Has Firaxis ever considered doing a Natural Disasters Expansion?

[Socratatus]

I tend to keep peace with my neighbours which makes things long and boring sometimes. It occurred to me that there are never any disasters ever to have to deal with. No erupting volcanoes, no eartquakes, no floods, no extreme weather, no nothing. Civ 5 simply suffers from no natural problems. Leaders had to deal with disasters in reality. It would help keep Leaders interested at start game.

Shouldn`t we have some natural disaster problems to spice things up in this game?

 

[JofOblie]

Random events were one of the worst things about Civ IV. They could be game breakingly overpowered (Free cover promotion for all units) or cripplingly annoying at a crucial time (losing population and happiness when attempting to build a wonder).

It was nice to have a resource pop up on one of your mines, or find truffles on your deer patch which gave extra tile bonuses, but I wouldn't like to see them make a comeback.

 

[Doktor Vic Tim]

To me, Alexander's appearance is a natural disaster to me.

OT, though, I think random events can be really annoying in game. Sure, they can be fun, but at times it will frustrate you to no end since you will get the feeling the game is out to get you and only you.

You never mind randomization as long as it affects you positively.

Or maybe that's just me.

 

[FuRRie]

Civ 4 had random events.

They weren't great.

Some we're so OP it's stupid.
Other could cripple you quite a bit.

 

[Socratatus]

Lol. I just don`t get you guys. you`d be awful leaders in real life.

 

[poom3619]

As someone who agree with all replies, Thanks. I guess.

Well, If you want some crippling event just to hold your interest in CiV game, you can sell a city or some military, or declare war for no reason. (I thought you said peace was boring)

I agree with the rest so far that disaster could blow a game. IMO, I am already content with current randomness in-game. Just imagine something like plague or earthquake or new luxury resources happen every 50 turns or so which depends on computer's dice is absurd to me.

*ping* Oh! How do your legion fought against invasion? Well, I regret to inform you that your only iron mine in the empire have been collapsed Tough luck.

 

[Heart Break Kid]

What about there being warnings before disasters show up?

Kinda like how there is a warning for how many turns the world congress will become active, why not have something like "our science advisers seem to to predict a gigantic storm coming in 60 turns, please prepare for it". Maybe something like a huge flock of Locus are migrating to our city in XX turns, we need a certain number of surplus food or some tech in order to make sure that they do not destroy our food supply.

I think that could be reasonably fair, no? I mean there are obviously details that need to be fleshed, but I don't think natural disaster necessarily means a meteorite hitting your city out of nowhere.

 

[Arcaian]

I've been playing a fair bit of Fallen Enchantress : Legendary Heroes. They have random events in there, and I thought I would hate them, but they do seem to work to shake the game up a little bit, disrupt the snowballing that can occur. It's a similar game to Civ 5. I dunno why I didn't like them in Civ 4 though....

 

[MarauderCH]

I would like to see global warming added to the game though I doubt the AI would be smart enough to do anything productive towards dealing with it. Just keep melting the ice and creating deserts. I would like to be able to plant more trees, too.

It will be a natural disaster if the deserts got bigger and the oceans got higher, though. I would also like to see tiles that are snow become more useable. I play on Tilted Axis occasionally and large swaths of the map are snow. It would be crazy to see these tiles open up and be useable...

 

[justaquestion]

*aliens land from outerspace and conquer half of your land* end turn.

 

[poom3619]

What about there being warnings before disasters show up?

Kinda like how there is a warning for how many turns the world congress will become active, why not have something like "our science advisers seem to to predict a gigantic storm coming in 60 turns, please prepare for it". Maybe something like a huge flock of Locus are migrating to our city in XX turns, we need a certain number of surplus food or some tech in order to make sure that they do not destroy our food supply.

I think that could be reasonably fair, no? I mean there are obviously details that need to be fleshed, but I don't think natural disaster necessarily means a meteorite hitting your city out of nowhere.

Another issues is that disaster probably don't hit everywhere in the same turn, Right? If they are to be implemented (which certainly never happened), it will need not to be crippling to a civ too much. Losing a pop or happiness is seemingly small but in CiV it can potentially cause great blow due to small effect it cause. Delay a turn in policy choosing is fine. miss a wonder, lose an hard-earned CS ally or eventually lose a city in war due to random setback or AI got random buff isn't.

I would like to see global warming added to the game though I doubt the AI would be smart enough to do anything productive towards dealing with it. Just keep melting the ice and creating deserts. I would like to be able to plant more trees, too.

It will be a natural disaster if the deserts got bigger and the oceans got higher, though. I would also like to see tiles that are snow become more useable. I play on Tilted Axis occasionally and large swaths of the map are snow. It would be crazy to see these tiles open up and be useable...

I would play Petra-ed Desert Folklore Morocco bent on turning all arable land into desert.

 

[Socratatus]

I think the lack of the unpredictability of disasters is why the game can be so boring. It`s either peace or war or simmering war.
Well I like playing games like this to deal with issues real leaders have to face throughout history, including `op` and unfair disasters. Disasters don`t choose who to pick on, they just happen. A good leader deals with the disaster and even makes good of it in the end. For instance earthquake detectors and flood warnings can be researched to help minimise destruction and disruption from them. The only question is should the player use the time and money to make them? It would add a lot of life to the game.

An opportunity missed in my view.

Oh well, guess I can always play Civ 4 or Tropico 4 for my disaster managing needs!

 

[poom3619]

Yes, you do have the choice. But I guess your issue is more like Civ5 "war and peace" is boring. Disaster is a solution. But not the only solution. My example would be Tropico 5, Disaster management don't make their joke funnier and their 4-era system better.

 

[Chemical Toilet]

Don't know about Civ IV, literally played it for a day and hated it so never touched it again.

In Civ III though, I always hated how resources had a good chance of disappearing on you mid game, even though many of the later ones were rare enough as it was.

I do miss volcanos though.

Random disasters would be cool if they could be balanced correctly.

 

[Ryika]

I think disasters could work, if they actually hurt all Civs equally and allowed different ways of "solving" them, allow Civs to work together and ease the pain - or use them as a way to gain power. They should come with active gameplay, overall.

But I actually don't think that an Expansion that adds "negative" things be a good sell.

 

[Nares]

It was nice to have a resource pop up on one of your mines, or find truffles on your deer patch which gave extra tile bonuses

If I'm not mistaken, the mines at least were a separate mechanic from the other random events, consisting of a tiny chance to discover a resource each turn you worked an appropriate tile (and might have even been independent per tile).

Everything else, such as the bonus yields on a deer camp as you mention, was part of the official "random events" mechanic.

As others have said, negative random events could be awful. It's bad enough the amount of RNG involved in positive random events (ie goody huts, but also CS quests); piling on a whole new mechanic featuring positive and/or negative events would be excessive.

 

[Callonia]

I would love it in fact!

I miss the disasters in Civ 4.

Lack of them in civ5 compared to civ 3/4 is huge part of reason why I hate civ5. Oh HEY THERE SUCH A PERFECT WORLD WHERE NOTHING BAD HAPPENS FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS! The world is so friggin peaceful and quiet I have played myself into sleep of boredom several times already on civ5.

Random events in FE:LH is wussy compared to what i'm used to in Civ4 though. xD But much better than nothing. Its generally a random firestorm from heavens. Then the moon eclipse that levels up all monsters on map by two. And random mighty monster spawn.

There's even a point where if you play on a map long enough then random events will stop happening

I have accepted the fact that firaxis is finished with civ5. I think I might just will buy civ4 off steam and get back all the mods I missed which includes the random events too and revolutions/rebellions etc :3

I have watched a single huge celtic empire fracture into six warring kingdoms with bit of celts left over. Only for one of the warring kingdoms swallow up all other rebels and celts too and became one xD Then go on world conquering spree.

Random events put the hair on your chest! Its good for your beard growth as well!

Ok Ok ok i'm going to just get civ4 again XD Its gonna be great seeing barbarian empires again!

I can't believe i just talked myself into playing civ4 again.

 

[Matthew.]

Endless Space has these, and they are a forgettable experience for me.

Personally I wouldn't care for them, as I see Civ as more of an elaborate board game. Imagine playing chess and ever few turns shouts "oh noes tornado" and smacks a few pieces off the board.

For those that try and play the game as a city builder type of game I could see how they may add some value, but even in that sense it can be implemented poorly.

The best solution, of course, is to keep it as an option. Civ is great in how much customization is in the core game (before mods). Wouldn't bother me at all if they add some disaster mechanic if I could simply tick it off at the start of a game.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I wouldn't mind seeing some random events shaking things up. A lot of my games become fairly static. I end up quitting some games not because I'm going to lose, but because it's so obvious that I'm going to win and I don't feel like grinding another hundred turns just to make it 'official.' Civ V isn't a competitive game, for me, so there's no reason it needs to be fair or predictable.

p.s. Like BEFanatic says, it should be something you can turn off in the setup screen.

 

[dragonxxx]

buy a nuke, nuke yourself ... you have a disaster