Government type "Meritocracy" [ Technology Requirement: Leadership ]

[Stragonian]

Greeting - I've been wondering how to create my own Freeciv multiplayer mods?

A long time ago I played both Sid Meier's "Civilization 2" and Activision's "Civilization: Call to Power" and they had some really fun tech in those games. I learned how to mod and create units and change the game play in Activision's "Civilization: Call to Power".

Later, I found Freeciv and though since it's GPL and all that - I might be able to modify the Freeciv even more - because I came up with a government type I wanted to try and create.

Anyway - Since I once created new units in Activation's CTP1, I was hoping to create those same units and experiment with a new type of government type in Freeciv.

Government type "Meritocracy" [ Technology Requirements: Leadership ]

During the Enlightenment (1600s–1700s), European thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke started publishing works based on the ideal of equality of opportunity and education, for achievement within social status. The ideal was to earn leadership position rather than leadership being bestowed upon a person due to inherited, aristocratic, or political traits and ideologies.

This led to a lot of merit based ideals winning over free societies and leaders like Abraham Lincoln. Rather than social status based on birth, a merit system based on achievements would govern societies behavior. Eventually, the ideals of meritocracy destroyed most caste systems and slavery within the free world.

Abraham Lincoln: Celebrated the idea that labor and personal achievement could raise a person's status, treating human skill and ingenuity as an economic resource. His "free labor" speeches and First Annual Message to Congress hint at this view.

While the word meritocracy wasn't officially used until 1958, the ideal of a meritocracy has been around since the 1700s. I thought a government based on meritocracy would be a good counterbalance to communism in Freeciv.

As a Meritocracy, form of government would not suffer unhappiness due to having a large number of cities ( provided you have a high rank in the demographics ).

In a Meritocracy form of government, the happiness of the citizens is determined based on the nation's demographic rankings. The more your nation is in the lead on demographic rankings the happier your citizen are and the less you have need of temples, cathedrals, ect ... However, the lower you are on the demographic ranking the more your nation needs to build temples, cathedrals, etc ... to keep your citizens happy.

Like communism, there would be no limit to the number of cities you can build that would make your citizens unhappy. In fact, if your country has more cities than any other country, your #1 rank would be a cause for celebration. However, when a Meritocracy's ranks lowers within the demographics, that is when there is a cause for alarm and unhappy citizens.

As the lower the country's ranking is in all the various demographics, the greater their reliance on city improvements for happiness become - like temples, cathedrals, etc ...

The Leader's Title would be "Champion of the People - Name" or just "Champion - Name"

Minimum # of cities for citizens to be content = 20 ( Because Meritocracy requires leadership - the nation should have at least 20 cities by that time, otherwise it will cause unhappiness. ) The fewer cities away from 20 cities, the more unhappy the citizens are in the game until you build 20 cities.

Citizens have no problem with large numbers of cities or military units, but casualty reports and the loss of cities make them unhappy, and angry citizens. The more units from a support city are lost in conflict, the more likely their support city will be unhappy and angry until the units are replaced or avenged.

Rather than a maximum number of cities that make your citizens unhappy, the number of cities taken by other countries, or destroyed, make your citizens unhappy.

Say, if you loose 12 or more cities - 1 citizen will become unhappy in every city, and for every 10 cities you loose after that 1 more citizen becomes unhappy.

If one of those cities lost had a "Small Wonder" it will make 1+ citizens unhappy ( 1 citizen in your smaller cities and 2 citizens in larger cities ), and loosing your capital makes 2 citizens unhappy in every city.

How you set your tax rates determine the priority of what will make your citizen's anger.

If you set a high rate for science, and you are coming in at a high rate of literacy, then your citizens will be happy. But, if you set a high rate for science and your literacy is in last place, your citizen will be angry.

If you set a high rate for luxuries but don't have a lot of city improvements, then your citizens will become anger, and you will need to build a lot of city improvements to make them happy.

If you set a high rate for income tax and your nation isn't wealthy, and have a lot of trade routes, your citizens will become anger and you will need to establish more trade routes and become wealthier as a nation.

If you have a large number of military units, and you lose a lot of battles, your citizens will become anger, and you will need to create more veteran troops and/or avenge the fallen.

Because everything in a Meritocracy is based on merit - the better your country outperforms other countries, the happier your citizens remain. While the lower you are ranked in the demographics, the more unhappiness you have to deal with in your country by building city improvements related to happiness.

Under a Meritocracy, bribes work when the country is ranked low in military achievements and technology; however, when ranked high in military achievements and technology, bribes don't work.

For example - if you are in a Meritocracy and your country is say, 5 or 6 advances a head of another country their attempt to bribe your unit will have a higher probability of failure; but if that other country is say, 5 or 6 advances a head of your Meritocracy the bribe will have a greater likelihood of success.

Because the citizens within a Meritocracy see everything as a competition and that the reward goes to the best and brightest, they live to outperform all other competitors.

This gives them a drive to be more productive and resourceful than any other government, which in turn causes them to be less concerned with entertainment, as happiness is found in achievement, while unhappiness and anger are found in losses.

Anyway - all that to say, I don't know how to create the new government type of "Meritocracy" in Freeciv or make that government's happiness, corruption, etc ... based on demographic ranks. So, I'm looking for help to create "Meritocracy" as a government type.

Any help would be appreciated? I have other ideal for units and such, but I'd like to get the government type of "Meritocracy" figured out first - if that is possible.

[cazfi]

Most of those features are not possible with current ruleset formats. This will certainly require a lot of C-coding to extend the ruleset format to support all of them.

[Stragonian]

Can we start with what does work?

Meritocracy could start out as a government that disables the cap on the number of cities, and remove the unhappiness due to large numbers of cities, then continue to work on the rest of the government's features from there.

So, lets start with Meritocracy from there Start from a government like Communism that turns off unhappiness due to the number of cities, and work on the rest of the desired features over time.

[Stragonian]

Ok, after creating my own directory for a new ruleset, I added an amniotic beginning for the "Meritocracy" government type ruleset. I'm hoping to accomplish more over time, this is a work in progress.

In the governments.ruleset I added the following ...

Code: Select all

[government_meritocracy]

name        = _("Meritocracy")
reqs = { "type", "name", "range"
         "tech", "Leadership", "Player"
       }
graphic     = "gov.federation"
graphic_alt = "-"

ruler_male_title = _("Champion %s")
ruler_female_title = _("?female:Champion %s")

helptext = _("\
A Meritocracy government is based on the ideal that advancement is\
 determined by merit. Accomplishment and achievement are the primary\
 drivers of social progress, rather than factors like caste, popularity,\
 or political ideology.  Meritocracy seeks to strike a balance between\
 different styles of governance, promoting both competition and
 cooperation.\
"), _("\
Under a meritocratic government, corruption tends to be lower in nations\
 that perform well in international rankings.  Generally, the higher a\
 Meritocracy ranks in demographic indicators, the happier and less\
 corrupt its citizens are likely to be, regardless of their proximity to\
 the capital.\
")

In the effects.ruleset I added the following ...

Code: Select all

; Empire_Size_Step disabled for Meritocracy

[effect_partisans_meritocracy]
type    = "Inspire_Partisans"
value   = 1
reqs	=
    { "type", "name", "range", "present"
      "Gov", "Meritocracy", "Player", TRUE
      "Tech", "Communism", "Player", TRUE
      "Tech", "Gunpowder", "Player", TRUE
      "Tech", "Guerilla Warfare", "World", TRUE
      "NationGroup", "Barbarian", "Player", FALSE
    }

[effect_corruption_meritocracy0]
type    = "Output_Waste"
value   = 0
reqs    =
    { "type", "name", "range"
      "Gov", "Meritocracy", "Player"
      "OutputType", "Trade", "Local"
    }

[effect_corruption_meritocracy1]
type    = "Output_Waste_By_Distance"
value   = 40
reqs    =
    { "type", "name", "range"
      "Gov", "Meritocracy", "Player"
      "OutputType", "Trade", "Local"
    }

[effect_waste_meritocracy0]
type    = "Output_Waste"
value   = 0
reqs    =
    { "type", "name", "range"
      "Gov", "Meritocracy", "Player"
      "OutputType", "Shield", "Local"
    }

[effect_waste_meritocracy1]
type    = "Output_Waste_By_Distance"
value   = 40
reqs    =
    { "type", "name", "range"
      "Gov", "Meritocracy", "Player"
      "OutputType", "Shield", "Local"
    }

[effect_meritocracy_unit_upkeep]
type    = "Upkeep_Factor"
value   = 1
reqs    =
    { "type", "name", "range"
      "Gov", "Meritocracy", "Player"
      "OutputType", "Food", "Local"
    }

[effect_upkeep_free_units_meritocracy]
type    = "Unit_Upkeep_Free_Per_City"
value   = 4
reqs    =
    { "type", "name", "range"
      "Gov", "Meritocracy", "Player"
      "OutputType", "Shield", "Local"
    }

[effect_max_rates_meritocracy]
type    = "Max_Rates"
value   = 100
reqs	=
    { "type",       "name",      "range"
      "Gov", "Meritocracy",  "Player"
    }

Finally, I changed the following line in my freeciv-auto.sav ...

From:

Code: Select all

rulesetdir="multiplayer"

To:

Code: Select all

rulesetdir="stragonian"

It appears to be working fine - I haven't noticed any problems with the Government type yet. The Government type doesn't have any features nor is it tied to the demographics yet, but one step at a time.