Making the world more 'World'ly'

[MistroPain]

I am genuinely disappointed with this games 'new alien world'. It really is not what it claimed it would be, its basically earth with larger than usual bugs.

The biggest issue is that the world regenerates as the exact same world over and over again, with no true driving force to create a narrative within. In real life the everyday small things really create your world, however, in a video game thats not easily done and needs some kind of hidden nudge here and there to truly create an immersive world. This is especially the case in a Sandbox game which is meant to give you the opportunity to carve the world you want.

I personally think this needs to be done by concentrating on three things:

- 1 : Varied worlds which feel unique between each game.

Spoiler :

In my opinion this can be done is several key ways.
A) The map itself needs to really feature unique elements between each play, which in itself can be done by introducing more Biome's but not restricting a world to a single Biome; instead using a mix and match style. Other ideas I have seen thrown around the forum include the return of Natural Wonders. If enough are produced that you can rely on the game not regurgitating the exact same Natural Wonder the world will feel that bit more different between each play!

B) The world really needs to interact with the player in a much more direct way. Look at real life; I live in London; this means my life is centered around in door fun. If I go out its most likely going to be a Night Club... Why? The world ing hates London and likes to piss all over it (Rain) about 75% of the year. Summers barely have any sunlight... Etc. etc. Thats the world interacting with me as a human. Similarly, the world should include certain dynamic features such as weather, or varying terrain effects, etc. etc. The best part here is that the devs have free reign on what the world can do, especially when you consider that the world is alien! It does not need to follow Earth rules.

C) Aliens are the same... Over, and over, and over, and over again. The only real impact they have on how fun a game is, is in how close their nests start to you. Miasma barely does anything once you've adopted the Ecology leaf techs and your workers are immune. Ultrasonic fences negate any impact aliens can have on your city unless you set yourself rules on not building them (and even then its unlikely aliens get close to you're borders anyway! The aliens and the natural wildlife needs variety, especially visual variety!

D) The world needs to react to you. Not only should it affect your play other than tiles having yields and what not; it should be affected by your presence. You should have an affect which visually appears on the world in such a way that it does develop player-spawned narrative. The idea I have seen on the forum already with regards to this is that the tiles under your influence, possibly in addition to those just surrounding your tiles, should somehow terraform alongside your affinity, and possibly other factors. If a City is unhealthy, why does it not look unhealthy? If you are supposedly a super new breed of humans who have integrated robotics, why is it that only your cities look slightly different to anyone elses? Etc. etc.

- 2 : Certain scripted events that still have enough breathing room to really let players approach things their own way (Look at Mass Effect/Fallout/etc.)

Spoiler :

Maybe its just me who would like RPG elements to play a heavier role in the game? I understand why some people may not want it, but I think they would add so much replay value to a game which relies on replay value!

A few areas that need serious improvement:
A) Quest lines need more opportunity costs, including both negative and positive outcomes (all be it they need to always be balanced! You should not be punished for choosing one choice over another). Just look a the building quests... They are literally a single click! Why couldnt they include more? They should instead be small quests which aim to get you to realise the potential of the relevant building.
Clinics for example could have quests which ask you to send health aids to a local slum in your city, in which case you have to send an explorer to forage a specific fruit, or get your soldiers in to train the slums into a civil defence force (+1 Health and +30 City HP respectively). At least there is now some slight interaction, which should only take a few turns, and make you work for your boosters!

Alternatively, looking at some of the non-building quests, choices should not be so restricted to a specific enemy. I am mostly looking at the Covert Ops missions which randomly select an opponent. Instead they should be open to any enemy! Thats not creating player-driven narrative but restricting narrative to a particular faction.
Finally, looking at the bigger quests, some are just stupidly lacking in opportunity cost and real progression... They really need to flesh them out more!

B) Excavations and Expeditions! Going back to the idea of a unique world here, the worlds should really fill up on unique excavation sites and expedition opportunities. They should play a part in the narrative. The world should feature some selection of unique Progenitor, Alien and Derelict City ruins that have attached narrative, and their own relevant quest lines. If the ruins backgrounds can vary enough, with good artwork attached to them, it can really make the world sparkle just that little more. Wouldnt it feel fantastic to find your Civ thrown into a state of intrigue with regards to the previous peoples that ruled this world? Or would it play a part in creating childrens scary bedtime stories and live on in your Civ's memory as myths and lore? Etc. etc...

- 3 : Truly adopt a Sandbox nature, including in the Victory Conditions!

Spoiler :

This one speaks for itself. The game is Sandbox and I am not denying it being such, but the restrictive victory conditions always lead you down a set path, unless you play like I do and ignore victory conditions entirely. That being said neither groups of players should be forced to play their style. IE the Victory Condition seekers and the Victory Condition ignorers should not need to seek or ignore. Instead their Civ's should flourish in a logical non-path defined way and somehow stumble on victory!
In that sense the game really needs to open up more pathways and avenues towards victories, and really needs to rely less on Affnities for those victories!

 

[MistroPain]

Bump...

Edited the crap out of it. I really would like some feedback (even if you most likely disagree!)

 

[ehroifcf]

i think the lack of replies is good, nobody disagrees... i know i dont

 

[MistroPain]

Thank you ehroifcf.

 

[Aimeryan]

I really like the ideas. I can not see them being implemented outside of an expansion (due to the amount of work required), but I would buy that expansion if they did.

Some of these ideas may be mod-able - it depends on access privileges. The affinity/health-looking-tiles may be a possibility, for example, if we are able to check for tile ownership, check for other conditions (affinity level, local health, etc.) and then either directly swap out the graphic of the underlying tile or spawn a feature-level addition to the tile (maybe only if improved?) that adds to the graphics of the tile (like a forest does).

 

[MistroPain]

Its actually been thrown into the Mod Requests section and is why I've mentioned it.
Here is the thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=536375

I hope someone picks it up and tries to get it working! It would be a fantastic visual addition.