You know, it occurs to me that this new customizable race-specific tech tree stuff could be used in a rather more...epic way.
What am I talking about? Well, I think that with this new feature, it is now entirely possible to create a race with, in essence, multiple tech trees within its main tech tree...more specifically, a tech tree that is radically different depending on the race's ethical choice.
To illustrate this, let's consider a hypothetical race - I'll use my Confederacy of Man as an example (the Confederacy of Man being a hypothetical future in which the Confederacy won the U.S. Civil War and went on to dominate or unite the world under its rule). In this situation, the Confederates start out with a fairly basic neutral-evil sort of arrangement: slavery, lots of commerce, a certain amount of isolationism and xenophobia...
Now, imagine that this system came across a major ethical watershed which radically altered its moral compass (essentially, the Xeno Ethics research made to seem like it has culminated in a massive event of epic proportions, like a major conference or internal conflict or something.). Prior to this point, the Confederate tech tree would be essentially one tech tree, sort of like the Terran Alliance's but with some slavery-related added parts...AFTER this crucial point, however, the Confederate tech tree effectively is split into three, with two being partly or wholly inaccessible depending on the ethical alignment chosen.
So let's say the Confederacy of Man decides, in a fit of sudden whimsy or awakening, decides at this conference to go on a "Good" ethical course. In this way, slavery is abolished and the Confederacy shifts to a more egalitarian society - although this would still have some racial tension in it, and certain benefits and disadvantages would make themselves evident. A sampler of possible techs for this "Good" branch:
-Compensatory Institutions (helps to offset some of the economic mess that comes with a sudden switch from a slave system to a free labor system by compensating planters for lost "property" and former slaves for their suffering...improves the economy by a small amount, and offers a special Institute of Compensation or some such building that will raise a colony's morale at the detriment of economy...or some other cost/benefit ratio...)
-Robot-Assisted Labor (Due to their slave system, the Confederates are late in developing robotics and other laborsaving technologies, so they have to quickly scramble for a robotics program to help them compete industrially with other powers. While this does increase industrial output, it also can cause a slight morale drop due to the accident rates involved with the untried, often hastily-fashioned technology. A later tech may increase production more and remove the morale penalty.)
-Military Integration (Allows former slaves the opportunity to serve in military positions; this has a small military benefit, due to the influx of new manpower. However, this may also cause a slight (not so slight to be invisible but not so strong as to be punishing) drop in loyalty among "purer" members of the military.)
Now, suppose the Confederacy of Man decides, instead, not merely to protect their slave culture but to expand it as well, in the interests of power and control? Well, they may then decide to go down an "Evil" path, and come up with technologies such as these:
-Multicorporate Plantations (A large number of plantation owners and companies merge together to form massive "megaplantations" tended by hundreds of thousands of slaves - the resulting structure not only adds to farming, but also increases local industry - however, it also causes a slight drop in influence, due to the fact that most cultures don't practice slavery, especially not so brutally.)
-Suburban Servant Initiative (Makes slave owning a privilege for every citizen of the Confederacy regardless of class, politics, gender or religion. Due to propaganda extolling the virtues of slavery - as well as propaganda vilifying slaves as bloodthirsty, scheming, insane savages - causes a fair-sized morale boost civ-wide.)
-Flesh Reprocessing (The old and infirm of slaves are often seen as a drag on society by many of the more radical of the Confederacy - and so the Confederates borrow an idea of the Drengin and put their own unique spin on it, producing what in normal Terran cultures might be called "Soylent Green" - a nutritious concoction made exclusively of the corpses of slaves killed due to certain factors, then purged of impurities like disease and excreta. However, this is not for consumption by the normal people of the Confederacy - the concoction is only given to slaves as a means of improving their health without needing to divert food from the "megaplantations." Since the "food" does indeed improve slave health, it leads to a slight increase in industrial productivity, as well as a slight economic bonus due to the freeing of resources from slaves to be used for the good of the slave holders.)
-Forced Death March (Forces undesirable slaves to serve as living shields for combat troops during invasions - a rather powerful multi-bonus tech, which grants a small increase in soldiering and slightly reduces the cost of troop transport modules - slaves aren't paid wages to die protecting the combat troops, of course. Also increases morale since more soldiers may survive, and so are glad the government used "worthless" slaves to go and die in battle instead of the soldiers.)
And what if the Confederacy went for a middle route, seeking the "Neutral" path? Well, here things could get interesting, in a way...another new tech path would be open to them...and, the interesting thing is, some of the technologies in each path CAN be shared between paths - Good and Evil players can utilize some of the Neutral techs, and vice versa, although the techs a Neutral player can use from the Good and Evil trees are, understandably, somewhat small in comparison.
Now, I don't know if any of what I'm proposing is even possible in ToTA's new custom race tech tree editor, or even in the base XML files - but I'd like to hope that ToTA's custom race tech tree editor will be powerful enough to cope with such an unusual application. After all, I don't recall too many games like this offering different tech trees to a SINGLE race depending on moral choice. I think it'd add an interesting layer of depth to gameplay, and maybe give players some extra incentive to choose a certain alignment. Balance, of course, would become rather tricky, but it might be possible...though I think it'd probably be something modders would take on, or else a feature that gets put into GalCiv III...
Oh, and on a different note: StanleyTurrent, I'd like to tell you that Mr. Robot is VERY good, a neat combo of platformer, puzzler and RPG - it has very addictive gameplay, a very good story, a nice blend of features...and all for less than you'd expect to pay, too! I can certainly see why this was named "Indie Game of the Year" by one outlet - it certainly deserves it! GO BUY IT! NOW!!
