[NFP] Apocalypse Mode

[oSiyeza]

Just finished a game with Bolivar. I was achievement hunting, so aiming both for 'The End of the World as We Know It' and 'The Accursed Share'. That last one needs a fully-promoted Soothsayer to sacrifice a fully-promoted GDR. I'd rampaged through the early game, so I had fully-promoted GDRs by the start of the Atomic era (playing on Online Speed, and on Prince - yeah, I know, but I was just after the shiny badges...). At that point I got a 4th Appease the Gods competition and sacrificed a robot - no joy. I'd won every competition to that point, so Soothsayers had 3 promotions. Winning this round gave them a fourth, but though I waited till turn 250/250, never had another competition. Did get the 'The End of the World' (last man standing achievement), though. My poor capital bit the dust after a couple of near misses, but I had to finish off Rome in the last turn.

So, anyone cracked 'The Accursed Share' yet? Anyone had more than 4 Appease the Gods competitions? Still curious whether the timing on these is random or not.

As to the mode itself, I quite like it, though didn't find the soothsayers that impactful. But it did get me playing with the max disaster setting, which I wouldn't normally do, and it's pretty fun.

On standard speed, I think I had like 20 Appease the Gods competitions so far, and they don’t seem to be slowing down.

Also the frequency of disasters in stage one is ridiculous, I wonder if there is some bug here. I’m in the nuclear era standard speed, using a lot of oil for military (but not in energy production). I’m still at stage one, leading in everything (King), and I have disasters every 2-5 turns. And need to be constantly repairing stuff. I’m on turn 260, I think I had already more than 50 mega volcanoes alone… and still on the stage one of global warming.

 

[Hans Castorp]

On standard speed, I think I had like 20 Appease the Gods competitions so far, and they don’t seem to be slowing down.

Also the frequency of disasters in stage one is ridiculous, I wonder if there is some bug here. I’m in the nuclear era standard speed, using a lot of oil for military (but not in energy production). I’m still at stage one, and I have disasters every 2-5 turns. And need to be constantly repairing stuff. I’m on turn 260, I think I had already more than 50 mega volcanoes alone… and still on the stage one of global warming.

Aha, this sounds interesting. That's a similar frequency of disasters to what I saw, but clearly a lot more competitions. What difficulty are you on? I'm wondering whether that might have something to do with it as well as the game speed.

 

[James_Champagne]

I kind of like the meteor showers, even if they're infrequent... for whatever reason chariots are one of the military units that I rarely ever get around to building, so I don't mind the freebies, and it even gives you further incentive for exploring (like in my current game my scout was finding a few on those tiny little islands that most of the other civs tend to ignore).

 

[oSiyeza]

Aha, this sounds interesting. That's a similar frequency of disasters to what I saw, but clearly a lot more competitions. What difficulty are you on? I'm wondering whether that might have something to do with it as well as the game speed.

Im on king dificulty, standard size and speed. I wonder if there is a small randomization on when the competition appear.

One weird thing. I only had meteors in the first ages. They seem like they stopped late game.

Ps: such wasted oportunity, not having plague meteors in the late game!

 

[Hans Castorp]

Im on king dificulty, standard size and speed. I wonder if there is a small randomization on when the competition appear.

One weird thing. I only hace meteors in the first ages. They seem like they stopped late game.

Thanks, that's helpful. I saw some meteors into the Atomic era, but I did notice that the frequency of major catastrophes dropped off mid-game. Also one oddity I had was that I had a couple of solar flares right at the start of the game, before they could do any damage, then only one instance in sixty turns worth of city-smashing comet mayhem.

 

[oSiyeza]

Thanks, that's helpful. I saw some meteors into the Atomic era, but I did notice that the frequency of major catastrophes dropped off mid-game. Also one oddity I had was that I had a couple of solar flares right at the start of the game, before they could do any damage, then only one instance in sixty turns worth of city-smashing comet mayhem.

You got a comet in your first 60 turns? I though they only happened in the last stage!

There seem to be definitely something weird with the frequency of disasters here.

They obviously need to scale down the frequency of disasters, and play more with the scale of the disasters too. When you get a mega volcano each 5-10 turns at stage I, there is not much more to go from there. Are We going to have 3 megavolcanoes per turn in stage 6? I love disasters, but there is such a thing as too much pizza!.

I think, less disasters of moderate intensity in stage one is a need. Go from there to enormous fairly frecuent disasters late game! Im totally for even much bigger dissasters that actually destroy cities in a race to leave earth in late game. But a sense of progression is needed.

 

[Pfeffersack]

They obviously need to scale down the frequency of disasters, and play more with the scale of the disasters too. When you get a mega volcano each 5-10 turns at stage I, there is not much more to go from there. Are We going to have 3 megavolcanoes per turn in stage 6? I love disasters, but there is such a thing as too much pizza!.

I don't know if the Apokalyse Mode with its "stages" behaves different, but under normal rules vulcanic eruptions are the only disaster which intensity and frequence is not affected by climate change.

 

[oSiyeza]

I don't know if the Apokalyse Mode with its "stages" behaves different, but under normal rules vulcanic eruptions are the only disaster which intensity and frequence is not affected by climate change.

You maybe right. But also comets and auroras and meteor showers should not be related. So im unsure how the system works. I did not notice any increase in frequency or intensity in any point. Though also was more like a pseudo constant rate with up and downs... I think it may be possible that I have more volcanoes now than early, but as I also have more land im not sure, they seem constant. Certainly they are more prevalent than other disasters. (Only have one aurora, no comets, only 2-3 meteor showers, never had a forest fire, many floods and some fair ammount of common GS ones...

I may be getting big apocaliptic volcanoes and other disasters not triggered, cause they are in-game associated with global warming. The game does not tell about it, why should comets be related to global warming, but not volcanoes? seems like a bug or oversight if it is the case.

Also if this is the case, is also disapointing. The mega colosal vocanoes I get every two turns are not a threat at all. They just make the game a chore, cause they dont actually destroy anything. Just repair and repair. Thats why i was hoping to see something else in further stages.

 

[Hans Castorp]

You got a comet in your first 60 turns? I though they only happened in the last stage!

No, the sixty turns I mentioned were the final sixty turns after the final stage of global warming had been passed. Only then were the comets, but there was a solar flare round about turn 20, again around turn 50, then not again until turn 225 (out of 250).

 

[oSiyeza]

No, the sixty turns I mentioned were the final sixty turns after the final stage of global warming had been passed. Only then were the comets, but there was a solar flare round about turn 20, again around turn 50, then not again until turn 225 (out of 250).

Makes sense. I will try to extend the game after victory to see what happens. But I still think the volcanoes should, in the apocalypse mode, be tied to progression, not tunned to insanity from the very start.

 

[Hans Castorp]

Started another game now, on standard speed at King. Nowhere near as intense activity as I saw before. But I did find a meteor on turn 4, which gifted me a heavy chariot, which was nice...

 

[Bat14]

So, anyone cracked 'The Accursed Share' yet? Anyone had more than 4 Appease the Gods competitions? Still curious whether the timing on these is random or not.

Finally did this after clicking through many turns after victory. Turns out you need to have 5 promotions on the soothsayer, then a 4 promotion gdr. So to get to that, you need to come in 2nd in at least 5 appease the Gods contests then get the achievement on the 6th one.

 

[racha]

Ps: such wasted oportunity, not having plague meteors in the late game!

My hope was that apocalypse mode would include the regular plague from the scenario, but your idea works, too.

I have a mod with a few lines to change some of the advanced start settings as a time saver and turning on apocalypse mode has been added to it. Give me more death and destruction already.

 

[Equilin]

The support roles can only be used with promotions, that I think you can only obtain them by being second in the Appease the Gods competition and … being first is actually worse. Besides this, the Appease the Gods competition is only a sink of resources to get a bit faith that you will not be able to use anyway.

Like other competitions, finishing first also gives you benefits of 2nd, so it's not worse.

Also the frequency of disasters in stage one is ridiculous, I wonder if there is some bug here. I’m in the nuclear era standard speed, using a lot of oil for military (but not in energy production). I’m still at stage one, leading in everything (King), and I have disasters every 2-5 turns. And need to be constantly repairing stuff. I’m on turn 260, I think I had already more than 50 mega volcanoes alone… and still on the stage one of global warming.

No bugs, just pure apocalypse thing (disaster intensity is intentionally tuned up). I got a lot of forest fires, eruptions and floods that i stopped caring about it (i planned around to not place districts in dangerous locations anyway).

 

[oSiyeza]

Like other competitions, finishing first also gives you benefits of 2nd, so it's not worse.

No bugs, just pure apocalypse thing (disaster intensity is intentionally tuned up). I got a lot of forest fires, eruptions and floods that i stopped caring about it (i planned around to not place districts in dangerous locations anyway).

Finished the game in apocalypse mode....

Now definitely think something is very wrong. You get a lof of disasters in Stage one. But the global warmin meter works the opposite as usual. The higuwr you are in the meter, the less disasters u have.

This does noy have any sense. I mean, I get the final stage does not require anything mut the comets. They are aweso.e by the way.

But... I never had the amount of disaster I have early game in stage one. And that feels very wrong.

I need to start a new game and check at the probability of the disasters in each stage. Because in stage 6 and 7, the probability of all disasters was almost cero!.

 

[Equilin]

Finished the game in apocalypse mode....

Now definitely think something is very wrong. You get a lof of disasters in Stage one. But the global warmin meter works the opposite as usual. The higuwr you are in the meter, the less disasters u have.

This does noy have any sense. I mean, I get the final stage does not require anything mut the comets. They are aweso.e by the way.

But... I never had the amount of disaster I have early game in stage one. And that feels very wrong.

I need to start a new game and check at the probability of the disasters in each stage. Because in stage 6 and 7, the probability of all disasters was almost cero!.

I haven't check the files thoroughly, but I think it's because you progress through it too fast? and the game probably confused between regular disasters and global warming disasters as well

 

[oSiyeza]

I haven't check the files thoroughly, but I think it's because you progress through it too fast? and the game probably confused between regular disasters and global warming disasters as well

I have gone trhough the game again. This i what I have found (I have only saved games of 3 phases of the game):

Phase 1
Volcanoes totally broken, probability of volcanoes is absolutely insane.
Storms, River Flooding, Droughts and Forest Fires = Low probability
Megacolossal Eruptions Everywhere

Phase 4
Volcanoes Far less active, more balanced than before.
Storms, River Flooding, Droughts and Forest Fires = A bit higher than before
Tornadoes

Phase 7
Volcanoes: Innactive.
Storms, River Flooding, Droughts and Forest Fires = Innactive
Comet Impacts

Overall the balance seems totally broken. The volcanoes are totally umbalanced Almost 200 eruptions, a much much higher probability than any other disaster. Also there is no sense of progression at all. Later phases do not seem more punishing than phase one.

 

[shaglio]

One word of warning in regards to Apocalypse mode: my daughter was starting a new game with the disaster slide on the default 2. She clicked the Apocalypse mode button to see what it was all about and the slider went away leaving the disaster set at an unchangable 4. She wasn’t interested in that so she unchecked the box. She was just about to start the game when I noticed that, although the disaster slider had returned, it was still set to 4 rather than the default 2.

 

[oSiyeza]

One word of warning in regards to Apocalypse mode: my daughter was starting a new game with the disaster slide on the default 2. She clicked the Apocalypse mode button to see what it was all about and the slider went away leaving the disaster set at an unchangable 4. She wasn’t interested in that so she unchecked the box. She was just about to start the game when I noticed that, although the disaster slider had returned, it was still set to 4 rather than the default 2.

I went to collect more proof, as I think something was really off with the early game volcanoes in the Apocalypse mode.

I started a game on GS, disaster level 4. Played 50 turns and compared with my earliest saved game on Apocalypse (on turn 70). Same Game Speed (Standard), Same Map Size (Standard), Same Map Type (Continents). These are the results:

• Apocalypse: 40% eruption chance, Averaged to 1 eruption every 3 turns.
• GS disaster level 4: 18% eruption chance, Averaged to 1 eruption every 12 turns.

This is clearly too much.

EDIT: Reported in the bug section.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

I have not noticed volcanoes erupting any more than the other disasters. They all seem to trigger at the worst times.