A small (or big) change to exploration

[atahop]

First off, I love brave new world and I especially love the culture system. It just works in every way possible. I love the archaeology system and is what I want from a civ game the entire system is full of flavor and interesting game play. I like the aesthetics tree, the navel bonuses can be quite the boost,
but...
The finisher of exploration is so promising: hey! Here are hidden antiquity sites, so full of mystery and wonder. Then you find them, "oh, more beads yay." a rather anti-climactic end.

This problem can actually be solved really easily and I will solve it the same way a seven year old does...Dinosaurs and pirates! You see instead of pulling names from the same algorithm as the rest of the archaeology system these would be pulled from a list. The list would have Dinosaurs and treasures on it: t-rex skull, triceratops skull, neanderthal cave, the hope diamond, booty, black beard's gold, ark of the covenant.

As you can see these aren't like other artifacts and could very easily be a name change, and just change the flavor to make exploration hidden sites more unique.
or...
There can be mechanical changes, and multiple classes of items could be pulled from hidden sites. The dinosaur bones like before, only now they also produce + for the great work slot and for the tile improvement (I have no idea how much but +2 and +4 seem good). The generic booty and treasure are also in the improved hidden sites with +:c5commerce: instead of . Finally the for the ark of the covenant and black beards treasure and other such fictional and historical treasures...hidden wonders. In all antiqity sites there would be a small < 5% chance of finding a hidden wonder but in hidden antiquity sites they are just as likely as a dino bone or treasure. these would be pretty sweet +3 +3tourism for the great work slot and nice extra for the tile. and then each hidden wonder would halve a unique effect the the civ that either holds it or works it. for instance holding black beard;s treasure makes all privateers more likely to capture ships. bonuses that are good but not powerful.

Like? don't? let me know in the comments

 

[Rohili]

Great idea. You can't have archaeology without fossils and dinosaur bones! A player can then choose between pulling out the fossil/dinosaur bone for extra beakers, the buried treasure for gold, or the ancient arrowhead for culture.

It would certainly make archaeology more useful for players who aren't aiming for a cultural victory and have no use for extra culture/tourism.

 

[Socratatus]

F

Like? don't? let me know in the comments

Not a terrible idea. Although if the random thing threw up the Ark of the Covenant twice that would cause an anomoly that would destroy Earth.

Also archaeology does 99% of the time just throw up a few beads and boring bits.

 

[I_qua_I]

Sounds like a promising idea.

 

[joncnunn]

I would also agree.

In part because it appears the real limit for a tall empire to artifacts is number of slots for them. (Standard map size with standard # of civs)

(This is a possible argument for also decreasing the standard number of artifacts, and increasing the hidden ones by the same amount.)

 

[wcbarney]

Great idea. You can't have archaeology without fossils and dinosaur bones! ...

Archaeology does not include the discipline of paleontology (the study of fossils, including dinosaur bones).

Like? don't? let me know in the comments

Like.

 

[MisterBoomBoom]

Isn't anything better than the endless beads? Why they put such an uninteresting spin on a cool (yet overly laborious process that is culture now) process is beyond me. What you described is what I thought we would get. Why the endless beads and the lack of diversity of ages (classical-medieval etc) is just not attention to detail and plum out lazy. They take the time to build layer upon layer of a Cultural victory only to drop the ball on the payoffs?

 

[atahop]

Archaeology does not include the discipline of paleontology (the study of fossils, including dinosaur bones).

Shhh you're ruining my child like dream! Besides, the picture for archaeology is some dinosaur or other reptile.

also thanks for all of the positive feed back, if the guys at fraxsis saw this and even made the first simple changes then I would be happy but for now, I guess I have to learn programming so I can mod this in, or maybe some one on this forum will be nice.

 

[Calouste]

I was hoping before the release that the hidden archeological sites would reveal named artifacts, with pictures, just like the paintings. Tutankhamun's mask, the Rosetta stone, stuff like that.

 

[VainoValkea]

I don't know why there aren't any dinosaur bones or something like that. They would be more interesting than the bland beads and coins, and particularly better than imaginary combat sites.

 

[Rohili]

I don't know why there aren't any dinosaur bones or something like that. They would be more interesting than the bland beads and coins, and particularly better than imaginary combat sites.

Aren't the combat sites supposed to be actual sites where fights with barbarians took place in the early game?

 

[Browd]

If there aren't enough actual combat sites, it appears the game will distribute additional antiquity sites around the map.

 

[newarkinvaders]

Aren't the combat sites supposed to be actual sites where fights with barbarians took place in the early game?

I think it also does goody boxs (these tend to be the beads etc ) combat ones are arrowheads etc

 

[VainoValkea]

Aren't the combat sites supposed to be actual sites where fights with barbarians took place in the early game?

Yeah, and also wars between civs, but check my bolding for emphasis!

There are combat sites, that's a good thing. However, some of them are broken in a peculiar way. For example, in one game I discovered crossbow bolts from a medieval war between me and Hong Kong before I even knew Hong Kong was in the game. They were on the other side of the world!