Anti-Climatic Space Victory...

[Ronin228]

I just got a space race victory with China, and wow, I feel as much accomplishment as I do when my wife makes me clean the bathrooms...

Here are the reasons it sucks:

1) I don't get to see the parts added to the space ship.
2) I don't have to wait X amount of turns until it takes off, leaving me in suspense not knowing if another civilization is still going to beat me.
3) Boring pop picture with old guy talking instead of a cool video.

Why did they have to make winning so boring? I remember in civ 4, I was once going for a space race victory and I used a spy to discover that my main enemy was about to finish the last part of their ship about 5 turns ahead of me (oh crap!) I won by launching 3 ICBM missiles at that city and then launching my people off to the new world!

I don't feel any of that suspense in Civ5....

 

[mihaifx]

1) You can see them on the map. Did you build them all in the capital? Otherwise they are quite visible when you move them around. If you zoom carefully you can see the progress on the space ship as well.

2) You can see other civ's progress (what parts they've built) in the victory conditions screen. Waiting X turns was way too boring in my opinion

3) agree

 

[glaivemaster]

Did waiting 10 turns for the ship to reach Alpha Centauri really mean anything at all? How often did you launch the ship without building all the parts, and if you ever had, would it have helped you win? The race is still the same, you just don't have to press 'next turn' 10 times in the slowest part of the game any more

 

[Namaspamus]

Not sure but I think in Civ II or III some spaceship parts were about safety but you didn't have to build them all. So you could take the risk to launch without full security if you were behind, but your spaceship could explode during the flight.

 

[stormerne]

Not sure but I think in Civ II or III some spaceship parts were about safety but you didn't have to build them all. So you could take the risk to launch without full security if you were behind, but your spaceship could explode during the flight.

Additionally, in Civ2 you could vary the length of time the spaceship took to reach its destination by changing the number of structurals and components you added - basically due to power-to-weight ratio - and whether you had nuclear fusion or not. The AI always went with a minimum and took too long, so you had a chance to catch up, and overtake, to a minimum of around 5 years.

 

[Dunkah]

Agreed.

I would like to see a launching site special improvement have to be built and maintained that can be destroyed by bombing it with an air unit. Surounding it with AA troops and trying desperately to avoid/ cause its destruction would be awesome...

On the flip side you could build your site on some remote island out of the way... perhaps no one would know it was even there before it was too late!

Building transports to carry each piece would be another great way to slow things down and give away locations of building sites.

Man do I miss spies and recon missions with air units... I was attacking a city the other day with Jets from a carrier. It still had the fog of war over a large section 3 hexes inland. The jets didn't even reveal fog of war. Just crazy!

 

[SuperJay]

Yeah, it's pretty shallow. I'd love to see these victory conditions have some more depth and suspense involved, like Stormerne mentioned. As it stands, a space victory is basically just a checklist of techs and parts. Wheee?

 

[demidyad]

i launched an intercontinental invasion complete with nukes on persia because he was beating me in the space race. up until that point we were friends, but I managed to take his capital and ended up winning the space race. that was pretty suspenseful and fun. in particular, i had to choose between continuing along the "science" path of the tech tree and trying to simply "out run" him, or to re-focus on the military techs in order to invade and stop him. It was a tough decision to make; I ended up doing the latter.

 

[bonafide11]

I've always found all Civ victories anti-climatic. It's very rarely a close game, the game is almost always decided long before one achieves victory. So I don't think the Space Race, or Civ V, is unique to that experience.

 

[Paradigne]

When you win with the space ship, click on "play one more turn'. You get to see the launch.

 

[Namaspamus]

Additionally, in Civ2 you could vary the length of time the spaceship took to reach its destination by changing the number of structurals and components you added - basically due to power-to-weight ratio - and whether you had nuclear fusion or not. The AI always went with a minimum and took too long, so you had a chance to catch up, and overtake, to a minimum of around 5 years.

And what was the weight for? More survival modules I think but... can't remember how the risk worked.

I'd welcome back a little of this gambling if well implemented.

 

[Guardian_PL]

I've always found all Civ victories anti-climatic. It's very rarely a close game, the game is almost always decided long before one achieves victory. So I don't think the Space Race, or Civ V, is unique to that experience.

Really?
Civ 3 Space Race Victory MOVIE

First time I saw this dandelion clock blown away by the gust of wind from a launching spaceship I thought that I've just done the coolest thing in the whole world!

But I guess that's just me.

 

[duddyz_dad]

I think the anticlimatic ending with all the victories embodies what is ultimately wrong with Civ 5. I actually miss the videos following the Wonders (anyone remember the Cure for Cancer). Lot of corner cutting in this version. Combined with the agonizing slow processing time (loading games, screen displays with high latency especially for large maps), I'm overall disappointed with Civ 5. I don't mind 1UPT and I actually like the new hex system. I felt they could've built off the Civ 4 engine and make these additional enhancements instead of cutting back on all the buildings, wonders, military units, etc.

 

[stormerne]

And what was the weight for? More survival modules I think but... can't remember how the risk worked.

I'd welcome back a little of this gambling if well implemented.

In Civ2, weight was for (a) more survival modules (in threes of habitation, life support and solar panel), and (b) more potential speed. The table I have here says:
Cmp Str Years
6 15 15.7
8 17 13.2
10 21 10.0
12 25 8.3
14 29 6.7
16 33 5.7
for a single set of three survival modules and 100% chance of arrival.

Cmp was components and you could have propulsion or fuel - you needed to balance those 1:1 so they're in pairs above. Str was the structural metalwork necessary to support the extra components and survival modules. You just got more points for more survival modules (and needed more structural) but the whole thing was slower.

If you didn't have all the bits, but had most of them - perhaps because you couldn't wait any longer to launch or an AI might get there first - it would tell you the percentage chance of success before you committed to hitting the Launch button.

Additionally, after the launch, an enemy could try and take out your capital, which inexplicably would cause your spaceship to be destroyed in-flight! Odd, but it kept the suspense going till the very last turn.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

BTS SS-Launch routine(s) had it all. The pad, the parts being added -- full-screen.
Gimme an obvious overlay animation process afterwards & i'll be happy.

 

[Namaspamus]

@ stormerne: Thank you, now I remember. Didn't know about taking the capital though.

 

[Sonereal]

I miss victory movies in general. I'm not bothered by the lack of wonder movies since I usually ended up skipping those but I always watched victory movies.