epidemics

[Raisin Bran]

I posted some Ideas that had a good response! Here's another one !

Today I wont play Civ cuz im sick !!!!!! .... bad cold ..... and us Men usually feel more groggy that girls if we have colds.

Since I'm sick ...... I tought about epidemics !

Once every so often there should be an epidemic (bird flu, aids ect....) and you would get a drop in population.
All the civs on a same continent could be affected by an epidemic and if a civ moves an unit to another continent while there is an epidemic could spread the disease to another continent. They could last for 20 to 30 turns roughly.

What do you guys think ?????

If you dont understand it may be cuz my brain is on slow-mo for today !

 

[UnitQ]

sounds good. It would be fun

mmmmm crack epidemic.........

 

[pub hero]

Meh, they got rid of random punishers and for good reason. Remember earthquakes?

 

[Raisin Bran]

Meh, they got rid of random punishers and for good reason. Remember earthquakes?

Actually No ... you mind explaning?

 

[Meffy]

For hundreds of turns you planned, you schemed, you built, you out-maneuvered the opposition. Now you're rolling toward victory -- and the RNG suddenly does the equivalent of one spearman defeating dozens of tanks. The AIs, always ready to seize the opportunity to prey on weakness (and able to detect it with superb accuracy), polish you off easily.

Think about how you'd feel. Now how likely are you to keep investing your time and effort in that game? For me the answer would be "Hm, what next: minesweeper or solitaire?"

For a mod, fine.

 

[Raisin Bran]

Putting it that way makes a lot of sense meffy!

Its true!!!! ---- for a mod fine --- absolutely right !

 

[Perfect_Blue]

Once every so often there should be an epidemic (bird flu, aids ect....) and you would get a drop in population.
All the civs on a same continent could be affected by an epidemic and if a civ moves an unit to another continent while there is an epidemic could spread the disease to another continent. They could last for 20 to 30 turns roughly.

A drop doesn't mean total devastation, per se. And if everyone on that continent had the pontential to get sick and/or was already in the grips...Doesn't sound terrible to me, depending on the balance.

Would be a hellacious historical quirk to drop of my Spanish explorer and wipe out the continent, though...hmmm, hellacious, yes; maybe too historical...

 

[5cats]

Yes, no earth-shaking random events, please!
"Sire, that army we spent 1000 years building and finally sent off to crush the infedels? Well, they caught this cold, see..."

Also:
Spearman: Ka-choo!
Enemy Tank Unit: (falls over dead)

 

[Older than Dirt]

But plagues like the Black Death only have minor transitory effects, right? How many died from the influenza in 1918-1919? Only a few million. Aids has no real effect on our ecomomy, does it? Civ 4 is an escape from reality - so don't be bringing no plagues in here, let them all stay in Egypt.

 

[Meffy]

But plagues like the Black Death only have minor transitory effects, right?

According to historians I've read, the reduction of Europe's population by about a third was a major factor leading to the eventual extinction of feudalism and the rise of what we know as the middle class.

But modelling that in a game like Civ would be pretty far-fetched IMO. Maybe as a scenario with scripted events it could work.

 

[Danghis Khan]

I liked the addition of plagues like the black death in the CivIII Conquests. Having a stack of units defending a city and then having them flee to the countryside to avoid getting randomly killed was annoying, but entertaining. Perhaps have a random events button like the raging barbarians would be a solution.

 

[Crighton]

a random event funtion would be good for civ iv as an option you can have turned on or off at the begining of a game.

Earthquakes, plagues, tsunami, volcano's etc. I can think of plenty of historical examples for any of these events.

Of course taht would make bio-warfare a wonderful option to include as well.

"Sire we seem to have caught a plague . . . "

"Ah-choo!"

"Ah crap! Crighton and his armies have crossed our borders!! God is punishing us!!"

 

[blueicus]

The Spanish Influenza that occurred during the First World War killed anywhere from 20-40 million people and infected many more. In fact, more people died from the disease than from the war directly... so it was a pretty heavily impacting disease.

Of course, most other flu pandemics (pre and post Spanish Flu) have been far less serious in the amount of deaths caused, but still I think it's serious enough to warrant some sort of influence on a civ or civs affected, if implemented.

I sort of enjoyed the plague and volcano features in C3C, but I would say make it an optional thing like raging barbarians as opposed to something that is in a standard game.

 

[pub hero]

Yes it'd be more authentic I guess, but anyone who's played a lot of FPS's knows that random punishers are awful, awful things. ALT-F4 kind of things, it's not fun whatsoever to be on the receiving end of something that does nothing but damage and can't be controlled.

Civ 4 is very much based on the idea of building and shaping, it doesn't tend to punish unless you lag behind to far.