I want modern wonders & skyscrapers!!!

[StittsvilleJame]

The CN Tower is really not that well known in europe .

That's ok, Europe isn't well known in North America..

 

[Chimera1804]

And Chimera, come on, youve obviously read about Dubai if your posting links about dubai buildings, how could you just go on with the Kalifax thing without saying anything?

It's the Burj Khalifa, or Tower Khalifa

My bad . I read about all these Dubai towers BEFORE the name was changed from Burj Dubai, and ever since I've never really memorized the name...

 

[civ_king]

That's ok, Europe isn't well known in North America..

psst, get a blank map and some flags with names that SHOULD be easy to recognize (France, UK, Germany, China, India, Japan, NK&SK, etc) the most I received was 5

 

[Mango Elephant]

i guess i just don't pay much attention to dams.

I don't give damn for dams either.

 

[Seidrik_The_Gray]

What did the pyramids do for the Egyptians? They certainly didn't store food or allow governing concepts from the far future to appear.

The Pyramids united the Egyptians. Its application in Civ is not historical by any means, but it was an enormous culture generator and national unification project. It was also a huge engineering project on a massive scale requiring tens of thousands of people. Imagine if 1/3 of the population of any one country were devoted to building one massive project.

Approximately 1.2 million people have already been displaced or forcefully relocated by the Chinese government to build the three gorges dam, not to mention the enormous environmental impact. http://www.internationalrivers.org/node/356

 

[Set]

The Pyramids united the Egyptians. Its application in Civ is not historical by any means, but it was an enormous culture generator and national unification project. It was also a huge engineering project on a massive scale requiring tens of thousands of people. Imagine if 1/3 of the population of any one country were devoted to building one massive project.

Yeah and all those slaves who died of exhaustion and were whipped to death as well as those high ranking preists certainly felt apreaciative to the pharoah when they started callin the pyramid "the pyramid of some local sheep herder"(I forget his name) and I forget how many of those laborers were actually egyptian?

 

[Seidrik_The_Gray]

Actually, the bulk of the work force for the Pyramids were Egyptians working for the state.

 

[Set]

even so the 1st part of my argument still stands and from what read in that link it looks like it is just people who didn't have enough money to pay their taxxes being forced by the goverment to work it off and that is similar to slavery.

 

[Mango Elephant]

even so the 1st part of my argument still stands and from what read in that link it looks like it is just people who didn't have enough money to pay their taxxes being forced by the goverment to work it off and that is similar to slavery.

I'm confused. What's your point?

 

[Seidrik_The_Gray]

We all work as slaves depending on your perspective, but I don't want to hijack this thread.

Back to OP, how about some user customizability within game. For example, allow me to build a national wonder and name it or even change the way it looks in my city texture?

 

[civ_king]

Yeah and all those slaves who died of exhaustion and were whipped to death as well as those high ranking preists certainly felt apreaciative to the pharoah when they started callin the pyramid "the pyramid of some local sheep herder"(I forget his name) and I forget how many of those laborers were actually egyptian?

even so the 1st part of my argument still stands and from what read in that link it looks like it is just people who didn't have enough money to pay their taxxes being forced by the goverment to work it off and that is similar to slavery.

no whips involved, they got fed decently, this is during an idle period when there is basically nothing to do

 

[Disgustipated]

Don't forget city center here in Las Vegas! Okay, I know I'm a little biased as I live here. It is the largest privately funded project ever in the U.S. But it's still probably cheaper than that tower in Dubai. It isn't tall like that one in Dubai, but we have height restrictions. Airliners need to be able to fly over these things you know. The thing about our city center, is it kind of loses money at the moment. . So maybe you can call it a negative wonder. wouldn't it be cool you build a wonder, only to discover it givers your civilization negative effects?

Speaking of negative effects the space station probably is the closest thing we have to a wonder now days. But what tangible benefit has it given us? Yes there has been some research on it. But as far as I know nothing has ever come of that research. I'm a real skeptic of the manned space program and think it should be abolished all together in lieu of unmanned missions.

The thing about modern engineering marvels is they don't seem as impressive. If you throw enough money at something, you can get just about anything built. I'd only include ones that were the result of some engineering discovery that allowed us to surpass limits that previously made building them impossible. So tall buildings don't get on my list. Yes I do realize there is some engineering necessary to account for winds and fire etc.

 

[Desertsnow]

CN Tower and Chunnel

Chunnel could definitely qualify.

 

[civ_king]

Chunnel could definitely qualify.

it truly is a feat of technical engineering

 

[Disgustipated]

and has practical use as well. Not that is a requirement. Many ancient wonders had no practical use...

Which brings up another point. More advanced terraforming. I don't want to get too futuristic in the game (though when you have a game that involves a space race, why not have more advanced terraforming). I'd like to road under one square coast tiles.

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

What did the pyramids do for the Egyptians? They certainly didn't store food or allow governing concepts from the far future to appear.

They were a massive undertaking which consumed vast amounts of the nations resources and existed mainly for the self-aggrandizement of the ego-maniacal leader who ordered them built.

In other words the exact same purpose wonders have always served in Civilization games!

 

[civ_king]

and has practical use as well. Not that is a requirement. Many ancient wonders had no practical use...

Which brings up another point. More advanced terraforming. I don't want to get too futuristic in the game (though when you have a game that involves a space race, why not have more advanced terraforming). I'd like to road under one square coast tiles.

Wonders are wonders because they are either places that changed History or extreme technical feats of engineering

 

[Carver]

International Space Station is the only Great Wonder missing so far, really. The others are nice and large buildings, but what do they do for the civilization that built them??? I think a general building in your city called a "sky scraper" would suffice. You could even have a national wonder...call it "Trade center" or "Mega Building" or something like that.

IMO, the Hubble Space Telescope is more deserving than the ISS. I think we've learned much more from Hubble.

I'm not sure which was a greater technical feat, but the ISS seemed to use a lot of existing technology. Putting a giant optical telescope in space was truly monumental.

 

[Magma]

Personally I do not care much for modern wonders. They are too late in the game. <.<

 

[awesome]

Wonders are wonders because they are either places that changed History or extreme technical feats of engineering

i'd say modern wonders would also qualify if they had an impact on modern society that's relative to the impacts ancient wonders had on ancient society. for example, even though the statue of liberty does fall into one of the two categories you mentioned, it's also important because it represents the united states, just like the pyramids represent egypt. the world trade center, for example, was a symbol of the wealth of the united states. the burj or whatever they're calling it now is representative of arabian aspirations and the wealth of that region from the oil industry.
plus, when you're building something, chances are that it probably hasn't changed history yet, even in ancient times. there are obviously counterexamples, but most of the time, that's the case.