07-02-2003 11:27									#1
	Galactic Civ Suggestions... Enter the AD-FREE zone

I do have a suggestion to make. I have seen the Domestic Politics screen and it's a really nice touch compared to all the civ games I have played. I do have a few suggestions to make. From the government that I have seen, there appears to be four types, Imperial, Republic, Democracy and Federation.

How about letting the player begin with ten seats as default in Imperial - these seats would represent the Senate while one seat would be added for each planet colonized. Then just hold elections for the new seats (House of Representatives - start with one which would be Earth) in which one seat would represent one planet. This would also allow the various parties to implement their own strengths and weaknesses on the planets they control. E.g. If the War Party controlled the seat representing Earth and the Technologists control Terra 2, then starships produced on Earth would get the benefits that the War Party gets even if it isn't the ruling party and starships from Terra 2 would get the benefit of +3 to sensor range while the planet itself would produce an extra 30% to research compared to Earth.

So, it does allow for some variety (Earth has better soldiers then Terra 2. The people are more paranoid or the War Party representative makes them train harder)as well as letting the players know from a quick glance at the screen how many planets they control and which party controls what in the Senate? Otherwise, the loosing parties with seats just collect dust in the Galactic Senate and don't do anything.

Anyway, it was just a suggestion.

	08-02-2003 03:00									#2
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The senate works fairly well the way it is right now.

After changing from an Imperial government, elections are held to determine which party is the dominant party. As long as your party is dominant you continue to gain the benefits for your party. If you lose the election, you suffer penalties. This makes keeping morale and public opinions important, while abstracting the intracacies of how the government actually works.

With governments after Imperial it becomes harder to keep morale and public opinion high which is balanced by the increased productivity of your colonies.

Individual colonies can produce various grades of starships depending on what infrastructure has been built. So a battleship built at one colony may have an attack rating 5 points higher than one built at a different colony.

For the most part the galactic senate doesn't do much and doesn't impact the month to month running of the game. The senate basically only acts to give the OK for wars and making a change of government towards imperial.

Most of the game functions at a higher level than colonies. Typically my only interactions with colonies is with the active management of about 2 or 3 of them, while all the rest are managed by the governors' queues. Anything that adds to the micromanagement of colonies doesn't help much.

	08-02-2003 20:10									#3
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Bummer ....

I guess everyone has different tastes.