GeneralZift
Professional
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2019
- Messages
- 1,381
Hello it's me again with another idea / suggestion for an imaginary Civilization sequel!
Today I'm covering a complex spider's nest of mechanics which I designed with some existing inspiration to create interesting events for players as the cities grow.
Concept
In the black is the regular mechanics which you might expect for a Civilization game. Food increases Growth, which increases Population.
Happiness affects Growth.
In the orange, is the new mechanic - Health. Health is one of my previously mentioned 'Society Yields' in another thread.
Health reduces Growth, and Happiness. This lends itself to a double effect on Growth (because it affects Growth directly and Indirectly via Happiness).
Historically speaking, Health is more directly related to population growth than Happiness. However both are modelled.
Health is portrayed as a 'Rating' out of 100.
You can add Health by building Apothecaries, Herbal Huts in the early game. Later you can build Hospitals and Medical Centres.
They are also benefited via certain Policies and Religious Beliefs.
These are the various stages of 'Health'.
When you select a City, it will label it as one of these four Stages in Health -- and it will also provide a value from 0 to 100 as a rating.
As you gain Health, the rating will go up. As you gain Population, or via other environmental factors like settling near Marshes, the rating will go down.
Eagle eye readers may have spotted the Plague chance, now what on earth is this?
The lower the Health in your city, the Higher the probability of a random Plague event to spawn in your City.
The severity of the plague event depends on the Health of your city, but it is not strictly categorised,
Nor is it possible to complete eradicate the possibility of sudden illness even with great Health.
The more Health you have, the quicker your population becomes Immune to the Disease.
Your population will become Immune sporadically, which may sometimes target an Ill Citizen, turning them Immune and saving their life.
Citizens may defeat the Illness themselves, this is determined by a base cure rate that all people have.
Ill citizens can infect other citizens at a set rate. Ill citizens will die after a set period if they do not beat the disease and your cure rate does not save them.
Plagues have a built-in secret mechanic called Maximum Fatalities. Essentially, Plagues are programmed to die out in a city if they reach a particular percentage of Fatalities.
This value varies per Plague type.
Disease can spread across Cities. The passive rate depends on the Distance.
Trade routes will also 'send' Plague to whichever City they are trading with.
Incoming traders do not receive Plague.
Whenever your city receives a Plague from another Nation, a notification will pop up:
E.g. "Plague in London!"
"Plague arrives from Rome in a Trade Route."
The severity of the plague which arrives depends on the severity of the original plague.
However, if you have better Health facilities, then you may quash the Illness faster.
Application
So what is the point of a Health or Plague mechanic? I read often that as a 'negative mechanic' it doesn't really come across something fun.
However I will present some counter arguments and explain some of the reasoning behind my creative choices:
- Why add a mechanic that goes against the Player, like Health or Plague?
Poor health and plague exists to play as a counterweight to good Health. Just like being Bankrupt is a counterweight to having lots of Gold, having Low Happiness is a counterweight to having High Happiness.
You cannot have something feel good to the Player without having something bad to compare it to.
Imagine having a very healthy empire, when all your neighbours are suffering from Plague. It will hardly affect you in comparison, which lets you gain the lead where you previously may have been trailing.
- What does it add to the game?
It adds mechanical complexity; avoiding plague by closing trade with an opponent comes as a Strategic decision.
Players who focus too much on goals like technological advancement, huge armies and lead by a big margin, leave a large hole in their society for poor health and other Society stats.
This means that smart players pace their gameplay.
- I hate random events.
You can't really control what happens to you in life, just how you react to it and how well prepared you are.
This is a pivot from my previous design for Disease, but I think some Randomness is important.
Whether or not it happens is Random but everything else about it is strictly procedural.
You survive it by having good Health, and you get hurt by it if you don't prepare yourself. Having poor health in a city is simply knowingly playing a risky game.
Today I'm covering a complex spider's nest of mechanics which I designed with some existing inspiration to create interesting events for players as the cities grow.
Concept
In the black is the regular mechanics which you might expect for a Civilization game. Food increases Growth, which increases Population.
Happiness affects Growth.
In the orange, is the new mechanic - Health. Health is one of my previously mentioned 'Society Yields' in another thread.
Health reduces Growth, and Happiness. This lends itself to a double effect on Growth (because it affects Growth directly and Indirectly via Happiness).
Historically speaking, Health is more directly related to population growth than Happiness. However both are modelled.
Health is portrayed as a 'Rating' out of 100.
You can add Health by building Apothecaries, Herbal Huts in the early game. Later you can build Hospitals and Medical Centres.
They are also benefited via certain Policies and Religious Beliefs.
These are the various stages of 'Health'.
When you select a City, it will label it as one of these four Stages in Health -- and it will also provide a value from 0 to 100 as a rating.
As you gain Health, the rating will go up. As you gain Population, or via other environmental factors like settling near Marshes, the rating will go down.
Eagle eye readers may have spotted the Plague chance, now what on earth is this?
The lower the Health in your city, the Higher the probability of a random Plague event to spawn in your City.
The severity of the plague event depends on the Health of your city, but it is not strictly categorised,
Nor is it possible to complete eradicate the possibility of sudden illness even with great Health.
The more Health you have, the quicker your population becomes Immune to the Disease.
Your population will become Immune sporadically, which may sometimes target an Ill Citizen, turning them Immune and saving their life.
Citizens may defeat the Illness themselves, this is determined by a base cure rate that all people have.
Ill citizens can infect other citizens at a set rate. Ill citizens will die after a set period if they do not beat the disease and your cure rate does not save them.
Plagues have a built-in secret mechanic called Maximum Fatalities. Essentially, Plagues are programmed to die out in a city if they reach a particular percentage of Fatalities.
This value varies per Plague type.
Disease can spread across Cities. The passive rate depends on the Distance.
Trade routes will also 'send' Plague to whichever City they are trading with.
Incoming traders do not receive Plague.
Whenever your city receives a Plague from another Nation, a notification will pop up:
E.g. "Plague in London!"
"Plague arrives from Rome in a Trade Route."
The severity of the plague which arrives depends on the severity of the original plague.
However, if you have better Health facilities, then you may quash the Illness faster.
Application
So what is the point of a Health or Plague mechanic? I read often that as a 'negative mechanic' it doesn't really come across something fun.
However I will present some counter arguments and explain some of the reasoning behind my creative choices:
- Why add a mechanic that goes against the Player, like Health or Plague?
Poor health and plague exists to play as a counterweight to good Health. Just like being Bankrupt is a counterweight to having lots of Gold, having Low Happiness is a counterweight to having High Happiness.
You cannot have something feel good to the Player without having something bad to compare it to.
Imagine having a very healthy empire, when all your neighbours are suffering from Plague. It will hardly affect you in comparison, which lets you gain the lead where you previously may have been trailing.
- What does it add to the game?
It adds mechanical complexity; avoiding plague by closing trade with an opponent comes as a Strategic decision.
Players who focus too much on goals like technological advancement, huge armies and lead by a big margin, leave a large hole in their society for poor health and other Society stats.
This means that smart players pace their gameplay.
- I hate random events.
You can't really control what happens to you in life, just how you react to it and how well prepared you are.
This is a pivot from my previous design for Disease, but I think some Randomness is important.
Whether or not it happens is Random but everything else about it is strictly procedural.
You survive it by having good Health, and you get hurt by it if you don't prepare yourself. Having poor health in a city is simply knowingly playing a risky game.
