[BRAINSTORMING] Mini-games in Civ4

[<Nexus>]

So here's an idea that bothers me for some time: Most of the modern browser games have mini-games inside them and I was wondering if something could be added to Civ4 as well. Not sure if it's a good idea but wanted to share it anyway. I know that the game engine is quite limiting, so I don't expect 2048 or "match 3 gems" type mini-games, rather some event based ones. If you have ANY ideas here's the place to share it. I have only a few ideas so far:

Gambling
If you have built at least one Casino or Las Vegas (or something similar) an event is fired every turn with the following options:

• Risk 10 gold to receive 0-20 gold.
  
• Risk 100 gold to receive 0-200 gold.
  
• Risk 1000 gold to receive 0-2000 gold.
  
• "Give me some rest" (Event is not repeated for the next 10 turns)
  
• "Stop bothering me" (Event is not repeated anymore)

Tourney
Requires a Knight in capital.
"Sir, should our knights hold a tourney? "
If answer is yes, there are chances of things to happen:

• 10% The knight is killed.
  
• 40% A little extra culture for the city.
  
• 40% A little extra Xp for the knight.
  
• 10% Extra culture for the city and extra Xp for the knight.

Event could repeat every turn, so the player would have a little something to do every turn even if he isn't at war with anyone.


Ideas? Suggestions?

 

[Paolo80]

Do you ask help for writing python code or do you ask for other ideas?

 

[<Nexus>]

Do you ask help for writing python code or do you ask for other ideas?

Ideas first. If the idea needs python code, than coding too, if there is anyone willing

 

[LPlate2]

When I first saw the thread, I thought you were planning some Somnium (as in FFH) type games within civ. If it’s primarily events that you’re looking to create, then I’d look at the threads discussing common events for the various mods or look at the text/eventinfos/eventtriggerinfos xml files in various mods to see what others have already come up with and if there’s any you’d like to use/adapt.

There was also the quest mechanism.

So a couple of ideas;
On conquering and keeping a city a mini game to see if you align your thinking with the old civ, possibly shortening the local anarchy duration.
War games, if in defensive pact with someone, allowing units to attack each other without going to war. Winner gains experience. Loser isn’t killed but needs to heal. Possibly boosts diplo relations.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Ideas first.

Always ideas first. Have lots of far out there ideas before restricting yourself in any way. Some way far out ideas turn out to be easier to implement than some of the more "simple" ones

I thought c2c could have done its "crime fighting" as a mini game. Popping up a box with all the crime fighters, investigators, lawyers and judges it has along with the courthouses and jails whenever one of more criminals were found and then giving options as how to proceed. Instead of just arresting ('killing") a criminal perhaps you can get her to turn states evidence and dob in other criminals, or send them back out there to trap the big guys .

Suggestion - instead of just expel or kill a discovered spy why not turn them.

The ones you have suggested above would easily work as events if you did not want them to fire every turn. I think that the game only allows a maximum of one event per player in a turn. There are Python mods that do x every y turns.

When I first saw the thread, I thought you were planning some Somnium (as in FFH) type games within civ. If it’s primarily events that you’re looking to create, then I’d look at the threads discussing common events for the various mods or look at the text/eventinfos/eventtriggerinfos xml files in various mods to see what others have already come up with and if there’s any you’d like to use/adapt.

There was also the quest mechanism.

So a couple of ideas;
On conquering and keeping a city a mini game to see if you align your thinking with the old civ, possibly shortening the local anarchy duration.
War games, if in defensive pact with someone, allowing units to attack each other without going to war. Winner gains experience. Loser isn’t killed but needs to heal. Possibly boosts diplo relations.

Ooh, if you have entertainers or other people who speak great in the stack you could use them to explain how you weren't conquering the city but were liberating it!

 

[<Nexus>]

When I first saw the thread, I thought you were planning some Somnium (as in FFH) type games within civ. If it’s primarily events that you’re looking to create, then I’d look at the threads discussing common events for the various mods or look at the text/eventinfos/eventtriggerinfos xml files in various mods to see what others have already come up with and if there’s any you’d like to use/adapt.

I am not familiar with "Somnium". I never played FFH. I often load RiFE (andmany other mods) to see if there are some models I'd like to import but that's all.

I'm modding AND2, so I think it already has most of the events available.

Always ideas first. Have lots of far out there ideas before restricting yourself in any way. Some way far out ideas turn out to be easier to implement than some of the more "simple" ones

Agree

The ones you have suggested above would easily work as events if you did not want them to fire every turn. I think that the game only allows a maximum of one event per player in a turn. There are Python mods that do x every y turns.

I have added an event based Gathering feature for the ancient era and my experience is that every event can be fired only once per turn but different events can fire in the same turn.

 

[LPlate2]

Somnium is a card game in FFH that you can challenge other leaders to play. I think it would fully meet a definition of a mini game as it’s a game within a game, with distinct rules from the main game. I believe it might have originally been introduced to give people something to do in multiplayer games while waiting for their turn. It can be played against the AI and tweaks diplo values, depending on the outcome of the game.
—-
Event: The more militaristic a civ, the more powerful the army and the more likely that an unintended border skirmish could degenerate to war, before you are ready for it.

——
The thing about events, is that the outcome is obvious or can be remembered from whenever it has been encountered before. To use events as mini games you’ll want multi layered events, i.e. events which trigger other events, with multiple similarly worded starting events so a player doesn’t automatically know what’s most beneficial.

Perhaps you could have a similar event effecting multiple (but not all players) with the outcome only decided and revealed once all affected civs have made their choice. Essentially, something similar to the voting mechanism but a player is unsure of who else is voting. E.g. impending ecological crisis/pandemic: 1)if enough take steps to mitigate it, those steps are effective for all, 2) if some do and some don’t impact is partially diminished but the few who chose to act bear the burden of the cost or 3) if not enough act and everyone gets hit very hard and some also have additional costs from their ineffective mitigation’s.

 

[<Nexus>]

Soimnium: yes, I had in mind things like that.

Events: basically I mentioned events for two reasons. AI usually understands it. Relatively easy to code them.

Basically the things mentioned here are actually "New Game Mechanics" and not necessarily minigames.
My main goal would be to keep the game interesting even in the later eras. To give something refreshing besides the dozens to hundreds of units to move and all the cities to maintain. Something that is game changer and more immersion giver. I'm not against game changing mechanics but it needs to be either AI friendly (something it already understands or can be taught to) or AI neutral (it's not an advantage/disadvantage if the AI technically unaffected by it).

I'll have to check this Soimnium thing...

 

[<Nexus>]

Here's a more complex idea.

Olympic Running
In the Modern era have running competition with other civs that you are not at war with. It would require a new screen where the competition takes place. You could control your runner with the keyboard.
I don't know if it is doable or not.

 

[Leoreth]

Is the Python environment running in the main game thread, or can you fork off other threads using your other cores? Being able to play a minigame during AI turns would be incredible, even if it is just Candy Crush.

 

[<Nexus>]

I tried Somnium and it's great. Just the kind of think I was thinking of.
I wonder how hard would it be to merge it with AND? Of course I would change the cards to something "less fantasy, more history" but in general I like it. I never thought such a thing was possible.

 

[Louis the XIV]

This is a great idea! Have you managed to do something like this or is it an inactive project?