civilizationfanatic2000
Prince
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2022
- Messages
- 332
Civ assumes you're playing in the Cenozoic. Specifically in the latest period of the Cenozoic.
What if you had an option to play earlier in the Phanerozoic? Now, for a game based on generating worlds that work like Earth but are not laid out like it, this can be strange. To make it gameable, I'll make some definitions and how each era would change gameplay. In all eras, assume animals can be hunted or domesticated. The player would have the ability to select specific time periods with their own fauna and flora.
Pleistocene
Pretty much the same as the Holocene, only megafauna are still extant.
Paleogene
Specifically the PETM thermal maximum. Forests at the poles, no permanent ice anywhere (save maybe the tops of mountains). Terror birds.
Cretaceous
You can be stupid and start in the Instant Game Over mode where the meteor hits after you press start. This wipes out your species. This is just for the cool cinematic. Or you can be smart and play in the normal mode before the meteor hits (say, 12,000 years)
Now things get exciting. Grass isn't as wide spread (so Wheat, Rice, Corn, etc become rarer), and also the elephant in the room: Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are often bigger than mammals (even Cenozoic mammals, dinosaurs are specifically adapted to get big while mammals are adapted to be 1. nocturnal and 2. small as a response to an oxygen crisis). The earth is hotter (not as hot as the PETM) and there are a lot more weird mounts around.
Jurassic
Grass doesn't exist (so no Wheat, Rice) and neither do angiosperms (Bananas, apples). I don't know what you could farm here.
Triassic
Everything is somewhat drier- and more importantly, the oxygen level is lower (the aforementioned oxygen crisis). The player can choose between toggling air sacs for humans on and off. Keeping them off makes the game much harder as your citizens can't work as hard, turning them on has the benefit of allowing you to work as normal.
Permian
Two options. Instant Game Over mode, where you start in the midst of the Great Dying, and normal mode, where you start near the end of the Permian before the Great Dying.
This is the limit of reasonable gameplay, because realistically all you could farm is like...Potatoes...
Let's go further.
Carboniferous
The first thing you'll notice is that this period is quite cold actually, with icecaps at the poles. The second thing you'll notice is that the death rate increased because higher oxygen level erodes your cells faster.
Also the insects are giant and they are everywhere.
Devonian
There aren't any land animals other than amphibians and insects. Also I'm not sure if tubers existed yet.
You can probably stop here, it's impossible to finish the game without coal.
Silurian
Sparse land plants, almost no land animals. Land is thus unfarmable.
Ordovician
fish and insects and plants and nothing else
Cambrian
all life exists in the ocean
Pre-Cambrian
What can you actually do here other than lose?
What if you had an option to play earlier in the Phanerozoic? Now, for a game based on generating worlds that work like Earth but are not laid out like it, this can be strange. To make it gameable, I'll make some definitions and how each era would change gameplay. In all eras, assume animals can be hunted or domesticated. The player would have the ability to select specific time periods with their own fauna and flora.
Pleistocene
Pretty much the same as the Holocene, only megafauna are still extant.
Paleogene
Specifically the PETM thermal maximum. Forests at the poles, no permanent ice anywhere (save maybe the tops of mountains). Terror birds.
Cretaceous
You can be stupid and start in the Instant Game Over mode where the meteor hits after you press start. This wipes out your species. This is just for the cool cinematic. Or you can be smart and play in the normal mode before the meteor hits (say, 12,000 years)
Now things get exciting. Grass isn't as wide spread (so Wheat, Rice, Corn, etc become rarer), and also the elephant in the room: Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are often bigger than mammals (even Cenozoic mammals, dinosaurs are specifically adapted to get big while mammals are adapted to be 1. nocturnal and 2. small as a response to an oxygen crisis). The earth is hotter (not as hot as the PETM) and there are a lot more weird mounts around.
Jurassic
Grass doesn't exist (so no Wheat, Rice) and neither do angiosperms (Bananas, apples). I don't know what you could farm here.
Triassic
Everything is somewhat drier- and more importantly, the oxygen level is lower (the aforementioned oxygen crisis). The player can choose between toggling air sacs for humans on and off. Keeping them off makes the game much harder as your citizens can't work as hard, turning them on has the benefit of allowing you to work as normal.
Permian
Two options. Instant Game Over mode, where you start in the midst of the Great Dying, and normal mode, where you start near the end of the Permian before the Great Dying.
This is the limit of reasonable gameplay, because realistically all you could farm is like...Potatoes...
Let's go further.
Carboniferous
The first thing you'll notice is that this period is quite cold actually, with icecaps at the poles. The second thing you'll notice is that the death rate increased because higher oxygen level erodes your cells faster.
Also the insects are giant and they are everywhere.
Devonian
There aren't any land animals other than amphibians and insects. Also I'm not sure if tubers existed yet.
You can probably stop here, it's impossible to finish the game without coal.
Silurian
Sparse land plants, almost no land animals. Land is thus unfarmable.
Ordovician
fish and insects and plants and nothing else
Cambrian
all life exists in the ocean
Pre-Cambrian
What can you actually do here other than lose?
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