[NFP] New Game Modes Speculation

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Also, I dont think talking about pandemics and diseases are thinking of anything the like. I personally would love to have diseases in the game, since is not only one of the most importang events shaping human history, but could be used to improve a lot of the game system and provide more deep. The plague scenario has some nice ideas that could be ported and expanded into a game mod. And i would like that aproach.

I think we are in agreement but might have been talking about two different scenarios.

The Black Death is the scenario based off of the one that happened in Medieval Europe and is the one with the plague doctors. I would definitely like to see something like that in the base game.

The Red Death scenario is the post-apocalyptic survival scenario that I'd rather them avoid anything based off of that.

 

[shmily_dana]

I'd like to see civil wars implemented. But it would almost have to include alternate leaders for everyone. I hated when it was implemented in Civ3 (or Civ4?) a new country would emerge, but it was random. For example, China would form from France. I would not mind if non-animated leaders or just a flag was used. For example, CSA forms from USA. I don't need Jefferson Davis.

 

[Pfeffersack]

I would love to see one centered around ressources - e.g. corporations allowing to process base ressources like iron and coal to steel. A kind of world market system like Endless Space 2 has it. If that mode would allow units to require/consume more than one unit type, it would even help modders (as there currently seemt to be a restriction, that each unit can only need one ressource for construction and possibely a 2nd on consumption, but never two different for the building/maintenance)

 

[cuso210]

I was thinking today that one of the new modes could be a wildlife expansion, with animals that can attack you early game and that could be protected lated game. So for example, if you send a galley to explore by itself, it could be destroyed or damaged by a Kraken, or wild beasts could attack lone scouts and limit expansion and exploring early and mid game. The only drawback I see is that there already are animals in game, in the form of resources, so Firaxis should reweork them to play with the hipotertical new mode if they decide to go that route.

 

[Arithmion]

They could make the pandemic/alien invasion/etc be set to kick in as a "sudden death mode" at the end of the game - if the game isn't resolved by a certain point, each turn has a progressively higher chance of invoking a random endgame situation, a pandemic, or alien invasion, or whatever. It gets worse as time goes on, and the last Civ standing wins. It would keep things spiced up once you hit the end of the tech and civic trees.

I really, really, want to like this idea. It would definitely spice up the endgame. The problem, though, is that we already have a sudden death mode. It happens on turn 500, and it's the score victory. The thing is, you have to actively try not to win through any other means to win that way.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I think when we learn what Secret Societies will consist of we will know just how much they are willing to go here. Apolcaypse mode did feel in many ways like a mod, and didn't add anything new gameplay wise that a modder couldn't have done.

But Secret Societies could expand on what their benchmark for possibilities is.

 

[Hawke9]

I think Apocalypse has some really nice aspects. The new natural disasters are amazing (Especially the comet strikes), and I really like the late-game apocalyptic state the world gets in. The only thing that really bothers me is that the natural disaster slider is stuck on 4. I love the constant fear of my cities being destroyed by comets in a single turn, but I could do without volcanoes erupting and rivers flooding every 10 turns and constantly destroying all my improvements throughout the game. The gamemode also could have used a little more content, but the new resources and city-states in the DLC pack make up for this in my opinion.


Some other gamemodes:

- A world war event forcing every civ to pick one of two teams and fight it out. Peace can only be made after at least 25 turns on standard. The event could trigger randomly after the world reaches a certain number of turns. Conquering cities or defeating units could earn you points for your team. When global peace is achieved, the party with the most points could get all current diplomatic favor from the losing team evenly distributed among winning players.

- A third party threat to all civs, forcing them to work together. This could be in the form of a zombie/alien invasion, a stronger barbarian faction that can take over cities or even the return of the Huns from civ V as a barbarous npc

- I really like the concept of empires breaking into multiple smaller states / civil war mechanics that people have been describing in this thread. This is already kind of touched on with the loyalty mechanic, but free cities could be fleshed out a lot more.
Oriental Empires does this in a really great way. If you don't take enough care of your citizens, some cities may claim independence and become their own faction. An independent player that you can interact with.
In civ, maybe you could get a huge yield boost to your capital when part of your empire breaks off, since your empire is now much easier to manage, making splitting up empires not an insta-loss, but somewhat of a viable strategy. (essentially making the switch from a wide to a tall empire.) Of course then there's the issue with which leader the broken off part of the civilization would lead, but hey. We're all speculating and theorizing here.

- One of the things I miss the most from civ V are teams in singleplayer. With the addition of some new team-based mechanics this could be turned into a gamemode.

- And finally, a one vs. everyone gamemode inspired by the SuperShaka Challenge :

 

[Linklite]

I really, really, want to like this idea. It would definitely spice up the endgame. The problem, though, is that we already have a sudden death mode. It happens on turn 500, and it's the score victory. The thing is, you have to actively try not to win through any other means to win that way.

True. You could scrap Score Victory, though. Or it could be a condition that occurs but doesn't necessarily end game itself, kind of like global warming just happens.

Or it could be something that just has a fixed chance of happening (or maybe increasing chance as the game moves on) each turn, like 0.1% or something, keep you on your toes. Sucks if it happens on Turn 10, but if you don't know whether it will happen or not and when, it could really shake things up a bit.
Have different conditions happen, some might punish small civs more (like an invasion) and others punish large civs (like epidemics).

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

- A third party threat to all civs, forcing them to work together. This could be in the form of a zombie/alien invasion, a stronger barbarian faction that can take over cities or even the return of the Huns from civ V as a barbarous npc

Like a pandemic?
Though I would take the Huns as a npc barbarian faction as long as they stay that way. Que everyone singing the Mulan song, even though it's historically inaccurate.

 

[Deggial]

I think Apocalypse has some really nice aspects. The new natural disasters are amazing (Especially the comet strikes), and I really like the late-game apocalyptic state the world gets in. The only thing that really bothers me is that the natural disaster slider is stuck on 4. I love the constant fear of my cities being destroyed by comets in a single turn, but I could do without volcanoes erupting and rivers flooding every 10 turns and constantly destroying all my improvements throughout the game. ...

Emphasis mine.

I completely agree with this, stated so already earlier in another thread and I really hope, Firaxis will reconsider this decision.
“Apocalypse Mode” is a fun addition to the game and I wouldn’t mind having it active even for standard games, especially for the “end game”. With the disaster intensity locked to 4 however, this unfortunately won’t happen. The pre-endgame is way to stressful and annoying to have it active all the time.

Personally, I had imagined “Modes” as a set of “mini expansion game mechanics”, that add up to a full expansion’s worth of gameplay-changes, if all are activated. Those who find this to overwhelming would have been able to deselect some of them. This is actually an awesome concept!
However, with the current implementation of the Apocalypse (locked disaster level), it feels more like a scenario that may be played for a fun experience every now and then, but isn’t meant to be used as standard game option.

Hence my plea for an upcoming patch: Please, Firaxis, let us set the disaster level in ”Apocalypse Mode” to our liking. (The increased starting level might be ok, though, if you really insist ... )

 

[oSiyeza]

I think we are in agreement but might have been talking about two different scenarios.

The Black Death is the scenario based off of the one that happened in Medieval Europe and is the one with the plague doctors. I would definitely like to see something like that in the base game.

The Red Death scenario is the post-apocalyptic survival scenario that I'd rather them avoid anything based off of that.

I agree, but is not as easy as that. We want something that has some relevance in the late game. Which you could use pandemics for, but we would be moving on a bit of speculative territory anyway.

I mean, sure the apocalypse mode has some weird fantasy elements, but meteor strikes wiping out cities are a scientific probability that turns into certainty when expanding over thousands of years in an overpopulated planet. Alien invasions are a plausible scenario but very improbable due to the space-time scale of the universe as far as we know, and biological contamination from outer space (as speculated in the Andromeda strain) is probably the most probable alien contact scenario.

What I’m saying, is that there is room for playing with these concepts, and I would say it is even necessary if what we want is to spice up the late game and not to just add something early game.

That said, I certainly want plagues, tsunamis, better integration of the apocalypse mode, redesign of religious combat, redesign of WC and specially focus on more diplomacy with World Wars and more cool espionage missions and the like.

Imagine this:

• Carrying the plague mechanics to a future game mode with some balance changes a more polish.

• Carrying more fantasy events like alien invasions and zombie outbreaks to the final stages of the apocalypse mode, that needs a deep rebalance as it is now anyways. Also Earthquakes and tsunamis xD

• New deeper espionage, and religious combat system with the secret societies game mode. With interactions like spy missions for sabotaging units, blocking canals, launch nuclear strikes on false flag attacks infiltrating nuclear silos, reveal unit’s location...

• Deeper diplomacy systems, puppet cities, more meaningful WC resolutions and support for World Wars and other more complex systems with a future game mode focused on global diplomatic interactions.

• More trade, and trade banning and other economy systems with a future corporation game mode.

• More AI improvements, general balance, pace improvements and UI additions and World Builder features in non DLC patches.

This is my personal wish list, which does not even cover the entire season pass. If I had to add anything I would want as a bonus:

• Give some love to the barbarians and the free cities, possibility creating new civilizations or city states if they succeed, and maybe giving some more personality to the barbs.

• Take inspiration on the wild animal mod, and add some wild hostile life, including giant sea monsters and very late game kaiju attacks to put our GDR to a test

This is my personal wish list. Now hire me FXS!

 

[Hawke9]

Anyone have any ideas for the secret societies gamemode in July? Anton said in the last stream that is would be more "fantastical" like the apocalypse gamemode and red death season 2. I wonder if the player will be able to form secret societies, or that they form and govern themselves, and you as the player can interact with them in certain ways.

 

[Socrates-]

Anyone have any ideas for the secret societies gamemode in July? Anton said in the last stream that is would be more "fantastical" like the apocalypse gamemode and red death season 2. I wonder if the player will be able to form secret societies, or that they form and govern themselves, and you as the player can interact with them in certain ways.

Thought about this too after Anton's comment on this upcoming mode. I'm expecting (hoping for) one of two options:

• The 'religious' approach in which the gamemode is build upon the mechanics of religion (pantheon, beliefs, religious units, religious combat.

or

• The World Congress approach. A alternative use of the WC that let's players influence the political playingfield. Kinda like the so-called Illuminati/freemasons/templar conspiracies.

It might seem a bit lame to use an already implanted mechanic as base for this mode, but I don't expect NFP to add new things that are completely build from the ground up. Just tweaks to already existing things or giving them another 'flavor'.

Either way, I'm looking forward to the new DLC already

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Anton said in the last stream that is would be more "fantastical" like the apocalypse gamemode and red death season 2. I wonder if the player will be able to form secret societies, or that they form and govern themselves, and you as the player can interact with them in certain ways

I'm hoping you can recruit a ninja unit for some reason. I wouldn't be surprised if they could give it "supernatural" powers in a promotion tree.

 

[AsH2]

I'd like to have an extended era mode, adding scenario/event-like in-between turns at the end of each era.

During those in-between turns, normal production would be turned off, letting cities have era-specific build options.
This to add missing (relevant) content to a currently revolution-free version of era-telling history game, but also ways to balance the game where's needed.

 

[Galvatron]

Has anyone mentioned kaiju yet? That'd be fun. And we have giant robots already. That are immune to radiation