Bts additions look good to me, except for one thing : events.

I'm really hoping they thought this out carefully because if it turns out these events are totally random and unpredictable there will be tons of criticism about it.

Nobody likes it when he's just about ready to catch up with the competition, or start a war, or get a key Tech/Wonder, and then see it go down due to a random event.

In multiplyer this could be even more than a hoser, it could be a game breaker.

Any details yet on these "events" ?

Unfortunately, no details yet. But events were part of the original Civilization, so it's not too much of a stretch to guess that they will be similar: flood, earthquake, famine, plauge, etc. There were also ways to prevent them... granaries prevented famine, walls prevented flood... that would be nice.

There's also nothing saying that the events have to necessarily be bad.

Also, any feature that can be turned off is a good feature, and I'd bet that you'll have the option to disable random events.

If we do have the option to disable them, then I've no reason to complain, but until this is confirmed, I'll be somewhat nervous. I don't think I'll even buy BtS until I know for sure I won't have to put up with any additional randomness.

I can just about make my peace with combat and the spread of religion. Great People probabilities I'm not keen on, but I appreciate that you do at least get *some* control over this, and I can't see another reasonable way to do it. Happily, I don't remember any other sources of randomness in the game, once it's started. The AI leaderheads don't count; they can be as random as they want...

Some of the events correspond to demands from your citizens which, if you manage to fulfil those demands, you gain extra rewards. BTS is supposedly coming with great AI improvements so these random events will probably be ways to make the game a bit easier (and more interesting) for the player.

Unfortunately, no details yet. But events were part of the original Civilization, so it's not too much of a stretch to guess that they will be similar: flood, earthquake, famine, plauge, etc. There were also ways to prevent them... granaries prevented famine, walls prevented flood... that would be nice.

There's also nothing saying that the events have to necessarily be bad.

Also, any feature that can be turned off is a good feature, and I'd bet that you'll have the option to disable random events.


Proberly not building cities on flood plains would help flooding:lol:

One problem I'd have with random events is that I have a feeling that, in higher difficulties, the bad ones will only effect the player and not the AI. If this is the case then I'll likely play with random events on noble and lower but not on prince and higher. Besides, I'll also probably want events off for the HoF entries, since they will probably most likely be negative (with a positive one thrown in here and there).

I really do hate random chance, though. Like, when I have a 90% chance of a great artist, which I want, and a 9% chance of a great merchant (which I somewhat want due to the increase in food), I somehow get a great engineer, even though its 1% wasn't even high enough to appear on the list. Somehow, I later in the same game got a great engineer when my great artist rating was 100%. Why? I'd like to know that, too :/. I read the percentages two/three turns afterwards, since I couldn't put my cursor over the percentage bar until then, but those percentages are probably no more than 5% off.

I hope it's just like SMAC. That worked well. It would come up and say: "Industrial collapse in xxx city: -1 minerals (hammers) in each square for the next 10 turns" or "??? boom in xxx city: +1 food in each square for the next 10 turns" and what ever else. You also have plauges and network node overload and energy grid failures that caused you to loose you population, research points or credits (gold). Also, there was a flip side whereby if you were well equiped, then a network node overload would result in a free tech and energy grids would give you extra credits. That was good.

I didn't play SMAC a great deal but that sounds cool. They should be both good and bad and they shouldn't have a very large impact. Also its much appreciated to have some way of mitigating their effect. That was certainly the problem with Civ III events.

Oops a volcano destroyed your city, sorry your ships sunk, a plague has broken out and spread to all your cities and there is nothing you can do about it. Not much fun there.

Call to Power had events based on in game bench marks, not very random but I certainly enjoyed them. I remember they had a circumnavigation bonus so I was disappointed that they didn't include any others in Civ IV.

I hope some else can help me recall more of them, all I can think of right now was a few turn economic boost if you were the first to build 6 banks for example

There is TOO MUCH predictability in Civ! :mad:
You should NOT be able to reliably predict or coordinate events to the individual turn. There SHOULD be some variability due to economic, production or population variations!

The player has too much control in the game, and that only makes it worse for the AI!

Now, I am not saying that events should be totally random, but I AM saying that they should not be predictable by the human player.

To a certain point I can agree. I don't want to be able to play the game automatically or have a cookbook strategy that works every time but you do not know how close anyone else is to circumnavigation, building a wonder, finishing that last space station component, or in CtP how many banks etc. they have. I don't think that is excessively predictable, you can improve your odds but can never be entirely certain. On the other hand purely random events detract from the fun by leaving you to watch events unfold that you have no control over.

In that sense you are competing for each of these events and will probably have to make strategic decisions about which ones you will try to achieve. These strategic choices are the heart of Civ's fun.

Come on people. Do you really think they are going to implement random events throughout the game without an option to disable those?

Come on people. Do you really think they are going to implement random events throughout the game without an option to disable those?I would've thought that that would happen anyway considering that fact that they have an option to disable vassals.

There is TOO MUCH predictability in Civ! :mad:
You should NOT be able to reliably predict or coordinate events to the individual turn. There SHOULD be some variability due to economic, production or population variations!

The player has too much control in the game, and that only makes it worse for the AI!

Now, I am not saying that events should be totally random, but I AM saying that they should not be predictable by the human player.

Yes, i totally agree.IMO events not only give flavour which in Civ4 is a bit lacking but also add less predictability to the game, which makes the game even more realistic.I wouldn't like to see an event like in GC2 where economic activity boost give a 500% bonus per planet economy but certainly a bit of Luck factor should be present also in this game, having a 100% control on everything is not realistic.
I would like to see both events which are totally random and events which depends on game factors.

Proberly not building cities on flood plains would help flooding:lol:

Yeah, first time my city on a desert hill has a flood I want my money back :lol:

A flooding river should reduce by half (or down to max 1 food/commerce/hammers) all adjoining tiles in the affected area, but only for 1 turn, regardless of whether early or late game.

I think random events are great... and it would make civ more historically accurate/realistic...

Whether it's going to be good in gameplay depends a lot on how much 'power' these events are given - It can range from 'mini' golden ages (in one or a few cities) to free Great Persons (very very very rare, i suppose) to hurrying production in a city.

Yes, i believe they'll have a disable button for it.

Hehe, I wonder if the 'El nino effect' is going to be in there :lol:

One thing I would like to see are random events similar to htose in GalCiv II, in which a window appears to you saying that something has hapening and you have to made a decision about it. Deppending on the decision you made there are diferent consequences or combinations of benefits and penalties.

in older civs, i was anxious to send me triremes/galleys cross the ocean to explore and to get to know (and eventually settle) the world. in civ4 it requires astronomy to do so. this may be historically correct on earth, but there should be again this possibility to send ancient ships across the seas (with the chance of them getting lost - in a way it was funny).

CU, Zoid

I second that. It's always fun to risk everything in a daring run across the ocean. (The chance of sinking should be upped to 75% though.)

I am very excited about the new events as this will add an unprecedented layer of epic-icity (that's not a word :lol:) to the game. They're talking about colonies splitting off in revolutions, pleas for help, and disasters. Should be good fun.

One thought for events---Voyage of the Beagle. All civs that discover Biology have a set of locations on the map revealed to them (representing areas of high biodiversity). First civ to sail a ship to one of those locations (or maybe all locations) discovers "Evolution" and receives a free Great Scientist.

Similar events could be modeled for the Seven Cities of Gold, El Dorado/Fountain of Youth, Lost Dutchman Mine/Gold Rush(es), First Polar Expedition, Peak Oil/Global Warming/Hole in the Ozone, First Flight around the Globe, etc..

EDIT: The worst use for events would be random events that completely break the game, or cause a random shift that stacks the game to the point that the endgame is a forgone conclusion.

I second that. It's always fun to risk everything in a daring run across the ocean. (The chance of sinking should be upped to 75% though.)

I am very excited about the new events as this will add an unprecedented layer of epic-icity (that's not a word :lol:) to the game. They're talking about colonies splitting off in revolutions, pleas for help, and disasters. Should be good fun.

Ave Gaius!

Yeah, there are a lot more coming from what I read. Some of this ideas are already implemented in fan mods, the revolution thing in rhey´s and fall of civilization

http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=204

and primem0ver is making an events mod, even with things like freezing off your asses when battling in artic territory for along time;

you should find it here http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=216309

and it should be added to the genetic era mod in the next version to be released soon .....
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184182

Yours Zoid

Somewhere I also read that countries' leaders may get married to one another for diplo bonus.... my question is why??????????????????

Somewhere I also read that countries' leaders may get married to one another for diplo bonus.... my question is why??????????????????

It said something along the lines of 'if you help a civ when they request it your diplomatic relationship with them will be boosted' which, according to the article's author - not a CivIV developer or tester - is like a marriage. A really bad choice of words. There won't be marriages between civ leaders.

Somewhere I also read that countries' leaders may get married to one another for diplo bonus.... my question is why??????????????????

That could get complicated with so few female leaders. Catharine would have to be shared. :lol:

Seriously though, I expect it is like Monopoly chance cards. "Because of recent arranged marriage the German and English civilizations have forged closer ties. For the coming turns +1 :gold: and :science:"
Something like that.

One thought for events---Voyage of the Beagle. All civs that discover Biology have a set of locations on the map revealed to them (representing areas of high biodiversity). First civ to sail a ship to one of those locations (or maybe all locations) discovers "Evolution" and receives a free Great Scientist.

Similar events could be modeled for the Seven Cities of Gold, El Dorado/Fountain of Youth, Lost Dutchman Mine/Gold Rush(es), First Polar Expedition, Peak Oil/Global Warming/Hole in the Ozone, First Flight around the Globe, etc..


They mentioned quests in one of the articles. Something like this could be very fun.

Turns out there are marriages but that they're not between leaders - probably just unnamed nobility or celebrities. A random event which temporarily gives better diplomatic modifiers.

100 or more events ! that's quite huge.

maybe Isabella and Catherine can get married !

In the new Gamespot preview, it says there will be 100+ random events, which range from earthquakes to diplomatic modifiers that can suddenly turn friends into enemies...

I can hear the complaining all the way from here.

they said 2day that some random events were good like : A political wedding between empires which improves diplomacy, a golden age(or 2), and a call for help from another country which greatly improves relations if accepted( or however it works)

in older civs, i was anxious to send me triremes/galleys cross the ocean to explore and to get to know (and eventually settle) the world. in civ4 it requires astronomy to do so. this may be historically correct on earth, but there should be again this possibility to send ancient ships across the seas (with the chance of them getting lost - in a way it was funny).

CU, Zoid
At the very list they should be able to risk short bursts from coast to coast- the Vikings managed to reach North America by doing this from Scandinavia to Iceland and the Greenland long before the development of the later-medieval sailing ships.

At the very list they should be able to risk short bursts from coast to coast- the Vikings managed to reach North America by doing this from Scandinavia to Iceland and the Greenland long before the development of the later-medieval sailing ships.

That could be good idea.
If the developers could allow a "coastal" ship to "reside" in ocean water for about 4 or 5 turns. At the end of its 4th-5th turn it has to be in coastal water again or it is lost.
That would allow players to explore the sea, maybe find some new territories and it would make the "random chance"-mechanic that your ship goes down unnecessary, which I personally am not fond off anyway.