Like Soren, I have not made use of my CivFanatics account in a long time. I wonder how many people are still around who remember me?
I noted some talk in this thread from a couple of weeks ago about random events. While there is a lot of randomness to the event system, there is also plenty of determinism, too. Many events trigger off of the player's selections in other events (thus, the player is charting their own course, to some extent, via their event selections.) Many events are tied to player actions. Some events have multiple ways they can play out, and the way chosen is not by a dice roll, but by things like which Law the player chose from a given Law Pair, or what types of units or specialists may have been developed by the player. More of this kind of determinism will continue to added, as many of the newer events that we are adding (as we go, on an ongoing basis) will have more and more niches involved with the event triggers, and play out more specific event stories.
I'm only a minor contributor to the event pool, but my most recent event added is called "Expertise: Fisher" and it only triggers after player builds a Nets improvement on a water Bonus. Your heir makes a friend, and player gets to choose how to make use of their heir's new friend, who is an expert Fisher.
Too much dice makes it all feel disconnected, while too much determinism makes it too predictable, and able to grow stale after few playthroughs. Our aim is to strike a balance -- keep players on their toes, but also have the events dance with the player, so that the events respond to what a player is doing in their game. The event system should continue to get better over time, as ever-more events continue to be added.
- Sirian