Bombed back to the Stone Age... an idea

[maschinegeist]

I was thinking of the consequences of an all-out war between civs and how survivors may be left with a shattered society (decimated populations, major cities with important buildings and Wonders lost, etc...).
It would be neat if a civ could actually lose Techs (due to lost Libraries, Universities, scientists, etc...) and find itself falling into a post apocalyptic Dark Age.
It wouldn't be realistic (or fun) for a civ to lose ALL its Techs but enough so that it's set back an era or two
To get these Techs back (or new ones) the civ will have to rebuild itself and start learning again, or trade another civ for them.

I just thought this scenario could be more fun than the current model of everyone getting more and more advanced with no worries of setbacks.

I also found this old thread which deals with a similar (but not identical) scenario:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=190208

Anyone think this in implementable?

 

[Jeckel]

I also have thought there needs to be some way for techs to be lost. I'm going to bed now, but when I get up I'll post some of my ideas.

 

[maschinegeist]

...when I get up I'll post some of my ideas.

Love to hear them!

 

[black baron]

it should probably set them back only one era because after WWII the Germans where in more like an industrial revolution era rather than modern

 

[GustavBjorklund]

it should probably set them back only one era because after WWII the Germans where in more like an industrial revolution era rather than modern

There were no nuclear bombs dropped on German soil, but there were a lot of regular bombs dropped. What the OP is talking about is a full-scale, end-of-the-world type nuclear warfare. The kind Einstein was talking about when he famously said "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

I like this idea, it does sound cool, but I think the mechanic for teching/building up again would have to be different from regular civ. Simply resetting everything to Ancient times would be boring.

 

[Jerrymander]

Totally broken, in my opinion. Any civ that lost the first war would just be scraps for the other civs. Tech gives such large bonuses in the game.

 

[GustavBjorklund]

Totally broken, in my opinion. Any civ that lost the first war would just be scraps for the other civs. Tech gives such large bonuses in the game.

It wouldn't be broken in a scenario where all civilizations involved are sent back to the stone age. Perhaps the scenario could begin with an impending-doom-like setting. Ever played DEFCON? The winner is whoever loses the least.

 

[Zebra 9]

Well, here is my idea.

Basically technology would be stored in different buildings, such as libraries and schools. When a city is attacked it risks loosing some buildings, or maybe even just sustaining damage to some buildings. This would cause, if the right buildings were lost/damaged, the player to lose some beakers toward random technologies they own. Once a technology hits 0 beakers it is lost.

 

[Crayton]

My personal mod has something like this. There is a dark age circa 1000 BC, 500 AD, and 2100 AD. Half of all cities flip to barbarians and half of all technologies are lost. The calender is altered and build times are lengthened.

Civs are on different/random timers so that they enter the dark ages at different but similar times.

 

[GoodGame]

I'm not sure about losing technology, but a dozen turns of Anarchy would probably be warranted. Maybe half that for Spiritual civs. That alone would test a civ in a war state with tons of units, and might initiate the units going on strike.

 

[Aranor]

Well, here is my idea.

Basically technology would be stored in different buildings, such as libraries and schools. When a city is attacked it risks loosing some buildings, or maybe even just sustaining damage to some buildings. This would cause, if the right buildings were lost/damaged, the player to lose some beakers toward random technologies they own. Once a technology hits 0 beakers it is lost.

I had a similar idea to this not too long ago. In my version all buildings and terrain improvements ( roads, farms, mines etc..) had some sort of beaker value. As terrain improvements were destroyed, and building and cities were razed you would loose beakers towards your current research project, then once that was at zero you would begin to loose beakers towards the prerequisite techs, ie: you are researching rifling and are in a major war with than AI opponent for every tile that is pillaged and city/ building that is destroyed or lost you wold loose point towards rifling, then when hey reached zero, you would loose points towards its prerequisite tech [such as Gunpowder]. This would make all wars more interesting from th early game right through to the late game. This would also make tanks and more modern units more valuable to war torn civs as tanks would be a scarce resource to use in their armies. This would make tech trading more vital to war mongers as well as give peaceful civs a major bargaining chip in the negotiating tables.

I don't think that loosing techs and thus an edge in warfare would create too much unbalance if implemented properly, especially if both sides of the war were loosing lots of terrain improvements ( as often happens against the AI players). If a major power were bullying a minor player, then it would be unfair, however even as the game stand now this is the case so its not a huge deal.

 

[Dearmad]

My personal mod has something like this. There is a dark age circa 1000 BC, 500 AD, and 2100 AD. Half of all cities flip to barbarians and half of all technologies are lost. The calender is altered and build times are lengthened.

Civs are on different/random timers so that they enter the dark ages at different but similar times.

How'd you do this? Python?