Ethical Alignment

from GalCiv2 Forums

How is ethical alignment desided?

I used to think it was just an average of what one picked when given a choice in a game therefore if one picked 5 good choices and 5 bad choices you would have a neutral alignment.  This is not how it's calculating.

In my current game I've made 25 choices, 16 Good, 6 Neutral, & 3 Evil, I thought this would give me a strong good alignment.  In game it is showing I'm almost completly Neutral if not ever so slightly Evil.  Why is this?

5,994 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What race are you playing as? The different races start out with different ethical alignments. So you might have started out as evil and then moved yourself to neutral.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It also depends on the magnitude of the event. An evil choice that gets you 1000 bc will move you more towards evil than one that gets you 10 bc.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It also depends on how good or evil you are when you make the choice. For example, If you're extremely good, and you decide to do something bad, you move more on the slider than if you were neutral and did something bad.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Interesting thread.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've noticed this too and it seems a little lopsided towards being easier to go evil than good, even with the magnitude factored in. It's also a little weird that the good choices are always bad, the evil always beneficial. And as far as I can tell, the only real downside to being evil is that UP vote where your max number of trade routes may be limited. Which rarely happens anyway. Maybe there's others but I can't remember any.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The main down side of being evil is in foreign relations. Other civs don't trust you, won't ally with you, and everyone will eventually try to kill you. I've lost track of the times I've seen the "Sorry, but your civilization is too evil to continue to exist" declaration of war.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What race are you playing as? The different races start out with different ethical alignments. So you might have started out as evil and then moved yourself to neutral
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I don't know what ethical allignment I started out as, all that I know is I started as a custom race using the Torian Tech tree and having the populist democracy and the super breeder super ability, therefore if I keep my approval hight My population can't be matched by any other race until far later in the game.

The only bad choices I made were the planet quality bonus's, The neutral choices I made kept me from being dramatically handicaped by choosing the good choice.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Diplomatic penalties for evil civs makes sense, but I still don't think that makes it balanced. That will only hurt you if you aren't one of the strongest races...which is easier to become because you get random help along the way. And what if the other strongest races are also evil? Or what if you're a constant warmonger anyway?

It's not the biggest deal, but the ethics system should have an overhaul.

The problem is, it sounds like ALOT of work to update all those events, and then come up with balanced effects, etc. I'd rather see a fairer system in GC3 instead of taking priority away from other areas.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Being evil really does have its disadvantages. I've lost games simply because I was the only evil civ in a galaxy with the Altarians and Drath. This results constantly fighting multiple civilizations; and if one is powerful enough to keep you from using your troop transports you lose pretty quickly to the computers amazing production abilities.