Random events

I think adding random events on civ 4
One of my ideas:
A asteroid has fallen in the earth and bllowed half of it
hahahaha
the chance of this would be normaly 1:1000000
What ideas do you have?

i definetly support idea of "random effects" like asteroid or plague or something like that.. and i do miss a higher effect of pollution like shown in civ - CTP.. when level of seas has risen so half of the earths surface has gone to hell..now that was something... randomly and effective

Sounds like a stellar idea, I love it! I'm all for it! Wheres the boat?!

Yeah. That would be nice: Domestic Advisor: "I got some good news and some bad news, Sire: which would you like to hear first, Your Excellency?"
"Hmmh. Hit me with the bad news first, the following good news will then make me feel good and tingly for the rest of the day!"
"Yes, most certainly it will, Your Omnisciency. The bad news is that we were completely wiped out by an asteroid..."
"WHAAT?! That cannot be! I was two turns from Hoover Dam!"
"Yeah, but the good news is, Lord, that so were the Russians!"

i would like to see hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tidal waves etc. happen randomly. an asteroid wiping out an entire civ might be a little much though...but it would be funny, especially in a multiplayer game

Originally posted by deo
I think adding random events on civ 4
One of my ideas:
A asteroid has fallen in the earth and bllowed half of it
hahahaha
the chance of this would be normaly 1:1000000
What ideas do you have?

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That'd be funny, although not very fun

I think the best way for random events to be added (in order to add fun as well as a little realism) is for them to be common and not too bad, instead of uncommon and terrible. If bad stuff almost never happened to you but was really terrible when it did, you'd be mad that your game had been ruined. But if, in every game, you typically had a few cities damaged by earthquakes, a couple hit by hurricanes, one or two built to close to a volcano, and a number of outbreaks of plague, then you would think of it as part of the game, not something that wrecked your game. And its realistic that they happen commonly, after all, the game encompassed the entire earth and spans thousands of years, and in the real world, several major earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. happen in every century. The random events should threaten individual cities and units, but should never be a threat to your civ as a whole, that just wouldn't be much fun.

Judgement,

I was all ready to deride random events as a really bad idea, until you came and showed some reasonable ideas.

As long as the general effect were mild and felt universally, I think it might add a bit to the game. I don't see it as adding much, though, and the fun lost would probably equal or exceed the fun gained to me.

Arathorn

I would like to make it clear that I was being sarcastic back there. Global disasters are not to be supported - arguments being brought forth by judgement already. Small random events would be nice, though...

The reason (if I read the Civ2 manual right) that such events were kept out is that they were assumed to happen and that they did not affect the cities in question over the time in question. One of the things I would like to see, however, is the automatic clean-up of Volcanic Disasters. No one sent a team of engineers into the Mt. St. Helens region to clean up the mess. Yet, if you go to see it now, the area around the volcano is forested (yes forested!) wilderness.

I would also like to see pollution handled differently. When is the last time you heard of an area the size of Rhode Island becoming completely useless? Never! Pollution effects are way too Draconian in Civ3 (and in Civ2 as well). Virtually all of the Industrial age and most of the Modern age has gone by without significant engineering cleanup of the environment. I am not advocating that this continue, but I would like the Civ4 system to give less disadvantage to leaving pollution. This would add a lot more "realism" to the entire pollution effects. I would also make it less likely that a player would simply keep a whole bunch of workers around to clean up messes.

Speaking of keeping around workers, I believe that they should cost a lot more in more modern times, this would have the effect of giving the player a reason to not want to maintain excess ones just because the difference in money is trivial (as it often is near the end of the game since many cities have lots of extra cash from markets, banks and stock exchanges).

Originally posted by rcoutme

I would also like to see pollution handled differently. When is the last time you heard of an area the size of Rhode Island becoming completely useless? Never! ....

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What, you never been to Northern Jersey (ouch, that hurt. I did not mean it )

Seriously, I have no comment on pollution but some minor events would be great. Conquests took some good strides introducing the volcanos. Lets hope it continues.


(by the way, I have nothing against New Jersey or "Jerseyites". I just like Jersey jokes and making fun of my neighbor.)

You also need to have random man-made events also. Above when they mentioned disasters only affecting single units and cities, I thought about the movie K-19 The Widowmaker, where their sub came close to causing a nuclear explosion. Now that would have had its effect... Disasters like that (small ones) would be fine, but large ones, no.

If they do add in random events (which I think would be cool, with the conditions I mentioned above) then I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate the ability to turn them off. Probably there should be a checkbox when starting the game, since it would be weird to toggle them on/off in mid-game.

If I remember correctly, the original Civ 1 would occasionally pop up messages that said things like "Fire sweeps through London! Citizens demand aqueduct!" If they do put in more random events, it would be cool if certain techs/improvements helped mitigate the effects.

I like the idea of mitigating the effects. This is already done, of course, with the discovery of sanitation and the random event of disease from floodplains and jungles. I would like to see events occur, I just don't want the programmers to make the advanced levels higher by increasing negative events. I would also like to see some positive events.

Examples of game events: A drought has cut our food production. We have had a banner year for crops.

Unemployment is rising, our tax revenues are falling, we need to stimulate our economy (loss of shields and commerce). This could be mitigated by lowering the tax level (i.e. have a fourth line which is money left in the private economy).

Any other suggestions?

Has anyone here ever read Gregory Keye's "Newton's Cannon" ?

THAT would be cool

Since the game spans thousands of years, perhaps the climate could change very gradually throughout - at least in some parts of the world?

Whether or not industrialisation leads to rapid global warming, there might be a long-term natural drift towards glaciation: 1 or 2 extra ice squares per turn.

Or the reverse: deserts & jungles gradually extend towards the poles, at a rate which agricultural civs can adapt to with a little effort? (It's quite realistic for forests to be cleared for farming at a faster rate than they can spread).

Originally posted by Pariah
Since the game spans thousands of years, perhaps the climate could change very gradually throughout - at least in some parts of the world?

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Yes, I agree. If I'm not mistaken, the Sahara desert in northern Africa has expanded quite a bit over the course of human history.

Originally posted by judgement
Yes, I agree. If I'm not mistaken, the Sahara desert in northern Africa has expanded quite a bit over the course of human history.

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Thanks - though many people believe that large parts of the Sahara were created by unsustainable farming practices in Classical times!

Originally posted by rcoutme
...I would like to see events occur, I just don't want the programmers to make the advanced levels higher by increasing negative events. I would also like to see some positive events.

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Yes, sounds good!

... have a fourth line which is money left in the private economy.

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Funny, I've always kind of considered the "luxury" slider to represent the money left in the private economy. The less you take from the people to fund science projects or add to your treasury, the more they have left to buy nice things for themselves, so they are happier.

Any other suggestions?

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Well, if climate change could occur gradually throughout the game, as Pariah suggests, then some terrain changes near your cities would be positive: "Sire, changing weather patterns have made this land more fertile" (desert becomes grassland).

Also, anything bad that happens to an enemy could always be considered a positive thing for you

I played a long time Europa universalis 2 before i discoverd Civ3.
This game was very interesting and had o lot of random events like over the sky of europe is the haley comet shown and the people think this is the end of the world
The event is that the stability of my country will drop
Another small event of this game is...i cant remember very good but i think i gain 100 gold.
It is good to ad some events like this to help small civs a bit