[NFP] Apocalypse Mode

[DogeEnricoDandolo]

"Impact Zones" are impassable tiles. Comets are different from Meteor Storms (the event that happens all game.)

Solar flares only come at level 7, thank God.

I just want to add that to the wiki, but in the ingame civilopedia, it says impact zones grant +2 Faith and +2 Science. Even in the Maya game i played, no meteor storms happened near me so I have no idea. Do meteor storms leave behind something called "impact zones" too? Cuz that is seriously confusing.
I think on the livestream, they said comet was guaranteed to happen every turn in phase 7 but not solar storms right? What was your experience on that?

 

[Sostratus]

I just want to add that to the wiki, but in the ingame civilopedia, it says impact zones grant +2 Faith and +2 Science. Even in the Maya game i played, no meteor storms happened near me so I have no idea. Do meteor storms leave behind something called "impact zones" too? Cuz that is seriously confusing.
I think on the livestream, they said comet was guaranteed to happen every turn in phase 7 but not solar storms right? What was your experience on that?

Meteor Storm leave behind a little feature, similar to a tribal village. Just checking my game and they definitely yield nothing.

Solar flares happen probably every 5-7 turns or so, I would say. But they can happen two turns in a row.

I can affirm that comets appear to be every turn. You don't get notified for areas you don't have vision on, although since I launched the earth satellite, i could see the impacts left behind. Comets spawn on the barbarian turn/ the very last one before the player as far as I saw. They can have an impact that would overlap with the coast, but they never fall right into the water.

 

[DogeEnricoDandolo]

Just to sum up the Solar Flare's effects, it pillages every campus, industrial zone, spaceport, possible power plants, and late game improvements (like the power supplying ones and the seasteads), right?

 

[Sostratus]

Just to sum up the Solar Flare's effects, it pillages every campus, industrial zone, spaceport, possible power plants, and late game improvements (like the power supplying ones and the seasteads), right?

I am not sure how 100% it is, because I was constantly repairing (and when they strike rapidly, some repairing isn’t done yet) Others may need to chime in. I think it can target any building that uses power- but I didn’t get any pillaged CHs or theaters.

The flares also hurt info era units, sometimes killing them! They take Heavy damage. It says the GDR’s take more, but I hadn’t had one around to find out. It doesn’t tell you which of your units die, but I noticed mechanized infantry that had been parked for a long while in the red zone on HP. Didn’t affect planes or naval units, though.

 

[DogeEnricoDandolo]

I am not sure how 100% it is, because I was constantly repairing (and when they strike rapidly, some repairing isn’t done yet) Others may need to chime in. I think it can target any building that uses power- but I didn’t get any pillaged CHs or theaters.

The flares also hurt info era units, sometimes killing them! They take Heavy damage. It says the GDR’s take more, but I hadn’t had one around to find out. It doesn’t tell you which of your units die, but I noticed mechanized infantry that had been parked for a long while in the red zone on HP. Didn’t affect planes or naval units, though.

The civilopedia says it only affects power plants, industrial zones, and campuses, which i find kinda weird, since if it pillages the IZs then the power plants are pillaged as well, what is the point of listing the plants, I assume the power plants are destroyed/removed, and not just pillaged? It also says flares destroyed "power related buildings", which i assume to be the hydroelectric dam, and other improvements that supply power, not buildings that can be powered. they do include advance units and improvements, i assume the improvements are the power farms and the seasteads. This disaster is global scale so i think everyone gets hit similarly.

 

[Sostratus]

The civilopedia says it only affects power plants, industrial zones, and campuses, which i find kinda weird, since if it pillages the IZs then the power plants are pillaged as well, what is the point of listing the plants, I assume the power plants are destroyed/removed, and not just pillaged? It also says flares destroyed "power related buildings", which i assume to be the hydroelectric dam, and other improvements that supply power, not buildings that can be powered. they do include advance units and improvements, i assume the improvements are the power farms and the seasteads. This disaster is global scale so i think everyone gets hit similarly.

That makes more sense.
I was constantly getting IZs and campuses pillaged and the power plants had to be rebuilt entirely, they were completely destroyed.
In most cities I hadn't built stock exchanges, so I couldn't really tell they got hit. (i was frantically repairing.) So it must just be those two districts.

I would strongly agree with the description then.

 

[Isengardtom]

I like it
I would love to see the forest fires being a bit more punishing though
At least on higher difficulty.

like I think the forest should either not grow back at all or only after 30 turns or so. Certainly not with increased yields

or increase yields but decrease the chop from it (which is a bit odd I admit)
But I’m in favour of anything that decreases the power of chopping

 

[Starwars]

I just played a game with this on and this game actually turned out to be more fun than I thought. I don't like the soothsayer stuff much and I wish we could turn that off.

There are a few things that I do like however, even though I think this will be so incredibly random and varying from game to game. In my game, I didn't get that many big disasters in the early game but they did start to pile up later on. I also had a really bad start so the game was slow for me, so the game actually lasted longer than usual. Now, what this meant is that later on in the game, the diplomatic victory actually became something to fight for.
I am still not a fan of the victory works at all as it has very little to do with... well, diplomacy, but I liked that there was actually competition going on in the lategame. The AI often goes for the Send Aid stuff to it did pretty well there.

And it was fun that the climate effects was actually having an effect later on. Ever since they changed it sometime after GS came out, I always win my games way before the climate thing becomes an issue at all so it was fun to actually have it play an effect here. The game still ended before the final part of the climate change so I didn't get to see that, but still.

With some tweaking it could be cool and would be something I would play with. As it is though, I suspect it will feel too tacked on in most games.

However, for this particular game it was a nice experience.

 

[Vandlys]

I absolutely do not understand why the soothsayer unit exists. I hate it.

This is Civilization. It is a historical game. It's about humanity on earth. Why are we suddenly moving away from that?

I was flabbergasted at the cartoony nonsense in this game at earlier points as well. The religious units with their lightning and the 60s Batman style cartoony hit visuals for the melee units, but the soothsayer is crossing into a realm that is unprecedented. This has nothing to do with the real world at all.

Don't get me wrong, I love CIV6, but I just don't get why Firaxis are hell-bent on making the game nonsensical. Why move away from the very basis of what Civ is?

*Ahem* What Civ is? It's a bold claim to make when you obviously have forgotten all the looney things Civ has done throughout the years . I mean, an Elvis impersonator as an advisor? That was the *second* iteration in the series. So I'd say they are right on par, whether you like it or not is a different question.

Civ has never been about the real world. It's always been an alternate history on alternate worlds, with every know and again far-out ideas or designs.

 

[Sic]

I mean, this is the series with GDRs, X-COM squads, and religious units which fling lightning in their debates.

Wouldn't it be a better idea to read my post before you reply to it?

I specifically mention that the religious units are silly, and should not be. The GDRs are within the realm of the possible. Not optimal, but at least they're not magical nonsense. Likewise for the X-COM units.

There is zero reason to move the series further into the nonsensical, and you'll see why with the backlash here. People generally don't want nonsense in their historical game.

*Ahem* What Civ is? It's a bold claim to make when you obviously have forgotten all the looney things Civ has done throughout the years . I mean, an Elvis impersonator as an advisor? That was the *second* iteration in the series. So I'd say they are right on par, whether you like it or not is a different question.

Civ has never been about the real world. It's always been an alternate history on alternate worlds, with every know and again far-out ideas or designs.

First of all, an advisor dressing up as Elvis in one of the eras in CIV2 has nothing to do with the series not existing in the real world. Elvis was real and Elvis impersonators are real. Magical people making volcanoes erupt are not.

You want internal consistency. The CIV series have been silly at times in the past, but the game has always been about human history, and what happened on the map was always based in historical reality. Representations have been out there, but not the actual mechanics.

Civ has never been about the real world. It's always been an alternate history on alternate worlds, with every know and again far-out ideas or designs.

It's not "alternate history on alternate worlds" just because it's not an earth map over and over again.

... and you're missing the point entirely if you think this is about following history to the letter.

It's about what universe we're in.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

I finished my apocalypse game last night. Starting at stage one of climate change certainly helped push through the various levels. Before the pass, playing on Emperor and pushing hard for pollution, my games ended way too soon for serious disasters. I rarely noticed the AI building power plants or contributing to CO2 emissions. I grew concerned half-way through my Maya King game that I wasn't even going to see the final stages and made the post. I was actually surprised when I started seeing the ice caps melt and the AI polluting.

When the apocalypse hit, I smiled when the screen tinted red and flecks of debris could be seen on the edges of the map. I got a kick out of watching various AI religious units squabbling as comets begun to pelt the planet.I cackled watching Scythia's 25 pop capital disappear and actually felt a sense of urgency as I hustled to secure a space race victory. If I had lost my main space port, then Korea would have won the day. Well, Korea could have won had it not been so focused on Aid Relief requests.

And that brings me back to my initial post: apocalypse mode makes diplomatic victories very easy to obtain. The AI complete halts whatever plans it had to try to satisfy requests, forsaking everything else for 30 turns or so. When staggered requests start coming in, it cripples their already lackluster ability to secure victories. I ultimately won a diplomatic victory due to a couple of hungry comets taking bites out of my small empire.

Lastly, I agree that it seems odd that the apocalypse is triggered by extraterrestrial events after dealing with natural disasters all game.

 

[Vraslosken]

You want internal consistency. The CIV series have been silly at times in the past, but the game has always been about human history, and what happened on the map was always based in historical reality. Representations have been out there, but not the actual mechanics.

I don't get this. The apocalypse mode is not the base game. Fantasy-related scenarios is not unprecedented in civ history.

 

[Vandlys]

First of all, an advisor dressing up as Elvis in one of the eras in CIV2 has nothing to do with the series not existing in the real world. Elvis was real and Elvis impersonators are real. Magical people making volcanoes erupt are not.

You want internal consistency. The CIV series have been silly at times in the past, but the game has always been about human history, and what happened on the map was always based in historical reality. Representations have been out there, but not the actual mechanics.



It's not "alternate history on alternate worlds" just because it's not an earth map over and over again.

... and you're missing the point entirely if you think this is about following history to the letter.

It's about what universe we're in.

Well, I guess I disagree with what it's about, and that is exactly the point. Just because you see it a certain way does not mean you are right. I'm all for internal consistency, and I think Civ has been pretty consistent in that regard. You don't, that's fine.

I also never said I thought your disagreeing with the way Firaxis have made these choises was about following history to the letter, but I just disagree with you on some points.

For example, don't think the religious units are silly. I think they look silly, but a debate being had by people can be shown in different ways. Because Firaxis chose to do it in a combative way, they also displayed it that way. I don't like it, personally, but that has more to do with the fact that it is displayed as combat than the lightning strikes appearing.

Wouldn't it be a better idea to read my post before you reply to it?

I specifically mention that the religious units are silly, and should not be. The GDRs are within the realm of the possible. Not optimal, but at least they're not magical nonsense. Likewise for the X-COM units.

There is zero reason to move the series further into the nonsensical, and you'll see why with the backlash here. People generally don't want nonsense in their historical game.

There is a reason for moving the series further into the nonsensical, and that is that some people might like it. Firaxis might be completely wrong, and you might be completely right, in that nobody likes it. But the reason for the move is that they want to try something because they think it might work.

Personally, I don't think you can say there is a backlash here if some people have tried this mode for little over 24 hours and a few people mention something on a forum.

Again, you don't like the Apocalypse mode, and your motivation for not liking it is clear and makes sense. I disagree, and I don't think the arguments you bring to "why it -should- not be" make sense. We can disagree on that. I don't think, however, you should go around speaking for other people claiming "people generally", especially when the general public does not even have a lot of time to form an opinion.

I hope you don't mind not playing the Apocalypse mode too much, and that you can ignore that option in the game. It sucks for you that some of the resources went to develop such a mode. I know how that feels, because I have the same with some other choices they made in their development.

I don't get this. The apocalypse mode is not the base game. Fantasy-related scenarios is not unprecedented in civ history.

Wow, you said in once sentence what I was trying to say. Thank you : D Agree with this statement 100%.

 

[AsH2]

"Impact Zones" are impassable tiles. Comets are different from Meteor Storms (the event that happens all game.)
..

I think some tulips should make those tiles appealing.

 

[Sic]

For example, don't think the religious units are silly. I think they look silly, but a debate being had by people can be shown in different ways. Because Firaxis chose to do it in a combative way, they also displayed it that way. I don't like it, personally, but that has more to do with the fact that it is displayed as combat than the lightning strikes appearing.

I think we mostly agree here. I think religion has huge potential that we aren't seeing in the game right now, and I also happen to dislike the representation. The issues for me is that Firaxis are generally staying within a reasonably realistic style, but have these few silly things sticking out like a sore thumb. Like the lightning, like the cartoony 60s Batman hits, like the workers suddenly defying physics when they repair. It's not a big issue, it's just a strange choice to do most everything in one style (in terms of what kind of universe we're in), and then do something completely different with a few certain things.

Personally, I don't think you can say there is a backlash here if some people have tried this mode for little over 24 hours and a few people mention something on a forum.

Again, you don't like the Apocalypse mode, and your motivation for not liking it is clear and makes sense. I disagree, and I don't think the arguments you bring to "why it -should- not be" make sense. We can disagree on that. I don't think, however, you should go around speaking for other people claiming "people generally", especially when the general public does not even have a lot of time to form an opinion.

I'm just going by the initial reactions I've seen here and on Reddit. It seems that most wants to keep the "realistic universe" and the "magical" stuff separate. The Apocalypse mode however, follows the general trend I talk about above, most everything within a realistic universe, then one magical thing sticking out like a sore thumb. The Soothsayer could have been completely fine if it had just kept within the boundaries of what is reasonable. It's not unheard of humans believing in magic, but in Civ, the effects are generally not magical. We have religion, but that is tied to a belief system rooted in reality. Being able to control disasters is something different entirely.

I hope you don't mind not playing the Apocalypse mode too much, and that you can ignore that option in the game. It sucks for you that some of the resources went to develop such a mode. I know how that feels, because I have the same with some other choices they made in their development.

I'm happy that a lot of the new stuff is integrated into the base game, and that the only "magical" things that were added were the new mythological wonders. Those are also mostly fine. It's not terribly jarring to have mythological wonders. It makes a certain amount of sense that effects of sites that people believe to be magical have real effects. Then again, The Bermuda Triangle follows the exact same trend as I've talked about earlier. It's one thing that simply doesn't fit into the universe, teleporting units sits squarely in the realm of the magical, and shouldn't be in the base game.

 

[Vandlys]

I think we mostly agree here. I think religion has huge potential that we aren't seeing in the game right now, and I also happen to dislike the representation. The issues for me is that Firaxis are generally staying within a reasonably realistic style, but have these few silly things sticking out like a sore thumb. Like the lightning, like the cartoony 60s Batman hits, like the workers suddenly defying physics when they repair. It's not a big issue, it's just a strange choice to do most everything in one style (in terms of what kind of universe we're in), and then do something completely different with a few certain things.

Good points, I never really see the cartoon "Pow"-style combat that much anymore but you're right, I wouldn't mind it if they left these things out. But then, I also would like the colours and buildings to reflect their respective civs (I don't need to have a blue campus to know where I put a campus or where the enemy has one), and to have the units and all other things in the correct scale (jus tlet the pyramids be bigger than oracle, and make some more environmental fluff around oracle). If I could mod, I would only make mods like these. It's the same reason I like R.E.D. so much (making all units smaller).

I'm just going by the initial reactions I've seen here and on Reddit. It seems that most wants to keep the "realistic universe" and the "magical" stuff separate. The Apocalypse mode however, follows the general trend I talk about above, most everything within a realistic universe, then one magical thing sticking out like a sore thumb. The Soothsayer could have been completely fine if it had just kept within the boundaries of what is reasonable. It's not unheard of humans believing in magic, but in Civ, the effects are generally not magical. We have religion, but that is tied to a belief system rooted in reality. Being able to control disasters is something different entirely.

I haven't played it yet, so I can't really say anything on the subject specifically, but indeed, when I saw the Soothsayer in the first video I also thought "That's an odd thing to have in a civ game". When it comes to that, I'm glad they stayed separate. Curious to try out the game mode though.

I'm happy that a lot of the new stuff is integrated into the base game, and that the only "magical" things that were added were the new mythological wonders. Those are also mostly fine. It's not terribly jarring to have mythological wonders. It makes a certain amount of sense that effects of sites that people believe to be magical have real effects. Then again, The Bermuda Triangle follows the exact same trend as I've talked about earlier. It's one thing that simply doesn't fit into the universe, teleporting units sits squarely in the realm of the magical, and shouldn't be in the base game.

How are you on those mythological wonders then? Because I felt exactly the same about the Bermuda Triangle and the Fountain of Youth as I felt about the Soothsayer when I first heard about them returning to Civ VI.

Edit: I realise now that this is a topic specifically for the Apocalypse mode. Maybe we should open a topic about Realism vs Fantasy in civ.

 

[UWHabs]

I haven't played apocalypse yet, but would agree that they go even beyond the mythical natural wonders like Fountain of Youth. I would personally rather see the development resources spent on actual historical concepts, or better game balance.

But that being said, it's an optional game mode, so in that sense, I can't be too disappointed with it. It's kind of like playing Sim City back in the day - sometimes you want to build a beautiful city that is just perfectly designed, sometimes it's fun to hurl meteors and watch it all burn. Or it's like playing in god mode where you give yourself a GDR on turn 1 and see how fast you can conquer the world. Is it the classic civ game where you're truly trying to build an empire that will last the test of time? No. Is it fun? Probably, for at least some people.

 

[James_Champagne]

I haven't reached the end stage yet (I'm playing marathon mode, as is my wont), but I will say at the very least the Apocalypse Mode has kind of shaken me out of my usual routine and has found me taking actions I don't normally take with this game: for example, for my pantheon I went with Fire Goddess, which is something I've never done before. Looking forward to the Götterdämmerung!

 

[Casworon]

My physics degree is forcing me to come up with some scientifically plausible explanation of the apocalypse disasters.

Solar flares are fine. They happen and we are lucky one hasn't been thrown towards the earth yet since it could just fry most of our technology.

Meteors hitting every turn. The only thing I could think of is a large celestial body that has been unnoticed floating through space orbits near our solar system and pushes the asteroid belt into the earth's orbit. If the earth somehow ended up an asteroid belt then we could be getting meteors striking the surface all the time

 

[Barbarian King]

I don't get this. The apocalypse mode is not the base game. Fantasy-related scenarios is not unprecedented in civ history.

Indeed. Civ 2: Test of Time had a full-on high fantasy mode and Civ 4: Warlords had a four-horsemen of the apocalypse themed scenario while BTS included a slice of Fall from Heaven as well as a scenario where prophets could call down natural disasters on your rivals. If anything, it's a tradition for even numbered Civ games to add heavy doses of fantasy with expansions/DLC. They always keep it optional, so it's cool.