Icebergs, freezing seatiles, more dynamic worldmap and weather

[Longasc]

I think it is a bit hard to implement when several years are one turn and so on... but here we go:

Think of icebergs floating in the northern parts of the map, vanishing in warmer regions.

Curraghs sunken by icebergs...

Sea storms, speeding up ship movement and driving them to different shores. Land bridges of ice that allow crossing by foot.

Grasslands turning to desert and much more.

A more dynamic worldmap in general, weather having effect on production, food and such things.

I think this would enrich the worldmap and allow new strategic options.

 

[Shalashaska]

Unless its a iceage none of that stuff would last longer than a turn,

 

[nameless53]

i like the nature idea...

something like a mini-plague....


not so seriouis.. damage some structures.. some deaths but not always any effect but things like flooding, hurricanes, and storms be nice... yes.. little clouds appearing in a turn.. turn dark next and move a bit... then darker and its visibly "windy and rainy" out at sea and stuff.. yea thats neato..


also.. i wish there can be "barb camps at sea"... imagine.. GIANT OCTAPUS ATTACKING! and stuff...

( sorry.. barb camp itself is wierd to generate a octapus... and its "removeable"... need something that cant be removed and on ocean tile hahaha)

 

[Colonel]

o great i sense monsters are creeping up on this forum RUN FOR THE HILLS

 

[Haradrim]

First off, Ice Ages are ususally very long. I say usually because of the Little Ice Age, between the 15th and 18th centuries (correct me if I'm wrong) Still, that would be nearly a fourth of game time, and I really don't think that the LIA had very much impact on civilization, other than just being a bit cooler.

Anyway, a dynamic world map with climate, weather, and disasters would be, in my opinion, one of the best things to make Civ IV great.

 

[Longasc]

I agree, Haradrim. It is just the changing timeframe that is problematic.

A storm in the ancient age will last 50 years, in the modern era 1 year. But well, even movement rates stay the same nevertheless.

I would like for a Ancient Greek Mythology Mod Scylla and Charybdis, plus the mentioned Giant Octopus...

 

[K.F. Huszár]

This dynamic nature idea is great!!!!
anyway, in some cases environmental changes had deep impact on certain civilizations. The little ice age in the 16-17th century caused all european nations to move on toward capitalization or crawl deeper in feudal structures. The dryng of Sahara (i am not sure, but around 3000 Bc) engined a nomadic emmigration and so on. Cunamis and earthquakes destroyed cities.

 

[Mewtarthio]

Bear in mind, if things get too random, they won't be fun anymore. Turning lots of grassland into desert would be too random. Making a mountain suddenly turn into a volcano would be too random, unless there was some way to determine risk factors (eg suspiciously fertile land adjacent to the mountain). The more predictable said events are, the more powerful they can get before raising an outcry (ie volcanos can destroy entire cities, but anyone stupid enough to build next to one frankly deserves it). Now, I'm all for some element of climate change, so long as it doesn't become too powerful and/or there's some way to predict it.

NB "engined" and "cunami" are spelled "engendered" and "tsunami," respectively.

 

[Colonel Kraken]

General climatic changes could certainly add some interest to the game. Think about how lean years give way to years of plenty, birth rates are higher, and citizens are just happier and more productive.

Perhaps this is one thing that could be added to the game to naturally bring Golden Ages to a Civ. And, dare I say, a Dark Age.

In the end, I'm sure, this is something that should probably be left as an option, as there are many die hard players who insist on predictability in order to map out a perfect strategy. To those players, this type of thing is anathema to the Civ experience.

 

[Haradrim]

The changing timeframe is a problem, but I consider the whole game to be on a macro scale, thus these floods and other dynamic events (single-turn ones, that is) would be 'headline events', not actually a monsoon that occurs all 50 years of an early-game turn.

Sea Monsters, eh? I remember a Civ 2 scenario about the conquistadors... don't remember the name.... but the barbs where mosquitos and suff like that. If barb camps could be placed in ocean, Scylla and Charybdis would be possible.

True, really random things are not very fun, so I see a limit of only 2 tiles of receding/encroaching 'zones' (desert, plain, grassland, tundra zones) would keep those well placed cities still fairly productive and self-sufficient. As for volcanoes, they should be random, however only on mountain ranges with active volcanoes.

Dynamic Map should definately be an option, for reasons stated. Level of activity of the planet should also be able to be set, i.e. percentage of mounains that will eventually become volcanoes, warm/cool period lengths, and intensity of precipitation fluctuations.

 

[Ryth]

I haven't much to say except I really like this idea. It doesn't have to be a huge thing, perhaps "Istanbul has had low rainfall this year - 3 tiles have produced 1 less food each." Give's the Domestic Advisor something else to do!

Smaller random effects like rainy seas and icebergs are already taken into account to a certain degree - thats why your curragh sinks in the first place! Things like icebergs and big sea monsters aren't in the warm shallows. But if there could be disasters like Titanic, lahars, extreme flooding etc it would add an extra element to the game play. I'd most like to see volcanos not marked on the maps until after their first eruption.