Random Event of Doom

[Navarre]

I just had the most ridiculous event ever.



You can gain a +2 relation boost with the offender, a great spy, or, and that's the evil option, you can take it as a declaration of war, and for all purpose it will be like the AI had declared war on you : your defense pacts are triggered, and the opponent takes the diplo hit for declaring war on you.

I had 2 vassals and 3 defense pacts in this game. Poor Lincoln found himself at war with the whole world without having a say about it.



That's the first time I ever see that event. Is it new from 3.19 ? And can you be on the receiving end, with you declaring war on somebody without having a choice ? Did that happen to anybody here ?

 

[Bushface]

This event was added in 3.17 but it has a fairly low probability of being "live" in the game and of then being selected. One would assume that like all other events it could happen to any civ - including the player's - given the right conditions.

 

[Navarre]

Ok, thanks. New events, that's cool, I didn't know they were still adding some with the patches. Firaxis, you rule !

I find this one a little bit severe, tough. Even if it doesn't happen with someone who has a buttload of allies, it can still trigger an unwanted or unprepared war. I was feeling sorry for the poor Lincoln, even if it won me the game.

 

[the reverend]

Wow! That event is ridiculously strong.

 

[Badtz Maru]

I wonder what the trigger for that is - it would be good to know to avoid having it happen to you. A spy in another civ's capital for a certain period of time?

 

[binhthuy71]

This event was added in 3.17 but it has a fairly low probability of being "live" in the game and of then being selected. One would assume that like all other events it could happen to any civ - including the player's - given the right conditions.

Aww, heck, that it was added in 3.17 means that it's not on Ori's Random Events List. Now I'm going to have to go back through my Custom Assets copy of Civ4 Event Triggers xml and edit this one down to zero. It is, to my mind, definitely overpowered.

 

[ori]

I wonder what the trigger for that is - it would be good to know to avoid having it happen to you. A spy in another civ's capital for a certain period of time?

you need to know industrialism but not robotics and (for the war trigger) have at least 4 cities to be the one getting to choose - there are no prereqs for being on the receiving end

 

[none]

I got it yesterday but went for the +2 boost. The other options seemed a bit too much at the time.

 

[binhthuy71]

This is a clear oversight on the part of the designers; they failed to include 50,000 Culture and half the parts for the space ship.

 

[RedFury]

so the civ that is on the receiving end doesn't even need to be spying on the civ which triggers the event? That is madness.

This might sound harsh, but does anyone agree that it feels like Firaxis got the work experience guy on events? Seriously, some of them are so ridiculous and game-breaking that anybody who knows the game in-depth and actually plays it would laugh at some of them. IMO they did such a fine job of balancing vanilla, but some parts of the expansions (although fun) just seem unbalanced, and their implications on gameplay not fully thought through.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

so the civ that is on the receiving end doesn't even need to be spying on the civ which triggers the event? That is madness.

This might sound harsh, but does anyone agree that it feels like Firaxis got the work experience guy on events? Seriously, some of them are so ridiculous and game-breaking that anybody who knows the game in-depth and actually plays it would laugh at some of them. IMO they did such a fine job of balancing vanilla, but some parts of the expansions (although fun) just seem unbalanced, and their implications on gameplay not fully thought through.

I agree with you.

 

[Ramesses]

I agree with you.

By the way, does anybody know of any random event mods that are more balanced?

 

[Bruin.Bound]

Am I the only one who likes these events? You are lucky to see one of these "game-changing" or "overpowered" events in a single game, and a lot of time they happen between civ's that dont involve you or dont make much of a difference. Yeah the game may be slightly different than if events were off, but what would be the point of them if they had no real effect? Weakly defended empires have fell due to barbarians, slaves have revolted, pastures have been destroyed, they seem like viable events to me. Its about overcoming adversity in my opinion and being able to cope with different situations. I think they were great addition to BtS.

 

[TheLazyHase]

Am I the only one who likes these events?

No. Most of them are good, and thoses flagged as unbalanced are often unbalanced only in some case.

The main problem is, those who are unbalanced mostly destroy completely a game. The vedics are a good example, and the OP have shown another one who is mostly harmless and sometime absolutely game-breaking.

 

[Rooftrellen]

Any event, at some point, could be game breaking.

Sure, its not normally a big deal, but that -1 relations with Mansa could make you his worst enemy when its time for tech trading to get started. I also never thought much about the plane crash until I saw it happen to my biggest rival today, right after I was the first to flight.

I actually think the random events can add a lot of strategy to the game. There are few that have obviously right choices, and they can all keep you on your toes. I can't think of a single one that can totally destroy your game (though that is only because the tsunami is turned off).

 

[Navarre]

Actually, this event didn't change much in my game, as Lincoln was already everybody's worst enemy. I was the only one still trading with him, and was on my way to a space race or diplo victory. I took the third option for the heck of it, since it was making me laugh. It also offered me an option to get Lincoln's resources without the diplo penalty for trading with everyone's worst enemy, but I could as well just have declared war on him myself if that was my intent.

But I like these event too, event the Vedic Aryans. It adds a little impredictability to the game, you won't have another game with the same old civs roughly of the same size, you can become a powerhouse or have to deal with a powerhouse if you or some civ takes the cities the barbarians captured, or you can be destroyed at turn 30, which leads to prioritize BW, the GW, or any kind of defense. It's kind of realistic : sh*t happens, and you have to deal with it. I like that.

 

[Bruin.Bound]

How does it "destroy" a game. Maybe it changes it, but I don't see how anything can destroy a game... would someone like to list all the broken events just so I can analyze them? Also, what is the tsunami event? I never had it, is it turned off in 3.19, or did you do it manually?

Either way, I think people got used to no random events from earlier versions and now don't think of them as the norm. In my mind, its like always playing with no barbs, then when you switch to barbs on you consider it unfair because you have to slow your expansion to put some defense up, or because barb cities may spawn where you wanted to settle. Yeah, the games will be different, but right now I think random events add depth. You have to calculate the risk of everything you do, including running slavery, or sending spies across (as we just saw). If you want to aggresively REx early, you take the risk of being weak defensively and not being able to handle a barbarian uprising. Lets face it, a lot of us, myself included, are very thin at early stages trying to get some blocking cities or resource cities up, and maybe we deserve to get swarmed by a barb uprising every once and a while. Its a risk we took and it didn't pay off. But if there is some conservative, protective player who starts with a small amount of well protected cities early, and he gets the event, he'll be very pleased with himself and his defenses. We shouldn't spoil his glory and method because we would rather expand than deal with it.

 

[binhthuy71]

Ori's Random Events List, which has all of the events through patch 3.13 can be downloaded HERE.

 

[ori]

and 3.17 and 3.19 did not add new events (though there were minor changes in the event triggers - and I never got around to updating it )

 

[Rooftrellen]

Also, what is the tsunami event? I never had it, is it turned off in 3.19, or did you do it manually?

It is an event...let's see if I can remember, that hits costal cities only, removing 5 pop from the city, or outright destroying it if it has 5 or less pop.

It is one of a number of (mostly religion related) events that have no chance of happening.

The religion ones were likely turned off to make sure that no one got offended (I think the only religion related event that stayed in the game was the olympics event), but in the case of the tsunami, its certainly so so no one would break their computer. It's by far the most brutal event almost put into the game.