One of the really neat things about GalCiv (and one of the VERY few things that MOO did right) was the inclusion of a galactic council, where issues that have definite game effects could be voted on. However one limitation of this coolness in both games was that the entire council meeting had the feeling of an extended 'random event'. You couldn't choose which proposals were being put in front of the council, and council meetings because of their random nature never factored into long term goals (though the reverse frequently happened).
I think a HUGE improvement in the game would allow the player (as well as AI races) to force a council meeting as well as WHICH bills would be voted on. Of course the other bit of fun would be that you could threaten, or bribe other races into supporting an upcoming bill and they could do the same to you. Of course this is not to impugn the modern UN ... in the game the political powers would be engaged in backroom shenanigans where corruption runs rampant. Definitely NOT our beloved UN ... *cough*. Actually there would be another difference as well which would be that actual concil resolutions would have real effects such as many of the proposals in GalCiv1. You could also target specific alignments or races and impose things like trade sactions (reducing trade profits), trade embargos (unable to trade with ANY council members), expulsion from the council and outright war. Of course for the more severe bills to pass might require a 2/3 or even a 3/4 majority. At any time before the council convenes any of the races can see what bills are on the table and plan accordingly.
But why wouldn't a player just request a council meeting every turn and spam a favoured resolution over and over again? Well, there could be some sort of council currency. This currency could be permanently spent to call meetings and propose bills, and once spent the currency would slowly regenerate at a rate that is proportional to that race's influence. Bills with more severe effects might cost more of this currency than more minor bills.
Another cool feature would be speechs. Speechs might be a way to shake a few races that are indifferent to a particular bill one way or another. Speechs could be made by either the proponent of the bill or any of the other voting races. They have an effect that would be based on the speaker's diplomacy score, a random roll, and the number of council currency being spent for this speech. So if there is only one good race, I might propose a 10% tax on all good races. Since I consider this a key bill to being passed I might spend a big chunk of additional currency on a speech to swing a lot of the neutral races my way. The roll is made and the effect is shown ('The humans make a brilliant and impassioned speech for this bill's benefits). Of course the Altarians might decide to counter my speech by spending currency of their own to make their own speech, etc, etc. After each speech there might be a means of guessing which way a race MIGHT be leaning, so that other races that are so inclined might also make speechs. Of course the actual effect on any race would be tempered as to how strongly they feel about it (Any attempt to get the Yor Collective banished from the council will always be strongly resisted by the Collective, no matter how brilliant the speech) will be determined by that races diplomacy vs the speech makers, so a brilliant speech by a diplomatically inferior race will have less of a positive effect than a brilliant speech by a diplomatically competent race. Of course if I do introduce a bill that any of the races STRONGY oppose, then relations between me and that race, as well as that race any any others that support the bill should worsen.
I think this would be the ultimate in political machinery of any strategic game on the market, and prove to be endless fun for those that like politically manipulate and exploit other races.
There are only two down sides I can see to this kind of enhancement. 1) Obviously AI races are going to be at a severe disadvantage here as the player can always ignore speeches made by AI races. 2) The AI algorithims required for this kind of dynamic, and complex system of Bill selection, campaigning and voting, not to mention the behind the scenes action of threatening or bribing other races to support an upcoming bill could cause the CPU to melt.
Comments? Suggestions?
Dano
