Population Quality

from Elemental Forums

I was writing in another thread about immigration vs. fertility rate when I considered the question of whether cities could have different grades of citizens in which higher grades offer greater benefits than lower grades.  For instance, there might be 4 grades of citizens: new migrants/slaves, freemen, skilled artisans, and Enlightened Folk. 

New immigrants from the wastelands and slaves would only offer a tax income and give a negative modifier to their own base production rate.  Freemen yield tax income and give a neutral modifier to production.  Artisans might yield a tax income and a positive modifier to production rate.  Enlightened Folk might yield tax, generate wealth, give a positive modifier to production, and give a positive modifier to research.  Depending on where you get your population, how you treated them, and what services you provided, you could gain citizen types at different rates.

The feature wouldn't have to be overly complex and wouldn't have to bother the interface with anything more than a 4 numbers and a small scroll over description, but would offer some interesting flavor to the game.

I know some of the Europa Universalis games tried something like this, but failed to make it work very well (Enlightened citizens were less helpful than slaves).  Any thoughts? 

2,562 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I like the idea, but perhaps it shouldn't be a simple progression. We would need to figure out what citizens add to the empire and design different types based on that. Some ideas could include...

 

Craftsmen increase production and taxes, neutral on research, and weak on political influence and cultural influence.

Enlightened Folk increase research and cultural influence, neutral on taxes and politics, but don't add to production as much.

Statesmen increase political influence and cultural influence, neutral on taxes, but don't add to production or research as much.

Artisans increase cultural influence and taxes, neutral production, weak on politics and research.

If there's religion, Clergy add to cultural and reduce unrest, but don't add taxes or production.

 

Laborers only add base amounts to production and taxes and nothing else, but can be trained as something else, but while being trained they add nothing.

Slaves add to just production, but don't count to unrest, unless the town rebels. Can be freed to become Laborers, but unless there's a job for them, and a place for them to stay, they will raise the unrest.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Also, perhaps the longer someone is at their job, the better they are at it. Except for slaves, and perhaps laborers.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting BrotherAlpha, reply 1
I like the idea, but perhaps it shouldn't be a simple progression. We would need to figure out what citizens add to the empire and design different types based on that. Some ideas could include...

 

Craftsmen increase production and taxes, neutral on research, and weak on political influence and cultural influence.

Enlightened Folk increase research and cultural influence, neutral on taxes and politics, but don't add to production as much.

Statesmen increase political influence and cultural influence, neutral on taxes, but don't add to production or research as much.

Artisans increase cultural influence and taxes, neutral production, weak on politics and research.

If there's religion, Clergy add to cultural and reduce unrest, but don't add taxes or production.

 

Laborers only add base amounts to production and taxes and nothing else, but can be trained as something else, but while being trained they add nothing.

Slaves add to just production, but don't count to unrest, unless the town rebels. Can be freed to become Laborers, but unless there's a job for them, and a place for them to stay, they will raise the unrest.
End of BrotherAlpha's quote

Well, the reason I was aiming for a simple progression was to keep the dynamic from being too complicated.  I like your idea, but it introduces an element of the game that might force a massive amount of micro management in an already sophisticated game.  And besides, I'm a little averse to a non-linear progression because of the abysmal way it's been executed in other games.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

This seems similar to the race bonus mechanic in most games (ie. race x gains +y production, race a gains +b research). How much control would the player have over population movement?

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Perhaps citizens can advance via education (building schools, churches, workshops....) and experience aka. Civ Colonization. 

If you defeat an enemy army and take prisioners, perhaps they could be returned to your cities as slaves if you want to turn them into citizens.  Prisoners might also be drafted into your army with a very low morale.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting cleflar, reply 5
Perhaps citizens can advance via education (building schools, churches, workshops....) and experience aka. Civ Colonization. 

If you defeat an enemy army and take prisioners, perhaps they could be returned to your cities as slaves if you want to turn them into citizens.  Prisoners might also be drafted into your army with a very low morale.
End of cleflar's quote

 

I definately like all of those ideas.