Ahhh, I may have misunderstood your question. I wasn't entirely sure what you meant. No, nothing I proposed caused civilians to serve as militial forces, although with escort-type ships already in place, these ships could be utilized to defend the planet if absolutely necessary, I suppose. They wouldn't be going off to attack a far-off colony, but it could be done. With this, civilizations with a war-minded personality would be harder to defeat, thanks to their civilian defense forces. While not by that great of a difference, it could still turn the tide of an otherwise close battle, and the player could mentally add to the story by saying "I'm attacking their planet, and the civilians are trying to attack me out of desperation to defend their home".Safe-r wrote:Interesting. So, the system would be as follows: civilians generate resources - efficiency in generating resources comes from number of civilians - in exchange for money by trading said resources to traders, who then trade goods between various points (be it station, planet, etc.)? I don't see tourism as needed (traffic for the sake of traffic), more like migration to get a better job elsewhere (no matter if it's station, planet, etc.). Rich civilians would then get their own ship, taking into consideration what's the most needed job in the system they're currently at thus becoming owners of their own ship.
Objection. Civilians play a huge part in any conflict. It should affect them. There should be reason to wage war for breathing space (Germany in 1939), to be able to include civilians as manpower reserve of your armed forces (war between U.S.S.R. and Germany is good example). Each conflict requires manpower and each manpower is affected by war, economy, etc.They're civilians - they leave large-scale conflicts to factions.
The rest of what you said is mostly correct. Civilians would generate resources - efficiency in generating resources would come from number of civilians and morale. Tourism could be used too, it's just a different type of goods. By this system, we're proposing that civilians are "goods", in the sense that they fill a cargo hold much the same way as something else would. It's a bit odd, and seems a bit slavish, but it's really not. Airplanes in real life are just transporting people from one place to another. This could generate revenue as well. That's what I would count as tourism. I don't like the idea of ships going around to random parts of the universe just for the sake of it, though.
And yes, they would migrate to places to get better jobs and try to improve the quality of their lives like people do in real life - it would just be simulated by numbers without any real meaning behind it (at least in the code). It would be up to the player to decide "these people are leaving because I'm not protecting their transports well enough, and they're looking for a better life".
Civilians are all about immersion. Greebles aren't really necessary, but they make things look more beautiful and believable. This is along the same lines - but with added gameplay.
Spoiler: SHOW