Ethical Decisions Revisited

from GalCiv2 Forums
I've read that the original inspiration for the ethical decisions was drawn from the way old news is dredged up long after the fact by people who were uninvolved or unaffected. I think this is a great idea - particularly that if you're prudent, you'll give people a reason to hate you eventually.

What I'd like to see is this implemented fully ingame. There is already a baffling amount of text the races can throw at you, from spotting your plans to race-relationship specific stuff (ie Yor are robots, everyone makes fun of that). I think it'd add a new dimension to trade and ethics if every now and then your past ethical decisions were mentioned and used against you.

For example, if you're talking to the Humans and they hate you due to your ethics (evil), it'd be great if they could specifically say 'You desecrated those graves' or 'you use zombie soldiers, that's horrible'. Similarly, the Dregin could laugh at a good players 'weak' decisions, like weakening their soldiers training to protect trees or reducing a planets quality to protect backward hippies.

This would allow the ethical system to provide extra content, and have the player rolling their eyes at old news (are you STILL cranky about that?) or cursing their earlier decisions. I believe this is similar to the original inspiration, and it'd really tie the diplomacy and ethics together. What does everyone think?
9,040 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice idea. Should be fairly simple to implement (no real game mechanics need altering), and anything which increases immersion for the player can only be good.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is it me or do the "good" options never result in bonuses? I recall one about some native animal life forms. Allowing mass hunting resulted in a +3% morale boost. Why not have a neutral or good option that allowed them to be caged in a zoo for all to enjoy (perhaps a + approval bonus). The good options don't seem to benefit the empire other than what other good races think of you.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is it me or do the "good" options never result in bonuses? I recall one about some native animal life forms. Allowing mass hunting resulted in a +3% morale boost. Why not have a neutral or good option that allowed them to be caged in a zoo for all to enjoy (perhaps a + approval bonus). The good options don't seem to benefit the empire other than what other good races think of you.


This is by design. The original concept in GalCiv1 was that evil civilizations would take the quick and easy route when faced with any decision, but in so doing would earn themselves enmity. Good civilizations would willingly suffer harm to preserve their beliefs, which made them more trustworthy friends.

This concept has been skewed somewhat with the introduction of the Xeno Ethics bonuses in GC2, but remains valid at heart. The mechanism possesses a non-insignificant logic: we really do tend to trust those who are willing to make sacrifices for long-term popularity, because it means they will not take advantage of a friend's temporary weakness.

Viewed in this light, the "good" decision must always be unattractive in the short run. As many philosophers have already pointed out, acting in your own self-interest is not particularly virtuous. If you could be popular without cost, why would you choose anything else?
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
....


basically its this:

evil, selfish bunch, (cuz they only think of themselves with all those bonuses) ---
price to pay: gets picked upon.
Bonus: Good planet bonuses.
(i make LOADS of evil choices and im always the first to go to war... i never start it (yet) but they come to me...)
but having extra production on a class 31 planet is good (CLASS 31?!?!?!? i hear you say? i had planet quality +20% in my abilities. ive changed that now though... not as much use until long run, and i died before then for being EVILLLLL)

neutral- as it says, no one particularly likes you, but no one particularly hates you either.
price to pay--- less strong then evil people...
bonus: not entirely as weak as good people, but also not as hated as evil ones

good:

Price to pay: Negative bonuses everywhere. (minus population, money, production, morale, etc )
bonus: Everyone liked you. except evil people.