Engine terraforming and game mechanic for civilization beyond earth

[starrhader]

-bacause there is no categories in threads, its needed to extend the wishlist thread for future generations into category branches. or split. in this case its a new one:

ENGINE TERRAFORMING AND GAME MECHANIC FOR CIVILIZATION BEYOND EARTH
(or Civ VI- assume BE is a Civ V mod for now)

with some sub categories, or parent-child categories:
Geomorphological aspects. Atmospheric aspects. Natural disasters, etc..

Ai is questionable, units, civs, 1UPT, Armies, NO cutlural overthrown, no natural causes ship sinking..... water roads....speed lanes... no Smiles...we wont discuss that here. Terraforming its not intended as only modifying the planets and landscape... by humans. Most importantly its fbmf Nature.. Now. Case is Physic is going to dumb down gameplay for some. So. It refuses to evolve. Stick the exes.

Now imagine the exes could move. float. canions become valleys in matter of hour of gameplay. Also, imagine the exes to be overlayered to a random heat layer down to generate hotspots, that produces vulcanoes, tectonic actual power. And another layer, that produces courrents, water and wind, that can spread Miasmas, and it time shut down the generator and produce a little Ice age, in short makes your trade vessel collide with an Iceberg and sink.

How's that sound? It seems to me that gameplay already suffered a lot from bigger size, few cities style gameplay, better graphic, really? at what price? maybe this would only worsten things... so maybe no step back... step up, and down, two more levels?


But stick to the actual engine for now... and see if we can make a point
why some stuff was removed from civ IV and later.

Late Civ V lost Vulcanoes from the maps. A GODmodder made an actual DISASTER implementation for Hurrycanes . See °team. ( Sadly couldn't switch the event as apparently it was driven by atmospheric Global warming factors linked ONLY to Human activity and over pollution). That affects gameplay. And we could whine if my city burns to flame or sink in the ocean as Atlantis did. whaaaaaaaa

PERIOD

They added Mountains ( and now canions ) as natural unpenetrable barriers. What is wrong is that not all are uncrossable or unsettable.

They removed Vulcanoes and all sorts of natural disaster. As now the game could be focused more on gameplay as part of it. The other I don't know.

So here we have... a galactic eight civs going to three planet types... with no vulcanoes ... ( odd, isn't it? ) and apparently.... no rivers, and no ice. Pretty sure there's ton of ice in space. What do they drink, mutated bloddcells? Oh, no, its actually robots out there, drones themself! Make it beliavable folks! This is CIV BEYOND EARTH its not a Pandora submarine from WWII flying out there with some Vanilla Wodka flavs fish and chips!

Resume: what we have: correct me if I am wrong.

Static landscape blocks - Canions - mountains ( ranges, euphemism ).
Some Alien desease. Miasma.

What we don't have:

No Wind.
No Earthquakes.
No Eruption.
No Currents. No early ship sink whatsoever
No Bermuda style Magnetic-Black-Holes Triangles.
No Winds and Fire.
No Solar storm.
No Floods.

 

[cooldude1128]

I don't understand most of this thread. It sounds like you're angry because of a lack of enviromental hazards and the fact that happiness has been replaced by health, (Honestly I'd like both like in Civilization 4!) but I don't understand the rest. I'm pretty sure natural disasters were never part of the game, other than random events in Civ4 that destroyed improvements or damaged cities. You're also complaining that the physics are... Exactly the same as they've always been. I don't get it.

 

[Callonia]

If I remember correctly, Civ 5 : BE won't have terraforming because the civ5 engine cannot support it which is why we didn't get the rising seas back according to firaxis.

 

[3of5]

Many assumptions the OT makes are just plain wrong too:

- we have rivers
- we have ice
- we have diverse mapscripts where ice is prominently featured
- he is decrying the lack of geological change in an anthropic timeframe (which wouldn't even make sense)
- "drones" are a type of biological flying natives, not a robotic specimen

There are some points (if i understand correctly) that i agree on though:

- random events could be nice, but since they were not a huge element of Civ4 either, they just kinda added flavor, thats not a very important point imho.
- i would have loved a global warming mod (based on human sources) for Civ5
- unusable canyons and mountains don't make much sense in Civ (i'm living in a very prosperous mountain country).
- global scale terraforming would be a great game mechanic, perhaps in an expansion?

 

[AriochIV]

The Beyond Earth quest system is essentially the same thing as the Civ IV random event/quest system.

 

[starrhader]

EDIT-

If I remember correctly, Civ 5 : BE won't have terraforming because the civ5 engine cannot support it which is why we didn't get the rising seas back according to firaxis.

+1

I didn't know of tectonic maps script, I'm going to try it. It seems awesome on paper. ty.

I also found Waterway Exploration Map Script by preffect on Steam mod Mapscripts that could be good for example about currents mechanic future dev.

Many assumptions the OT makes are just plain wrong too:
1-we have rivers
2 -he is decrying the lack of geological change in an anthropic timeframe (which wouldn't even make sense)

1- Yes, I am wrong, there are rivers. Flat, but rivers.
2- Not decrying the lack of geomorphical change in 6000 years, Hawaii islands took longer time to form. But as single Natural events, there is none. No Red rain mega vulcano eruption triggered, No island sinkink, No Chernobyill, No Fukushima ( Anthrophic timeframe). No little Ice ages. No Earthquakes. No ice melt.

IF- the engine map script could include multilayering as I believe Tectonic map is on the right path, it wouldnt be a total random factor. Spots. Local earthquakes. Eruptions. In a hundred year sea level will rise. Byblical flood? DO you have record when it took place? Maybe it was 400K years ago. Maybe not. We just don't know. Can it happen in THIS timeframe? Also you assume there is only one Timeframe. The one we living. Multiverse is more realistic scenario.

On the other hand... floating iceberg driven by currents... could move in turns... and if accidentally your ship ends on its path... it could be damaged, or sink. North passage is now quite open... AND WE ARE AT THE END OF A BIG MAYA-EGYPTIAN-AUSTRAL-who-knows CYCLE... pole shift in few thousand year? Possible geomodifications in a relitavely short period?

Hittites and other ancient civs Capitals were built on top of super-fortified mountains... also... What tech did they have?

There are some points for which the game is not evolving - a Large canion could be inhabitable for few thousand year, than terracotta pipes made these setteable by Arabs.

Canion as un-crossable mountains are a strategic new asset. In early civs, mountains were super-fortified lines and workable. From Carthage to WWII, Alps were a pretty tuff place, but crossable (I think Gauls were living in Northern Italy also and crossing was not a problem). So, yes, these are limitations, these Blocks, are like walls. They shape your world. Rhye's of CIv used it a lot, and its actually cool.
But you cant shape them, no matter techs. Except for workers ability to terraform jungles and geothermal well, that is actually very cool, ( - http://well-of-souls.com/civ/civbe_overview.html ) the engine is still the same as civ IV. Its like when a new oil source is discovered. its a number. I think that if it would be a dynamic element, as sand is, it would be much more interesting for future dev and overhaul the strategic aspect of the game.

 

[Dargoth]

a few of these disasters would be interesting

Solar storm

Satalites dont provide bonus or usable during the storm. Theres also a chance that the Satalite is destroyed or has its active time reduced due to damage

All airborne, Mechanized, artillary and sea units can not move during the storm as there computer systems are fried. Solar storms can also increase Alien hostility during the storm

Asteroid impact

An Asteroid strikes the planet. Asteroids come in 3 sizes Small, Medium and large
A small asteroid turns 1 hex into a crater and destroys all tile improvements in the hexs that border it. Medium asteroid creates a 2x2 Hex crater and destroys all tile improvements in neighbouring hexs. Large asteroid creates 3x3 hex Crater and destroys all tile improvements bordering it.

If a city sits in one of the hex affected then it suffers building damage and population loss 1 building for small 2 buildings for medium 3 buildings for Large.

In each cratered Hex there is a chance that a resource appears. Small craters have 1 potential resource Medium 4 and large 9

Volcanic Eruption (one of the developers mentioned Volcanos but I cant remebe where)

All tiles bordering the Volcano have their improvements destroyed there is a random chance that resources appear in the bordering hexs

Earthquake

Creates Canyon hexs destroying tile improvements

Ideally you would be able to to set the Solar activity, Teutonic activity and asteroid prevelance when you "make" the planet