[NFP] Apocalypse Mode

[Abaxial]

I'm getting to the end of my first game in apocalypse mode. It seems clear that AI civs will compete in "Appease the Gods", win, and then do nothing with the soothsayers. It seems to me to be a game for suckers. To win it, you have to sacrifice enough troops that actually are more valuable than the awards. Soothsayers seem to be over-rated - you can't easily control the disasters, they don't do that much damage, and the soothsayer can perish as a result. Also, it may be difficult to get one on to a good tile.

As to self-inflicted disasters, if you use a soothsayer to trigger a flood that is mitigated by the Great Bath, affected floodplain hexes get one faith (I'm not sure why) and this stacks, so if you get this combo early, you can get a lead in faith production.

Personally, I think it's idiotic. We'll be having wizards next.

Medieval joke: a prankster advertises that he can make anyone into a soothsayer with a magic pill. A merchant comes and buys a pill. He bites into it. "Argh! This is horse sh*t!" "Verily, thou sayest sooth!" (i.e. you speak truly).

 

[Vrenir]

I think Soothsayers should upgrade to Researchers in the Industrial Era (not causing disasters but being able to mitigate damage, put out forest fires, etc). They should then upgrade to Terraformers in the Future Era (able to change terrain, cause, and mitigate disasters).

 

[Basajaun]

So to report on my last Maya game in apocalypse mode, the world entered phase VII in 1730AD, turn 376/750 epic speed. I loaded the autosavesave 3 turns before finishing the game (T420), and up to that point;
21 comets have fallen, the first 3 falling right on top of 3 of my most prosperous cities, eliminating them from the map. I have lost total 7 cities and several wonders and districts due to them
2 solar flares that wrecked half of my industrial zones and spaceports each time, plus killing 2 military units
2 minor river floods and a volcano eruption

This mode is pretty brutal and very micromanaging intensive, but its quite fun. Its actually the first time I was worried I was going to be wiped out of the map before being able to win, because the cities nuked made me go from 1400science per turn to 920science, + 3 trade routes lost. My probe made it to mars thanks to the first 2 projects, because I havent been able to complete more with disasters destroying my industrial zones and spaceports.

Spoiler :

Cometworld

• Basajaun
• May 27, 2020

Its Over

• Basajaun
• May 27, 2020

 

[bengalryan9]

Finishing up my first Apocalypse Game. Has been fun, but the AI Maya have pretty much just completely run away with the game. I'm continuing on just to see the end game - who knows, maybe Maya will get wiped out by comets or something. Soothsayers are fun units... I thought they'd be more OP than they are, but you can't use them just anywhere and there's only certain disasters you can call upon. I actually used a soothsayer to take down the defenses of a city state that was a little too close to a volcano which was pretty cool.

I think Aid emergencies should be turned off for this mode because you'll get bombarded with them. If they're going to stay, though, I think the best strategy for this mode would just be to go all-in on gold and production infrastructure so you can win all of them and claim a diplomatic victory.

Is there a mod that will enable Apocalypse mode but disable soothsayers?

I'd be willing to try the disasters that are unique to the mode and the supposedly catastrophic end game, but the soothsayer unit itself is just too "out-there" for me. I don't mind a little bit of creative license when it comes to stuff like the Fountain of Youth or Giant Death Robots, but calling down "natural" disasters? It's not my cup of tea.

Just ignore them. I'm not sure the AI actually uses theirs to cause disasters (and even if they do, the game doesn't tell you that it was them so you'd just think it was a normal disaster). If you ignore the mechanic and refuse to abuse it yourself you won't even notice them.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

Just finished a very long game on Apocalypse Mode.
I went Random and rolled Wilhelmina.
I made sure that Colombia and Maya were in the game as AIs.
Deity, All Standard, Low Sea Level, Pangaea.

Finished on turn 273 with a Science Victory.
I was expecting to see a bunch of solar flares and meteors.
It seems that the levels do jump up quick but it takes about 40 turns from Climate 1 to 4 once things start melting.
I seen a player on youtube start to get showers around turn 260.
I guess you just have to keep emissions down.
I only had one coal powered plant.
I built a bit too many builders as you can see in the screenshot below.
I did have massive flooding and volcanoes erupting constantly from turn 3 on.

Spoiler Turn 273 Screenshots :

 

[blacai]

I am doing something wrong... It cannot be that all my cities get hit by meteors at the endgame ...

 

[DWilson]

I am doing something wrong... It cannot be that all my cities get hit by meteors at the endgame ...

The only incorrect thing, I suppose, would-be not winning before your last city is crushed.

You're playing through the apocalypse, my dude.

(I think practically speaking only a science victory has any meaning in a world where the Earth is apocalypsed, though the game will declare you any enabled victory winner).

 

[AsH2]

This reminds me of an Amiga game..

 

[tedhebert]

This reminds me of an Amiga game..

OMG what a trip down memory lane ;-)

No offense, but you're close to showing how old you are ;-)

 

[tedhebert]

Well that was interesting.

First apocalypse mode endgame. Maya, huge map, immortal.

Of course, on the 4th round of the apocalypse, 2 turns before my mars mission launched, a comet took my capital (out of 18 other cities that could have been chosen)...

but... Honestly, I'm happy they fixed the diplo victory, but they way the aid requests currently work, it's way too easy when combined with apocalypse. At a moment, I had 6 concurrent aid request going on. That's 12 diplo pts just right there.

I'm not sure I'd like the micro-management that would be involved in making send aid specific to ONE request, but having your send aid project apply to ALL send aid at the same time is just wrong. Especially since using money gifts through trade only apply to ONE of the aid request, and the AI
seems to do THAT more than send aid projects.

Anyways, won a diplo victory.

I'm not a big fan of high disasters settting, and of apocalypse mode, but it DID make the end game interesting. Altough losing your capital and only spaceport on the 4th round is quite annoying I must mention. Going for SV with apocalypse make having more than 1 spaceport
a must now, not a nicety !!!

 

[Basajaun]

but... Honestly, I'm happy they fixed the diplo victory, but they way the aid requests currently work, it's way too easy when combined with apocalypse. At a moment, I had 6 concurrent aid request going on. That's 12 diplo pts just right there.

I'm not sure I'd like the micro-management that would be involved in making send aid specific to ONE request, but having your send aid project apply to ALL send aid at the same time is just wrong. Especially since using money gifts through trade only apply to ONE of the aid request, and the AI
seems to do THAT more than send aid projects.

Agreed
Just finished another game with Scotland. I was aiming for SV, but considering there is always at least 1 emergency occurring, I have been squeezing 1 send aid project for every 4 campus/iz projects on my big cities (except for the ones working on mars mission), and I won diplo victory while my probe was halfway to mars. I think SV is some kind of a challenge mode for apocalypse, because if you pollute too much, you are going to ruin your own cities. If you dont, you wont get there fast enough (or at all if comets keep blowing up your cities). Find the perfect balance so that the guys landing on mars see earth explode with a giant asteroid

 

[steveg700]

Well that was interesting.

First apocalypse mode endgame. Maya, huge map, immortal.

Of course, on the 4th round of the apocalypse, 2 turns before my mars mission launched, a comet took my capital (out of 18 other cities that could have been chosen)...

Pretty tough break!

Did you investigate the crater and get a free heavy cav unit? Just wondering if it's distinguished in any way. Not sure what the connective tissue there is. I posited in another thread that it might be a Book of Revelations reference to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the falling star, Wormwood, that crashes into Earth after the seventh seal is broken.

 

[Kwami]

Pretty tough break!

Did you investigate the crater and get a free heavy cav unit? Just wondering if it's distinguished in any way. Not sure what the connective tissue there is. I posited in another thread that it might be a Book of Revelations reference to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the falling star, Wormwood, that crashes into Earth after the seventh seal is broken.

Cavalry units come from meteor showers, not comet impacts. They're different disasters. You only get the comets in apocalypse mode and only if you hit climate change stage 7.

 

[steveg700]

Cavalry units come from meteor showers, not comet impacts. They're different disasters. You only get the comets in apocalypse mode and only if you hit climate change stage 7.

Okay, good clarification. So, any notions on the thematic link between a meteor shower and bonus cavalry?

 

[Kwami]

Okay, good clarification. So, any notions on the thematic link between a meteor shower and bonus cavalry?

It's more useful than iron in the late game and it's more fun than iron pretty much always. It's kind of stupid, though. I'm not sure that there's a specific theme or reference that inspired the mechanic. But, sure, let's go with apocalyptic horsemen because it's fun.

 

[Kmart_Elvis]

Okay, good clarification. So, any notions on the thematic link between a meteor shower and bonus cavalry?

It's supposed to represent using meteoric iron to outfit the best military unit you can get. The iron is high quality and in limited supply, so they translate that into one good unit (heavy cavalry).

 

[steveg700]

It's supposed to represent using meteoric iron to outfit the best military unit you can get. The iron is high quality and in limited supply, so they translate that into one good unit (heavy cavalry).

Well, unless there's an official source on that, I'm going to have to say that as conjecture goes, meteoric being more pure than regular iron (?) is more of a stretch than horsemen of the apocalypse.

 

[Deggial]

Well, it obviously doesn’t apply to modern times, but at one point in our history, meteorite iron was the only source of iron. Iron meteorites do provide the metal in its metallic form (so, call it “pure”, if you like), while melting it from ore requires substantial knowledge that initially didn’t exist.

Other than that ... yea, it’s simply a game mechanic.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

I am doing something wrong... It cannot be that all my cities get hit by meteors at the endgame ...

I can't get past level 4 Climate Change in any Apocalyptic Game so far.
I guess because I don't use my coal as you can see in this screenshot...
I finished on turn 254 and contributed 0 emissions.
I was at level 3 when the game ended in Culture Victory.
My other game a few posts earlier went up to turn 273 and was 16 turns away from level 5 climate.
All games on Deity Standard.
I guess I would have to build coal mines everywhere to get Faster Apocalypse.
Dirty Tamar and Simon were polluting the world worse than anyone else!
I'm guessing faster players never get past level 1 climate change.

 

[Alucard648]

Played Duel map on Emperor difficulty. Was going for cultural victory when all of the sudden got domination victory despite overall peaceful game.

Spoiler Guess what happened? :

As soon as climate change hits apocalypse phase, the very first comet strike has wiped rival civ`s capital city, leaving my civ`s capital the only existing capital city on the map. Which was counted as domination victory for me.