Unless, of course, you've lined your aqueduct troughs with lead or gotten you water from a Cholera - carrying source. The Romans actually 'graded' the aqueducts - some carried better water than others, and so were preferred for important things like providing water to the Emperor's palace complex . . .
Several things could be used to lessen the impact of Plague/Disease/Negative Health in teh 'first half' of the game:
Technology:
Soap from fats and ash was invented in Mesopotamia in the Ancient Era (2800 BCE)
The earliest (herbal) medical book was written in China at about the same time (2600 BCE)
The Olive Tree was domesticated (2500 BCE) giving access to Olive Oil for cleansing.
These could be combined into a Tech for Health available quite early.
Great Doctors:
These start showing up historically in the Classical Era (If you want to stretch, even the Ancient Era - Imhotep, the Egyptian chancellor and pyramid-builder, was also later worshipped as a God of Healing and Medicine!):
Galen, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Al-Zahrawi (Albucasis), Maimonides, Ambroise Pare - there are enough to give a chance for getting a "Medical Great Scientist" in the early game to help recover from or avoid the worst effects of a Plague.
Social/Civics:
In 1403 CE (very early Renaissance or very late Medieval Era) Venice imposed the first official Quarantine to stop disease from spreading into the city. This was a Political Act, not related to Technology. From my reading, this was the first definite action by any government that actually stopped an epidemic from spreading.
Other "social" possibilities, though, might be use of Mineral Baths for healing/personal sanitation (first recorded in Sumer, Ancient Era) or saunas or sweat baths (Finns, Central Asiuans and Native North Americans, among others) which would generally improve the hygine of the population.
Roman Public Baths, unfortunately, would not help: because the waters were re-used by hundreds or thousands of people, they might actually spread water-borne disease faster than being dirty.
The problem is, all of these, even used together, did very little to stop plagues from breaking out or spreading (except Quarantine) and once the disease was rampant, without an understanding of Germ Theory and viral/bacterial cause and effect, the best you could hope for was to keep the death rate down to Merely Disastrous.
The biggest single factor in the introduction and spread of disease appears to have been Long Range Contact: Every time Trade became lucrative and important over distances, diseases that a population had not developed antibodies against would spread with the Trade. Every single city of the Classical Era that was a nexus of trade routes also had recurring plagues: Athens, Rome, Alexandria, Byzantium, Antioch. Later, London got so dangerous in the Renaissance - early Industrial Era that everybody who could afford to simply left the city in the hot ("Plague Season") months of the summer - the origin of the 'summer house' in the country for the upper and middle classes.
So, Plague could be the Flood Plain/Volcano of Trade: You get bundles of Gold and Resources from Trade, you takes your chance on losing a Population Point or several every once in a while until you can impose Quarantine, which stops or reduces (goods kept locked up and unsold for X months) Trade Income for X Turns but reduces the effects of Plague/Negative Health during the same period.
Once you research Germ Theory/Sanitation in the Industrial Era, historically that was followed by major sewage handling and water-providing projects in all the major cities, along with Health Clinics, Hospitals, Health Plans, and a vast improvement in Military Medicine, including Preventive medical techniques (it's no accident that the earliest vaccinations were discovered or spread by military-related medical people: preventing mass disease outbreaks was critical to keeping an army in the field).
BUT it was the Modern Era (The Boer War and Russo-Japanese Wars, in fact: 1900 - 1905 CE) before a soldier had a higher chance of being shot by the enemy than being killed by disease, and really the invention of antibiotics (1930s CE) before 'medical losses' became a small percentage of total military casualties.
Note: The post below is a bit all over the place and not properly structured.
I think Great Doctors are unnecessary. What I would like is an extended pool of Great People, and each game would draw a limited number of Great People from the same pool, so that every game is different.
I think the early part of the game regarding disease/plague should be fairly
ahistorical and pseudo-scientific. I think the Black Death scenario did it really well with the
miasma, though I find it unnecessary to have purple clouds over every tile. It should expand over Cities/Roads/Harbors/Airports only. I see no issue with using Plague Doctors. It is a really cool unit.
We could also have Great Scientists with powerful abilities to clear plagues/pandemics, for instance. Some pantheons and religious beliefs could also have bonuses to deal with it.
The plagues/pandemics should have different colours representing different kinds of viruses with different characteristics.
---
Consider climate change atm. Someone mentioned earlier that the devs did well to add bonuses to climate change events. I only somewhat agree. Volcanic soil doesn't need ever increasing yields. It required only a static bonus to food, production and science. People would want to settle close to volcanic soil for the extra science. That's motivation enough.
Same with floodplains. The advantage of settling in floodplains should be a temporary boost to yields in flooded tiles. The bonus would remain at 100% even after building a dam. Given rivers also provide +3 housing, this is enough balancing.
I'm mentioning this because I disagree that all mechanics require a
"hard positive" to balance it. Most of us want the AI to be stronger and to be more of a challenge in times of war. What's the "positive" in that, other than immersion and for the sake of challenge?
Avoiding negative effects can often be their own positive.
What I don't like are random events coming out of the blue. So with that in mind, here are some ideas regarding plagues:
- Just like with climate change, you would know what is more likely to
trigger a plague to appear. Examples would include war, devastation, sieges, overpopulation (you should be able to more easily go over the pop limit in a city), being in a dark age, etc. Then, once a plague is triggered, you would be able to visually identify it on the map, even if the plague was triggered in a foreign civ. So you would know if it's coming for you and from where. You would then be allowed to quarantine your own cities via city projects, cancel trade agreements allowing traders to move to and from your cities (would require a new
trade agreement option in diplomacy permitting trade between Civs), early game emergencies allowing you to contribute gold to the affected Civ, etc.
-
In the late game pandemics would activate emergencies which would require all world Civs to contribute SCIENCE points to it. This creates a
Free-Rider Problem /
Prisoner's Dilemma er... dilemma, in the game. Each individual Civ wants to invest as little as possible, since successful completion would benefit every Civ equally, yet failing to succeed in the project to find a cure can be devastating to everybody. The Civ which contributes the most Science to a successful emergency gains 3 Diplo Points. But if all other Civs are free-riding, this can be costly even for someone seeking a Diplo victory.
On the other hand, Civs may choose to individually invest in
Research Cure City Projects - This consumes both production and science, and you'll likely end up spending more than if you had contributed to the pandemic emergency,
but successfully finding a cure gives you Science Victory points (see below), and the cure emanates from your own City where the cure was found, clearing the
miasma along the way. You can also sell or gift the cure to others. Refusing to do either of these may be to your advantage as well, but it opens the possibility of other Civs to declare military emergencies on you.
After every 30 turn cycle (for instance), if a cure is not found, the virus gains a promotion with specific characteristics, depending on its type, making it increasingly dangerous.
Other Random Thoughts:
- Nuclear fallout should create moving clouds which could affect neighbours, including the attacking Civ, and also poison all tiles along a river and ocean tiles. It could also create its own kind of pandemic, a bit sci-fi but not too out there.
- Plague mechanics would fit nicely with migration mechanics. Carts, similar to trade routes on the map, would represent citizens moving from one city to another. Normal migration could occur due to better living conditions elsewhere (more amenities) and also lack of housing in the present city. Crisis like war and plagues would trigger
crisis migrations.
- Due to migration mechanics, you would also be able to choose to abandon your own cities. You don't really get to choose where the citizens go if you're a Democracy, so you might lose some of those pops permanently if they move to neighbouring Civs, with greater likelihood if they follow same religion/ are democratic/ are at peace. Democracies might not be able to resettle their own citizens, but they have stronger migratory pull over neighbours, including fascist and communist Civs.
More Thoughts on Pandemics:
- Take advantage of misery to push your own domination / science / diplomatic victory onward:
a)
Domination: late pandemics which fail to be eradicated would create a game where
coming out on top would be a matter of managing the pandemic in such a way as to be the one to suffer the least from it. Take advantage of the situation to conquer the world from your isolated island, even if it's a world of dust.
b)
Science: science victory rework, where to win you don't have to follow a linear pathway, but instead reaching a certain amount of points/projects from a given pool, like in Diplo Victory. Projects include some of the existing ones, but also other stuff, such as:
-
First to circumnavigate the globe;
-
First to discover all Civs;
- Reaching Level 3 Research Alliance;
- Acquiring Specific Great Scientists, such as Newton;
- Sending an expedition and establishing a research station on an ice shelf;
- Settling a city on an Ocean tile and reaching a certain amount of pops in it. Requires a platform to be built upon the tile first, build-able by engineers only, at 20% each;
-
First to discover Scientific Theory;
- Building your first nuclear weapon;
- Completing a Moon Mission project;
- A specific Wonder;
- Reaching a certain amount of Power Output while being Carbon Neutral;
- Reaching
Future Tech (repeatable).
-etc
Regarding Pandemics:
- Pandemic emergencies provide Diplo Points to the winner if successful. But you may also seek to complete special city projects instead:
1.
Research Cure - Already explained above.
c)
Diplomacy:
- Contributing the most Science to a pandemic emergency provides you 3 Victory Points if successful, 1 if failed;
- Sending your own doctors to clear disease from foreign cities provides you diplo points at certain thresholds (1 Diplo after three
doctor charges are spent in foreign cities. 1 after 10. 1 after 20.);
- Accepting
crisis immigrants provides you diplo ploints at certain thresholds;
etc
I'm tired of typing...
.
