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ICS revsited
All the current strategies, culture and intense corruption, have either failed to eliminate massive low level expansion at the expense of advancing your civ or even intensifies CIS (Infinite Cities of Sleeze).
As a potential cure for this I suggest the following:
1] ALL units, that is workers, settelers or military, must be formed from a unit of population and require food. Food could always comes from nearst source, even an unfriendly source. Foraging, lines of supply and national support could be new advances or SM's that affect this. In this case, sitting your army in an enemy city radius could starve that city to death or submission. Effectively a seige.
2] Since the current corruption model is not realistic or effective that it be de-emphisized in place of unhappiness and disloyalty penalties based upon effective distance (not just square count). Also the possibilitiy of civil war contingent on a revolting city(s) be enhanced.
3] That new advances of Federalism, Imperialism, constitution, beauracracy, and corporation (the East India Company acted as a quasi state agency in controling India for the British) that would allow for greater expansion, be implemented at higher levels on the tech tree and require some associated minor wonder to engage.
4] The visual range of most ground units should be reduced by one, conpensated with mountains being able to be viewed from afar. Only the introduction of optics, radar and satilites should enhance visual ranges of units and cities.
5a] Have a research bonus associated culture for cities. This could be in the form of a sustained addition to ongoing research or a probabilitiy of a 'spontanious' advance.
5b] Have a happiness bonus for having the highest culture rating among civilizations in contact.
5c] Culture bonuses for 'firsts' and other achievments.
6] Have more buildable and useful terrain features that contribute to control and culture as well as addtional resources. This rewards develpment over expansion. It also makes the game less boring and the map more interesting to look at.
7] Fascism, Communism and Theocracy's should hinder culture generation and National Socialism would have a negative increment. This is realistic and compensates for many of the militaristic and population control advantages of these forms.
8] Limit cultural borders to shallow water. Charley the tuna doesn't read or report back to der furher.
9] Larger empires 'attract' more barbarians at the piriphery, and modern empires as Sept 11 shows continues to attract barbarian attacks.
10] Related to 9, each age should have a 'barbarian' sutible to that age.
11] Ability of all units (not whole stacks) to be capable of, and able to be designated to, refuse engagement with an attacking unit of the same or lesser speed, unless effectively surrounded. This makes it very hard to eliminate threats to your interior lines, a common problem with all large empires.
The point is not to make large early civilizations impossible or even difficult, but to require a high degree of culture and infrastructure in addition to military success as the means to hold it togeather.
Last edited by paulmagusnet; March 16, 2002 at 21:30.
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