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In short, the larger your Ideology Discount, the faster you’ll progress through that particular Ideology. Cultural Awareness (and thus Ideology Discount) points are accumulated in various ways, primarily through your Civilization’s preferred Ideology pick at the start of the game, and then as rewards for making choices that support that Ideology when Events appear throughout the game.
Here’s a list of the available Ideologies and simple summary of what each one represents.
Ideology | Summary of Available Traits |
|---|---|
Individualism | Buff Citizens, Leaders and their uses |
Totalitarianism | Faction buffs, Control & Crime, some Military |
Egalitarianism | Approval, Influence, Leaders, expanding territory |
Traditionalism | Culture, population growth, various other effects |
Progressivism | Heavily focused on Research |
Pacifism | Diplomacy and some economic buffs |
Nihilism | Trade, Income, Culture, Military |
Collectivism | Citizens, Influence, Economy |
While Ideological Traits have been picked to be consistent with the underlying philosophies that underpin that Ideology, there’s a lot of variety of effects within each one, and those picks aren’t always quite as simplistic as “this is the warfare ideology” and “this ideology deals with economy”.
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Sure, you’ll find that focusing on some Ideologies will heavily buff a specific aspect of your game: for example, Pacifism contains many Diplomacy bonuses, but these will usually be accompanied by other, more varied effects that suit the philosophy of pacifism. The one exception is Progressivism, which is almost exclusively hyper-focused on increasing your ability to research.
The Ideological Trait Altruism in the Pacifism tree here grants a very significant +2 Diplomacy bonus, but it also grants you a 10% proportion of all Planetary Inputs from each homeworld of a friendly Civilization to your own homeworld. This is a powerful Ideological Trait if you are intending on maintaining friendly relations with many other factions, and depending on the way your game is going, it could be a life-saver.
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