Alternate Method for Drafting and Faction Ideologies Poll

[vcczar]

Typed this as an email to myself. Copy+pasting it here: 

Potential Change to make the game more realistic, ideologically.

There are 10 factions, 5 per major party. Each faction will evolve over time. Here are the factions:

Blue 1
Blue 2
Blue 3
Blue 4
Blue 5
Red 1
Red 2
Red 3
Red 4
Red 5

Players will get to name their faction or pick from a list of historical names ("Bourbon Democrats" "New Democrats" etc.)

Each faction will be allowed to draft politicians of specific ideologies allowed for them in the Historical Era. Most factions will be allowed two ideologies to draft from. Some will sometimes be allowed three and some allowed only one.

For instance, for Era of Independence:
Independence (1774-1788)
Red 1 Progressive/Populists/Liberals
Red 2 Liberals/Moderates
Red 3 Moderates
Red 4 Conservatives/Moderates
Red 5 Traditionalists/Populist/Conservatives
Blue 1 Progressive/Populists/Liberals
Blue 2 Liberals/Moderates
Blue 3 Moderates
Blue 4 Conservatives/Moderates
Blue 5 Traditionalists/Populist/Conservatives

Where are these factions by the Era of Populism?:
Populism (2012-2024)
Red 1 Moderates/Liberals
Red 2 Moderates/Conservatives
Red 3 Conservatives/Moderates
Red 4 Traditionalists/Conservatives
Red 5 Populists/Traditionalists
Blue 1 Populists/Progressives
Blue 2 Liberals/Progressives
Blue 3 Liberals
Blue 4 Moderates/Liberals
Blue 5 Moderates/Conservatives

 

I should note that the Populists, LW Pop and RW Pop will be separated again and Red 1 and Blue 1 will pick LW Pop politicians and Red 5 and Blue 5, RW Pop. 

 

With this, I'm going to increase the points earned for fringe ideologies based on how uncommon I think that party can score a success. They will not be penalized any more for failing in attempting that success, however. 

 

I think there should be game awards for winning as each faction. As the game is likely to be one-player at first (hopefully online immediately, but who knows), I don't think it will be a big deal that some factions have innate strengths over others. Players can choose their difficulty based on the faction they select. 

 

If this system is preferable to the current system, then I'd like to try it starting in 1788 (Era of Federalism). This will likely require adjusting the factions and such. Also there will always be 10 factions. I might allow for modes in which there are no factions, only parties for a two player game. Or an option to allow play without restrictions to ideologies. 

 

Sent from my iPhone

[vcczar]

@MrPotatoTed @ConservativeElector2 @jvikings1 @DakotaHale @Hestia @SilentLiberty @Rezi @Rodja @Cal

[MrPotatoTed]

I still hope that one day, perhaps when multiplayer is activated, that it will be possible to play with parties off -- that parties will emerge naturally and fluidly as alliances form around ideologies and common interests, and that these will rise and fall as players make moves to seize their advantage.

But until that day arrives, I think this new system looks fine to me.  

I especially like that there's a set number of factions, with any non-human factions being CPU.

[Cal]

My biggest concern here is that this will likely significantly hamper my faction and the way I've planned for the future if I lose all moderates (Considering I have the most moderates tied with Jviking on the Red team and they make up 18/27 of my faction). This would give me a completely different faction than the one that I currently have, and I had planned on ideology shifting to Conservative at the earliest mark. However, I am of course willing to do so in the nature of proper playtesting of the game. 

[MrPotatoTed]

2 minutes ago, Cal said:

My biggest concern here is that this will likely significantly hamper my faction and the way I've planned for the future if I lose all moderates (Considering I have the most moderates tied with Jviking on the Red team and they make up 18/27 of my faction). This would give me a completely different faction than the one that I currently have, and I had planned on ideology shifting to Conservative at the earliest mark. However, I am of course willing to do so in the nature of proper playtesting of the game. 

That's my main concern as well -- not so much for this playthrough, but more broadly:  a big part of strategy is drafting/shifting ideologies/etc to keep up with the times.  We did one playthrough where everyone's ideology and statesmen were mandated to them, and that seemed to be the least fun version of the game we'd played so far.  But happy to test out any idea and see where it goes!

[vcczar]

4 minutes ago, Cal said:

My biggest concern here is that this will likely significantly hamper my faction and the way I've planned for the future if I lose all moderates (Considering I have the most moderates tied with Jviking on the Red team and they make up 18/27 of my faction). This would give me a completely different faction than the one that I currently have, and I had planned on ideology shifting to Conservative at the earliest mark. However, I am of course willing to do so in the nature of proper playtesting of the game. 

I could have you guys pick which of these 10 factions you want to play. You keep your score, and we just do a "draft" of the active players. 

[vcczar]

1 minute ago, MrPotatoTed said:

That's my main concern as well -- not so much for this playthrough, but more broadly:  a big part of strategy is drafting/shifting ideologies/etc to keep up with the times.  We did one playthrough where everyone's ideology and statesmen were mandated to them, and that seemed to be the least fun version of the game we'd played so far.  But happy to test out any idea and see where it goes!

Well, we're at a time crunch when I don't think we have time to test a bad idea. I'm at: "Is this new ideas preferable to the current idea." If it seems the cons outweigh the pros, we will keep the current one and maybe make some slight adjustments. Alternatively, the new idea is better, but we make slight adjustments to make it better. I just need to get started on this soon. So whatever feedback, ideas that could lead to slight adjustment improving one of these two options would be great.

[MrPotatoTed]

12 minutes ago, Cal said:

My biggest concern here is that this will likely significantly hamper my faction and the way I've planned for the future if I lose all moderates (Considering I have the most moderates tied with Jviking on the Red team and they make up 18/27 of my faction). This would give me a completely different faction than the one that I currently have, and I had planned on ideology shifting to Conservative at the earliest mark. However, I am of course willing to do so in the nature of proper playtesting of the game. 

 

7 minutes ago, vcczar said:

I could have you guys pick which of these 10 factions you want to play. You keep your score, and we just do a "draft" of the active players. 

Yeah, we currently have 8 human players, and 4 CPU.  I'd of course take the two factions as CPU that nobody else wants, so you're not stuck with traditionalists if you don't want to be.

[vcczar]

Maybe there’s a way to allow all these options as options. 

[Cal]

Was there a decision on this? It will affect my ideology shifting strategy in some ways for sure.