Population Density, ICS Physics-ish solution

[FreeChina]

Civ, like all computer games, is all about math. So is physics.

OK, its my turn to come up with an ICS solution, among other things- Population Density.

Population density is fairly easy to calculate. Simply stated, it is:

(Numerical Population)/(Land Area- tiles)

Numerical pop is not the 1,2, or 42 you see posted on a skyscraper-sized signboard in front of each of your cities. It is that number that comes up in the city control panel. (on the lines of 10,000, 1 million, etc.)

So ya got this nice number of population density. Well what does this mean? Basically it means how cohesive your empire is.
(needless to say there will be lots of other things to get factored in- gov't type, tech level, etc.)

When the number gets too low then outlying cities, particularly small ones, will have a high probability of splitting away into more cohesive groups until the "strong nuclear force" is maintained.

What the hey, you are saying?
Well there are four (okay, 5) main forces that run your civ:
Gravitational:
This holds your civ together when the cities are large. Using the standard grav equation (G*m1*m2)/d^2
large cities exert gravitational force on each other.
Electric:
This is radiating "energy" generated by population. Each city generates an "Electric Field". Building infrastructure extends the range and strength of this field.
Magnetic:
This works similar to grav except it is not as blind. Magnetic force generates solidarity between, for example, a chain of coastal cities, or a number of cities on the same river, or even a number of cities trading in a specific commodity (Cartel). These cities need not be in the same civ.
Strong Nuclear Force: Creates megalopolises. Two or more very large cities will grow into one.
Weak Nuclear Force: This splits outrageously large empires. Using an inverse equation, small cities or newly founded ones generate a lot more of this than larger, older more established ones.

Now go figure what you do with this. Concentrated civs stay together, unconcentrated ones, well, don't.

[Ralf]

OK, so then the player/AI build his empire, he has to deal with the following four principal empire "nature-laws" or under-the-hood forces:

1/ Gravitational
2/ Electric
3/ Magnetic
4/ Nuclear force

Is above fixed laws, or are they tweakable by the player whilest playing? What are the principal relationships between above forces and improvements/governments/and more? Any changes in the interface, after implementing above ídea?

[Dauphin]

Interesting thought. I love Physics but is this a bit extreme? When I get home from a good(or bad) day at the Lab I don't want to have to continue thinking Physics....

Two questions. Will the Magnetic and Electric forces co-efficients be related by the inverse square of the speed of light or not? And in turn related to the electroweak force that you speak of?

Feel free to ignore me.

[The Joker]

I think this is a great idea. One of the most innovative I have seen for months at the Civ3 forum.

It's not that it should necessarilly be implemented in this excact way, but more that it offers a pretty good way to make the anti ICS things most of us want possible.

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"Damn those nazicommunists."
- McBain

GGS Website

[airdrik]

Could you go back over it in laman's terms? The way you have it we have to get out a piece of scratch paper and work it out on that in order to get any hint of an idea of what you are trying to say.