achieve this in Freeciv? My sugestion is to make city management harder. To make it harder to satisfy your citizens, basically. Nothing about war or battle here, only the management part. I also think that, after some turns, cities in revolt should separate from your nation, and form a new nation of it's own (like a civil war, but only this city and it's home unities would be affected). If the city in question is your capital, well, you lose your game, and your nation turns into a new nation entirely, with all your cities joining this new nation. So, when your empire gets too big, it would have more cities for you to take care, and the game would become harder.
Another idea I have, is to add the hability to create a client state (I don't think this one I am going to talk about is the right definition of 'client state', but I need something to name this). If your empire is too big for you to control, you can designate part of it to become a client state, basically a new nation in the game, which would be your ally. Imagine that this is like when Rome divided itself in eastern and western empires. So, why would you do this? Well, when you create a client state, an AI takes care of this new nation, so you don't need to worry about it's cities, sparing you of some cities to take care. However, this AI will be a very loyal one: this new nation is your ally, and it's forced to accept any deals you make with it (whether you are asking for gold, to attack another player, literally anything). By doing this, we'll give the AI free will enough to take care of this part of your empire, but not enough to "stop being your nation". It's literally a slave nation of yours.
This client state should have it's own capital. It would work just like your nation's capital: if the capital falls to an enemy power, all of the cities belonging to your client state goes to this enemy. Also, if a revolt strikes in this capital, all of it's cities joins the new nation (so, it's like your client state revolted against you). When this happens, the client state becomes a full nation, able to work by itself, with the freedom to make and refuses any deal, to start and end war with anyone, etc. It becomes a nation like any other.
This is some of my sugestions. It doesn't need to be part of the main game, it could be a new ruleset, or something like that. And yes, english is not my native language
I've played lots of different games, like Europa Universalis and Civilization (and Freeciv, of course), and, although I like all of these games, there is always one thing that bothers me: there is always one empire that will "rule" the world. For example, if you watch any timelapse of EU4, in the end of the video, you'll have an empire that covers most of the world, and you know there's no way this empire can fall. And things didn't work this way troughout history: ALL of the largest empires the world has ever seen, all of then came and disappeared. Rome fell, Alexander's conquests were split among his generals, and even the Brittanic Empire, one that got very close to "rule the entire world", even they went away. No empire lasts forever, as we can see. Of course, I might be looking to much on the realism side here, but what about the gameplay? Well, I believe that if this scenario comes true, there'll be lots of improvement for the gameplay too, because we would have a truly never-ending game.
So, how can we achieve this? It seems that all of these empires I talked about (Mongols, Rome, etc.), all of then were victims of their own size. They were simply "too big" to maintain. Rome had to split in eastern and western halves, the Mongol Empire was divided later on, too. This happens because huge empires are an admnistrative nightmare, and sooner or later, problems will arise. So, how can we achieve this in Freeciv? My sugestion is to make city management harder. To make it harder to satisfy your citizens, basically. Nothing about war or battle here, only the management part. I also think that, after some turns, cities in revolt should separate from your nation, and form a new nation of it's own (like a civil war, but only this city and it's home unities would be affected). If the city in question is your capital, well, you lose your game, and your nation turns into a new nation entirely, with all your cities joining this new nation. So, when your empire gets too big, it would have more cities for you to take care, and the game would become harder.
Another idea I have, is to add the hability to create a client state (I don't think this one I am going to talk about is the right definition of 'client state', but I need something to name this). If your empire is too big for you to control, you can designate part of it to become a client state, basically a new nation in the game, which would be your ally. Imagine that this is like when Rome divided itself in eastern and western empires. So, why would you do this? Well, when you create a client state, an AI takes care of this new nation, so you don't need to worry about it's cities, sparing you of some cities to take care. However, this AI will be a very loyal one: this new nation is your ally, and it's forced to accept any deals you make with it (whether you are asking for gold, to attack another player, literally anything). By doing this, we'll give the AI free will enough to take care of this part of your empire, but not enough to "stop being your nation". It's literally a slave nation of yours.
This client state should have it's own capital. It would work just like your nation's capital: if the capital falls to an enemy power, all of the cities belonging to your client state goes to this enemy. Also, if a revolt strikes in this capital, all of it's cities joins the new nation (so, it's like your client state revolted against you). When this happens, the client state becomes a full nation, able to work by itself, with the freedom to make and refuses any deal, to start and end war with anyone, etc. It becomes a nation like any other.
This is some of my sugestions. It doesn't need to be part of the main game, it could be a new ruleset, or something like that. And yes, english is not my native language