Culture!
Culture is a bit hard to define but I personally define it as a combination of social laws, language(s) and social systems of a population of a species. Culture can range from a particular group of apes knocking on wood every other night to a large continent spanning societal agreement.
In this conceptual writing I will be focusing on the culture of sapient animals, I will also be expanding some parts of the colonization system.
The Beginning
The player will spawn the very first culture to arise at the end of the awakening stage. The player can advance their culture using the tech tree as well as changing societal norms and laws within the culture. In the meantime, different cultures will arise. The player can spread their culture by migrating their pops to different patches, although they will have to be similar in habitat so the culture doesn’t adapt to the changes and splinter off.
The Rise
Culture is at its height of importance during the Society-Industrial stages. Once the player builds their first society centre, the game will allow them to customize their culture a bit more and they’ll have more options as for how they will interact with foreign cultures. In the culture tab, there will be a line which goes from “Exterminate” to “Coexist” and in the middle will be “Indifference”. The player will be able to create and enforce taboos, languages and clothing. In order to spread the culture, the player will be able to send settlers to unowned lands. If the lands are already inhabited by a different culture, the player can either subdue and hybridize with their culture, incorporating the best traits (See: Roman Empire), exterminate and drive the culture away (See: European Colonialism in the Americas) or become a multicultural and peaceful society (although the player likely won’t advance very quickly if they choose this path). The player will have a multitude of options if they choose to send settlers to unowned lands. The player can do “Cultural Expansion Decree” where they simply send people to the new lands to make their own nations, albeit in the same culture as the player or as directly owned by the player’s state. The player will also be able to do the C.E.D on lands who’s Cultures were driven away via conquest.
The End (Sci-FI mode on / late Industrial Stage to late Space Stage)
Keeping a planet unified is hard with certain cultures, so the player will have to globalize their main culture in order to progress. This can be done via a multitude of paths such as having a multicultural society or hybridizing the conquered people’s cultures into one planetary culture. Culture during the Space Stage will be simplified for the sake of not overwhelming the player, it will be simplified into how many people are in the culture and what their rules/customs and clothing are. The C.E.D will also be making a comeback in the Space stage as their will be uninhabited areas to colonize once again, without bloodshed.
What’s the point of setting up cultural colonies you don’t directly control?
Cultures the same or similar to yours give benefits, such as being able to be unified easier, persuaded easier and are much less likely to attack you.
That’s all for the culture concept for Thrive! I spent a lot of time writing this…