Historical Mechanics

[Wingednosering]

We all like playing Civ because it stimulates our historical curiousity by encouraging us to do research with clever game mechanics. In that spirit, I propose a thread to give us a break from all the R&F chatter.

Throw out a historical fact and try to make a mechanic out of it. It can be serious, silly, civ specific or more generic. These are not meant to be real suggestions for the game. Anything goes!

I'll start us off:

Camels +5 CS against cavalry.

This one's obvious. Horses are typically terrified of Camels in the real world unless they're raised with them. This is something Arabian and Persian generals used to great affect against enemies to their north.

Access to Truffles provide a 10% combat bonus against Elephant units.

Slightly less well known, War Pigs were often used against elephants in battle. Elephants are terrified of both pigs and fire, so it was common to light domesticated pigs on fire and send them into a group of war elephants. They would panic and trample their allies.

 

[masda_gib]

To be fair, I also would be pretty terrified if a burning pig would run towards me.

 

[Kyro]

Nuclear Deterence

Every nation who has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons gains the effect:

All non-nuclear Civilizations will have drastically reduced chances of declaring war against a nuclear power and are more likely to give in to demands.

International Trade:

Yields from Trade Routes are directly dependent on relationship with target Civilizations and will always be better than internal trade routes.

Worldwide Condemnation

A civilization that has conquered another or is in the lead because of captured cities immediately gains this status:

All Civilizations without warmongering agendas will cease diplomatic relations with the offender and impose heavy tariffs on trade routes, earning up to 50% of all yields from affected trade routes.

Peaceful Progress

All Civilizations who have never declared war gain a global 20% increase to all outputs. Protectorate, Reconquest and Liberation Wars are exempted from this clause.

Wartime Destruction

Upon capture, all districts and buildings are automatically pillaged, 1 random district is completely razed.

Vengeful Resistance

All captured cities function only at 75% yield capacity and require 25% more amenities to remain content. Spies operating here are two times more likely to succeed.

In addition, Ceded Cities will continue to retain their occupied status for 30 turns after ceding.

A Civilization facing elimination will fight to the bitter end and refuse to cede any cities. Cities not ceded while the Civilization exists retain occupied status forever.

Ultimatum

An extension of the demand feature that forces AI to consider War with the player if the demands are not met. In other words, if the AI would not normally declare war on the player, it would be much less likely to ignore the Ultimatum. Unlocks from the beginning since this is basically a "threaten" function.

Possible Ultimatums:

Cessation of Hostility against allied City State or Allied player.

Settling within 4 tiles of any of Player's cities is a declaration of war

Converting Player's holy city is a declaration of war.

Refusal to yield tribute of desired quantity is a declaration of war.

Edit: I'll add more as I think of them.

 

[Eric Guimarães]

If Population exceeds housing capacity:There is a chance of that city suffering from an epidemic outbreak
If Pop exceeds housing by 1: the outbreak has a 10% chance of happening in a turn
If Pop exceeds housing by 2: the outbreak has a 60% chance of happening in a turn
If Pop exceeds housing by 3: the outbreak is inevitable in the next turn
In Dark ages: If the housing capacity is the same as the Pop, the outbreak chance is 10% instead of 0%.
Plague effect:Infected cities have to suffer an epidemic attack for 3 turns,each turn wipes out 1 pop.Trade routes to/from infected cities increase contamination by 10% to other cities.
(sorry for bad english )

 

[kryat]

I like all of these, but you should get options about how you want to conduct wars, and the way you conduct war affects loyalty on capture.

Nuclear Deterence

Every nation who has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons gains the effect:

All non-nuclear Civilizations will have drastically reduced chances of declaring war against a nuclear power and give in to demands far easier.

International Trade:

Trade yields are directly dependent on relationship with target Civilizations and will always be better than internal trade routes.

Worldwide Condemnation

A civilization that has conquered another or is in the lead because of captured cities immediately gains this status:

All Civilizations without warmongering agendas will cease diplomatic relations with the offender and impose heavy tariffs on trade routes, earning up to 50% of all yields from affected trade routes.

Peaceful Progress

All Civilizations who have never declared war gain a global 20% increase to all outputs. Protectorate, Reconquest and Liberation Wars are exempted from this clause.

Wartime Destruction

Upon capture, all districts and buildings are automatically pillaged, 1 random district is completely razed.

Vengeful Resistance

All captured cities function only at 75% yield capacity and require 25% more amenities to remain content. Spies operating here are two times more likely to succeed.

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

The consumption of mineral resources. Improvements on certain resources especially strategics should not be indefinite. They should disappear after so many turns. This could make the late game more interesting especially if the AI aggressively pursues these resources. This would definitely reflect the real world.

 

[Victoria]

Scythed Chariot: Cheap (little training) one time use on flat land only. Random chance during combat multiplied by 5.

 

[kryat]

Bane of explorers: For all pre-industrial units, there is a small chance per turn that a unit loses health if farther than N tiles away from friendly territory, where N increases with era.

Trade winds: Currents appear in oceans that increase the movement speed of embarked and naval units, and increase the range and yields of trade routes.

Listening to your music and wearing your blue jeans: If one civilization is fully culturally influenced by another, they cannot declare war on each other.

Alpine raised: Any unit trained in a city containing a mountain gets a permanent +2 CS when fighting adjacent to a mountain.

Brave New World: Cities with excessive amenities (+2 and over) have increased culture and production yield, but decreased growth, faith, and science output, with increasing severity for further amenities.

 

[drubell]

If Hungary was in the game it should get reduced food generation just for a Chrono Trigger-themed achievement called "But you're still Hungary..."

Not historical but much of Civ isn't.

 

[Ondolindë]

Camino del Inca

Civilizations that are Inca allies and friends can use routes made by the Inca over mountain hexes.

 

[Morningcalm]

Marble: Production bonus for Ancient and Classical wonders, increased chance of getting Great Artist (Sculptor) in Renaissance era.

Civs that are heavily influenced by one culture should be more amenable to deals with that culture (applies only to one other Civ, so that one Civ heavily influenced by all the others doesn't suddenly kowtow to everyone).

Also, trees should randomly regrow naturally in land that is relatively untouched (i.e. Undeveloped forest in the Industrial Era spawns a new tree nearby).

 

[ChocolateShake]

Camels +5 CS against cavalry.

This one's obvious. Horses are typically terrified of Camels in the real world unless they're raised with them. This is something Arabian and Persian generals used to great affect against enemies to their north.

In Age of Empires II, the Saracens had mamelukes as their unique unit, and as far as I recall they received a combat bonus against regular cavalry, just like the other camel cavalry unit. Though I think mamelukes mainly went into battle on horses, that was still pretty cool!

Access to Truffles provide a 10% combat bonus against Elephant units.

Slightly less well known, War Pigs were often used against elephants in battle. Elephants are terrified of both pigs and fire, so it was common to light domesticated pigs on fire and send them into a group of war elephants. They would panic and trample their allies.

Would be very amusing to see burning pigs on the civ map

I guess my own additions might be:

Cities that have access to spices gain +1 amenity per unique food source (fish, cows, etc.). Cities that have access to more than one unique food resource also gain +1 amenity.
Variety is the spice of life Might be a little op, but I think spices need some kind of bonus, considering how important they were historically. Varied food sources also makes people happier. The Anno and Pharaoh game series reflect the importance of varied food sources.

Earlier spies
It seems to me that spies and operatives were in use much earlier than civ typically has them, we should be able to get spies setup in enemy cities to help us see what other civs are up to, and also to weaken city defenses (Perhaps a big wooden horse unit ) Seriously though, I think earlier spies would be great.

Cavalry get +10 strength when attacking ranged units
If your archers get charged by cavalry, they'll get crushed. Though I'm not sure how historically accurate that is.

Heavily-armored units lose strength and movement points when in rough terrain or desert/tundra
To reflect how hard it is to use heavily armored units in bad conditions.

Great idea for a thread!

 

[Ogro]

Female leaders get more aggression and DOWs in certain ages... LOL *drop the bomb and leaves the room =P*

 

[God of Kings]

Moral Panic

Reduced gold, culture, and amenities in exchange for increased faith and production.

 

[masda_gib]

Drink of the Gods

Upon researching Computers, coffee plantations gain +2 production.

 

[TomKQT]

Archeology First

Cannot work, upgrade or use in any way a tile with an antiguity site on it until you dig the artifact with an archeologist. Yea, this already is in the game (But you at least still can work the tile, now you wouldn't be able.)

Eco-terrorists

Any building or district or tile improvement has a random chance of being either significantly slowed down during construction or completely canceled.

Peaceful Progress

All Civilizations who have never declared war gain a global 20% increase to all outputs. Protectorate, Reconquest and Liberation Wars are exempted from this clause.

Does this relate to real history in general, or at least in a significant degree?

 

[TomKQT]

Also, trees should randomly regrow naturally in land that is relatively untouched (i.e. Undeveloped forest in the Industrial Era spawns a new tree nearby).

I wouldn't say that forests spread too much in reality, without the help of people.
But you gave me a different idea - you should be able to plant forests earlier in the game and you should be able to get production also from chopping these second-growth trees if they are at least two eras old. Would be probably overpowered, though

 

[Kyro]

Does this relate to real history in general, or at least in a significant degree?

History has shown that peaceful cooperation is far more advantageous than conflict so yes it is historical and significant. I would say not declared war in the past X turns but that makes it quite pointless since the most profitable wars are held in the earliest stages of the game and that makes the excusivity of the bonus irrelevant. War and Cooperation cannot coexist and that's the idea behind the feature.

The most warlike people never exist for long and their cultural and moral constructs always collapse on themselves one way or the other. You cannot encourage war to your people and advocate that they help each other at the same time, they are both 2 sides to the same coin.

 

[TomKQT]

History has shown that peaceful cooperation is far more advantageous than conflict so yes it is historical and significant. I would say not declared war in the past X turns but that makes it quite pointless since the most profitable wars are held in the earliest stages of the game and that makes the excusivity of the bonus irrelevant. War and Cooperation cannot coexist and that's the idea behind the feature.

The most warlike people never exist for long and their cultural and moral constructs always collapse on themselves one way or the other. You cannot encourage war to your people and advocate that they help each other at the same time, they are both 2 sides to the same coin.

But when I look at Germany or Japan - those are two very advanced civilizations nowadays... (but I don't want to turn this into politics)

 

[Kyro]

But when I look at Germany or Japan - those are two very advanced civilizations nowadays... (but I don't want to turn this into politics)

Well now, are they warlike still? Where are the Nazis and the Japanese Imperialists who advocated territorial expansion through mindless slaughter? Germany changed and so did Japan. They were peaceful ever since WW2 and with the assistance of other countries look at how well they're doing now.