Narrative Events for Civ VII?

[GeneralZIft]

Curious what you guys think!

Should Civ 7 designers include narrative events, akin to what you might find in other strategy games such as Humankind etc.?

Brief explanation, you would play the game as normal, when the game would brief you about some kind of event which includes a choice that you have to make - both with some kind of benefit or consequence.

The argument for narrative events; it allows the game to tell a story about your empire, make choices that can have an impact on your Civilization and keep gameplay fresh through multiple playthroughs.

My argument against narrative events; it's leaning towards a more randomised and singleplayer oriented experience. I think that narrative events would probably complicate the game - slow down the pace - when people are usually getting into the flow of planning turns and making moves, they don't want to be interrupted by what could also sometimes be a trivial or annoying choice.

 

[Saxo Grammaticus]

It has occurred to me lately that narrative events could be critical to adopting a nomadic start from Humankind. I am not sure Civilization would want to take the concept of curiosities, so narrative events could regulate population, food, culture, science, etc. prior to settling. As for the traditional scope of the game, I am open to narrative events but do not see an obvious contribution they would make outside of supporting other systems, like a roleplaying component.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

"Narrative Events" implies something random thrown at the player in the game.
We already have that in Civ VI, they are called Disasters, and they are pretty one-dimensional and of really only minor relevence.

On the other hand, Narrative Decisions would be a good addition to the game.
That is, Events which require a decision from the gamer to advance an in-game Narrative.

Something similar to the "Events and Decisions" in Europa (which was added to Civ V by an excellent Mod) or the Civic Choices system in Humankind, which requires a decision among several possibilities each time a 'Civic' becomes available.

Far better to have the gamer take part by his/her actions in writing the Narrative than simply having elements of it thrown at the gamer randomly.

 

[GeneralZIft]

"Narrative Events" implies something random thrown at the player in the game.
We already have that in Civ VI, they are called Disasters, and they are pretty one-dimensional and of really only minor relevence.

On the other hand, Narrative Decisions would be a good addition to the game.
That is, Events which require a decision from the gamer to advance an in-game Narrative.

Something similar to the "Events and Decisions" in Europa (which was added to Civ V by an excellent Mod) or the Civic Choices system in Humankind, which requires a decision among several possibilities each time a 'Civic' becomes available.

Far better to have the gamer take part by his/her actions in writing the Narrative than simply having elements of it thrown at the gamer randomly.

I should have been more clear, but I do mean both narrative events and decisions.

I agree though, those Civ 6 random disasters are annoying because they feel random. I think the issue with random events and decision from my point of view is that they can't quite add to the roleplaying aspect if you know they are totally random.

If we are to see a sort of "evolution" of this idea, my suggestion would be to link the narrative events and decisions to the current state of the game.

For example, a narrative decision relating to a riot potentially occurring in your cities will only occur if you meet a certain threshold of unhappiness and other conditions.

I enjoy the concept of disasters more than I enjoy the concept of micro managing random narrative events, but the execution of the former is undoubtedly worse.

The core (common) issue of the game design around these narratives is the lack of player's ability to predict them, and their lack of having a solid impact on the game, which leads to (usually) a half arsed mechanic.

 

[Haig]

I think many of the ones in Humankind became pretty repetitive.

I like when something random happens in the actual game world and not just text:

In Humankind there is an event where text informs you that river floods and you can choose to spend gold on repair.

In Civ VI the river actually floods on screen, wrecking improvements.

So if Civ VII has some random decisions, they should be varied enough or have real consequences.

 

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

My argument against narrative events; it's leaning towards a more randomised and singleplayer oriented experience. I think that narrative events would probably complicate the game - slow down the pace - when people are usually getting into the flow of planning turns and making moves, they don't want to be interrupted by what could also sometimes be a trivial or annoying choice.

Far better to have the gamer take part by his/her actions in writing the Narrative than simply having elements of it thrown at the gamer randomly.

If the event occur base on how you play instead of randomly or timer based (like eras) then I think it would be interesting. When I was reading What Policy Cards you usually go for in your Games? it occurred to me that there could be some accumulated "secondary" effects of what policy cards you slot.

 

[Saxo Grammaticus]

If the event occur base on how you play instead of randomly or timer based (like eras) then I think it would be interesting. When I was reading What Policy Cards you usually go for in your Games? it occurred to me that there could be some accumulated "secondary" effects of what policy cards you slot.

What did you have in mind? Perhaps something like recommissioning a nuclear reactor, so every five turns of Rationalism brings you closer to the Directory.

 

[reddishrecue]

"Narrative Events" implies something random thrown at the player in the game.
We already have that in Civ VI, they are called Disasters, and they are pretty one-dimensional and of really only minor relevence.

On the other hand, Narrative Decisions would be a good addition to the game.
That is, Events which require a decision from the gamer to advance an in-game Narrative.

I like the narrative decisions where a person can choose what happens next like it used to way back in civ 4. Like for example, grains in the granary in a certain city were stolen! " and then you have the option to pay to have the lost grain replaced or you could continue without it. There used to be modern hits also, like an airplane crash in your territories from a different civilization which allows you to choose whether you'd like to have the plane investigated which will give you more espionage points towards that civilization but gain a -1 against that civilization or... you do nothing and wont gain that espionage point bonus and that -1hit against that civilization. It would have a prompt and noise too that made it seem interesting like its own unique alert system '!'.
Humankind also had a narrative decision like this where the stories were different that give you more research, more food or more production for example. There were also other military that I remember like patriotism where you could build at an increased rate or all your military troops gain +1 strength.. I think they should really bring back a narrative system for sure like they had in humankind and civ 4.

 

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

What did you have in mind? Perhaps something like recommissioning a nuclear reactor, so every five turns of Rationalism brings you closer to the Directory.

Exactly. There would be some kind of point system that use of cards would contribute to, and passing a certain total number of points would cause an event. With a card like Rationalism the more building it affects the more points you would accumulate, imho.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

There are Narrative Events that should follow from prior things happening (or that the gamer has done) in the game - sort of 'linear narratives' that can veer off based on the decisions you make along the path(s).

There are other historical events that are just plain Accidental or Sheer Coincidence, or have such convoluted antecedents that modeling all of the complexity is beyond a non-Super Computer game.
Like, for instance, Alexander the Great living long enough despite multiple wounds and battle exposures to wipe out the Persian Empire and make solid contact between Greece/Macedonia and India, but not long enough to go on and conquer Carthage and Rome and Italy, which apparently were his next proposed 'projects'. - Talk about a potential historical Turning Point!
Or your victorious General crushing your enemies' armies and then while riding through a town with his helmet off getting brained by a falling roof tile and dead before he hits the ground - a historically lesser, but nevertheless immediately devastating, potential Turning Point for your Civ (this actually happened to Jason of Thessaly, one of Alexander's potential Successors, so, no, I'm not making any of this up!).

So, I think we really need both types: the set of Narrative Decision Points that follow in a sort of path from one to the other with branching results according to the in-game events and decisions, and then the occasional WTF moments that throw a (good or bad) Event at you out of the digital Fog with little or no warning.