A workaround for "nascent" civilizations

[Padmewan]

According to several posts I've read here, there is no ability to instantiate a new civ once the game is underway, at least not pre-SDK. Would the following concept work around this problem?

1. Give the nascent civ a settler and "imprison" it by surrounding it in impassible terrain. Then make the tile it sits on ineligible for city-building (e.g. snow surrounded by mountains).

2. At the appropriate "birthing" event, teleport the settler to a hospitable location, or (in a revolution scenario), transfer control of the revolting cities to the civ in question.

Since I'm still hacking my way through Python, I don't know if #2 is feasible (I don't see why not).

The only problem with this approach is that, if the right techs were available, you could meet the settler (and spoil the surprise) or maybe even capture it (if your mod has paratroopers). I think settlers are bomber-proof, which is the only vanilla unit I can think of that can get to a tile like the one I described.

Hope this thread isn't redundant; I haven't seen a similar idea posted but that doesn't mean it ain't there!

 

[IVZanIV]

I don't think the settler idea would work, because a civilization needs a city to be "alive", and the unit wouldn't register... Am I wrong?

 

[Padmewan]

I think not, because in the beginning of the game you have no cities, just a settler. You can probably wander around the map the entire game and not "lose" until you lose the settler.

OTOH if you have cities and lose them all, I think you lose even if you have a settler hidden away somewhere. I guess we can look it up in the XML/Python code, but I think the above must be true?

 

[Crayton]

In Civ3 I remember conquering the world but not extinguishing the dutch because they had a settler in a caravel sailing along the bottom edge of the map. It took me a while to finally find it, so I could win the game.

I'm guessing that a civ is 'alive' as long as there are cities or settlers, the is true for this first turn, the remainder of the turns, and any settlers in caravels currently exiled from the rest of the planet.

Perhaps you don't need a settler, just set the starting units to NONE and generate a settler at the appropriate time in the appropriate place (no, I don't know how to do this).