ShadowWarrior
Prince
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2001
- Messages
- 411
The ideas I have in mind which I want to share in this post is one that I have written on this forum many times before, but I have never gotten much responses regarding this idea. Maybe that's because it sucks. Maybe its just sheer bad luck that people didn't read it. I do not know, but I think this is an idea that should be given some consideration due to its potential to enhance the game in a more creative way.
But before I detail my ideas, I want to express something I have come to realize about civilization games. This game at its foundation was designed as a linear optimization game. Games like this will be fun at first, but it will loose its novelty after a while. The reason is that as an optimization game, there is not much one has to do differently in each game. One simply follow the same script and will emerge as the winner.
This I believe is why there were suggestions in the past about introducing some randomness into this game. The case for randomness can be understood in context of the realization that Civ is an optimization game. As an optimization game, we do the same thing game after game. But theoretically, with introduction of randomness, we will be confronted with circumstances that we didn't expect. This will force us to adjust, make changes, behave differently, and apply a different strategy. This randomness is what force us off our usual script, and try something different....at least in theory, that's what it was suppose to do.
But most suggestions on introduction of randomness are too "bland". One such suggestion wants to introduce random natural disaster into the game so that half way through the game, players may be hit with an earthquake which destroys some city improvements. This is randomness alright, but how does it really change the "optimization" nature of this game? All it does is to create a minor set back from which players will eventually be able to recover.
My idea is to use great people as a way of introducing randomness into the game, but doing so in a creative way instead of in a destructive way. An example of randomness in a destructive way would be programming natural disasters into the game.
The idea is that each great people will have an unique ability. This unique ability will help your civilization in some way. One great merchant may improve the market gold generating ability by another 15 percent. Another great merchant may improve the gold coins from each trade route by another 25 percent. A great scientist may double beaker generation of each library.
The key is that each great people must have unique ability and can only be used by one civ.
Second, to introduce further randomness, we don't get to select the great person and their ability. We are stuck with whatever great person and their abilities that the computer give us. Either that, or we can choose from among three different great person.
So a game with this feature would go something like this. In the middle of a game I am playing, I have accumulated enough great engineer points. When that happens, I am offered three great engineers. Great engineer A has economy of scale capability for land units. What this does is that for each land unit my civilization produces, the production and maintenance cost of the next land unit produced by my civ will be reduced by a certain percentage. Great engineer B can increase workshop hammer production by 25 percent. Great engineer C will increase hammer production of each mine by 1 hammer. I can select from one of the three.
Since each great people have unique ability, and can be used by only one civ, if I choose Great engineer A, then no other civ in this game can choose great engineer A anymore.
Second, although I got to choose from from among three great engineers, but the game designers may program 50 different great engineers into the game, each with their own unique ability. The first time I got to choose from among three great engineers, I might be offered the choice of choosing from great engineer 1, 2, and 5. The next time I choose great engineers again, I might be offered great engineer 3, 15, and 27.
Some great people abilities are:
A great scientist will be able to grant you all technologies that is already discovered by 2/3 of your rival civs. But the condition is that you must have been at peace for the last X number of turns.
A great artist will be able to provide 5 culture points for each trade route
A great scientist will enable all your ships to travel into the deep ocean long before you discover navigation technology so that you can conduct the more lucrative oversea trade long before your rivals
A great engineer will allow all your cities to attack twice instead of just once
A great scientist may add 2 beakers to each plantation improvement inside your boarder. The same scientist will obtain for your civ one beaker for each plantation belonging to enemy civ AS LONG AS YOU ARE AT PEACE WITH THEM and as long as you have already discovered them and established contact already. If the two of you are in open boarder mode, then each plantation belonging to the rival civ will give you 2 beakers, not just one.
A great merchant can double the happiness from each luxury good you trade with a rival civ
As long as you are on good term with a civ, a great merchant can be sent to that civ as an investor to gain access to its strategic resources. For example, I need iron, so I sent this great merchant to a friendly civ that has 10 irons. This great merchant will become investor stationed in that country, and give me access to 5 irons. But should war break out between the two of us, this great merchant will be kicked out of that civ, and I loose access to the 5 irons. This great merchant can then be used to gain access to the strategic resources of another friendly civ if I see the need. Otherwise, this great merchant will just do nothing for now.
A great engineer will allow each frigate to attack twice, not just once, each turn
A great artist will add two culture points to each art specialists throughout the civ
A great engineer will add 15 hammers to a certain city of my choice if I have access to 5 irons. If I only have 4 within my boarder, I will have to somehow obtain access to one more either by trading or by building a new city in an area with iron or conquering a rival civ's city with iron access. If in the middle of the game, I lose access to enough iron, the great engineer will stop adding 15 hammers to the city until I restore access again.
A great engineer will grant whichever city that has a great general stationed in there with the ability to attack 4 times instead of just 1 each turn. If Beijing has a great general fortified inside it, this great engineer will allow Beijing to attack 4 times each turn. If the great general moves to Shanghai, then Shanghai will be able to attack 4 times each turn, but Beijing will go back to being able to attack only once a turn.
A great merchant will reduce upgrade cost of military units by X percent
A great merchant will reduce the maintenance cost of city improvements by X percent if the empire has 5 happiness. The maintenance cost will be reduced by even further when the empire has 10 happiness.
As long as a civ has at least X amount of food surplus, a great merchant can generate one gold for each food surplus. If my empire has 10 food surplus, I will get 10 extra gold coins. If my empire has 15 food surplus, I'll get 15 gold coins. I can see potential for abuse in this one though. Players will start to sent food supply to other cities using caravan/cargo ship to generate as much food surplus as possible.
A great merchant grants 1 gold coin for each great work in a city of my choice.
A great scientist can be sent to a friendly civ's capital and be stationed there. As long as it is stationed there, both civ's beaker production is increased by 50 percent. Once relationship go sour below a certain level, the great scientist is automatically ejected from that civ.
A great scientist + a spy can be dispatched to a city state and obtains 30 percent increase in beaker production for my empire AS LONG AS THAT CITY STATE IS CURRENTLY ALLIED TO A CIV THAT IS TECHNOLOGICALLY MORE ADVANCED THAN I AM. For example, I am China. I first dispatch a spy to the city state of Singapore which is now ally of Greek. Greek is about three technologies ahead of me. I sent my great scientist to Singapore as well. As soon as I do that, I will see an increase in my own beaker production by 30 percent.
But before I detail my ideas, I want to express something I have come to realize about civilization games. This game at its foundation was designed as a linear optimization game. Games like this will be fun at first, but it will loose its novelty after a while. The reason is that as an optimization game, there is not much one has to do differently in each game. One simply follow the same script and will emerge as the winner.
This I believe is why there were suggestions in the past about introducing some randomness into this game. The case for randomness can be understood in context of the realization that Civ is an optimization game. As an optimization game, we do the same thing game after game. But theoretically, with introduction of randomness, we will be confronted with circumstances that we didn't expect. This will force us to adjust, make changes, behave differently, and apply a different strategy. This randomness is what force us off our usual script, and try something different....at least in theory, that's what it was suppose to do.
But most suggestions on introduction of randomness are too "bland". One such suggestion wants to introduce random natural disaster into the game so that half way through the game, players may be hit with an earthquake which destroys some city improvements. This is randomness alright, but how does it really change the "optimization" nature of this game? All it does is to create a minor set back from which players will eventually be able to recover.
My idea is to use great people as a way of introducing randomness into the game, but doing so in a creative way instead of in a destructive way. An example of randomness in a destructive way would be programming natural disasters into the game.
The idea is that each great people will have an unique ability. This unique ability will help your civilization in some way. One great merchant may improve the market gold generating ability by another 15 percent. Another great merchant may improve the gold coins from each trade route by another 25 percent. A great scientist may double beaker generation of each library.
The key is that each great people must have unique ability and can only be used by one civ.
Second, to introduce further randomness, we don't get to select the great person and their ability. We are stuck with whatever great person and their abilities that the computer give us. Either that, or we can choose from among three different great person.
So a game with this feature would go something like this. In the middle of a game I am playing, I have accumulated enough great engineer points. When that happens, I am offered three great engineers. Great engineer A has economy of scale capability for land units. What this does is that for each land unit my civilization produces, the production and maintenance cost of the next land unit produced by my civ will be reduced by a certain percentage. Great engineer B can increase workshop hammer production by 25 percent. Great engineer C will increase hammer production of each mine by 1 hammer. I can select from one of the three.
Since each great people have unique ability, and can be used by only one civ, if I choose Great engineer A, then no other civ in this game can choose great engineer A anymore.
Second, although I got to choose from from among three great engineers, but the game designers may program 50 different great engineers into the game, each with their own unique ability. The first time I got to choose from among three great engineers, I might be offered the choice of choosing from great engineer 1, 2, and 5. The next time I choose great engineers again, I might be offered great engineer 3, 15, and 27.
Some great people abilities are:
A great scientist will be able to grant you all technologies that is already discovered by 2/3 of your rival civs. But the condition is that you must have been at peace for the last X number of turns.
A great artist will be able to provide 5 culture points for each trade route
A great scientist will enable all your ships to travel into the deep ocean long before you discover navigation technology so that you can conduct the more lucrative oversea trade long before your rivals
A great engineer will allow all your cities to attack twice instead of just once
A great scientist may add 2 beakers to each plantation improvement inside your boarder. The same scientist will obtain for your civ one beaker for each plantation belonging to enemy civ AS LONG AS YOU ARE AT PEACE WITH THEM and as long as you have already discovered them and established contact already. If the two of you are in open boarder mode, then each plantation belonging to the rival civ will give you 2 beakers, not just one.
A great merchant can double the happiness from each luxury good you trade with a rival civ
As long as you are on good term with a civ, a great merchant can be sent to that civ as an investor to gain access to its strategic resources. For example, I need iron, so I sent this great merchant to a friendly civ that has 10 irons. This great merchant will become investor stationed in that country, and give me access to 5 irons. But should war break out between the two of us, this great merchant will be kicked out of that civ, and I loose access to the 5 irons. This great merchant can then be used to gain access to the strategic resources of another friendly civ if I see the need. Otherwise, this great merchant will just do nothing for now.
A great engineer will allow each frigate to attack twice, not just once, each turn
A great artist will add two culture points to each art specialists throughout the civ
A great engineer will add 15 hammers to a certain city of my choice if I have access to 5 irons. If I only have 4 within my boarder, I will have to somehow obtain access to one more either by trading or by building a new city in an area with iron or conquering a rival civ's city with iron access. If in the middle of the game, I lose access to enough iron, the great engineer will stop adding 15 hammers to the city until I restore access again.
A great engineer will grant whichever city that has a great general stationed in there with the ability to attack 4 times instead of just 1 each turn. If Beijing has a great general fortified inside it, this great engineer will allow Beijing to attack 4 times each turn. If the great general moves to Shanghai, then Shanghai will be able to attack 4 times each turn, but Beijing will go back to being able to attack only once a turn.
A great merchant will reduce upgrade cost of military units by X percent
A great merchant will reduce the maintenance cost of city improvements by X percent if the empire has 5 happiness. The maintenance cost will be reduced by even further when the empire has 10 happiness.
As long as a civ has at least X amount of food surplus, a great merchant can generate one gold for each food surplus. If my empire has 10 food surplus, I will get 10 extra gold coins. If my empire has 15 food surplus, I'll get 15 gold coins. I can see potential for abuse in this one though. Players will start to sent food supply to other cities using caravan/cargo ship to generate as much food surplus as possible.
A great merchant grants 1 gold coin for each great work in a city of my choice.
A great scientist can be sent to a friendly civ's capital and be stationed there. As long as it is stationed there, both civ's beaker production is increased by 50 percent. Once relationship go sour below a certain level, the great scientist is automatically ejected from that civ.
A great scientist + a spy can be dispatched to a city state and obtains 30 percent increase in beaker production for my empire AS LONG AS THAT CITY STATE IS CURRENTLY ALLIED TO A CIV THAT IS TECHNOLOGICALLY MORE ADVANCED THAN I AM. For example, I am China. I first dispatch a spy to the city state of Singapore which is now ally of Greek. Greek is about three technologies ahead of me. I sent my great scientist to Singapore as well. As soon as I do that, I will see an increase in my own beaker production by 30 percent.
