Opportunities

[Thalassicus]

Oh yes, before I forget, is there a way to slow down the alerts from disappearing?

I did some investigation and was surprised to find we can control all aspects of the alert system. I see the code which controls their duration, and might even be able to add them to the "notification log" on the top-right buttons. The alerts are remarkably simple - just a stack of labels at the top of the screen.

How detailed can the conditions be? For instance, could I propose a random event that can only happen to a civ that has no cities built on tundra, and units that are currently walking on tundra outside of the civ's cultural borders?

Yes, and simple to do:

function Game.TrigCondition.Example(playerID, trigID, targetID, outID)
  local player = Players[playerID]
  for city in player:Cities()
    local plot = city:Plot()
    if plot:GetTerrainType() == TerrainTypes.TERRAIN_TUNDRA then
      return false
    end
  end
  for unit in player:Units()
    local plot = unit:GetPlot()
    if plot:GetTerrainType() == TerrainTypes.TERRAIN_TUNDRA and plot:GetOwner() == -1 then
      return true
    end
  end
  return false
end

 

[Jorlem]

Here's my first go at a negative event. I hope I'm doing this right. Let me know if this is feasible. I'm attempting to allow for the duplication of the disasters that befell invasions due to the Russian winter. (Napoleon lost half his troops, Hitler lost 1/4, for example.)

General Winter
Unprepared for the sudden harshness of the (Northern/Southern/[Name of Civ that controls the territory]) Winter, our troops are faced with disaster! (Only effects units on Tundra outside of your borders, Only occurs to a civ that has no cities built on Tundra.)

Compassionate:
Rush them the supplies they need, at any expense, no matter the burden on the citizenry! [All cities loose one Food, each effected unit generates one unhappiness. Both these effects last X turns (10, perhaps?). Maybe costs some amount of Gold?]

Ruthlessness:
Continue marching! It's only a bit of snow, after all! [All effected units loose 10 HP (5 HP in Modern era?)]

Locals handle it:
The troops can take what they need from the locals. [All effected units loose 2HP, have 5% chance of turning Barbarian.]

 

[MortalD]

Did anyone else got double happiness from barrack opportunity?
Should be 2 and got 4. I think same was for one other event, however not sure with one.

Happened some time ago, just remembered now. Well i will keep notice if its accurate.

 

[wobuffet]

Did anyone else got double happiness from barrack opportunity?
Should be 2 and got 4. I think same was for one other event, however not sure with one.

I've been arguing that Opportunities' Happiness rewards ought be larger anyhow. For instance, a Theatre gives 4 for 2 per turn once built, but Opportunities weight 1 as roughly equal 3 or so by comparison.

(Yes, the theatre requires some turns of production or a bunch of Gold to buy, but I still think 3 would balance better with 6 or so.) Part of the issue is that Happiness isn't subject to any multipliers, so by mid-late game, base increases in , , , or are typically quite large in comparison to yields that were roughly equivalent earlier in the game.

 

[Jorlem]

Anyone have any idea on the General Winter thing? I don't know of its any good or not, or how to fix it if needed. Opinions would be nice.

 

[albie_123]

Option A is incredibly strong, and I can't see myself ever choosing it.

 

[Seek]

I think Thal has a general "no negative events" policy as well.

 

[albie_123]

I think he did mention a few pages back putting some in, and having it as a personal option.

 

[Jorlem]

Option A is incredibly strong, and I can't see myself ever choosing it.

Would it be better if I lopped off the unhappiness part, and instead gave it a gold cost of thirty gold per effected unit, in addition to the minus one food in all cities, which will be changed to last for five turns, instead of ten turns?

Edit:
On second thought, maybe it would just be better to replace thisFood penalty with an Unhappiness cost, at the same rate and timing? (The Food idea in this post, which got rid of the Unhappiness per unit entirely)
The original idea for that option was that you were shifting the problem from your troops to your cities, and would incur a penalty similar to Civ 4's War Weariness, which is modeled by Unhappiness in Civ V. Then I started drifting away from that when I started thinking about what was being sent, and, well, yeah.

I was thinking you would pick that option when you were at war, or about to declare war, and couldn't afford to spend the time healing your troops, and didn't want to risk any of them going rogue.


Second Edit:
Here's another idea that I had:

Hurricane Approaches
Our Soothsayers/Astrologers/Meteorologists have predicted that a great storm/hurricane will soon strike the city of (Name of coastal city)! What should be done?

Send help to aid the city in preparing to endure the storm! Costs 250 Gold, two random nearby improved tiles (workable by the city) have their improvements destroyed. (Improvements created by GP are not included in the random selection)

Secure the outlying lands! Costs 250 Gold, the city looses one random building (not a wonder) and either fifty stored Food and Hammers, or half its stored Food and Hammers, whichever is less.

Let them deal with it as they see fit. One building in the city or one workable improvement are destroyed (Wonders and GP improvements are exempt), and each citizen in that city generates an additional +1 Unhappiness, for population turns (max 10 turns)

 

[Hubay]

How hard would it be to write the opportunities so that the "promote your warrior" option would promote to UU? I'm playing as darius and it's a pity I can only promote to spearman using the opportunity.

 

[MortalD]

I just paid 66 gold for barrack opportunity on marathon.

Dint ya get confused again Thal and scale things the "other" way around ?

 

[wobuffet]

Quick question, Thal: does the AI gold system's favoring gifting gold to CSs after the United Nations has been built only take effect if the Diplomatic Victory condition is enabled? My apologies if you've answered this elsewhere; I looked through this topic and others but couldn't find a direct answer.

(Also, a bit off topic, but is it possible to buff the UN [slows Influence decay by 0.25 per turn per CS, for example] in games when diplo victories are off?)

 

[Thalassicus]

I forgot to check if Diplomatic Victory is set; thank you for reminding me.

I don't think that particular type of UN buff would be feasible. However, I could prevent the wonder from showing up when diplomatic victory is disabled.

 

[wobuffet]

I could prevent the wonder from showing up when diplomatic victory is disabled.

I don't feel strongly either way, but I think that'd make the most sense.

 

[albie_123]

Why the recent change to Ancient opportunities (making them classical)?

I enjoyed having opportunities other than the Scout, Warrior, Archer trio.

 

[Zaldron]

Why the recent change to Ancient opportunities (making them classical)?

I enjoyed having opportunities other than the Scout, Warrior, Archer trio.

See the "Emperor 142.8" thread where I observed that (At least) the +3 prod mine/etc opportunities are ridiculously powerful for wonder building in the ancient era.

 

[Thalassicus]

Rather than reduce the power of those opportunities, I chose to keep them strong and delay them slightly. I could do it the other way around if that would be better.

Delgar, I want you to know I plan on adding the opportunities you created sometime this week. I took a break from gameplay coding to focus on the user interface for a while, to let everyone get a feel for the current balance of the game. I think I'll return to gameplay enhancements like your work soon.

 

[Txurce]

Rather than reduce the power of those opportunities, I chose to keep them strong and delay them slightly. I could do it the other way around if that would be better.

Count me in favor of the approach you took. I like Opportunities to be priced fairly, but deliver a real kick.

 

[Jorlem]

Sorry to keep asking this, but does anyone have any opinions on the hurricane thing? The general idea I'd like to go for with these is "something bad is happening, damage control time." That way it takes away some of the pain of something bad happening, by giving the player some control, while still keeping to the simulationist aspects that say that bad things just happen, sometimes. Unfortunately, I don't think I have a good feel for balance yet, so I'm just offering these up as rough drafts/ideas to be improved upon.

 

[Thalassicus]

The hurricane event you described is feasible, would probably take just a few minutes to create, and seems reasonably realistic. I think it would fit well as one of the optional negative events. Check out the list below for more inspiration. I don't know why I didn't copy this list to this thread... I originally posted the text below in a totally unrelated thread (maintenance cost of nukes).


=======================================

When we add natural disasters I want to select realistic ones: fires, floods, droughts, famines, disease, and so on. These are widespread, and major ones are likely to happen to a civilization. Each one also provides opportunities to improve society. For example, after the Great Fire in London, the city was rebuilt with improvements to fire safety, like wider streets and building with brick instead of wood.

In comparison, damage or death from meteors, meltdowns, tornadoes and such is extraordinarily rare. They get more attention on TV and movies because they're dramatic, but it feels immersion-breaking when they have a significant influence on games like Civ or SimCity. I've copied some of my findings below.

Cost of damage:
$362 billion : fires in the US in 2008
$1.8 billion : tornadoes in the US in 2008
$20.5 billion : total nuclear accidents worldwide 1952-2009

Lifetime odds of dying from:
1 in 5 : heart disease
1 in 7 : cancer
1 in 70 : falling down
1 in 100 : car crash
1 in 300 : firearm
1 in 500 : disease
1 in 900 : fire
1 in 15,000 : famine
1 in 30,000 : flood
1 in 60,000 : tornado
1 in 130,000 : earthquake
1 in 200,000 : asteroid
1 in 500,000 : tsunami
1 in 10,000,000 : nuclear