Seasons

[Waiguo_Chaoren]

The game is already capable of climate change over long periods so why not introduce some kind of seasonal rotation every four turns. Of course this would depend on latitude- equatorial regions would have two seasons or very little change, but temperate zones could have the standard four etc.

Considering how devastating winters have been historically for military campaigns (Napoleon in Russia, WW2 in Russia), sands storms at the beginning of the 2nd Iraq war etc. etc. seasonal rotation would add much realism to the game.

Winter in temperate zones could restrict movement, and at more extreme latitudes could even cause damage to units not inside cities/forts whatever.

Wet season in the the tropics would also restrict movement, increase the possibility of flood events etc.

Also, alpine troops would finally serve a purpose.

And how about ice bergs as a pirate substitute?

 

[Colonel]

that isnt that bad of an idea but think how hard it would be to put in the game and how would the comp decide where to stop one seasonal thing and go into another would all of a sudden say its winter in this square and not in another

but other than that i like it

 

[Waiguo_Chaoren]

Yeah, i know nothing about programming. I was thinking that spring-summer-autumn should really have no tactical disadvantages (except perhaps summer in the desert). Ideally there wouldn't be winter in one square, summer the next- but i imagine getting any kind of gradual transition would be impossible to program.

Still want those icebergs though.

 

[redstang423]

a gradual transition would be fairly easy to program actually. although a bit more complicated, its basically the same principle as color gradients in graphics...

it would be an interesting addition to the game, however the only problem is even in the late stages of the game, the shortest per turn time period is one year. begginning of the game its a lot more years than that...cant remember how many.

 

[Waiguo_Chaoren]

A winter every 200 years wouldn't matter, like warrior units only moving one square every 50 years in the beginning, and then "accelerating" during the game- it'd all be proportional. Think of them as ice ages

I'm happy to hear that it wouldn't be too difficult to program though.

 

[Denarr]

How are you supposed to show 200 seasons during a 50 year turn?

It's a neat idea, but I don't see any way around the 50...2 year turns.

 

[Waiguo_Chaoren]

The idea is not to be too literal about the one year= four seasons thing. I suggest one turn= one season. The passage of time in the game is already pretty unrealistic, and i suggest, has no real effect on gameplay. I think that playing one season= one turn would be very realistic, if you don't look at the year clock.

 

[Jon Shafer]

The idea is not to be too literal about the one year= four seasons thing. I suggest one turn= one season. The passage of time in the game is already pretty unrealistic, and i suggest, has no real effect on gameplay. I think that playing one season= one turn would be very realistic, if you don't look at the year clock.

I agree completely.

Adding seasons in spices things up nicely, and adds a new level of intriguing new features.

The people who whine about the fact that the turns are at least a year each can go find something else to whine about. Warriors don't take 50 years to move across 1 tile and modern ships don't take 20 years to round the globe either. Nor do units on land move infinitely, but that's another matter entirely...

 

[Waiguo_Chaoren]

Thanks for you support Trip. Let's start a movement- we can call ourselves "the Time Lords" and mess with those poor souls still trapped in civ time.

 

[Zeekater]

Perhaps seasons could be put in ourselfes, using the new programming thingie

 

[ybbor]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85907

 

[covenant]

I like this but to make it more realistic for military campaings make the cycle like three turns each. So nine out of 12 turns things are cool but you better be in a city before the winter hits our your troops will take a beating, one point loss per turn. So per seasonal cycle they could lose a max of three points. So only the hardened troops would survive if they were not in a city or you left them to die (as many generals have done in life.) For deserts this would be opposite, the tree summer turns would be the worst. If the troop was in a mountain in winter, it would be two point loss. Mountains need to be harder to get through too, to form more natural boundaries. Great idea, not hard to implement, and not overly complex for game play. A simple thing to add a bit of strategy.

The people who whine about the fact that the turns are at least a year each can go find something else to whine about. Warriors don't take 50 years to move across 1 tile and modern ships don't take 20 years to round the globe either. Nor do units on land move infinitely, but that's another matter entirely...

If it matters so much to them, they can change the passage of time in the editor.

 

[Denarr]

The idea is not to be too literal about the one year= four seasons thing. I suggest one turn= one season. The passage of time in the game is already pretty unrealistic, and i suggest, has no real effect on gameplay. I think that playing one season= one turn would be very realistic, if you don't look at the year clock.

As a visual effect, it would be a nice thing to see, or even have as an optional choice of permanent scenery.

Trip, I really hope that comment wasn't directed at me.

I had believed the original suggestion to wish for effects on game play to be added with the scenery for seasons and weather, which didn't seem appropriate to me to portray for the same reason that it doesn't make sense for a unit to take over 50 years to travel from one city to the next.

It was a point of clarification, not a point of complaint. My ramblings on the disparity of time have been posted in another topic, and won't be brought up here.

 

[Waiguo_Chaoren]

i agree with everything covenant suggests. I also thought that perhaps units could have some kind of additional property like "heat resistance" (camels) or "cold resistance" (alpine troops)- modern armoured units would have these properties automatically (with the discovery of refrigeration/airconditioning?).

I think the visuals of seasons changing across the map would be an awesome addition.

 

[Sark6354201]

I love the idea of seasons, to keep the game mechanics simple a system like this could be implemented.

Say a Cavalry is 6.3.3 and is moving through harsh weather (winter). The winter condition may affect him by giving negatives to his stats. So your Cavalry might become a 5.2.1 or something. Only very modern or unique units would be able to avoid these weather conditions. Cossacks might for example take a lesser hit.

 

[Waiguo_Chaoren]

Exactamundo. They could introduce a simple percentages system where all units suffer reduced attack, defence, movement etc. during winter, and especially on mountains, unless they have a special ability/immunity.

 

[Jon Shafer]

As a visual effect, it would be a nice thing to see, or even have as an optional choice of permanent scenery.

Trip, I really hope that comment wasn't directed at me.

I had believed the original suggestion to wish for effects on game play to be added with the scenery for seasons and weather, which didn't seem appropriate to me to portray for the same reason that it doesn't make sense for a unit to take over 50 years to travel from one city to the next.

It was a point of clarification, not a point of complaint. My ramblings on the disparity of time have been posted in another topic, and won't be brought up here.

Not at you in particular, but a lot of people bring up that argument in a situation like this.

 

[Punkymonkey]

I still don't see how you can have winter in 4000 BC and spring in 3950 BC. I think maybe just giving certain terrains, like mountains, deserts, tundra, floodplains a randomn chance to damage units if not in a city or fort, representing how weather can go to extremes some years but be fine in others. Who knew that the winter of 1944 would be one of the coldest on record in europe in decades? Or for that fact the winters in Russia being brutally cold in mid-40's by coincidence

 

[Sark6354201]

I still dont understand why I can live for 5000 years, Civ is full of that stuff. As far as harsh winters go, I think that goes under the heading of "too specific" when concerned with a Civ type game.

 

[Jon Shafer]

And I don't see why Warriors only move 1 tile in 50 years, or why units can cross a continent instantaneously with railroads, or why people stay happy when I starve them, or why the Artillery units have no little guys manning them, or...