Prehistory

[AA-battery]

I think that there should be a small scientific era before ancient called prehistory. It would feature techs like farming, roads, irrigation, mining and organized warfare. It probably wouldn't be as long as the other eras are because it would probably have one third less techs and each tech would take about five turns. The kind of stuff that would be granted in these techs would be stuff like warriors, barracks, wealth, mining and irrigation. You would start out with zero techs like all the other civs but when you succeed to the ancient era you will get the two techs that belong to your civilization like when you begin with in Civ3. There will be no barbarians until ancient times but there will be goody huts. All the cities would look like one small thatch roof building. Also, when a civ learns exploration in prehistoric anybody can get scouts. But the expansionist civs will have scouts that move three spaces instead of two.

 

[dh_epic]

I like this idea a lot, but it does kind of change the flow of the game. Might make for a more interesting mod.

 

[Spatula]

I like this idea. I think 'History' is defined as having begun at about 5500 BCE, with the Sumerians creating writing. So a pre-historic era of 1500 years, with techs like irrigation, mining, road-buliding, and barracks. I would also like to see Writing in the pre-hist tech tree, and make it a requirement to advance to the next age, since the advent of writing is when most civilization's 'history' is said to begin.

I read an idea somewhere about starting off as a Barbarian civ before becoming a 'proper' civ. Maybe this could be included with this as well? As soon as you get to Ancient Era you become a 'proper' civ.

You might have noticed I used BCE, not BC, simply because it is more accurate. I don't think Civ4 should use 'BC', but 'BCE', because 'BC' really doesn't have too much meaning anymore, since the likelyhood of Jesus having been born in what we calld 1 AD is extremely small. Come to think of it - why not have an option to choose whatvere calendar system you want? Christian, Hindu, Jewish; they, to name but a few, are all on different calendars and systems. Maybe you could even use the editor to make your own calendar!

 

[AA-battery]

Damn strait it's gonna be interesting. It applies what makes a civilization before it can start setting up an empire. I thought it might be good for newbies on how to use techniques like irrigation and mining.

 

[rhialto]

I think these techs should exist. But I also think the concept of eras should be dropped.

 

[AA-battery]

I wonder what the game would be like without eras? Would the workers look the same all the time? Would the cities always look like huts?

 

[rhialto]

Without eras, I expect graphical changes would be tied to key techs, like it was done in civ2 and CTP.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

However my one major concern about removing eras, is having be able to progress to discover electricty yet still be able to have the wheel. Where the eras, make you have to research a lot of important historical technologies.

 

[sir_schwick]

but then its all tied to Earth history rather than alternate history. Civ 2 did a pretty good job of making it so the combinations were unlikely but logical

 

[rhialto]

However my one major concern about removing eras, is having be able to progress to discover electricty yet still be able to have the wheel. Where the eras, make you have to research a lot of important historical technologies.

So you design the tech tree so that it would be impossible to have electricity without having the wheel. What's so hard about that?

 

[Albow]

why do you need the wheel to know about electricity?

 

[AA-battery]

I'm not even going to help you with that stupid question Albow. Can we get back on topic about my idea about prehistory?

 

[Yuri2356]

I'm not even going to help you with that stupid question Albow. Can we get back on topic about my idea about prehistory?

What makes the question stupid? Surely I can know how to derive power from the motion of electrons without knowing how to construct a transportation device using a spinning disk.


On prehistory: Sounds good. It's about time that Civ started to adress that period of time that came just before civilizing. I've always thought that one should have to research "Roadbuilding" "Irrigation" and "Mining" if they are mentioned as technologies in the game.

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

I always thought the 'Pre-Historic Era' was covered by the 'Your people have knowledge of Irrigation, Mining, Warrior Code, Pottery and Roads' or something along those lines (sorry forgot the exact words and all). Prehistory is already covered. As for making it a separate era, it would certainly change the game in a big way. Several mods do this (like TAM and DyP) but I don't think the Average Joe Shmoe could appreciate the eras' inclusion.

why do you need the wheel to know about electricity?

Not as dumb as it sounds at first, but knowledge of wheels, gears, turbines, and so forth are necessary in the creation of all present forms of electricity.

 

[Yuri2356]

Not as dumb as it sounds at first, but knowledge of wheels, gears, turbines, and so forth are necessary in the creation of all present forms of electricity.

Not if you create it through chemical means (A Volatic pile contains 0 Moving parts) and even without the ability to produce it on a miassive scale, one can still understand the concept of it all.

 

[AA-battery]

Yuri2356, you think the friggin question isn't stupid? Take a look at what electricity is used for. No, wait, don't even bother doing that. How about you take a look at human history if you can't figure it out! Anydangway, some other stuff I think should be added to my prehistory era are stuff like woodworking and leadership. Woodworking would allow you to chop down trees. Leadership would probably be a cultural advance, it would make your palace start generating culture.

 

[norwegianviking]

First off the wheel and electricity question IS stupid. You say be chemical means? How do you make the chemicals? How do you transport them to the electric plant? How do you build the electric plant? The bottum line is there would not be any of our modern technology if not for the wheel, you might get by through medival times, but not through the industrial.

That sparks a new idea, what if you needed multiple techs for units and buildings? I mean then you could have the knowledge of how to make electricity and light bulbs and that stuff, but you couldn't use it to power a car, or any other wheeled devise. THAT could eliminate eras and all the other crap you guys are complaining about.

 

[Yuri2356]

Yuri2356, you think the friggin question isn't stupid? Take a look at what electricity is used for. No, wait, don't even bother doing that. How about you take a look at human history if you can't figure it out!

Putting your rudeness aside, it is quite possible to produce usable electricity without the use of wheels, or any other moving parts. (Think early battries) A civilization with no use for wheels (Aztecs, Maya, Inca) could have still developed electrical science, eventualy.

Anywhoo, a number of Pre-Civilization technology would sere to be quite interesting. It could also be fun to allow cities to quicky relocate during this sort of semi-nomadic phase so that you could resettle to that perfect city location that's just 2 squares away from where you built (That option would cease to exist after you "civilize," so you would have to make your choices fairly quickly.)

 

[Mongoloid Cow]

Not if you create it through chemical means (A Volatic pile contains 0 Moving parts) and even without the ability to produce it on a miassive scale, one can still understand the concept of it all.

Isn't that just arguing the point for the sake of argument? I mean, come on. Even though it was only one sentence, you threw down your argument by the end of it.

 

[majk-iii]

...the've found mesopotamian "batteries" several thousand years old, used as medical therapy of sorts by the "doctors" of the time... but as i can recall, they had weels back then... that however's not related to their use of electricity. In a contrafactual mindset its easy to imagine a people living in a mountaineous terrain, that rendered them never finding a need for a "spinning-disc-transportation" (like the incas), stumbling over the thought that they may exploit the properties of certain compounds to derrive electric/magnetic energy that could be used as "magic"/light/muscle-relaxer... or whatever...