Cold War - Europe (Test fase)

Last Update: 13th March

Playable: The 50's,
To do: 60's 70's and 80's



INTRO

This scenario is still very simple

4 civs:
-Soviet Union
-Socialist Countries, all wawsaw pact countries plus yugoslavia
-Liberal Democracies, founders of the modern EU: France, West Germany, Italy and Benelux
-Western Allies, all the other euro countries which were EFTA or NATO or "Neutrals"

2 govs: market vs socialist economies
4 eras: 50's 60's 70's 80's

Military: there are basic units that represent armies and navy. I'm thinking in keeping it this simple, and adding a couple of UU

There are only 2 ways to win: total conquest or vp's
but its made to win through peacefull means

The scenario is a wonder race, is a houserule to play peacefully, the military is there just to keep the cold

the only way to get vp's is by building wonders
wonders correspond to historical events like "first man in space", "hungarian revolution" etc, the ideia is that you can either stick or change history by building the wonders first than your opponent

Borders don't change
There's no culture, because all the borders are made so that they never change
If you go to the biq file and reassign all polish cities, you'll see a blue poland in the minimap
This looks good if you go for the conquest victory, and watch countries as they change sides

Workers, they're auto-produced by a small wonder you can start building in the first turn.
They only build roads, fortifications and barricades
all terrain is equal.

Improvements
there are prod buildings called "infrastruture", one per era and give +50% prod, costs 100 shields
then you get scientific and commercial buildings that give +50% science or gold points and cost 50 each

Wonders
There are many wonders and small wonders, and some are there just for flavor
like "Coca-Cola" which does nothing special really... but all of them give at least one happy face in all cities + special bonus if they're civ specific

Espionage
Trading and stealing techs is not allowed. You can only guess your opponents tech lvl by what wonders they're building.
Spy planes are auto-prod by the secret services which you get from the iron curtain early tech
Spy planes can recon any square on the map



PROGRESS

The 50s are completed.
This is really starting to look like what i'm after.

Graphics: I don't care about good looking units or buildings. But it would be nice if wonders and techs didn't all look the same...
But making and editing graphics takes me too much time, and doesn't really matter. So I'll just try to keep them the best I can.

Music: That really makes a difference. I'll release the music file when the scenario is complete.

I'll start working the 60s, and realease when they're "playable"



TESTING

This is starting to look good.
Flavors are set to 90%, so the ai isn't so much warmongering as it used to be but still attacks you if you neglect the military.

All civs are balanced and taste different. A brief overview:
Soviet Union: Big and continental.
Socialist Countries: 23 cities but get 2 advances already known by 2 civs, so they're likely to get ahead in the tech tree which compensates their size
Liberal Democracies (founders of the ECSC): equal to the socialist countries, 23 cities and get 2 adv
Western Allies: even bigger than the soviet union, but their cities are disperse so its harder to defend.



THE FILE

5.43MB, biq inside:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8663

Share your ideas and modding exp because that's the only way to improve



Screenshots

Hi,
I tested this scenario the other day. I like some of your ideas such as techs representing historic events such as Korean war, etc. and I like the way you simplified the military and made fighting less important.
My only concern is that I feel u may have over-simplified the rest in the way of no workers, no improvements and no culture. I think the fact that it is a non agressive game gives more reason to focus on culture and trading with possibly a couple of neutral countries.
However I really respect the way u have removed conquest as a means of victory. Especially since we are talking about the cold war. This is a nice change of concepts to civ3.

Keep up the good work!!

By flagging [Retain Culture after Capture] in scenario properties you'r making it so every city that is captured will stay with its borders and wont loose any culture, why would you make it that way then?

European said:

By flagging [Retain Culture after Capture] in scenario properties you'r making it so every city that is captured will stay with its borders and wont loose any culture, why would you make it that way then?

Click to expand...

Culture is suposed to represent country borders
If you reassign all cities of one country, its borders in the mini map will be close to reality
Try a baltic country for eg
And that's the reason buildings and wonders don't produce culture, to keep country borders as they are

however as there're only two civs, country borders don't really matter...
It only looks good when if go to war, and see countries changing colours
Its a personal taste really, but if I'm playing with western europe and conquer the 3 cities of belarus, it looks like i've conquered a country instead of just 3 cities

Worker improvements
my ideia was to avoid mines, irrigation and railroad in everysingle tile...
plus it better for balance, if you think in tile numbers instead of what each terrain type generates
But i was thinking in terrain improvs like: industrial area, rural area and urban area
that yield repectively production food and gold
(forgeting about graphics now,) i'm not sure if or how this would work

City improvements
The "Infastructure" respresents the civ logic library-university-lab, market-bank-corp etc
It's expensive so that you spend some years building it
But so far this single era improv also works as a factory and gives happiness
I'm thinking separating production from gold-science buildings
Happiness will be provided for civ specific wonders

Neutral Countries
This would be a huge change but could be interesting
In fact, country borders and culture are made in that way to make that possible
The original concept was to make this a 2 sided game because even though there were neutral countries, they're were all unofficially alligned to one side
will this be a playable neutral faction making this a 1 vs 1 vs 1?
or small countries that relly on goodwill to survive?
i'll think about it

Alternative version released!
see the first post

I was thinking about the neutral countries sugestion, and there are some problems
If they are too small, they're unplayable.
If I created a 3rd neutral alliance it would be weaker (not enough countries)
Smaller countries would allways be backwards in tech
They would need auto-prod buildings just to stay alive

So i've splited each alliance into two making 4 civs
western allies and liberal democracies
soviet union and the eastern bloc

sizes are semi-balanced and it can add more spice to the game
now this is just for you too see the map, i'll have to change the whole thing before its playable

Just tell me if i should develop this version or stick to the original

Just an idea here but u could place roads, mines, etc wherever u want but don't make workers available to any civ. This way you would have some pre-set improvements but the map would not get filled up with them as u said.

but then i'll have to remove bombardment from the navy or else improvs get irreversibly destroyed
and navy without bombardment would be even more useless
but maybe its not a bad option since i've never seen naval combat working well, especially in a scenario where only a few tiles of sea separate the lands

so should I add improvs and disable pillaging and bombing?

ROADS!

I've updated the alternative version which now includes roads
map looks much better and adds strategy to gameplay
take a look

i'm using this graphics:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16628
but i just uploaded the biq

Is there a way to post screens without the upload function?
Its really boring that i can't just simply show it in a screenshot

Try using www.photobucket.com - it lets you upload things and gives you a tag to use in your posts here.

thanks

('ve removed the old screeshots from here)

I love the idea but I think the neutral countries should be independent civs, doesn't really matter if they're dead on the tech race.
And also there should be some cities of the US included to the far west...
I don't understand much of the history of cold war butshouldn't be western germany in control of the soviets?

I haven't downloaded it yet so I assumed this from the pictures

Midleiro F. said:

I don't understand much of the history of cold war butshouldn't be western germany in control of the soviets?

Click to expand...

Of course not! Western Germany was comprised of the fusion of all three sectors formerly controlled by the United States, United Kingdom, and France. East Germany was created out of the formerly Soviet controlled sector. Therefore, the current look of the map is perfectly accurate.

I'm not including neutrals because neutrality didn't existed
all countries were "alligned"
and this isn't suposed to be a NATO vs WP scenario, is an ideological war and all countries fit in one side or the other
The criteria to split western europe is arguable... i divided to give them the same number of cities, but portugal would be historically better if i alligned it with the UK for eg... But the balance works so i'll keep it

sorry I ment eastern!!!

but eastern germany belongs to the eastern bloc
see it in the central europe screen, with the DDR tag

Midleiro F. said:

sorry I ment eastern!!!

Click to expand...

Ahhh, I understand what you mean now! You're asking why East Germany is not under Soviet legislation. Simple really! That's because E. Germany had a government of its own, completely independant from Soviet politics. Therefore, placing it under direct Soviet control would be unaccurate. As I said above, Arbustro has done it just fine.

check out lastest version!

i've made several changes, like adding roads, workers, naval bombardment, improvs, and civ specific wonders
the ai now seems to get the point of the game, and is more focused in wonder building than conquest

i've removed the wonder maintenance costs, and now each military unit costs 10 gold in support (workers and spy planes and the iron curtain don't require support)

The 50's are now much closer to what i'm looking for, and i'll finally start working on the 60's

just one question: is there a way (other than wonders) to prevent the ai from razing cities?