Hi!

This is mainly for those who have played the old colonization (or at least civ 4:colonization). You need some knowledge in the mechanics of the old game.

I'm doing a reimagining including slavery. I made another long topic about weather it was ok or not to include it. This is ONLY for gameplay discussions, plz keep it that way.

In old COL you mainly grow your workforce/population by producing food and generating free colonists directly in your colonies (except from in the early game where religious immigration is big (it fades away quickly) and indian converts is also useful). You make farming colonies and soon have alot of population. This is a bit boring.

For gameplay reasons I will include slavery and the tringle trade. Africa will be a trading hub just like Europe, buying processed goods and selling slaves. The idea for population growth is like this:

- No new poulation directly from food (food is only used to sustain the current workers and to produce horses and train soldier units)

- Buy workers with coin in Europe (not linked to immigrants generated by crosses but the price goes up as yo buy)

- Immigration from cross-generation (same as original but stay relevant longer by limiting how much cross-cost goes up)

- Slavery! This is the biggest change. You buy them in the African "port" (from around 1520 until the abolition) and they must be shipped to the colonies. They may rebel or die from diseases during the trip. The cost goes up but less so than for buying "free" workers in Europe.

How do slaves work?

1. In my game you dont have individual colonists with specializations, instead a colonist or slave unit adds a "worker" to the colony they join. They can then be assigned by pressing "+/-" on a building with free worker slots (such as plantation or mine). So worker placement is greatly streamlined (no schoolhouse-training and shuffeling colonists around).

2. Slaves reduce a percentage of rebel sentiment when joining a colony (representing a diversion from the "freedom ideal")

3. If more than halv (or a third, or a fixed number such as 4, we'll see) of the population of a colony are slaves you get a production penalty (similar to if you have too high Tory sentiment).

Feedback?

I think it's still in bad taste to add slave-trading into games based on "recent" historical events.

It takes playing a bad guy in games to a whole new uncomfortable level.

[Floodgate now open]

Again, that is the other thread. Plz discuss gameplay here.

I'm not kidding when I say the idea makes me feel genuinely uncomfortable.

It's the same reason why you don't see sims about concentration camps, it would be considered disrespectful.

If it weren't drawing from real world events that are still linked to people's sense of heritage, then it would be easier to talk about the gameplay.

Any chance of changing some details to avoid political controversy?

Some agree with you, others do not. I will not rehash the discussion, but it can be found here : http://www.gamedev.net/topic/680333-slavery-include-or-not/

This thread is for discussion the gameplay implications.

Is there an ethical penalty on religious immigration? That may be a concept to look at. Consider that in the early game when religious immigration is important, a player may choose to have untrained European immigrants and the max ammount of slaves they can support with no penalty. It would make sense from a logistical perspective as a min/max strategy.

Maybe having a higher slave percentage could reduce/increase the cost of Religious immigration.

Additional factors :

Some environments and work were so dangerous/unhealthy (mines, plantations) that there was a constant eroding of the slave population. Some types of work would simply not be done by free immigrants. (Some colonies were known as "white mans graveyards" because of prevalent tropical diseases).

Even when indentured servitude of whites was done, they had a limited term and the workers then were lost to other activities.

The transatlantic slave trade was as big as it was because of constant replacement of the 'workers' being required - but it still managed to pay (in certain colonies growing cash trade crops or generating precious metals) even with that 'overheads' costs.

Diseases also often wiped out populations of 'converts' from indigenous population (sometimes largely wiping population out even only after the early 'trading' interactions took place, even spreading to populations with no contact with the 'outsiders')

At some points even the 'homeland' sources of new colonists were affected by plagues brought in via global trading.

Yes diseases and rebellions are planned.

For those who played colonization:

I'm planning on skipping liberty bells and rebel sentiment altogether (big move I know). What could limit the usability of slaves then? Other than hard limits like "each colony can have maximum 4 slaves" kind of limit.

Don't shoot the messenger.

An interesting video about the intercontinental slave-trade:

The Truth About Slavery: Past, Present and Future

Don't shoot the messenger.

Deliver the message at the correct place and time. You have been provided with a link to a separate discussion on whether or not slavery should be included, and further commentary on it in THIS topic is off topic.

The other topic is still open if you wish to continue that discussion.