MoLAoS
Guest
When I was trying to set up the starting phase of my current project I had some issues since I had been balancing mechanics around the permanent phase. Now, I'd expect most players to start the game using the world gen, which catapults you directly into the permanent phase. This is because certain major features of the game only exist in that phase. Trade, politics, diplomacy, national policy, magic, industry, etc. can only exist in a rich, complex, full world. But I am letting the early phase be playable since it needs to exist for world gen anyways and I happen to enjoy it personally.
Expansion in the early phase is a big problem, at least fun per turn wise. Colonizing wasn't appropriate really, too early, assuming I include it at all. Armies were sorta okay but didn't make too much sense. In both cases expansion was relatively slow and offered few choices or actions to take.
As far as intragroup mechanics, stuff was scaled far more for the permanent phase. Revolts were rather non-sensical and cultural integration is much more of a nation-state based system. There were no merchants or even deep econ to contend with yet. Classes in general couldn't exist since populations were too low.
Instead I opted to try something else. In the early phase I'm going to try and run it more like King of Dragon Pass. I already incorporated some stuff from there event wise but I figured I could do more. Tribal gameplay will focus more on events, while growth will be achieved through the actions of your god-king. Every turn you can perform various actions, which differ based on the characteristics of your god/ruler. Your god ruler is also going to determine some cultural values and your actions will do the same.
The basics first. As a ruler you control an amount of population in your starting province. Your population will grow through neutral populations being absorbed. You have two choices, as does the AI, and here is where nations being to differentiate themselves.
First you can expand by subjugation. This involves raising armies and attacking neutral populations. In this phase of the game subjugation is achieved merely by force. Neutral populations lack a coherent identity requiring the cultural integration that will be modeled in the permanent phase. Basically the population takes some casualties, your army loses some men, and the majority of the neutral population is added to your tribe in the province.
Secondly you can expand by assimilation. In this strategy you attempt to provide pressure to join your tribe through having a happy and prestigious populace. However the most important aspect is the prestige of your ruler. He can go on hunts, perhaps quests, fight in duels, and so forth. He must also repel attacks by monsters or other leaders. Successful efforts result in a prestige boost. Populations will slowly gravitate towards the most prestigious tribes in the province.
Note that you can interleave these two methods into your expansion policy, its not one or the other.
Expanding into other provinces involves the same process, excepting that you must build a for/settlement comprised of some number of your citizens in a new province to get the ball rolling. This replaces the original colonization mechanic. Although neutral populations will proceed along the tribal cohesion path, they will generally merge into a single tribe more slowly. However, they will coalesce enough that combat will probably be harder and attacks on you will be stronger. Other tribes led by their own god will of course be as dangerous as the player, or perhaps more if their nation style is more suited to the early game.
Your nation's character will be more drastically changed in the starting phase by the choices you make. You'll actually design an immortal ruler and your race itself before loading a game which may set you on a particular path from the start, but its wont be as major as national ideas in EU4 or the pretender design and nation pick of Dominions 4. A major goal of the game is that you develop as a nation based on long term and continuous policies during the game.
In previous threads I've made here I discussed how actions in the permanent phase of the game affect your nation. Similar but more limited effects are applied in the starting phase. The populations of your nation will be forming expectations of how nations are ruled based on how you expand your nation and how you rule it. If you rule by conquest and fear and give great power to aristocracy that will shape your nations for millennia to come. In the permanent phase it will be more difficult to integrate populations with national cultures opposed to your own and nations will interact with you diplomatically in a similar manner. Those mechanics are somewhat detailed in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/4Xgaming/comments/3bgjx9/annexation_cultural_acceptance_and_subordinate/[1]
I just reposted something posted on another site about espionage and dirty politcs: https://www.reddit.com/r/4Xgaming/comments/3fy8qy/espionage_and_dirty_politics_in_empire_building/[2]
I don't think I have a post on reddit or elsewhere currently about diplomacy involving politics and ideologies. I'll have to dig an ancient one up or write a new one.
Expansion in the early phase is a big problem, at least fun per turn wise. Colonizing wasn't appropriate really, too early, assuming I include it at all. Armies were sorta okay but didn't make too much sense. In both cases expansion was relatively slow and offered few choices or actions to take.
As far as intragroup mechanics, stuff was scaled far more for the permanent phase. Revolts were rather non-sensical and cultural integration is much more of a nation-state based system. There were no merchants or even deep econ to contend with yet. Classes in general couldn't exist since populations were too low.
Instead I opted to try something else. In the early phase I'm going to try and run it more like King of Dragon Pass. I already incorporated some stuff from there event wise but I figured I could do more. Tribal gameplay will focus more on events, while growth will be achieved through the actions of your god-king. Every turn you can perform various actions, which differ based on the characteristics of your god/ruler. Your god ruler is also going to determine some cultural values and your actions will do the same.
The basics first. As a ruler you control an amount of population in your starting province. Your population will grow through neutral populations being absorbed. You have two choices, as does the AI, and here is where nations being to differentiate themselves.
First you can expand by subjugation. This involves raising armies and attacking neutral populations. In this phase of the game subjugation is achieved merely by force. Neutral populations lack a coherent identity requiring the cultural integration that will be modeled in the permanent phase. Basically the population takes some casualties, your army loses some men, and the majority of the neutral population is added to your tribe in the province.
Secondly you can expand by assimilation. In this strategy you attempt to provide pressure to join your tribe through having a happy and prestigious populace. However the most important aspect is the prestige of your ruler. He can go on hunts, perhaps quests, fight in duels, and so forth. He must also repel attacks by monsters or other leaders. Successful efforts result in a prestige boost. Populations will slowly gravitate towards the most prestigious tribes in the province.
Note that you can interleave these two methods into your expansion policy, its not one or the other.
Expanding into other provinces involves the same process, excepting that you must build a for/settlement comprised of some number of your citizens in a new province to get the ball rolling. This replaces the original colonization mechanic. Although neutral populations will proceed along the tribal cohesion path, they will generally merge into a single tribe more slowly. However, they will coalesce enough that combat will probably be harder and attacks on you will be stronger. Other tribes led by their own god will of course be as dangerous as the player, or perhaps more if their nation style is more suited to the early game.
Your nation's character will be more drastically changed in the starting phase by the choices you make. You'll actually design an immortal ruler and your race itself before loading a game which may set you on a particular path from the start, but its wont be as major as national ideas in EU4 or the pretender design and nation pick of Dominions 4. A major goal of the game is that you develop as a nation based on long term and continuous policies during the game.
In previous threads I've made here I discussed how actions in the permanent phase of the game affect your nation. Similar but more limited effects are applied in the starting phase. The populations of your nation will be forming expectations of how nations are ruled based on how you expand your nation and how you rule it. If you rule by conquest and fear and give great power to aristocracy that will shape your nations for millennia to come. In the permanent phase it will be more difficult to integrate populations with national cultures opposed to your own and nations will interact with you diplomatically in a similar manner. Those mechanics are somewhat detailed in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/4Xgaming/comments/3bgjx9/annexation_cultural_acceptance_and_subordinate/[1]
I just reposted something posted on another site about espionage and dirty politcs: https://www.reddit.com/r/4Xgaming/comments/3fy8qy/espionage_and_dirty_politics_in_empire_building/[2]
I don't think I have a post on reddit or elsewhere currently about diplomacy involving politics and ideologies. I'll have to dig an ancient one up or write a new one.
