I haven’t seen much id100 yet, so I thought I’d start a thread. At first I wasn’t keen on the new trees, as I had been having fun with the ones in Alpha, but the more I look at them the more I like them. They do seem to reinforce certain play-styles, which is good. So here are my thoughts, and I look forward to hearing what you guys think:
Benevolence:
Overview: Happiness and building alliances. Makes sense that if you are the “good guys” your people will be happy to be in your civ, and other civs will want to join you.
What I love: Ambassador I & II. I really like the idea that benevolent civs will be hard to deal with because they form close bonds with their allies and are able to swing civs that are on the fence.
What I don’t love: Tolerance I & II. These are solid powerful bonuses, but feel a little generic. I get that the idea is that diversity sparks innovation, but tech is so important to all play styles that this doesn’t feel like a Benevolence-specific bonus.
What I’d like to see: I think culture/influence bonuses would make more sense for this ideology than tech ones. Also, a soldiering bonus while defending seems like it would fit as citizens are fighting for the world and civ they love.
Pragmatism:
Overview:The great capitalists of the galaxy, they don’t care about good or bad, just profits. Most of these bonuses improve economy. As someone who will probably be playing a lot of pragmatic civs, I do want to state that I hope pragmatic civs get interesting and unique solutions to the ideological choices and aren’t just a half-way measure like the choice in the Alpha. I personally don’t see pragmatic as neutral, they are amoral as opposed to immoral or moral.
What I love: Manipulator. This sounds so fun, though it would be nice if it could grant +1 as well (but not toward your own race). The idea of the pragmatic civ pulling other civ’s strings to set the political climate to an optimal level is very appealing. I do wonder though, the ambassador description makes it sound like you can build many of them, while the Envoy sounds like you just get one. I’m not sure how much +/-1 Relations is, but it seems like it might be a little underpowered for a level 4 perk.
What I don’t love: Caution and Mercenaries. These perks seem really underwhelming to me, and not to really fit with the gameplay of the pragmatic ethos.
What I’d like to see: Give the Pragmatic player more ways to spend that wad s/he has been building up. Replace Caution with a discount to rush buying improvements and/or ships. Change mercenaries to an ability to that lets you buy free/cheap ships with 2 or 3x maintenance.
Malevolent:
Overview: Probably the most straightforward ideology: Conquer and exploit. You get more military and more production out of your planets.
What I love: Exploitation & Fear. I like these because they aren’t restricted to military application. The Malevolent civ can exploit their citizens to create tech or influence, or anything else. This gives Malevolent civs major bonuses toward non-military victory conditions.
What I don’t love: Tribute I & II. They work, but I don’t like that they give a Malevolent civ motivation not to crush the minor civs under the heel of their boot. Infamy II is a great ability that synergizes really well with Malevolent play style, but I worry that it eliminates one of GS2’s best defenses against snowballing and might remove too much challenge from conquest victory. Also, Merciless II seems a bit misnamed for what it does, maybe “Spoils of war?”
What I’d like to see: I actually think that Malevolent is in a pretty good place. A new invasion tactic or two might be a really nice addition to this tree, granting Malevolent players exclusive access to the most effective way(s) to conquer a world.
