Hypothetical New Mode (Or, What Zombies Could Have Been):
In another thread discussing the New Frontier Pass, I saw that many persons, like me, were disappointed with the last new mode featuring zombies. I suggested an alternative mode about health and disease (as many others have also done) but didn’t bother going into much detail. Here is a more fleshed out concept, in case modders (or ideally, Firaxis itself) want to run with it.
Plagues & Pandemics
During each new game of civilization, a random assortment of diseases will be present, with larger maps having more diseases. The player will not initially know what these diseases are, as they will be revealed as the game progresses.
List of afflictions and maladies
Bubonic Plague
Cholera
Coronavirus
Ebola
Influenza
Leprosy
Oncogenic Virus
Malaria
Small Pox
Tuberculosis
Virulent Prion
(Functionally, the diseases operate in the same way)
Map size and number of diseases
Duel: 2 diseases
Tiny: 3 diseases
Small: 4 diseases
and so forth
The first time a plague occurs, a new disease will be “founded”, until all diseases in the game are discovered. Each civilization can only “found” one disease. City-states can experience, but not discover, diseases.
Plagues operate on the level of cities. In the absence of modifiers, a plague state lasts 5 turns, loses one population per turn, and reduces all yields by 50%. Afflicted cities are “under siege” and won’t heal from attacks/natural disasters.
Whether a plague occurs is a function of the new city-specific metric “health,” as well as probability.
A new city starts with “neutral” health (zero). Health decreases when cities become more crowded, as follows:
Size 1-3 = 0 Health
Size 4-6 = -1 Health
Size 7-9 = -2 Health
Size 10-12 = -3 Health
and so forth
The probability of experiencing a plague increases as health decreases, as follows:
-1 = 5% per turn
-2 = 10% per turn
-3 = 20% per turn
-4 = 40% per turn
-5 and below = permanent plague state
(There is potential to control plague frequency and severity with a slider, as is currently done for natural disasters).
Any city experiencing a plague state can transmit the plague to cities in close proximity, as well as along trade routes. The probably of a nearby city or trade route recipient “catching” the plague is dependent upon city health level, as well as any modifiers that may be present.
Pandemics are triggered when the same plague is present on more than one continent.
Any civilization where the pandemic disease is present will infect the lowest health city in any rival civilization sharing open borders or an arrangement which results in open borders (eg alliance). All trade routes originating from cities with plague induce plague in destination cities.
The pandemic condition gives a 50% chance that the pathogen will acquire one of seven new mutations:
Latent Infection - Plague duration increases 60%
Airborne transmission - increases the spread chance of the pathogen in the future
Antigenic Variation - Yield loss cannot be mitigated
Hardened Spores - Can no longer be incinerated by plague doctor/ MRT
Hemorrhagic Fever - Doubles population Loss
Breakbone Fever - Yield loss increases to 75%
Cortical Highjacking - Plagues spawn “infected” that pillage and attack your units and cities whilst spreading disease - a nod to zombies mode
When a pandemic occurs, the same disease may not become a pandemic again for at least 30 turns.
___________________________________
As described thus far, this new game mode doesn’t include any ways of increasing health or limiting the spread of disease. Fortunately, of course, you will have some tools in your arsenal.
Firstly, there will be a new specialty district: The Wellness District.
Due to district bloat, each civilization will be limited to one of these. Luckily, they are powerful and offer broad benefits.
The Wellness District itself provides all cities +1 health, and an additional +1 health to all cities within 6 tiles. Furthermore, there are three buildings that can be constructed as the game progresses:
Tier 1 Apothecary – Provides +1 health to the host city per type of feature present in the host city: oases, reefs, fissures, jungles, and woods, and grants access to the healer unit
Tier 2 Infirmary – Provides +1 health to all of your cities within 9 tiles and grants access to the plague doctor unit
Tier 3 Department of Public Health – Provides +1 health to all cities and grants access to the medical response team.
Healers upgrade to plague doctors, and plague doctors upgrade to medical response teams. The obsolete unit can no longer be trained and is automatically upgraded.
–>When a healer is present inside a city, yields drop 25% instead of 50%, and instead of losing one population per turn food is reset and growth becomes 0%.
–>Plague doctors have two charges for the incinerate ability. Using a charge immediately ends a plague at the cost of 1 population. When both charges are consumed, the unit is lost.
–>Medical Response Teams are sort of a combination of healers and plague doctors. When present, yield loss becomes 20% instead of 50%. They have one charge that immediately ends a pandemic without any population loss and consumes the unit.
Modifiers
-Apostles with the chaplain promotion provide +1 health when inside or adjacent to a city center
-Aqueducts provide +1 health
-Sewers provide +1 health
-The presence of any pillaging within the borders of a cities reduces health by 1
-Factories reduce health by 1, and coal plants reduce health by 1 more
New Policies
-Corpses in Catapults – Siege unit attacks on cities induce plague state (Military)
-Quarantine – Trade routes minus 1 gold but substantially reduced likelihood of spreading disease (Diplomatic)
-Herbal Remedies – +1 health in cities with campuses (Economic)
-Religious Healing - +1 health in cities with holy sites (Economic)
-Universal Healthcare – Plus 2 Health and 1 amenity in all cities, but -3 gold per city (Economic)
New Governor Promotion for Victor
Quarantine Enforcer (replaces Garrison Commander) - Suspends currently active Plagues, and prevents new ones from afflicting his city.
New Spy Mission
-Poison the Well – Induces plague state (can help to create pandemic conditions)
New World Wonders
-Temple of Asclepius – The presence of reef, fissure, and oasis provides +1 health in all cities (up to +3 health per city) / built adjacent to wellness district
-Pasteur Institute - +2 health in all cities with universities / built adjacent to a university
New Great Persons
Edward Jenner - When present in a city, mitigates plague effects; upon retirement, all plagues in your civilization are suspended and up to 2 mutations are removed from any disease founded in your territory
John Snow - Same active effect; upon retirement, all cities in your civilization receive +1 health
Achievements
Superbug - Have a disease in your game with 5 or more mutations
Too Soon? - Lose at least 50 population to coronavirus in a single game
Don’t Dead Open Inside - Have 10 or more infected inside your borders on the same turn
_____________________
Some Thoughts:
My concern is that players would avoid large populous cities altogether, as well as trade routes. Therefore, there could be a buff to tall cities as follows: Specialists do not consume food and produce twice their intrinsic yield, ie +2 science instead of +1 science.
Also, the numbers would probably need tweaking to be balanced and fair. That’s why there are QA departments.
Would love to know what you think!
In another thread discussing the New Frontier Pass, I saw that many persons, like me, were disappointed with the last new mode featuring zombies. I suggested an alternative mode about health and disease (as many others have also done) but didn’t bother going into much detail. Here is a more fleshed out concept, in case modders (or ideally, Firaxis itself) want to run with it.
Plagues & Pandemics
During each new game of civilization, a random assortment of diseases will be present, with larger maps having more diseases. The player will not initially know what these diseases are, as they will be revealed as the game progresses.
List of afflictions and maladies
Bubonic Plague
Cholera
Coronavirus
Ebola
Influenza
Leprosy
Oncogenic Virus
Malaria
Small Pox
Tuberculosis
Virulent Prion
(Functionally, the diseases operate in the same way)
Map size and number of diseases
Duel: 2 diseases
Tiny: 3 diseases
Small: 4 diseases
and so forth
The first time a plague occurs, a new disease will be “founded”, until all diseases in the game are discovered. Each civilization can only “found” one disease. City-states can experience, but not discover, diseases.
Plagues operate on the level of cities. In the absence of modifiers, a plague state lasts 5 turns, loses one population per turn, and reduces all yields by 50%. Afflicted cities are “under siege” and won’t heal from attacks/natural disasters.
Whether a plague occurs is a function of the new city-specific metric “health,” as well as probability.
A new city starts with “neutral” health (zero). Health decreases when cities become more crowded, as follows:
Size 1-3 = 0 Health
Size 4-6 = -1 Health
Size 7-9 = -2 Health
Size 10-12 = -3 Health
and so forth
The probability of experiencing a plague increases as health decreases, as follows:
-1 = 5% per turn
-2 = 10% per turn
-3 = 20% per turn
-4 = 40% per turn
-5 and below = permanent plague state
(There is potential to control plague frequency and severity with a slider, as is currently done for natural disasters).
Any city experiencing a plague state can transmit the plague to cities in close proximity, as well as along trade routes. The probably of a nearby city or trade route recipient “catching” the plague is dependent upon city health level, as well as any modifiers that may be present.
Pandemics are triggered when the same plague is present on more than one continent.
Any civilization where the pandemic disease is present will infect the lowest health city in any rival civilization sharing open borders or an arrangement which results in open borders (eg alliance). All trade routes originating from cities with plague induce plague in destination cities.
The pandemic condition gives a 50% chance that the pathogen will acquire one of seven new mutations:
Latent Infection - Plague duration increases 60%
Airborne transmission - increases the spread chance of the pathogen in the future
Antigenic Variation - Yield loss cannot be mitigated
Hardened Spores - Can no longer be incinerated by plague doctor/ MRT
Hemorrhagic Fever - Doubles population Loss
Breakbone Fever - Yield loss increases to 75%
Cortical Highjacking - Plagues spawn “infected” that pillage and attack your units and cities whilst spreading disease - a nod to zombies mode
When a pandemic occurs, the same disease may not become a pandemic again for at least 30 turns.
___________________________________
As described thus far, this new game mode doesn’t include any ways of increasing health or limiting the spread of disease. Fortunately, of course, you will have some tools in your arsenal.
Firstly, there will be a new specialty district: The Wellness District.
Due to district bloat, each civilization will be limited to one of these. Luckily, they are powerful and offer broad benefits.
The Wellness District itself provides all cities +1 health, and an additional +1 health to all cities within 6 tiles. Furthermore, there are three buildings that can be constructed as the game progresses:
Tier 1 Apothecary – Provides +1 health to the host city per type of feature present in the host city: oases, reefs, fissures, jungles, and woods, and grants access to the healer unit
Tier 2 Infirmary – Provides +1 health to all of your cities within 9 tiles and grants access to the plague doctor unit
Tier 3 Department of Public Health – Provides +1 health to all cities and grants access to the medical response team.
Healers upgrade to plague doctors, and plague doctors upgrade to medical response teams. The obsolete unit can no longer be trained and is automatically upgraded.
–>When a healer is present inside a city, yields drop 25% instead of 50%, and instead of losing one population per turn food is reset and growth becomes 0%.
–>Plague doctors have two charges for the incinerate ability. Using a charge immediately ends a plague at the cost of 1 population. When both charges are consumed, the unit is lost.
–>Medical Response Teams are sort of a combination of healers and plague doctors. When present, yield loss becomes 20% instead of 50%. They have one charge that immediately ends a pandemic without any population loss and consumes the unit.
Modifiers
-Apostles with the chaplain promotion provide +1 health when inside or adjacent to a city center
-Aqueducts provide +1 health
-Sewers provide +1 health
-The presence of any pillaging within the borders of a cities reduces health by 1
-Factories reduce health by 1, and coal plants reduce health by 1 more
New Policies
-Corpses in Catapults – Siege unit attacks on cities induce plague state (Military)
-Quarantine – Trade routes minus 1 gold but substantially reduced likelihood of spreading disease (Diplomatic)
-Herbal Remedies – +1 health in cities with campuses (Economic)
-Religious Healing - +1 health in cities with holy sites (Economic)
-Universal Healthcare – Plus 2 Health and 1 amenity in all cities, but -3 gold per city (Economic)
New Governor Promotion for Victor
Quarantine Enforcer (replaces Garrison Commander) - Suspends currently active Plagues, and prevents new ones from afflicting his city.
New Spy Mission
-Poison the Well – Induces plague state (can help to create pandemic conditions)
New World Wonders
-Temple of Asclepius – The presence of reef, fissure, and oasis provides +1 health in all cities (up to +3 health per city) / built adjacent to wellness district
-Pasteur Institute - +2 health in all cities with universities / built adjacent to a university
New Great Persons
Edward Jenner - When present in a city, mitigates plague effects; upon retirement, all plagues in your civilization are suspended and up to 2 mutations are removed from any disease founded in your territory
John Snow - Same active effect; upon retirement, all cities in your civilization receive +1 health
Achievements
Superbug - Have a disease in your game with 5 or more mutations
Too Soon? - Lose at least 50 population to coronavirus in a single game
Don’t Dead Open Inside - Have 10 or more infected inside your borders on the same turn
_____________________
Some Thoughts:
My concern is that players would avoid large populous cities altogether, as well as trade routes. Therefore, there could be a buff to tall cities as follows: Specialists do not consume food and produce twice their intrinsic yield, ie +2 science instead of +1 science.
Also, the numbers would probably need tweaking to be balanced and fair. That’s why there are QA departments.
Would love to know what you think!
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