Royal Families / Houses

adding another element to the game / victory conditions

from GalCiv2 Forums
Sorry, just another idea for the expansion; I saw this kind of thing in a space game 15 or so years ago on the commodore amiga (now thats old!). dont ask me what the name of the game was I cant remember, you could say it was one that was a super early type of gal civ..

Anyway, would it be possible to add a family tree / command structure / royal family (race pendant) type thing to the game. where each race would have a equivilant of a king, queen, offspring, offsprings offspring etc etc. these people would have bonuses to them, or negatives, maybe both. for instance you could have a prince which was an engineer, making ships travel 1 extra space a turn. or one to increase combat abilities etc, well you probably get the picture.

These people could be moved around like a ship, and they would have a sphere of influence similar to a space station, so in the example above, all ships in the princes radius would gain the 1 space.

additional royal family type people would be generated by a random event, and if members of the royal faimly were on a "fertile world" the chances of new members would be increased.

the family members could also be used in diplomacy as a "trade good" to act as a hostage or something.

and a victory condition could be added to the game in a "kingmaker" style where only 1 royal family would survive. as soon as a races family was destroyed, all remaining planets & ships owned would be transfered to the victor.

Well i think you get the picture, I would welcome any comments you have.

Thanks stardock for providing us with a game that can stretch the imagination, and help us rule the stars! there are not many out there that can achieve this!
7,936 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm not sure this is appropriate for the GCII universe. While races like the Drengin probably do operate on a ruling family basis, I don't think that other races, such as the Terran Alliance, do.

That said, aren't there Hero characters planned for DA? I don't remember if that was just an idea or was actually being implemented.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I know what you mean about some of the races like the terran alliance, but then you could have a president, vice president, chancellor kind of thing going. also in the expansion you'll be able to use custom races, this option (well for me anyway) has a huge impact on me and the way i'll play the game, you'll be creating your own universes! people will be able to do great games like star wars fcations, buck rogers, star trek, due, the list goes on and on etc. so the royal family, house tree would be applicatable in these cases. another example of how this is currently works would be medieval total war, works great in that game.
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I really like your ideas on this. I think it would add to the fun factor.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It is pretty much the hero characters.

Also, don't forget the time scale here. You generally win a game in a matter of years, not decades or centuries like in Master of Orion or some of the other games. It would be kinda odd in a couple years there's a King, six children in the first generation, 12 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm not sure how this would square with the idea that the more complex governments operate on democratic and decentralized models. Although, come to think of it, how does that model work for the Drengin or the Yor???

MOO2 used unique governors that you could assign to different planets -- the governors had special bonuses that could increase production, research, revenue, etc. etc. That was a nice flavor added to the game. I might be dreaming, but I think these governors got killed off from time to time by opposing civs...
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I dont think the time scale would need to be that relevant to any family, or goverment hierarchy or anything. each race could have a modifier to how thier family grows, hive type thus creating family quicker. Also, you wouldnt start the game with just two people, there would be a "family tree" already in place.

Maybe an option similar to research speed could be implemented. e.g. slow research speed = 1 turn = 1 week, & fast research = 1 month in passing. although you would say about ship travel speeds, you could just say that the scale of each square is larger. sorry going off topic now. this time scale could then maybe cater for any aging effect.

so whether you get new ofspring or not, doesnt really matter, it still adds to the game. in the case of a government who was not using a monarchy, you would get new people elected. a hive race would have princesses, who would become hive queen. robot races would construct new super computers etc (hmm thats an idea for a race) etc. there could be a very good potential for all of this, the key issue would be balancing the game. If a monarchy race could only sire new offspring and they would have to "grow", you could always implement additional events like a illigitimate heir revals him/herself and is added to the family that way.

anyway better stop typing now before i ramlble and waffle too much

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
do remember that each turn is 1 week. Also if you want this kind of thing, it is readily available in Total war series. It might be cool but i think it is out of place for the way the game is set up. You could not possibly see any children or expanding family tree throughout the game.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm not sure it's entirely fitting for a game like GalCiv2, but the Total War games have this sort of feature. It's obviously much more relevant to settings like Medieval Europe though. Nonetheless, it's great fun managing your family, getting attached to particular members, watching them grow into old age (all too often leaving incompetent spoiled children!), marrying off your daughters, etc.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


While that is an interesting idea, I think that it is just not something that fits well into the gal civ univerise.

Prehaps you could have ships that get enough experience start to spread benefits to ships in the area, like a genral.