Riots?

[BudgetMessiah]

Fyron said:
Every troop counts the same for happiness purposes, whether it is a low tech small troop or an end-game large troop. This is an issue with how the stock game is set up, with bigger almost always being better. For regular (combat) usage, it doesn't make any sense to build small troops when you have larger available. For policing purposes, it doesn't make any sense to build big troops. The data setup has some diametrically opposed goals.

Actually, if I am reading you correctly, this is exactly how I would have set things up. Perhaps even giving larger troops a penalty for policing populations, but the fact that smaller troops are more cost-effective in this role, it more-or-less accomplishes the same thing. Tanks suck for civil purposes (relative to troops) so why would a simulation present this differently (assuming it's a good simulation)? Tanks don't quell insurgents in Iraq, and they weren't really used during the unrest in New Orleans, and these are just two examples of why a simulation should present smaller troops as being preferred in civil situations.

Players shouldn't be able to just mass up one type of all-purpose troop to accomplish all goals equally well, if not for the reason I've already described, and just for game mechanics reasons. Different tools should be required by players to accomplish different goals, that's a given. I'm glad that the game encourages this in some way; it makes sense to me.