Events

[bbbt]

Folks have posted screengrabs of the "A/B" choice pop-ups, and a polygon article has this to say:

Broadly, Civilization 7 is partial to an interruptive dialogue box, far more than its predecessor, with narrative events evocative of Crusader Kings 3 confronting you as you play. Similarly, the ‘goody huts’ of yore now prompt a choice that decides the type of reward you will receive.

I personally hate this with a passion, it's the top thing that will keep me away from 7. It always feels like pop-ups interrupting my game, and kills replayability for me. And with other forms of micro I dislike (say governors), you can often just ignore them after a point, this is micromanagement that keeps forcing you to deal with it.

Am I in the minority? Do people enjoy these sort of events in a strategy game?

 

[Equilin]

I greatly enjoy events in PDX games, but i do think that Civ don't need it.

 

[thecrazyscot]

It depends on how they're implemented, I guess. Sort of arbitrary events with no narrative connection? Yeah, I stop reading those and just auto-click an option. If they are connected to something important, I find them interesting.

It does seem like there will be both in Civ 7, with the meaningful ones being tied to the Crisis moments.

 

[moysturfurmer]

It depends on how they're implemented, I guess. Sort of arbitrary events with no narrative connection? Yeah, I stop reading those and just auto-click an option. If they are connected to something important, I find them interesting.

It does seem like there will be both in Civ 7, with the meaningful ones being tied to the Crisis moments.

I can’t speak for every event, but apparently the Government you choose creates an event-based CYOA with the different government events in that age all narratively connected .

 

[Arent11]

Folks have posted screengrabs of the "A/B" choice pop-ups, and a polygon article has this to say:



I personally hate this with a passion, it's the top thing that will keep me away from 7. It always feels like pop-ups interrupting my game, and kills replayability for me. And with other forms of micro I dislike (say governors), you can often just ignore them after a point, this is micromanagement that keeps forcing you to deal with it.

Am I in the minority? Do people enjoy these sort of events in a strategy game?

If it's not too frequent or can be switched off, it *could* be interesting.

That being said, I hated the world congress. Especially in multiplayer. I couldn't even opt out of it & it was constantly blocking the game flow.

Oh, and I also hated reassigning trade routes every x turns.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I like that goody huts will give you a choice now, instead of just a random benefit. That gives the player more control over the game, which is always a good thing in strategy. However, for some reason, I hated the narrative events in Humankind. The constant narrative events with micro bonuses that pushed your social sliders, never engaged me. Maybe it is because they happened too often but they just got super annoying. I would not bother reading the story and just click the bonus that I want. So I hope narrative events in civ are interesting and hopefully kept to a minimum. If the civ events are tied to the crisis and actually give the player important info on the crisis, that is good.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

The main reason why I didn't like the WC because the only thing they ever seemed to do was embargo honey or whatever.

 

[Siptah]

I'm personally always surprised that most games choose to display the effect of each option in events. For civ (at least in SP), as well as for CK, it would be much more interesting to have it "blind," except for fundamental decisions (à la continue to play as New Providence in EU4). It would also allow to have positive and negative options and not just "do I want food or science?".

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I'm personally always surprised that most games choose to display the effect of each option in events. For civ (at least in SP), as well as for CK, it would be much more interesting to have it "blind," except for fundamental decisions (à la continue to play as New Providence in EU4). It would also allow to have positive and negative options and not just "do I want food or science?".

For me, the issue with displaying the effect in advance is that I often just click on the choice that gives me the bonus that I want without reading the narrative. I basically don't care about the story, I just care about the effect. If you make the choice blind then the player has to read the story and actually think about what choice they think is best. And if you reveal the effect after the player selects a choice, then the choice becomes a surprise.

 

[Equilin]

For me, the issue with displaying the effect in advance is that I often just click on the choice that gives me the bonus that I want without reading the narrative. I basically don't care about the story, I just care about the effect. If you make the choice blind then the player has to read the story and actually think about what choice they think is best. And if you reveal the effect after the player selects a choice, then the choice becomes a surprise.

tbf that will only work if the game consistently only offers "obvious" choices. I assume many players are traumatized by trick choices in other media that they develop a dislike for blind choices.

 

[Siptah]

For me, the issue with displaying the effect in advance is that I often just click on the choice that gives me the bonus that I want without reading the narrative. I basically don't care about the story, I just care about the effect. If you make the choice blind then the player has to read the story and actually think about what choice they think is best. And if you reveal the effect after the player selects a choice, then the choice becomes a surprise.

Yeah, I mean they are strategy games, not necessarily role playing games or narrative games. But as you said: if the effects weren't displayed, people would have to read the text and think about what is the best or most thematically fitting option. And that might be a + for people that like stories and a - for people that min/max.

 

[Deer]

I have no idea whether you are in the minority or not. Personally, I would not mind pop-ups if they are waiting for me in the to-do list along with choosing my next research choice or what to build next. Basically, it seems like a slightly less organised way to give the player a decision to make: I think it can play a role in stimulating the randomness of what a ruler might have to take a stance on. I.e. showing that building a civilization to stand the test of time requires more decision making than choosing city locations, research and making a build-queue.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I'm not a fan of narrative events. No matter how many you have, they still get repetitive, as you tend to settle into a habit of playing similarly each game and trigger the same ones.

And if it's not repetition of the same events, then it's fatigue because you're getting interrupted with a wall of text every few turns.

Eventually, you're just clicking through to get whichever reward you prefer without reading the text.

 

[TheSpaceCowboy]

I'm personally always surprised that most games choose to display the effect of each option in events. For civ (at least in SP), as well as for CK, it would be much more interesting to have it "blind," except for fundamental decisions (à la continue to play as New Providence in EU4). It would also allow to have positive and negative options and not just "do I want food or science?".

Hopefully there’s an option in the game setup screen to hide the mechanical effects before making narrative choices. I’d elect to always play that way.

 

[Arent11]

Hopefully there’s an option in the game setup screen to hide the mechanical effects before making narrative choices. I’d elect to always play that way.

The effects would have to be randomized, otherwise you would know them after some playthroughs.

 

[Professor Phobo]

I hate full screen interruptions (diplomacy, world congress) but I don't necessarily mind a "here's a decision you have to make" pop uup.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Related to events, I read that civ7 will have mini quests to guide the player towards the victory conditions, similar to how it was done in Beyond Earth. I am hoping that is just for the tutorial. That is fine for newbies but I think it would tiresome for veteran players. They don't need hand holding to help them achieve a victory.