Ideological Traits

from GalCiv3 Forums

Loving the game, but finding the current iteration of the ideological traits irritating. Flipping your choices between benevolent, pragmatic and malevolent at a whim and without any noticeable consequence or penalty just seems cheesy in the extreme. Picking the options from all three traits that give you free ships ...mmm. smell that cheese!

Picking an ideological trait should be part of the game set up, in the same way you pick other traits for your faction. Then during the game you get rewarded for staying true to your trait - your people approve of the ethical choice(s) you've made as leader, so you get a small approval bonus (or something similar).

If you make a decision that goes against your selected trait, firstly it should cost you more points, like 12.5 vs 10 for your 'true' trait, and secondly, it should make your people unhappy that you've gone against what your race stands for, and your approval should take a hit (or something similar)

So, if you want to make an ideological choice that goes against what you supposedly believe in, you still can, but there is a penalty for doing so. And nothing to stop you playing the Drengin as good guys or the Altarians as evil SOB's - just an incentive against playing them as a 'bit of everything"

 

 

 

24,153 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

You want ideology to be boring and stale, no thank you.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Actually, there is a point penalty for changing ideology paths. About +5 IIRC.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Ideology also severely impacts your relationship with the other races. And, yeah, it costs you more points to go up across multiple ideologies than it does to stick just to one.  That, and all the nice bennies are really in the Tier 3 and up ideologies, which are darned hard to get if you keep switching around between them, given that total ideology points are generally quite fixed.

 

Methinks someone hasn't really played the game too much.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Altarians as evil SOB's.  They are evil SOB's. }:) At least to me.  Have played every race and they have always been the first to declare war on me #:( .. Course it may have something to do with me always putting some points into malevolent ;)

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

What is ideology? "A set of doctrines or beliefs that are shared by the members of a social group or that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system."

Your ideology, and ideological choices, should be the shared - and consistent - 'glue' that binds your empire together, not some multi-choice lottery that lets you choose what suits on a week by week basis.

Anyhow, other folk rage about tech specialistions, which don't bug me at all, but this does. One of the arguments against specialisations was that it wasn't realistic;  civlisations will try and make their tech better AND cheaper AND cost less to maintain, not just one of those three options. Pfffftt I said, realistic, whatever...but now, how realistic is it that the ruler of a benevolent civilisation could make several non-benevolent choices without upsetting his subjects? That the ruler of a benevolent civilisation WOULD make non-benevolent choices to begin with? A benevolent empire making a malevolent choice just to get a few free ships ain't no benevolent empire to begin with, right?

And it's cheesy, marginally outright cheaty, right up there with other cheesy "player only" tactics.

And yes, I pick which trait my civ is going to be at the start of each game and limit myself to those options, because that's just more realistic to me, and I want those limitations forced on every other player...trust me, you'll thank me. Eventually.

 

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Sticking to a narrow interpretation of "ideology" is not realistic.  Realistically, cultures have many traits that are admirable to some and repulsive to others.  Realistically, we can't expect every alien civilization to follow our ideas of right and wrong.  This is exactly why ideology is labeled in this manner: it isn't about right and wrong.  It's not "cheesy" it's good game design.  I don't want to be forced to stick with one tree every time I play.  There's nothing good about that except satisfying your arbitrary sense of what things "should" be.  More flexibility is both good game design, more FUN (most important of all) and more realistic.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

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 Ugh, I just do NOT do well with the edit and quote buttons on this forum, sorry! :(