Good, Evil, and Neutral

The three moral alignments in Galactic Civilizations

Published on November 19, 2005 By Draginol In GalCiv Journals

In the original Galactic Civilizations on OS/2, playing as good, neutral, and evil were considered to be pretty innovative concepts for a strategy game. Depending on which moral alignment you chose, different ships, technologies, and plantary improvements would come into play. Moreover, how races interacted with you would heavily depend on it as well.

In Galactic Ciivlizations II, released over ten years after the original OS/2 version, such moral issues in strategy games are no longer quite as innovative. This time we have made some changes anyway.

As players interact with their planets and go about the business of being an intergalactic ruler, various moral dilemas come up. When someone starts the game, they start out with a preset moral alignment depending on the race. Humans start out at a moral alignment of 50 (neutral). Drengin start out at 25 (evil) and Altarians start out at 75 (good).

Depending on ones choices on these events, their score will be changed (usually by an amount from -10 to +10 depending on the choice and severity of choice).

However, eventually one can CHOOSE their civilization's ethical philosophy. However, it comes with a price. The further you are from a given alignment the more it will cost.

An EVIL civilization wanting to choose GOOD as their moral alignment would have to pay $20,000.

A Neutral civilization wanting to choose GOOD would have to pay $10,000.

and it works the other way as well (it's free to choose the alignment you already are). While there is some irony in someone who has been consuming their citizens for amusement being able to choose the "good ethical philosophy" at all, one has to remember Eric Cartman's wise song:

I'm gonna make, make it right.
I'm gonna take a little time and set things right.
Make, make it right.
I'm payin' for my sins and it sure feels great.
It feels so good to be making up
For all the things I've done wrong.
I know now what the Good Lord in Heaven
Wanted from me all along.
All along, I'm gonna make, make it right.
'Cause Jesus wants me to have a clean slate.
Not faking it, I'm making it right.
I'm payin' for my sins and it sure feels great.
Make, make it right!
Make, make it right!

So why would you choose one at all? Because only through choosing the ethical alignment do you get its significant bonuses:

Good Civilizations:

+ Citizens more loyal (less likely to defect)
+ Five most populous planets have no maint costs in their capital.
+ Trade with other good civilizations increased by 25%.
+ Diplomatic Ability increased with other good races
+ Several extra Defense-oriented technologies
+ Galactic Achievement: Temple of Righeousness

Neutral Civilizations:
+ Citizens more content Approval tends to say over 50% despite population)
+ Less expensive to purchase ships outright.
+ All upgradeable tiles automatically become available instantly.
+ All Soldiers get +1 added to their ability during invasions with players of other alignments
+ A couple of extra weapons and defense oriented technologies.
+ Galactic Achievement: Temple of Balance

Evil Civilizations:
+ Starbase upgrade fees are waived
+ Can build propaganda centers (planets less likely to defect)
+ Can build Secret Police (increases -ahem- "approval" rating)
+ Get +1 from every trade route per turn from freighters that pass through their space.
+ Several extra weapon-oriented technologies
+ Galactic Achievement: Temple of Malice

Comments (Page 1)

greywar

on Nov 20, 2005

Brad... I am enjoying the heck out of the Beta and I can't wait for the next update. I love the new diplomacy and the tweaks for the alignment system.

On another note it looks like you may have to implement an anti-spam comment systems for the Anonymous cowards.

CrispyMouse

on Nov 20, 2005

When customizing your race will you be able to set your starting morality? I think that should be an option, that does not cost anything.

Lucian Gyiira

on Nov 20, 2005

Unfortunately, I lack the Beta and at this point I don't think I'll be getting the beta, so...you can still set rival AIs to different moralities, I hope? If not, at the very least I'd hope one could do it for campaigns. My campaign series relies on the ability to alter rival moralities around a lot. I don't think Stardock'd ignore the interest that mirror-universes and whatnot could have in a normal game, but I figure that I should check anyway -- just in case.

stevenutt

on Nov 21, 2005

That looks excellent, looking forward to see how it all balances:).

wigzy

on Nov 21, 2005

i think you all suck, go home you sad morons. get a life. whatever you are talking about i did it first so in your face. lol

Frogboy

on Nov 21, 2005

You can set the moralities of races in scenarios.

marouki

on Nov 23, 2005

C'est très plaisant comme lecture, néanmoins je trouve cette typologie bien déterministe et conceptuelle, or nous vivons dans un monde, de plus en plus, imprédictible, voire désordonné, c.-à-d dans l'INCERTITUDE, Une incertitude empirique mais aussi cognitive, parce que nos catégories mentales n'arrivent pas à saisir, à assimiler des réalités inconcevables, comme l'origine du monde, à titre d'exemple ...

Si on soumet ces 3 bifurcations civilisationnels à l'exercice du VECU, elles ne peuvent avoir lieu. Je pense que toute civilisation est, par essence, une somme de récurrences de ces 3 bifurcations. Comme chaque être humain, elle se confronte à des choix , donc à des IMPERATIFS D'ETHIQUE.

Est-ce que, par exemple, je dois cesser d'aider mes proches pour aider l'humanité, quitte à ce que je me trompe, me leurre en croyant aider l'humanité, ou est-ce qu'au contraire je dois me borner à aider mes proches en laissant tomber ce qui est extérieur ???

Les problèmes de guerre - le cas échéant pour les américains en Irak ou ailleurs-, d'euthanasie et de don d'organes, de catastrophes naturelles et d'épidémie...n'ont cessé d'interpellé l'humanité. C'est par rapport à ce genre d'éventualités qu'une civilisation est good, evil ou neutral.

Excuse my frenchy !

Supreme Shogun

on Nov 24, 2005

Is re-doing the moral choices on events a possibilty ? From my view, it looks like good is always screwed over somehow whether its shelling out BC, losing production, morale, pq, etc.. I think there should be some kind of balance.
For every event that would offer Evil a bonus there should be one for Neutral and Good. Also seems like Neutral = not getting reamed as bad as good but still getting shafted.

Lord_StarPilot

on Nov 28, 2005

Supreme Shogun, you did notice that Good get a trade bonus with other Good civs, right? That should more then offset the event shafting (when it has a cost).

Lucian Gyiira, IIRC, you can set the alignment of the races. I haven't tried, but that is a feature of GC1, and I don't see why they'd not include it in the release version of GC2.

Supreme Shogun

on Nov 28, 2005

Well.. wont Evil get a bonus for trading with their Evil buddies? I don't see that as a solution.

I am asking for events OPPOSITE the way they are now and/or favors neutral and good/evil get nada. It's not always about money, sometimes its bonus to production, morale, PQ. And the Good guy gets shafted.

Anyone else agree w/ the events?

Popup Target

on Nov 29, 2005

The problem is that evil, for purposes of this game, is a mattter of always going for the best benefit, as opposed to good, who will pass on a benefit if it is opposed to their belief system.

In other words, in the scope of this game, if an event came up where the benefit was attached to the "good" choice, evil would have no reason not to pick it, since they base their choices on the benefit. Good would also have no reason not to pick it, since it fits with their belief system.

This isn't the D&D type alignment system where evil should be punished for NOT making the evil choice, or good should be rewarded for making the good choice. The punishment for being evil comes strictly from the interaction with other races. The reward for being good also comes strictly from the interaction with other races (and, in GC1, getting trade centers, worth being good at any cost for those things!)

Lord_StarPilot

on Nov 29, 2005

Supreme Shogun, Evil does not get a trade bonus for trading with Evil. They do, however, gain $1 for every turn a mini-freighter is passing through their influence. I presume that's from piracy or protection money. I do wonder if that wouldn't make some routes unprofitable.

I've also asked in the past, for GC1, that some evil events would have immediate bad benefits for the Evil choice. Sometimes, being evil hurts right now, not later. But I've also asked that Evil get made as viable a choice in the long term as Good, as in GC1, Evil got screwed over in everything except the most immediate gains (and that was rather rare in GC1). Think about it. What good did a +8% to ship production due to most worlds in GC1? Nadda. Good had all the benefits with nothing but a minor penalty in GC1. Evil had all the penalties long term, and few benefits short. Not a smart strategy or an efficent choice. Of course, Neutrals got nothing in GC1.

Supreme Shogun

on Nov 30, 2005

Well I'm not asking that Evil get penalized. What's wrong with having the good guy (or neutral ) get that bonus for a change ?

I agree 8% to ship production is weak.

Am I to infer then that the events & their choices balance out being evil/good ? And just what is the benefit of being good/neutral/ or evil throughout the game ?

Supreme Shogun

on Nov 30, 2005

Also just want to put up for comment a colonization event I encountered last night. Event said something about stone age lifeforms and what do we do with them?

1) - 40% Production Bonus
2) - 20% Production Bonus
3) +40% Production Bonus

Good being 1, Neut 2, and Evil 3. This was on the 2nd planet colonized and besides Earth and Mars.. this was it at the beginning of game. Thats a crippler if you choose the 'Good' one. A really really nice bonus for Evil.
And yes, I was assuming there was enough benefits to being Evil to justify picking evil choices consistently and same for Good. Are you kidding me? Course I picked 3/Evil. I'm starting to think Evil will always win cause "Good is dumb".

The same goes with PQ, if you're offered an extra 40% on an already decent planet say 16 and you'd actually get a few tiles... its really hard to not choose the 'immediate gain'

Is there some way on one of the graphs/info screens a player can see the alignment and what it's doing for them? (or how it's hurting them ? )

Popup Target

on Nov 30, 2005

Supreme Shogun: This isn't a D&D game where you declare your alignment and then you're rewarded for following your alignment. Your choices on those events are what defines you as good/evil. Making events where good is rewarded and evil is punished would seriously break that.

As I said above, the benefit of evil is the bonus you get for making the event choice that gives the bonus. So, if you give a choice where the reward is for the "good" choice, evil will choose it, as it has no reason not to. "Oh, no, I'm a little bit less evil! I'll just have to console myself with my new bonus." If you have an event where the reward is for good, then you don't know if they chose that action as a selfless act, or a selfish one, Hence you couldn't shift them on the good/evil scale, which is the purpose of those events.

The benefit of good is generally better interaction with the AI players (though looking at the thread on this, it looks like this will be less so in GC2 than it was in GC1). In GC1, this benefit was so strong that I'd say more people tended to play good than evil, and some people actually made the claim that evil was severely handicapped. My opinion was that evil tended to work better for the highly militaristic players (we're already at war with everyone, who cares what they think), and good tended to work better for the empire builders and moderately militaristic players.

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