Natural Disasters

[LucyDuke]

Although...maybe you could get a hit movie or or something if godzilla struck

This is gold! If there's some way to balance the death and destruction, people might actually turn disaster options on. I'm not too keen on alien invasions but it would seem reasonable to let the victim civs maybe pick up a few advanced techs out of the deal. If volcanoes developed new land or improved the fertility of the nearby land (which they do), they wouldn't be such a nightmare. Imagine a volcano destroying your farm but the resulting tile will get an extra +2F on top of the farm bonus when you rebuild. Earthquakes could reveal resources like copper or aluminum by shaking mountains into hills and enabling access to the materials. And like goony said, when (not if) Godzilla strikes, you can pick up a movie or two as "compensation".

 

[binhthuy71]

I'm all for random events and I would leave them "On" if the probability of occurrence is the same for AI civs as it is for human players.

I believe that random events would help alleviate late game ennui. Part of the excitement, for me, in the early game is not knowing for sure what's going to happen next. Currently by mid or late game the thing is on rails and the human player just has to keep shoveling towards the outcome.

 

[Ankh-f-n-Khonsu]

What about alien invasions? Next expansion could include an (optional) techologically advanced alien civ that is invading the planet. The probability should be very low, perhaps in like 1 out of 100 games or something.

Absolutely. Of those 1 in 100, another 1 in 100 should result in the immediate destruction of the entire planet by delinquents from G'or practicing their arson skills.

Also, we should be faced with the possibility of the awakening of Cthulhu.

Armageddon will need to be its own option.

 

[LucyDuke]

I'm all for random events and I would leave them "On" if the probability of occurrence is the same for AI civs as it is for human players.

The way I see it, natural disasters and plagues and the like are always localized to a degree (they could spread, but always have an epicenter). That epicenter would almost certainly have to be chosen randomly, without consideration of who owns the area in question. In that respect, the likelihood of a volcano erupting (or whatever) on the tile next to Ragnar's capitol would be the same as the likelihood of a volcano erupting in an uninhabited part of the tundra. Though it seems that an uninhabited part of the tundra playing host to a volcanic eruption would be rather anticlimactic. Aliens, on the other hand, (I'm so turned off by the idea but it'd probably have a ton of popular support so I'll play along) would probably be more drawn to populous places than empty desert (unless we take into account Bill Hicks' theory), though they wouldn't be able to discern one nation from another.

It would be rather awkward to give leaders or civs traits that enabled them to better withstand a particular event, but it wouldn't hurt to incorporate wonders or technologies that would help a civ cope. Physics could enable a civ to retrofit buildings (would it be free?) to resist earthquake damage to a city, machinery could enable workers to build windmills to drain flooded land, and so on. A wonder like "Seismic Monitoring Station" or something to that effect would offer forewarning for earthquakes or volcanoes, and SETI could allow a civ to influence the attitude of invading extraterrestrials.

I really wish I could mod worth a damn, 'cause I'd be all over this. Are there any "Modding for Dummies" threads in the Creation & Customization forum that anyone knows of?

 

[Stylesrj]

Still, I don't my healthy nations getting plagues and Earthquakes. I want the Earthqueake, but not the plagues. There should be another window with disasters you want enabled, like UFOs, Godzilla, Earthquakes, Mass Flooding, Polar Ice Caps melting, Meteor Impacts, Space Radiation (harms cities somehow, but adds happiness due to the pretty colours), Sun exploding (can happen, Aliens perhaps?) (Causes all life to be wiped out), and who knows what else disasters. Because a "Disasters On" and "Disasters Off" function is not good enough (because sometimes you want all real disasters, but none of the silly ones, like aliens, sun exploding or Godzilla along with the real ones).

EDIT: Oh another disaster that should be in the game is the Mole People! They get sick of Civilization (not the game) and rise from the underground and wage war for no reason on the people above. They'd take over a city or two, and be like barbarians, but more moleish. You'd have to restore order in those cities and get rid of the mole people in them and seal off all moleholes using workers on one of the tiles (it'd be a 1x2 hole, with the hole on one, the place to fill it in on the other, and the hole cannot be moved onto, unless it's a mole person). I think it sounds crazy but hey, let's add to the list of silly disasters.
Depending on the world's tech age, the Mole People will have units suited to it (so if everyone is medieval, except for Late-Industrial you, then the Mole People will have units with steel swords) (But if everyone is modern, they'd have drill guns, tanks with drills and all the high tech-drillion-mole stuff)

What do you think?

 

[LucyDuke]

... Oh another disaster that should be in the game is the Mole People! ...

I really can't see an reason to include disasters that do nothing but end the game. Sun exploding? What fun is that? It's like "power failure" in terms of adding to gameplay.

Mole People, I think, is excellent. Seriously. They shouldn't be like barbs, though, you should be able to ally with them and send them after your enemies.

 

[Stylesrj]

Or in modern times, you could have power outages, which causes cities to lose power bounses in the city and the people are more angrier as they have no fax machines, photocopies and blenders to keep them happy and the city gets bad health bonuses due to the hospitals failing and people on Life Support dying and stinking up the place.

Or Aliens could drop meteors on the planet, or a large meteor wipes nearly all life out (leaving every civ with one military unit and one city left!). But still, each disaster should be optional. A blanket off switch is stupid, Iwant volcanoes and Earthquakes, but none of this disease crap! It'd be too powerful and unfair (I hope Hospitals can prevent it though! No ifs, no buts, Hospitals stop ALL disease in a city)

 

[Rusty Edge]

This is gold! If there's some way to balance the death and destruction, people might actually turn disaster options on. I'm not too keen on alien invasions but it would seem reasonable to let the victim civs maybe pick up a few advanced techs out of the deal. If volcanoes developed new land or improved the fertility of the nearby land (which they do), they wouldn't be such a nightmare. Imagine a volcano destroying your farm but the resulting tile will get an extra +2F on top of the farm bonus when you rebuild. Earthquakes could reveal resources like copper or aluminum by shaking mountains into hills and enabling access to the materials. And like goony said, when (not if) Godzilla strikes, you can pick up a movie or two as "compensation".

Godzilla can only occur after a nuclear event, like a bombing or plant meltdown, though, right?

But wouldn't that mean the emergence of super-heroes like Spiderman & the Incedible Hulk, too?

 

[Danielos]

Absolutely. Of those 1 in 100, another 1 in 100 should result in the immediate destruction of the entire planet by delinquents from G'or practicing their arson skills.

Also, we should be faced with the possibility of the awakening of Cthulhu.

Armageddon will need to be its own option.

I don´t see what was so ridiculous about my post. If there are technologically advanced alien civilizations in the universe (which I believe is highly probable) it is not impossible (but unlikely) that they could have made it here during our planet 5 billion year lifespan.

 

[Ankh-f-n-Khonsu]

I didn't intend ridicule, just having fun. Fwiw, I cannot fathom that there are not advanced species elsewhere in the galaxy, let alone the universe. Note, however, that even if we stipulate that an alien species has visited our planet, the odds of their arrival during the 6,500 years of a Civ game amount to about 1 in 1,000,000 rather than 1 in 100. As such, I will modify my odds for a G'or invasion to 1 in 10,000,000.

 

[aelf]

How about aliens emerging from the underground and zapping your citizens away a la War of the Worlds? Causes the entire world to be allied against the aliens. Only happens after a certain date. Sounds like a fun idea for a scenario.

 

[Stylesrj]

War of the Wrolds, the Martians came from Mars. Nothing about underground machines. Get off your Hollywood story plots and think of the actual War of the Worlds. Those cylinders came from Mars and the Martians built their own machines in them. Nothing about them underground.

If Godzilla is to be a disaster, so is the Mole People! There's no escape from the Mole People! -leaves via the bungee cord from the roof- Except that way!

 

[aelf]

War of the Wrolds, the Martians came from Mars. Nothing about underground machines. Get off your Hollywood story plots and think of the actual War of the Worlds. Those cylinders came from Mars and the Martians built their own machines in them. Nothing about them underground.

If you say so, Mr Oh-I'm-so-literate.

It's just an interesting idea, regardless of where it is from. I could have said Necrons for all the difference it would make, except that fewer people would understand what I'm saying.

 

[Rewdagger]

I bought Galctic Civ 2, Dark Avatar, bec of the reviews posted on this website. It is alot like Civilzation. Civilization is the "King" of strategy. Anyway I was cruisng along to a culture victory when out of the blue these alien Pirates show up with very powerful fleets and almost totally destroyed me. Made the game alot of fun, Civ does get a liitle boring when you know how superior your civilization is and victory is certian and you have to grind out the victory. Gotta stop playing on Marathon!

 

[The Gonzo]

I hate it. A random event that could destroy wonders and cities that you can't control? How annoying would that be? Spending 30 turns building the Pyramids only for it to be blown over in a freak hurricane would make me quit the game in rage.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

Wonders and cities shouldn't be destroyed. Cities could probably take major damage, but not be completely destroyed. Wonders' effects might go out for a while after a natural disaster affects their city, but they won't be completely destroyed.

 

[Swein Forkbeard]

Or in modern times, you could have power outages, which causes cities to lose power bounses in the city and the people are more angrier as they have no fax machines, photocopies and blenders to keep them happy and the city gets bad health bonuses due to the hospitals failing and people on Life Support dying and stinking up the place.

Or Aliens could drop meteors on the planet, or a large meteor wipes nearly all life out (leaving every civ with one military unit and one city left!). But still, each disaster should be optional. A blanket off switch is stupid, Iwant volcanoes and Earthquakes, but none of this disease crap! It'd be too powerful and unfair (I hope Hospitals can prevent it though! No ifs, no buts, Hospitals stop ALL disease in a city)

I like the blackout idea. It might randomly affect one or more buildings in a city, and those buildings' effects will shut down for 5 turns.

 

[Windukicks]

thanks for the comments... the non maditory thing sounds like a must

 

[Stylesrj]

I hate it. A random event that could destroy wonders and cities that you can't control? How annoying would that be? Spending 30 turns building the Pyramids only for it to be blown over in a freak hurricane would make me quit the game in rage.

Of course, you could always turn that disaster off before you begin the game. Or it could happen to one of the AI players instead of you, if Random Seed is on... muhahahahaha!!!

Early Warning Systems (EWS) would be nice too (Warning, Earthquake will hit X City in 2 turns) as a national wonder and Bunkers and some other buildings could protect against them and reduce their damage effects on surrounding terrain (EWS allows construction of Natural Disaster-proof structures for cities)

Examples of structures and effects:

Bunker (always standard, no EWS)- Protects from Planes, Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Tidal Waves
Hypersonic Soundwave Underground Device (EWS Needed)- Prevents Mole People from spawning near the city
Radar Dish- Provides some benfits and stops aliens from landing near the city
Earthquake Proofing (EWS needed)- Prevents most damage from Earthquakes

Any more ideas?

 

[Ankh-f-n-Khonsu]

Hypersonic Soundwave Underground Device (EWS Needed)- Prevents Mole People from spawning near the city

I can appreciate that playability is the most important aspect of the game, but if things can be made more real without malaffecting said playability, then by jove they ought to be. As such, it needs to be noted that the HSUD hasn't been used to prevent the spawning of Mole People since the Mudwars of Inglestok, when they developed the Lithospheric Fibrillator in order to counter it with 99% effectiveness.

I'm really quite astonished at the poor grasp of Mole People history and culture some of you have. Is it even possible to get a decent education these days? Tsk.