More of a 'story' element

[embitteredpoet]

One of my favourite parts about SMAC was the story element too it, I'm not just talking the overall path to transcendence as main plotline, but the tiny little touches that really 'personalised' the game for me. A classic example is when you train your first mind worm unit, you get a nice little story bit saying how one of your best people is controlling it etc. Now here is (to my mind at least) the really clever bit, if this unit gets killed you get another story segment and the game also takes into account where the enemy unit came from. This lead to in my game another po-ip when I took the city that the enemy unit originated from and it got auto-renamed as per the storyline (in honour of my fallen aide)
I can see people saying well that is a pure SMAC idea and whilst it is really interesting in that context wouldn't work in cIV. But personally just tiny touches like that would enhance my gameplay experience.
However, I fully recognise that this idea is merely polish and isn't as essential as the main game mechanics. But I just think it'd be cool

 

[BassDude726]

I agree... i thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of SMAC.

I think it would also be nifty to be able to write your own storyline if you so chose. I know bunches of people that write down (by hand) the events of the game so that they can record them later in a text document. Maybe having a journal of some sort which the player could record events in would ameliorate that problem.

 

[Joey_Ramone]

What's smac?

 

[Shirastro]

Sid mayers Alpha centauti..........buy it, play it, love it

 

[Gogf]

No, no, no, no! I don't want Civ to turn into a story game. I love it when writers get creative, but I don't want Civ4 to do it! I mean, it's a game. If you want a story, you buy a book, read one online, or write one. Maybe I would support it if it doesn't affect the speed or cost of the game, and can be turned off though.

 

[Moss]

I wouldn't mind a little bit of a story concept. But I agree with Gogf. It's fun to see the stories that are in the Stories and Tales forum...

Although I don't see how a little added literary spice would greatly affect those stories.

 

[Chieftess]

I liked the story element of Civ1, where it would tell who researched the first tech, or built the first unit.

 

[t0mme]

A storyline is ok, but not in the epic game. Scenarios with a storyline would be great.

 

[Evie]

Storyline in the sense of, normal game events being presented in a more immersive way, I'm all for.

Storyline in the sense of certain fixed events which happens automatically when X or Y or Z condition is met, I'm against.

Say, instead of "The Zulu started building the colossus", you could get "One of our travelers has returned from the land of the Zulu, my lord! He bring news of a great wonder they have begun working on. We believe it is a COLOSSUS, sir!".

Similarly, rather than having "The Zulu city of Curmudgeon has completed the Colossus", you could get a parchment-looking note with written on it, "The people of Zululand invite dignitaries the World over to come witness the opening of their Grand Wonder, the Colossus, in Curmudgeon."

Along the same lines I would try to move from stupid-sounding language to more intelligent advisor talk : ie, "We should secure more sources of wine and trade it with our friends!" - we're dealing with a game of empire building and grand strategy here. Is *ALLIES* instead of *FRIENDS* too much to ask for? It sounds so much more relevant in politics (similarly, keep the advisors from refering to "Evil" and other such concepts - use terms that are descriptive of what they have done. Are they starting lots of war? Then call then agressive, or bloodthirsty, or warmongers. Are they breaking treaties? Then call them liars, cheaters, backstabbers - something which is already done).

That kind of things, as well as other little tweaks to make it feel more like you are a king dealing with his nation and not a guy dealing with his computer screen would be welcome.

Another thing with great leaders could be done - sometime (rarely, of course) when one of your unit is defeated, you could simply get a message mentioning, "Despite the brilliant tactics of *insert leader names*, unit X was lost as a brief message above the unit (like "We love the king day celebrated" above cities). Then the next great leader you get is the next name in the list. IE, "Despîte the brilliant tactics of Napoléon, our spearman force was lost." (admitedly losing with a spearman doesn't show brilliant tactics, but...).

 

[rcoutme]

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Oda.

The Civ2 advisors used to be animated, but the text dialog would just as easily satisfy most players. This would be a huge cost savings and probably trivial to add to the program.

Excellent thinking.

 

[snipelfritz]

sorry to get off subject but as far as the matter of advisors goes, they dont really advise you at all. Sure maybe they will tell you to get more rescourses or something but they usually dont have very many good ideas to share. I would sugest more intellegent advisors.
Oh Oh and they should also have names, like bob or jim.

 

[Evie]

Historical name would of course being more fitting if it can be arranged. Having "Walsyngham", "Churchill" (even if they only are names and not art - which is more reasonable any way) and so forth advising you while playing England, or "Richelieu" and so forth advising you while playing France would be a lot more interesting than having a stupid face with no name or interest showing up to advise you.

 

[bg2soatob]

Quote:
A storyline is ok, but not in the epic game. Scenarios with a storyline would be great.

I couldn't agree more, assuming the scenarios got a little more length. That way, the story lovers get a story, and the simpletons get their good ol' civ.



What I would love would be if at the end, instead of presenting a silly timeline for you to watch cities pop up, if the game could offer you a savable "History of the world" documentary, filled with the right wording. If it could only have something like:
"At 1632, Xerxes, allied with Mao Tze Tung, launched his Armada of tanks sweeping across the globe. The rest of the world fought back feebly with cavalry, and united against him, but his centuries of stealthily manipulating them and trading precious technological secrets doomed them. In 1746, he razed Paris, and by 1924, when he had conquered two-thirds of the planet, at last they all surrendered to his might. Xerxes was the undisputable emperor of the world."
That would really make the game fullfilling, and it would probably not be too complex to do. just a score of catch phrases and a matrix for calculating how you did what. similar things have existed.

 

[Chaos_BF1942]

I think the story in SMAC is a nice thing in SMAC, but I'm not sure if I would like it in Civ 4, maybe in Scenarios.

It just be boring going throught the same story, also I would not really see a point you can make up a story your self.