Ideas needed: Common Events

[xienwolf]

Mother Nature is Pissed (Triggers upon building an animal cage of any type)
ALERT! Sire, we have dire news from the outskirts of civilization. Animals have begun to fight back.

1. Excellent, more exhibits for our Carnivals!
   • All animals in the world gain the Hero promotion.
   • "Something tells me we may have made the WRONG choice..."
2. Maybe it is not too late to placate her. Set all of the animals free!
   • All Animal Cages are destroyed
   • "Things seem to have settled down. We cut it pretty close there."

 

[jenks]

Good remark,

I thought that with mithril they would be able to attack but that doesn't seem to be the case - stupid elephants

Does anyone knows if the ability "can only defend" can be removed?

War elephant would be disturbing because they have strength 15, huge at game start (even in middle game)

nah 'can only defend' is set in the unit spec not a promotion. would require a new unit. If you ask me all elephants should be able to attack, if only at half strength (say 4/7 strength - a la war turtle)

 

[Lord Bayushi]

Great Engineering... or Not
(Requires a City with an Obelisk)
My lord, the Obelisk in (name of City here) seems to be splitting at it's foundation. It is feared that it is becoming a hazard to the people.
1) My monuments cannot be a danger to my people. Have it repaired at once.
(-15 gold)
2) That monument is a testament to the strength of our nation. It will stand for a thousand years. (50% chance that the Obelisk is destroyed and -2 happiness for 10 turns)
3) There is little need for a pillar of stone to attest to greatness of our kingdom. Have the Obelisk removed, and, in it's place, display an edict that we are a nation that has grown beyond the need for such symbols. (Requires Writing. Removes the Obelisk, +1 happiness for 10 turns)

Clowning Around
(Requires a City with a Carnival)
Sire, it seems that a performer at the carnival in (City name here) has been stealing from the customers. The carnival master claims that he is the star of the carnival, that it would not survive without him, and he should be given a second chance.
1) Have the local magistrate deal with this, I cannot be bothered. (50% chance of -1 happiness for 10 turns)
2) The law must treat all people equally, regardless of station or talent. Have him punished accordingly. (50% chance the Carnival is destroyed)
3) Allow the man another chance, let him show he can be redeemed for his crimes (50% chance -1 happiness for 10 turns, 50% chance of +1 happiness from Carnival)
4) A talented jester, I am in need of one of those. Have the man sent to my court, if he can entertain the courtiers, he will be able to serve his time here instead of in the dungeons. (50% chance the Carnival is destroyed, +1 happiness in the Capital for 10 turns, 50% chance of +1 happiness from Capital)

 

[jenks]

Since I feel we need animals, this events would create them.
Pack of wolves is causing trouble to our farmers.
1)We must deal with it
*-5 food in city
*Wolf is spawned on a farm or pasture

Mutton (requires sheep pasture)
Lions are eating our sheep!
1) Quick, organize the militia. Lion spawns on the sheep tile.
2) Let it eat until it becomes fat and slow, then capture it. Gain lion unit. Sheep tile produces -2 food.

I like these as small negative effects, and for their simply spawning some of the animals which have begun to disappear (as animals they would naturally retreat to wilderness after spawning in your territory, and make a good 'revenge hunt'), though I would make changes as below:

Wolves are terrorizing [civ] livestock owners
Requires: A pasture to be built on a sheep resource
A pack of wolves is causing problems near [city name]. They have destroyed our sheep pasture and killed much of the livestock.
result: a wolf pack spawns on a sheep resource tile, destroying the pasture

Lions are terrorizing [civ] livestock owners
Requires: A pasture to be built on a pig resource
A pride of lions is causing problems near [city name]. They have destroyed our pig pasture and killed much of the livestock.
result: a lion pride spawns on a pig resource tile, destroying the pasture



Im thinking these resource links could extend to all animals having a spawn event opportunity (Gorilla - Banana [duh!], Bear - Deer, Tiger - Cow, maybe there are better animal resource links)

 

[Mewtarthio]

Clowning Around
(Requires a City with a Carnival)
Sire, it seems that a performer at the carnival in (City name here) has been stealing from the customers. The carnival master claims that he is the star of the carnival, that it would not survive without him, and he should be given a second chance.
1) Have the local magistrate deal with this, I cannot be bothered. (50% chance of -1 happiness for 10 turns)
2) The law must treat all people equally, regardless of station or talent. Have him punished accordingly. (50% chance the Carnival is destroyed)
3) Allow the man another chance, let him show he can be redeemed for his crimes (50% chance -1 happiness for 10 turns, 50% chance of +1 happiness from Carnival)
4) A talented jester, I am in need of one of those. Have the man sent to my court, if he can entertain the courtiers, he will be able to serve his time here instead of in the dungeons. (50% chance the Carnival is destroyed, +1 happiness in the Capital for 10 turns, 50% chance of +1 happiness from Capital)

I know this is a bit of a tangent to the topic itself, but I think events like these would do well to have special religion and guild options to go with the event strength/weakness system that I've seen mentioned before. For instance, this is a crime event, so the Empyrean might only be able to choose between 2 and 3, while if the city has a Ratcatcher's Guild you could get a fifth option:

5) Not outside the guild, he's not! Rough him up and force him to retroactively pay his dues! (reqs: not Empyrean, Ratcatcher's Guild in city: +30 , +15 to owner of Ratcatcher's Guild HQ).

 

[xienwolf]

Thinking of the event categories, anyone remember what they are and what the strengths/weaknesses were?

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

Thinking of the event categories, anyone remember what they are and what the strengths/weaknesses were?

Here is Nikis-Knight's post on the subject.

 

[El_Duderino]

Screams in the night
reports have been coming in from the rural areas outside our city that people are vanishing in the night
We must send out a search party to find our people-
a) our scouts have traced down the missing people to a strange cave in the forrest that no one can remember being there

50% "a small army of the undead have emerged from the cave and are marching on our city" - Spawn 1 mobious witch with death 1+2 and 3 skeletons
unit killing the adept gains "ebony dagger" item which gives unit a 20% chance to turn defeated units in to a skeleton

50% "a pack of werewolves has emerged from the cave and is killing all they can find" - spawn 3 ravenous werewolves
unit that kills last werewolf gains "pelt of the beasts" item which gives +1 movement and +50% versus melee units

B)our scouts have traced down the missing people to a small cave in the swamp

50%"a great demon has emerged from the cave and attacks" spawn 1 stygian guard and 2 drown unit that kills stygian guard gains "pentagram necklace" item which provides +1 unholy combat and +50% against divine

50%"mists from the cave take form and attack!" spawn 3 mistforms unit that kills last mistform gains "scimitar of the mists" item which provides invisible and sinister

 

[Cuteunit]

Has this thread gotten too long for me to contribute anything that will be meaningful?


In my consolidated wants thread I mentioned having events with some military action had to be required to free up a tile inside your own borders. Miners find a buried crypt and skeletons run off the miners, resulting in a skeleton with 0 move appearing on that tile. Giant spider nest appears in a forest, same mechanic. Bandits become a barbarian unit *of a type of troop your race can actually build* with 0 move on any kind of food or luxury resource tile.


Things like that could be VERY common, and it would also make the not-war times in the game more interesting..

 

[xienwolf]

Write some up The main problem for the team is simply time to think of, write out, and balance ideas I would imagine. One of the 2 that have made it into .31 already is almost EXACTLY what you just wrote (Spider Mine, by Rex Rgis of Ter, post 10 or so).

 

[kumquatelvis]

I like your ideas Jenks (about wild animals being attracted to sheep, pigs, bananas, etc...).

 

[Cadaveres]

Ebony found
Requires a forest tile inside the fat cross of one of your cities.

Sir, our working lumberjacks have found ebony in a nearby forest. Ebony is a tough and beautiful, although specially difficult to lumber. What shall we do?

1 - Do nothing. We will clean that forest as soon as possible - -1 in the forest, will dissappear if the forest is cleaned

2.- Use this wood for building tougher bows, and train our archers to use them propperly - Requires archery range in closest city, -1 in the forest. Archery range gets "-20% when building archery units, newly built archery units get +20% combat strength and + 1 first strike", forest cannot be cleaned (or bonus is lost if the forest disappears)

3.- Hire the best wood carvers of our empire and build an ebony master altarpiece for our Pagan Temple. - Requires Pagan Temple in closest city. -20 , -1 in the forest (will disappear if cleaned), Pagan Temple gives extra +2 per turn.

4.- Hire the best wood carvers of our empire and build an ebony master altarpiece for our Temple of [state_religion]. - Requires Temple of [state_religion] in closest city. -30 , -1 in the forest (will disappear if cleaned), Temple of [state_religion] gives double bonus except (extra +1 +2 if Killmorph, extra +1 +2 if Leaves...)

This event will be triggered again randomly, from time to time. Next times the introduction sentence will be:

My Lord, there is still ebony in our forest. Shall we do anything about it?

 

[kevjm]

Request For Monopoly

I local trader has requested to buy the exclusive right to sell {priduct} in the city of {insert name}.

- We could use the extra funds. +20 gold, a monopoly building is created in the city: +3 gold, -1 trade routes.

- Refuse his request. Nothing happens.

Traders harassing foreign power

Traders from your nation have successfully established a thriving black market selling discounted kitchenware to the masses, a product traditionally strictly controlled by the local authorities. {Leader name} insists you intervene and rein in your traders!

- Turn a blind eye to the traders. +3 gold for 15 turns, damage to relations with given empire.
- Intervene immediately! -20 gold, relations with empire improve somewhat.
- Excellent! I never liked those {insert race} anyway! -50 gold, damage to relations with empire, all markets, trading posts and inns gain +1 gold for 20 turns.

Traders plot to break a foreign monopoly

It has come to your attention that traders from your nation are planning to steal a small stock of {insert resource} from the lands of {insert nation} with the intention of reproducing the resource in our own lands. If they were to succeed, {foreign leader} would be livid! But we would have a valuable new resource...

- It's too risky- End this plan at once! Nothing happens.
- Leave them to it. 50% chance of success and resource spawning in your territory; diplomatic hit if plan is successful.
- This resource could be incedibly useful... -70 gold, 100% chance of success and more severe diplomatic hit.

 

[Inkling]

i brought this up before, and having seen the bonus mentioned a few more times in the thread, i feel the need to bring it up again.

the herbalism event, and several mentioned in here, have as a bonus, a +1 happiness for 10 turns as the result of one of their options. while i haven't been able to think of an appropriate alternative, i seriously think an alternative is needed.

generally speaking you don't go over your happiness threshold. it could counter act the penalty of a slave/rush, but that is going to be a rare circumstance(have slavery, just whipped, etc. and happen to get the event)

you could intentionally go over your happiness threshold, but that requires that you be at your threshold to begin with, and then be able to go over it in under 10 turns, and then that the benefits you can get within those 10 turns minus what it took you get the extra population, be more beneficial than the loss you suffered trying to rush a population growth.(focusing on food over hammers, commerce , gpp, etc)
after all this, unless you were lucky enough to grab an extra permenant happiness in these 10 turns, your choice is either suffer a population that you have to feed, but does no work, or starve the bugger, which from an RP standpoint makes absolutely no sense, you got the extra happiness from being kind to your population, but if you starve the lazy do nothing, no one is gonna mind?
and its a bit of annoying micromanagement.
and its not like you could whip the guy, thats a -1 unhappiness to deal with for several turns.

its a benefit thats maybe useful 1 time out of 100, really only if you are willing to invest the micromanagement, and then doesn't work from an RP standpoint. i'm certain someone can come up with something useful and appropriate.

note, this is not a critique of the events which use it, just the benefit itself, which i think actually feels appropriate, its just useless.
also i'd warn to keep an eye out for similiar useless(though seemingly appropriate) bonuses

 

[Lord Bayushi]

Actually, if you have the extra food available, you should go over your happiness threshold one or two population, if it doesn't serve to stifle your production. If you do, then as soon as you get a new happiness resource (or a limited happiness bonus), you can take advantage of it immediately, instead of the time it takes to make a new population point (even if only one turn.)
Unless it is the rare instance that you can have a more productive city by limiting your growth (which does happen), you are only hurting yourself by keeping yourself intentionally at the one turn from growth away from the happiness threshold (I used to do this too, if only to avoid seeing the little pyres over my cities).
Turns matter, and having an inactive person doesn't hurt you if you were going to producing the extra food for growth anyway, and it can help you if the right situation comes along. You never know when you are going to encounter a new civilization that you can trade with, or an event that might make that unhappy cur realize that he should get off his lazy butt and work, if only for a while.
If it helps you to think of it in RP terms, why would you limit the growth of a city because some of the population thinks it is too crowded? You would want a city to continue it's growth until the ability to support that city is no longer up to the challenge. There will always be issues with citizens (think of it as unemployment or rebellious demonstrations), but that wouldn't stop a progressive leader from encouraging growth and further commerce.
Besides, what good is a Pillar of Chains without a few red shirts around...

That reminds me:
Rebel Troops Amassing
(Requires any Civic type other than Republic or Liberty, unhappy citizens in a City)
My Lord, our local magistrates in (name of City here) have discovered a plot to overthrow your governor. The rebels have gathered weapons and were planning a coup latter in the month.
1) A rebellion in my kingdom is unthinkable. Deal with this rabble as common criminals and make no more of a spectacle of this. (-1 happiness in the City for 10 turns, 25% chance of -1 happiness in all Cities for 10 turns, and a 50% chance this event will reoccur (perhaps in another city) if the conditions are still met in the next 10 turns)
2) Why would my people turn against me? Bring the ringleaders here and give them a forum for their grievances, hold the others until we can come to an accord. (50% chance of +2 happiness in all cities for 10 turns, 50% chance of revolt in the City for 2 turns and -1 happiness in all cities for 10 turns, and a 25% chance this event will reoccur (perhaps in another city) if the conditions are still met in the next 10 turns).
3) Perhaps we should look closely into that city and it's governor. Concentrate your efforts on rooting out corruption in our ranks. (-15 gold, +1 happiness in the city for 10 turns, 10% chance this event will reoccur (perhaps in another city) if the conditions are still met in the next 10 turns)
4) We have forced our people to submit to despotic rule for too long, I see that now. Hold elections and allow them a voice (Only if you have Republic or Liberty available, change civics to each (or both if both available, without anarchy. +2 happiness in all cities for 10 turns)
5) A rebellion, huh? Make examples of them, and their families. That will keep the people in line. (Only if Evil, must have a garrisoned unit, unit is immobile for 3 turns, -2 population in the City, -2 happiness in all cities for 10 turns, +1 happiness from each garrisoned unit in each city for 20 turns)

 

[jenks]

Actually, if you have the extra food available, you should go over your happiness threshold one or two population, if it doesn't serve to stifle your production. If you do, then as soon as you get a new happiness resource (or a limited happiness bonus), you can take advantage of it immediately, instead of the time it takes to make a new population point (even if only one turn.)
Unless it is the rare instance that you can have a more productive city by limiting your growth (which does happen), you are only hurting yourself by keeping yourself intentionally at the one turn from growth away from the happiness threshold (I used to do this too, if only to avoid seeing the little pyres over my cities).

I take the point there but disagree as I would say that you have a more productive city any time you have a specialist available.
Unhappy peeps still need feeding, so if you are at max and have only got regular tiles left without bonuses, you would be better off taking away a tile being worked and assigning a specialist.

e.g. a forest/grassland gives 2/1/0, feeding 1 person and providing a hammer.

if an extra pop would put you into unhappy people, you would be better off making it an engineer for a bonus production, or a priest for a bonus gold.

 

[Zxqv8]

Good opportunity to post after six years. Just played the mod finally after all this time and I love it.

As others have the more clever ideas fairly well covered, I would suggest events that alter the landscape, such as the Fire! event mentioned early in the thread. Similar to a forest growing would be:

A river has burst it's banks in [City]!
-All non-hill improvements adjacent to a river in [City] are destroyed (except hamlet/town/village which are downgraded one point)
-Adjacent river tiles become floodplains

The scorching summer heat has led to a drought in [City]!
-Random plain tiles in [City] become desert tiles (either permanently or for X # of turns)
-Chance that tundra tiles become plains (less likely since droughts aren't very likely in tundra areas)
-Random undeveloped forest tiles in [City] lose their forest
-Chance of undeveloped forest tiles setting ablaze (cannot spread to adjacent non-forest tiles)
-Non-irrigated farms suffer -1Food (permanently or X # of turns)
-Waterwheel improvements stop functioning for X # of turns
-Chance of random hamlets/towns/villages losing a stage of developments
--(Not possible during early turns when End of Winter option is enabled)

A sinkhole (or earthshake) has caused a catastrophic collapse! (random non-city hill tile within cultural borders)
-Hill tile flattens (to plains/desert/tundra accordingly)
-Any improvement on tile is destroyed (except mana...if they can be on hill tiles)
-X% Chance of gems/metals/mana being discovered in tile (maybe 10 or 15%)

An earthshake has caused the terrain to rise drastically! (random tile in cultural borders, flat/hill/peak)
-Chance that flat raises to hill
-Chance that hill raises to peak
-Chance that peak becomes volcano
-Chance of adjacent tile improvements being destroyed (higher chance if peak becomes volcano)

Torrential rains have hit [City]!
-Farms near [City] may be either destroyed or temporarily have yields improved
-May lead to River bursting banks event
-Can turn desert tiles to plains
-Greater chance of forests growing near [City]

Raw Mana Nodes could cause a number of different effects in adjacent tiles, such as blazes, fertile blooms (causing forests to pop up or food outputs to improve), droughts (causing desert tiles to appear), freezes (causing tundra tiles to appear), earthshakes (causing hills to raise and lower randomly). All effects being neutralized by the improvement of these mana nodes. Should probably be a rare event actually, if even considered.

Improved mana nodes might have lesser but more beneficial effects to surrounding tiles. For example a Nature Mana Improvement might improve the fertility of adjacent tiles. Water Mana might do the same, but also create plains/floodplains (where appropriate). Enchantment or Law Mana may improve the nearest cities happiness...etc and so forth. This would be more difficult to balance with things like Chaos or Fire Mana. Might just be best to leave it out all together, but it's an idea.

I just like the idea of common events that alter the landscape in both beneficial and detrimental ways. There are many more events like those I came up with here, like deep freezes or meteor strikes or anything like that. Think SimCity disasters here and you'll get where I'm coming from. Take 'em and run, they'd be great to see in the game.

P.S. I call them earthshakes here instead of earthquakes, because it seems like fantasy settings in general prefer to have their characters refer to them as such.

 

[Inkling]

Actually, if you have the extra food available, you should go over your happiness threshold one or two population, if it doesn't serve to stifle your production. If you do, then as soon as you get a new happiness resource (or a limited happiness bonus), you can take advantage of it immediately, instead of the time it takes to make a new population point (even if only one turn.)
Unless it is the rare instance that you can have a more productive city by limiting your growth (which does happen), you are only hurting yourself by keeping yourself intentionally at the one turn from growth away from the happiness threshold (I used to do this too, if only to avoid seeing the little pyres over my cities).
Turns matter, and having an inactive person doesn't hurt you if you were going to producing the extra food for growth anyway, and it can help you if the right situation comes along. You never know when you are going to encounter a new civilization that you can trade with, or an event that might make that unhappy cur realize that he should get off his lazy butt and work, if only for a while.
If it helps you to think of it in RP terms, why would you limit the growth of a city because some of the population thinks it is too crowded? You would want a city to continue it's growth until the ability to support that city is no longer up to the challenge. There will always be issues with citizens (think of it as unemployment or rebellious demonstrations), but that wouldn't stop a progressive leader from encouraging growth and further commerce.
Besides, what good is a Pillar of Chains without a few red shirts around...

i admit i never thought of that, however, i believe it still stands that the +1 happiness for 10 turns is almost always a useless bonus as it can only rarely be taken advantage of.

the scenario as i see it would be if you get the event when you have a city that was producing surplus food even when optimized so that you had an extra population idling, you would get a full 10 turns from that citizen. But with an emphasis on early game events here, i'm assuming no sanitation/construction, so limited farms, much less powerhouse farms, so the likelyhood of a +2 food when optimized would be rare.

Then again, i'm not sure you were disagreeing with me or just pointing out a flaw with one of my points.

 

[Slvynn]

I was thinking about reall small quests implementation (to kill certain barbarian unit, deliver, achieve some item)

Examples:

Playing as Hippus and having only horseman defending your city you recieving quest to deliver some message/delivery/herbs from aristocratit Kuriotate family living in your city to some Kurotate city (may be on other continent).
If you deliver item with certain unit you recieve +1-2 relations boost with Kuriotate (since you helped some important Kuriotate family )

Other quest can be to kill 3 barbarian warriors with certain unit. If unit do so he recieve some good advanced promotion .

 

[reverend oats]

Event- Orcish Mercenaries
Reqs- Bronze Working, city with garrison.
Text
"Sire, a band of orcs has come seeking employment to [city]. They offer to come into your service. But the townspeople are worried that these soldiers are not trustworthy. What should we do?"

Option A- Hire the orcs. They are a valuable addition to my army.
Result- -30 gold, 1 in [city] for ten turns, 80% chance recieve one orcish axeman, 20% one barb orc axeman spawns next to city.
Option B- Offer the orcs a small bribe in order to get them to go elsewhere.
Result- -18 gold. 60% nothing, 40% one orc axeman spawns next to city.
Option C- Order the [unit] in [city] to slay the orcish scum!
Result- 50% [Unit] gains 1 xp, 25% [unit] gains 3xp, 25% [unit] is killed. and enraged orc axeman spawns next to city.