Everyone fights...

from GalCiv2 Forums
I was thinking about the entire population as soldiers question that has come up on these forums and I thought of a system that could add some dynamics to the game. I'm not sure whether such an idea has been voiced, but I was thinking of a "Standing Army" concept that would allow the player to determine what percentage of his population should be soldiers.

If you take the current behavior of the game (everybody fights), that could be set to some arbitrary value like a 70% standing army. If the user chooses to reduce the percentage, then he can experience bonus economic benefits but at the risk of being unprepared for an invasion or being incapable of mustering an invading force. If the user chooses to increase the percentage, then he experiences economic penalties but soldiering bonuses and the benefit of having more people available to fight.

The user can change the slider at will, but it takes time to scale either way and the economic bonuses are lost immediately. In that way, changing directly before an invasion would in fact be costly and of no benefit.
8,081 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've put a lot of thought into this issue as well, and I definately think it would be cool to simulate the positives and negatives of adjusting the percentage of population that can be soldiers.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Am the only one who saw the title of this thread and thought of the speech by the Lt. in Starship Troopers?


Felk the Embarassed
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"...no one quits. If you don't do your job I'll shoot you myself"

I hadn't, but now that you mention it....
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No - I thought that too - (not too unsurprising given my dads collection of Heinlein novels, lol)
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Am the only one who saw the title of this thread and thought of the speech by the Lt. in Starship Troopers?


I thought the exact same thing.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Anyway, back to the Stading army Slider. That would be a good thing to put in, as it would deepen the game significantly. 70% of pop. sounds high though... mabye 50%?
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I really like the idea of a standing army slider, I hope it someday gets incorporated into the game. On a related issue find it strange that one of my planetary assault ships carries 2 billion soldiers. This seems a little odd. I guess I should look at the posts and see if anyone else has been curious about it.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I do have some concerns about a feature like this though...

- If the sliders could be adjusted every turn it would just be a matter of spotting a transport and switching the entire population of a planet to soldier before it arrived.

- How well would the AI handle these sliders? *skeptical*

Although I would like to be able to take over a planet without having the tax payers population wiped out, as with many suggestions on expanding this area of the game I don't find it necessary. I think of it like this, if you want your planet to be economically powerful, you build farms and markets, etc. If it's a border world and you are worried that it might be attacked, you use those tiles for orbital fleet managers and planetary defenses which increases your soldiering. You can build multiple defense facilities which, would in effect make them soldiers rather than citizens since they fight more effectively. If your borders expand, you can upgrade / replace those buildings which would have the similar effect of relaxing your guard and making room for more social improvements which can increase their production, research or tax credits.

Basically I think this type of thing is accounted for if you just look at it in a certain way. Not to say that it's a bad idea, but consider that you have some of that power already.

(I thought about Starship troopers too... good to know we aren't alone on that huh?)
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
If the sliders could be adjusted every turn it would just be a matter of spotting a transport and switching the entire population of a planet to soldier before it arrived.


Use buildings. Require the player to construct training centers in order to populate troop transports. If the planet doesn't have a training center, that planet's starport can't build ships with a troop module.

Swallowing the idea of a ship with 500,000,000 soldiers inside is pretty dorky no matter how you look at it.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I also find just the concept of some of the races (Not all, I could see Yor and Dregins doing it, possibly drath IF they were Altarians and the Iconians IF they were Yor) commiting mass genocide of billions of innocent people. The Altarians I seriously doubt would kill every last man woman and child when conquering a human world same with humans conquering any other race, I dont think we would kill every last alien on the planet, seriously who is commanding all those ground troops? I know the answer...Hitler I really think Hitler commands every ground force of every race in the galaxy. Hitler clones...if you will. This explains alot. *rubs chin*
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
While the idea of standing army is a good one, I find that not having to deal with rebellious populations is a definite plus...also your surviving troops are the planet's new population so you still have tax payers (and depending on how many troops you sent in you could have more tax payers) So if genecides our only option then genecide's ok by me, after all they're aliens...
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The standing army effect would be neat, but only if changing it costs money. Particularly training more troops, but they don't have jobs strait after they get demobed.
How about a weekend warrior option - up to two per professional soldier, three quarters effectiveness?
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If the sliders could be adjusted every turn it would just be a matter of spotting a transport and switching the entire population of a planet to soldier before it arrived.

if you adjust the slider, the actual value will move towards its new position at a rate of only 1% per turn. symbolizes the time needed for enhanced mobilization when war is impending.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Am the only one who saw the title of this thread and thought of the speech by the Lt. in Starship Troopers?


All of my troop transports are named after Starship Troopers.

PKS Troopers
PKS Star Troopers
PKS Galactic Troopers

I like the slider idea, however, I would probably leave it on max just because I believe in the phrase:
"They can have my planet after they pry my handgun from my cold, dead fingers."

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large