Natural Disasters

[Winston]

Hello, I read that the new expansion pack will include disasters such as volcanoes and (possibly) plagues. I think these are really good ideas but Im hoping that Firaxis dont just stop at these two, so here are some suggestions for other disasters and how they would work:

Earthquakes:
This could randomly occur anywhere along fault lines (which would be a new overlay that could be added to the map editor and would be invisible to the human player until the discovery of a certain advance in the later eras). The effect could work like a very heavy bombardment so it would either damage units, kill citizens, or destroy city improvements.

Bad harvests/droughts:
This could randomly occur on any irrigated land and the effect could be that the irrigated tile only produces normal (i.e. pre improvement) quantities of food for that turn.

Floods:
This could randomly occur along any river or coastal tiles and the effect could be that it destroys tile improvements and renders that tile unusable for a turn or two

Great Fires:
This could randomly occur in cities and the effect could be that it kills lots of citizens and destroys city improvements.

There are other disasters that could be included e.g. hurricanes, avalanches, mudslides etc etc the above are just suggestions. Would probably need to have options to turn disasters on and off because some people might not like them, but anyone that fancies an extra challenge could play with disasters switched on. Its probably too late to include them in Conquests, but maybe the next expansion pack? What does everyone else think about natural disasters in Civ 3?

 

[EddyG17]

i do, if they add what i want in terrain, they couild add famine

 

[Benderino]

I'm all for it, it makes it far more realistic. Good thinking.

BTW, welcome to CFC.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Yeah, ive been thinking about what disasters could be put in, i want hurricanes, forest fires, tidal waves, asteroids...ok maybe the last one is not very likely.

 

[Quasar1011]

Originally posted by Winston

Floods:
This could randomly occur along any river or coastal tiles and the effect could be that it destroys tile improvements and renders that tile unusable for a turn or two

One turn, yes. 2 turns, no way! Even the Biblical flood of Noah lasted less than a year.

Coastal flooding could also be attributed to hurricanes (or typhoons/cyclones). Such storms could be able to destroy harbors or commercial docks.

And the occurrences shouldn't be entirely random. Flood plains should have an increased risk of flooding!

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I want disasters, but I'd partly like them to work the way they did in Civ1 . Namely, floods could effect coastal and riverside cities, and destroy a random improvement/unit/citizen-depending on the floods severity.
Famines should either a) Halve the effectiveness of ALL irrigated tiles in effected cities or b) cause effected cities to lose half their food store!
Military Coup should cause x of your units to turn into barbarians, which can then attack your cities and friendly units!!
Religious Schism-requires both a 'religious' improvement and more than 1 unhappy citizen! Causes the effected cities to change to another, neutral civ (or even a barbarian city)
Civil War: An Absolute must, in MY opinion-many factors would be at play, but x effected cities would convert to a Neutral Civ, or barbarian.
Plagues should definitely cause both population losses, and increased unhappiness, and should have the potential to spread, each turn, to other cities on your trade routes-even from other CIVS!!!
Dark Ages-a) randomly lose x (from 1 to ALL) tech advances gained, only from the current age (making an early Dark ages survivable, wheras a late age dark age would be HORRENDOUS!!!) or b) all techs for x-turns take 2x as long to get!!

Of course, there should be other, Positive events-such as mercenaries, a Rennaisance (double culture, double research in effected cities), great religious icon (person/object) appears (doubles effectiveness of religious improvements), food glut etc!! Anyway, just some thoughts !!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Winston]

@ Benderino, thanks for the welcome, Im glad you like the ideas.
@ Quasar1011, your right; flooding should only be for 1 turn.
@ Aussie_Lurker, I think these ideas are really good. Calculating effects for cities (or entire empires) as opposed to lots of individual terrain tiles would mean less work for the computer so the game would run more smoothly and disasters would still be represented. I agree that Firaxis should also represent social events such as religious schisms and rennaisances, In which case they could also represent televised sport in Modern Times e.g National Football Team wins World Cup - all cities celebrate WLTK day!

 

[sealman]

While I like the idea of some natural disaters, the option would have to be able to be toggled on and off. Just like the culture flipping now. Only to avoid those people who allege that the disasters only effect the human player, not the AI. You know will we see a lot of those type of posts.

edit: regarding the ideas posted in this thread, I like most of them, not too sure about "Dark Ages" though.

 

[Quasar1011]

Originally posted by Aussie_Lurker
Military Coup should cause x of your units to turn into barbarians, which can then attack your cities and friendly units!!
Religious Schism-requires both a 'religious' improvement and more than 1 unhappy citizen! Causes the effected cities to change to another, neutral civ (or even a barbarian city)
Civil War: An Absolute must, in MY opinion-many factors would be at play, but x effected cities would convert to a Neutral Civ, or barbarian.

Military coups, and religious schisms, are not natural disasters. They are man-made occurences. However, you could set the appearance of a comet to trigger a religious schism. Comets were often viewed as bad omens. Having a general take over the government because a comet inspired him, might be far fetched though

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Sorry, I was just talking about Disasters in general, rather than merely the NATURAL variety!!! Doesn't change the fact that I'd love to see things like Religious Schisms and Coups in the game!!!

Yours,
A_L

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Well, wait and see what's in the conquests editor. It may be possible to create other natural disasters as well, using the triggers for the volcanoes (I hope you can set that).

 

[Quasar1011]

If you can trigger events, as in Civ 2, where you could change the terrain type, then yes, a whole slew of possibilities arises!

Drought or global warming can change plains into desert.
Global warming could also flood coastlines by raising the sea level.
Global cooling could expand tundra squares.
Volcanic eruptions could change mountains into hills, or could sink small islands into the sea.
Earthquakes could create new lakes by changing the course of rivers. Floods could create new lakes too. (Salton Sea in California)

But then we'd need a terraformer unit. Example: the Dutch reclaiming land from the sea.

All this was mod-able in Civ 2

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

And should be mod-able in Civ3, Quasar, though I'm SURE that's the point you're trying to make .
Whether it be a CtP style SLIC code, or just a text-style events file like Civ2, or even something in between, I don't CARE so long as you can put events in the game somehow!!!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Volcanic eruptions could change mountains into hills, or could sink small islands into the sea.

Or make islands appear in the ocean, like Hawaii.

 

[Furius]

Of course, islands appear out of the sea due to volcanic eruptions only once VERY rarely. I think a Dark Age should be the exact opposite of a Golden Age, not what Aussie_Lurker suggested.

 

[Ian Beale]

Yes i want as many natural disasters as possible- it will make the game less predictable and more interesting. Things like problems from intensive farming etc could all contribute as well as natural disasters. Don't like the ideas of comets hitting though- lets stick to things which occur now or play a part in the modern world. How about forest fires destroying forests, flooding where for a turn a land square is covered with water. All i want is greater detail in almost every aspect in the game- this will maintain my interest. To me more detail- more enjoyment

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Earthquakes could create new lakes by changing the course of rivers. Floods could create new lakes too. (Salton Sea in California)

Earthquakes should also create lakes like Reelfoot TN, my home state.

 

[Furius]

But, it would have to be done very carefully, otherwise one's whole civ could dissappear underwater.
I worry about what disasters might do for the poor OCCers.

 

[alpha wolf 64]

I cant wait for the disasters. I think nature is sorely missing from civ. Altho I understand that it is difficult to include because a turn consists of so many turns, but I'm thrilled that it will be reflected in some manor. Just imagine losing a SoD to a quake or flood.

 

[Quasar1011]

Originally posted by Ian Beale
Don't like the ideas of comets hitting though- lets stick to things which occur now or play a part in the modern world.

I wasn't suggesting that a comet be made to hit the Earth. Asteroid, maybe. My point was that comets were seen as bad omens, and triggered events. You could have an event such as, "A comet has appeared in the sky. Justinian has taken this as an omen that he is the rightful king. 3 cities of yours have followed Justinian, and have broken away and formed a new kingdom." Those are the sorts of natural triggers to human events that can be programmed if the editor will allow it.

P.S. Maybe a Ziggurat wonder could negate any effects of bad astrological omens