Bad Stuff Happens

[Dancing Hoskuld]

We have discussed on and off the possibility of having an option for really bad or game breaking things happening in C2C. This thread is for discussion of these things. They are mostly special types of events but not necessarily BtS events. Things that have been talked about and a link to the summary will go here.

1. The War of the Worlds based on H.G.Well's book a once only event where the Martians, invade do much damage and just as humans think they may be wiped out microbes kill the Martians. Leaves city ruins on Mars for future explorers.

2. Smallpox epidemics the first time you get it "decimate" is a inadequate description for what it does to your population. It spreads fast and kills most of your population. Later outbreaks are bad but nowhere as bad being limited to a small number of cities and killing a far fewer people. Strangely enough this is something that you want as early as possible, seeing your size 4 cities becoming size 2 is nowhere near as shocking as seeing your size 20 city become size 4.

3. Andromeda Strain based on the book. This may happen multiple times.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

The War of the Worlds

Summary

This event may happen up to two times, as per the music/audio version with Rick Wakeman, once in the age of steam as per H.G.Wells' book and once in the late modern era (Spielberg's movie).

Martian tripods land, attack and destroy cottages, industry and cities. Refugees flee. Armed forces try to protect what they can. Meanwhile the red weed "that gives Mars its colour" spreads across the land replacing farms and forests, destroying improvements and perhaps plant and animal resources. In the book the red weed choked rivers causing flooding so I favour riverside terrain becoming more marshy.

Naturally the bigger the nation the more tripods attack. Guess at about 1-3 per city or maybe based on the population size of the city.

During the invasion all human wars and trade in goods stop. Diplomatic relations improve as nations give other nations refugees refuge and as units of formally antagonistic nations combine to defeat the common enemy. Basically everyone gets open borders with everyone else for the duration and relationships improve.

When the Martians are defeated everyone gets a science boost eg points towards "microwave weaponry" but those nations furthest behind may also jump a few techs because of what they learned during the joint exercises. Refugees probably return to their home city.

The Great Wall problem needs to be solved before this can be implemented.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Smallpox epidemics

Based on another mod both smallpox and other plague epidemics are modeled differently to the diseases currently in the game. Where as the current diseases just cause unhealthiness and malaria reduces your ability to do stuff as quickly as normal. Plagues actually kill population and spread to other cities if quarantine and medical methods are not available.

 

[draz]

2. Smallpox epidemics

And could this perhaps be used... on purpose?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

And could this perhaps be used... on purpose?

Not really but it does automatically happen when a nation which has smallpox meets and trades with one that doesn't.

 

[Thunderbrd]

The Great Wall problem needs to be solved before this can be implemented.

Perhaps it would be possible to make them a spawned civ? (non-barbarian may work better for this purpose.)

 

[Randomness]

Minor civ? You'd just need to make sure they can't become a major civ in case barb civs is on.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Minor civ? You'd just need to make sure they can't become a major civ in case barb civs is on.

Why not though? If they seriously take a good foothold (and don't just die off after a round or two like they do in the movies) and start capturing cities (which I think would be a lot more interesting to present them as a serious threat) then why not allow them to be just a VERY advanced civ? Sure, at war with everyone would be their prerogative which would just take some leaderhead programming I think. (Make their leaders want to be at war with all at all times.)

 

[Randomness]

I thought the idea was that they weren't supposed to be able to conduct diplomacy. Regardless, they would need to be treated somewhat differently, or else they would probably settle down after capturing their first city.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

1) I think, if you have "Revolutions" on then units belonging to a nation without a city will not be removed from the game at the end of the turn. However if you are playing with "Revolutions" off they will be removed. So if they land and don't take a city they will disappear. Thus making them a new civ minor or otherwise wont work as well.

Thus my question elsewhere about hidden nationality barbarian units being ale to ignore the Great Wall.

2) What use would aliens have for human cities? The architecture is all wrong eg steps where there should be ramps.

3) This is "The War of the Worlds" and is a hiccup in human history nothing more In fact it was originally an idea as a way to give small nations a boost and large advanced nations a bit of a slow down, perhaps even as far as having to use apocalyptic units while they get back on their feet. Sort of a short leveling of the playing field event to let the latter game retain interest.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Perhaps the Great Wall should simply obsolete before these events would take place anyhow. Would it seriously have had any impact on post Medieval units anyways? Obsolete at Gunpowder I say. (As I believe this was when the Mongolians were able to overcome the wall at points.)

 

[Hydromancerx]

DH and I have been PMing about the The War of the Worlds event before this post was presented. Here is some of my input.

- Tripods should be at the level of Trans-Human Mech units.

- The terrain possibly could be terraformed to Martian terrain. Since we have such terrain.

- I recommended we span Industrial to Modern Eras. But DH is a purist and think more pre-Electricity.

- A new hidden technology called "Alien Technology" could be awarded to the survivors and whatever alt-timeline we want to put in there can be unlocked at that tech. Note the tech would not require any other tech.

- The actual looks of the aliens are irrelevant since all you see are the tripod walker vehicles. Which leaves more to the imagination.

 

[Hydromancerx]

As said in the other thread I would like to have an end game Alien. Specificlly the Qu from All Tomorrows because they are badass.

Qu By Nemo Ramjet

The first contact was bound to happen. The galaxy, let alone the Universe was simply too big for just a singular species to develop intelligence in. Any delay in contact only meant a heightening of the eventual culture shock. In humanity’s case, this “culture shock” meant the complete extinction of mankind as it had come to be known.

Almost a billion years old, the alien species known as Qu were galactic nomads, traveling from one spiral arm to another in epoch-spanning migrations. During their travels they constantly improved and changed themselves until they became masters of genetic and nanotechnological manipulation. With this ability to control the material world, they assumed a religious, self-imposed mission to “remake the universe as they saw fit.” Powerful as gods, Qu saw themselves as the divine harbingers of the future.

This dogma was rooted in what had been a benevolent attempt to protect the race from its own power. However, blind, unquestioning obedience had made monsters of the Qu.

To them humanity, with all of its relative glories, was nothing more than a transmutable subject. Within less than a thousand years, every human world was destroyed, depopulated or even worse; changed. Despite the fervent rearmament, the colonies could achieve nothing against its billionyear-old foes, save for a few flashes of ephemeral resistance.

Humanity, once the ruler of the stars, was now extinct. However, humans were not.

Spoiler :

Qu triumphant in the fall of Man. To his left floats a nanotechnological drone, to the right, a genetically modified tracing creature.

The Qu are galactic nomads which are powerful god-like race encountered at the edge of the Galaxy. They would be spawned on the Galactic map near the end of the tech tree. Defeating them before they defeat you (or you build a multiverse ship to escape them). This is an end game challenge to keep things interesting.

Some more from All Tomorrows ....

Man Extinguished

The worlds of humanity, gardens of terraformed paradise, seemed strangely empty to the Qu. Often there were no raw materials available other than people, their cities and a few basic niches of ecology, populated by genetically modified animals and plants from Earth. This was because humans had erased the original alien ecologies in the first place.

Offended by another race trying to remake the universe, the Qu set forth to punish these “infidels” by using them as the building materials of their vision. While this led to a complete extinguishment of human sentience, it also saved the species by preserving its genetic heritage in a myriad of strange new forms.

Populated by ersatz humans, now in every guise from wild animals to pets to genetically modified tools, Qu reigned supreme for forty million years on the worlds of our galaxy. They erected kilometer-high monuments and changed the surfaces of entire worlds, apparently to whim.

One day, they departed as they had come. For theirs was a never-ending quest and they would not, could not stop until they had swept through the entire cosmos.

Behind them the Qu left a thousand worlds, each filled with bizarre creatures and ecologies that had once been men. Most of them perished right after their caretakers left, others lasted a little longer to succumb to long-term instabilities. On a precious few worlds, descendants of people actually managed to survive.

In them lay the fate of the species, now divided and differentiated beyond recognition.

 

[strategyonly]

Perhaps it would be possible to make them a spawned civ? (non-barbarian may work better for this purpose.)

See DH, this would be good (maybe) for that spawned civ i have been at YOU for 1 1/2 yrs now (hint hint)

 

[MagnusIlluminus]

The Qu sound a lot like a cross between Mi-Go and Tyranids.

 

[Maxima7]

Speaking of the Great Wall, can it be obsoleted? It's an eyesore.

 

[draz]

Not really but it does automatically happen when a nation which has smallpox meets and trades with one that doesn't.

Aww. Though I suppose gifting some "suspicious blankets" to another civ might've been a tad overpowering.

 

[Raven Destroyer]

i wouldn't mind having Bad Events for things you could avoid say Mass Roits 25% damage for unit's in the city with +1000 Crime or something having Very nasty results for neglecting Crime, Disease and polution would be nice