Catan-esque Victory Conditions

[genuinesmile29]

One thing I dislike about Civ games is that the end often feels anti-climactic. Most of the victory conditions don't come into play until the late eras of the game, creating a vague sense of progress towards victory for most of the game followed by sudden clarity and an abrupt ending.

One idea I think would be interesting to explore would be a Settlers of Catan type victory progression. To win, the player would specify how many points are necessary and then points towards victory are earned throughout the game. Some points could be awarded on a fixed, per-X basis, like having a point for each CS you are suzerrain of, five points for each enemy capitol you hold, X points for founding a religion etc. Others could be awarded on a one-time basis like being the first civ to enter the Rennaisance era, circumnavigate the globe, found a national park, etc Other could be awarded on a competitive basis like being the suzerain of the most CS, having the most prolific religion, having the largest army, or the longest trade route. The point values could be configured prior to game start as well as the winning points total. Modders could feasibly extend the mod with their own achievements.

I know that you earn a score in Civ already, but it's highly abstract and a more transparent system like this one could incentivize new strategies and create a more consistent feeling of progression throughout the game. You could also win using a blend of conquest, culture, religion, etc. Finally, by specifying a small victory point goal, you could have games that end in earlier eras, allowing for focus on technologies and units in those eras.

Modding effort would probably be substantial. Properly reconfigured AI even more so.

 

[Scrum Lord]

Sounds like a tough balancing act, but I like the idea of an alternative victory condition. I think the key to balancing this would be to make each point difficult to achieve, since you want a small total number of points to win.

I like the idea of circumnavigation awarding a one-time point as an incentive to explore the world.

Perhaps your score system could distinguish "cities" and "settlements" by population and/or districts built.

Perhaps a massive wave of barbs could come every 1000 years, and whoever kills the most gets a Defender point.

And maybe there are a few (three?) world wonders that count as metropolises based on Cities and Knights of Catan, but each one takes significant investment to create:

• one is deep in the tech tree (university),
  
• one requires an army of fully-upgraded units i.e. "mighty knights" (...cathedral?),
  
• not sure what would lead to the bank...

Just thought I'd share some random ideas. It's a cool idea for a mod, but yeah, the effort to create this would be quite substantial.