#63 Criminals and Slaves
(One comment at the beginning:
I do NOT endorse slavery or bad treatment of people. The following description is motivated by the actual history of America or colonization in general.)
Criminals:
Criminals are European people who are deported to the New World because they committed a crime in Europe. They are not in the New World on their own will. Normally, criminals are not treated like equal citizens but are suppressed and forced to work. This means they will try to flee if they have the opportunity to do so. They need surveillance all the time. In general, criminals are bad educated.
Slaves:
Slaves are African people who are captured by slave hunters in their home country and deported to the New World against their will. They are seen as the colonist's posession and treated very badly. They will flee if they have the opportunity to do so. They are not educated.
In the game:
- Criminals/Slaves are not able to establish a new colony.
- Criminals/Slaves are not counted as colonists that gather Liberty Bells.
- Criminals/Slaves are totally unable to do "higher" jobs (produce liberty bells, crosses, work as a teacher).
- Criminals can only work in production houses (carpenter, forge, weaving mill, ..) if they are instructed by a colonist (at least one colonist has to work in the same manufactury). However, their working rate is lower (like in the original game). Slaves may not work in production houses.
- Criminals/Slaves can work on a farm (food, tobacco,..) at full rate.
- When instructed by a colonist (or better: suppressed and forced) they work harder on a farm. See also below (labour camp).
- The player can decide, if he wants to treat the Criminal/Slave badly (suppression->better work rate, only one food/round) or good (no suppression, two food/round)
- If a Criminal unit is treated good for a long time, it may become an indentured servant being a full member of the colony (just like in the original game). A Slave unit may not advance.
- If the Criminal/Slave is treated badly for a long time, he may incite a revolt (see below)
- If a Criminal/Slave gets fewer food and treated badly for a long time, he may also die.
- A Criminal/Slave unit is under control of the player if it starts in a square without at least one unit of the player. This means, the player can move the unit freely on the map but should always move a colonist on the same square at the end of each round. There is no problem to move the Criminal/Slave unit from one town over three road fields to another town.
- If there is no player unit on the square of a Criminal/Slave at the beginning of a round, the Criminal becomes a free unit.
- Free Criminal/Slave units are controled by the computer. They are faster than unmounted colonist units (i.e. as fast as a missionary).
- A free unit may be captured by any colonist unit of any player:
- Armed player units (soldiers/dragoons) can always capture a Criminal/Slave by moving on its square. A Slave unit may try to resist and die. A Criminal with a lot of Treatment Points (see below) may resist and die as well.
- Artillery may not capture Criminals/Slaves but they can attack them and have a chance to kill them.
- Unarmed player units (except the missionary) have a chance (e.g. 50%, depending on the Treatment Points) to capture a free unit by moving on its square.
- Free units try to remain free for some rounds (perhaps 5-10). If they manage to remain uncaptured, they disappear from the map.
- Slaves may also try to reach some indian village (without player mission), depending on the tribe (Aztecs/Incas had slaves, too).
- A European colonist unit of any player may capture a free Criminal/Slave unit, so it can easily happen that the Criminal/Slave unit changes its "belonging".
Appearance in the game:
Criminals do not appear at the European docks as the result of the New World's cross production like other colonist units. Instead, the player may buy them in Europe. After declaring independance this is not possible.
Slaves are also bought. The historically correct way would be to send ships to Africa to buy them but for simplicity reasons I would rather propose to buy them in Europe, too.
Escaping:
As described above, Criminals and Slaves will always be free if they start without a colonist unit on their square. In addition, each unit has a motivation to escape depending on the treatment by the player.
Slave units and badly treated criminals have a likelyhood to try to escape all the time.
The best opportunity to escape is when the Criminal/Slave is not within a colony. If he is surveilled by an armed colonist unit, he will not try to escape.
Revolt:
Slaves and badly treated Criminals may incite a revolt.
During their imprisonment, Slaves/Criminals collect Treatment Points (TP) if they are treated badly (suppression/few food). If they are treated well, the TP are slowly reduced.
The likelyhood for a revolt is calculated from the TP, the ratio Slaves/Criminals to colonists, presents of soldier units and the existence of a prison (see below).
In a revolt, all Criminals and Slaves fight against all colonists. If a revolt is successful, some of the units flee. There is also a small chance that units die. If there are muskets in the colony, the colonists have better chances to defeat the revolt but this increases the likelyhood that Criminals/Slaves or even colonists die.
New houses in the colony:
Prison:
The prison greatly reduces the likelyhood for Criminals/Slaves to escape/incite a revolt.
Labour camps:
If there is a labour camp in a colony, there is no need for an additional colonist on every farm to force the criminal/slave to work harder.
One colonist has to "work" in the labour camp to activate it. If no colonist does, it is inactive.
The "advantage" for the player to build a labour camp is that he needs only one colonist to make all Criminals/Slaves work harder, instead of one per farm square.
New founding father:
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
When Abraham Lincoln joins the congress, all own Slave units become Indentured Servants and it is not possible to buy further slaves.
In addition, the likelyhood is increased that slaves of other European players flee from their colony. Free Slave units try to reach a player's colony, becoming indentured servants by doing so.
Logged In: YES
user_id=73455
Originator: NO
Quite a lengthy proposal. Some of the features you suggest will become possible with release 0.8.0. Others may be added later.
Logged In: NO
I also had some ideas along the same lines and for the same reasons (having a game set across this era, with no slaves present?), but went a different way that is less different to the original game:
Religious freedom (cross production) only gets you free colonists, or less commonly experts of the existing types. (The William Brewster bonus would presumably have to change with this variant).
Criminals/Indentured Servants appear on the docks at regular intervals (speeding up as your colonies grow) as your Home Nation offloads its undesirables, for free. They work as per current game rules in most aspects. If you don't take them from Europe regularly then you don't get more, there is a cap of maybe 4 (2 of each type) at any time.
Royal University training costs increase from time to time (like goods when you buy too many, the price goes up - but over time it can go down a bit if you stop buying so many), so that this becomes prohibitive as a primary source of colonists over time. These are effectively the economic migrants of the period - if your colonies are very profitable then it is easier to get them to come.
Slaves are bought (in Europe for convenience), and the price is fixed (300-600?). They work as criminals basically, but (for game purposes) can't be educated or given weapons (until emancipation/Lincoln, as above). Possibly they have a land production bonus like indians, but really the 'advantages' of slaves were cheapness and expendibility.
The downside to slaves/criminals/servants, as well as their inflexibility, should be in the SoL calculation - basically when calculating the value of a liberty bell produced, free colonists get a benefit of 1, experts 1.5 (maybe varying per type of expert somewhat), servants 0.5 and criminals/slaves 0.25 (or if it takes 500 bells to make 5 free colonists into SoLs, then it takes 1000 to do the same for 5 servants, 2000 for criminals/slaves, or 333 for experts).
This then gives you a balancing act - you can quickly build up small/medium sized colonies with cheap labour in the form of slaves/criminals/servants, but if you do then you will not be able to build up production bonuses as easily.
Logged In: YES
user_id=1867075
Originator: YES
Dear nobody, sorry for my late answer.
I like your proposal as it directly fits in the current style of the game, and could be implemented quickly. However, concerning the increasing cost of Royal University training I am not with you, but this has only a few to do with slaves/criminals and should be discussed separately.
Your proposal, that Criminals appear at the dock is okay for me.
My proposal would expand the game with some new aspects (units to be guarded or they will flee, units that are unable (uneducated) to work everywhere, revolts from the "inside", new houses). It emphasizes slavery much more: Slaves and criminals were treated as a means of production, not as humans. Therefore the game should treat them the same.
This means (until Lincoln appears):
- No bell production for S+C
- No independent movement of S+C (without guards)
- No S+C usage as soldiers
- No ability to establish colonies
Depends on the programmers which proposal they like to implement. I like yours but I find mine much more "sexy" ;-)
Agree with all EXCEPT Abe Lincoln. Civil war came significantly after the revolution, colonies wouldn't fight civil war prior to achieving independence, and abolishing slavery in dependant colonies would be highly controversial due to the benefits of forced labor: think real-world impacts.
Perhaps use a Founding Father to allow optional training of slaves if a free colonist works in a schoolhouse to reach free colonist (and criminals too with a FC @ the prison) but only regain normal FC production rates after all TPs reduce below 10-25% of maximum for the units being conditioned. Indian converts become FCs with a FF, but they were never as critical to labor in the colonies as slaves were, and gain a raw mat. production bonus to boot so "upgrading" them to FCs is rarely desirable.
Concerning the original history of the USA of our own planet earth, you are totally right: Civil war (or in this case: abolishment of slavery) was a long time after the independence.
However, the game currently has some elements that are not part of the history of the "real USA", e.g. it is possible to create a USA from the Dutch, the Spanish can kick the English out of America, ...
Also, some Founding Fathers can appear before they were originally active.
Lincoln is the representative FF for abolishment of slavery.
If there are benefits of forced labor (in the game of course!) is up to the player. It probably makes sense to have slavery in the beginning to quickly get raw materials (food, wood, ore,..) but later in the game it also makes sense to have more well-educated citizens, or much more soldiers to fight with you. In addition, when you are fighting for independence, it could be very inconvenient to smash down some slave revolts at the same time...
I definitely agree! It would be very interesting to be honest and realistic enough and add slavery. The player benefits economically from exploiting slaves; that's the (tragic) point! Being cruel, inhumane, and murderous rises your income ... and everybody does. Why shouldn't I join the group of slaveholders, too?
Economically disadvantageous, however, is the consequence that the player needs special guards and soldiers to keep slaves under control because they try to escape, try to destroy the town which imprisons them, and try to kill the people who torture them.
The "economic game" about slavery is to find the optimal balance between exploiting and punish slaves to force them to work "efficiently" for your production facilities and to jolly them along with less exploitation and goodies to prevent revolts. The first approach requires expenses for "security", the second brings less benefit. But in any case, you own and urge slaves to work because it is cheaper!
Is it possible and am I willing to desist from being a slaveholder? (Being Christian and a "good fellow" obviously does not conflict with that).
This is the evil game, which would be an instructional aspect in a computer simulation game! However, the game interaction must represent the "blind out" behaviour in a appropriate manner.