Spacerace victories

[e_a_olson]

As I was watching the movie clip of my spaceship launching to Alpha Centarui, it occured to me: just because you launch your spaceship doesn't mean you should win. I mean, there should be a chance that your spaceship will blow up after takeoff, and you suffer a humiliating defeat. I watch the Challenger accident live on TV when I was in second grade, maybe that has something to do with it, but it's almost as if every time I see a space launch, I expect the thing to blow up.

 

[thebrose]

I think the problem with that would be you would really piss some people off. Imagine that you work really hard to build the spaceship ahead of everyone else and should win but the game is left to total chance in the end. That victory condition would lose alot of appeal.

 

[TomOC]

I think the problem with that would be you would really piss some people off. Imagine that you work really hard to build the spaceship ahead of everyone else and should win but the game is left to total chance in the end. That victory condition would lose alot of appeal.

Agreed... BUT… how about delayed launch... maybe depends on corruption in your cities. E.g. too much corruption leads to faulty workmanship leads to delayed launch. Try again next turn. You have to attempt to rain in corruption in order to get the products you need for a successful launch. Not a defeat, just a delay. Now you not only have to build it… you have to build it well!

Just a thought after reading e_a_olson's post.

 

[scloopy]

Maybe building the spaceship should be more complicated. You are sort of led by the nose and can't mess it up. In Civ II when it is able to launch you can still loose if someone gets a faster ship or you get rolled up by another country and they win. I lost the first game I played in Civ II because of a lousy spaceship.

 

[TomOC]

Maybe building the spaceship should be more complicated. You are sort of led by the nose and can't mess it up. In Civ II when it is able to launch you can still loose if someone gets a faster ship or you get rolled up by another country and they win. I lost the first game I played in Civ II because of a lousy spaceship.

Interesting. (never played Civ II) Faster ship... so maybe using that idea, it takes longer to build a better (faster) ship. You as the builder, choose the components and risk of failure factor (Kinda like spying chance of success). Get corruption under control and you get more shields to build a better ship. hmmmm... But do you take the chance to take the time to build a better ship??? Or go down the risker (faster) path. Choice would make it fun!

I haven't played spacerace in a while, because winning just by techs and building gets kinda dull. I think something needs to be added to jazz it up a bit.

Hey... maybe not only being able to steal techs from AI... but parts too!

T-

 

[Dr Zlu]

Wasn't it possible to sabotage another civ's spaceship in CivI and II?
I didn't notice the option in Civ3.

 

[scloopy]

Hey... maybe not only being able to steal techs from AI... but parts too!

T-

Hey that sounds great to me.

 

[Potatoe985]

Wasn't it possible to sabotage another civ's spaceship in CivI and II?
I didn't notice the option in Civ3.

You can sabotage production in a city, so you could sabotage parts of a shuttle.

 

[TomOC]

You can sabotage production in a city, so you could sabotage parts of a shuttle.

Provided that you know what cities the parts are being produced in. That was a problem I had in one game. I just could not find the city the last part was being produced in. Lost by one turn

 

[Aggie]

Wasn't it possible to sabotage another civ's spaceship in CivI and II?
I didn't notice the option in Civ3.

You only have to take or raze the capital of the other civ to sabotage/destroy it.

 

[TomOC]

You only have to take or raze the capital of the other civ to sabotage/destroy it.

Are they able to restrart the building of a new ship (not that they would have time to finish it)?

 

[Bartleby]

Maybe building the spaceship should be more complicated. You are sort of led by the nose and can't mess it up. In Civ II when it is able to launch you can still loose if someone gets a faster ship or you get rolled up by another country and they win. I lost the first game I played in Civ II because of a lousy spaceship.

I liked the civ II spaceship better, it was more flexible.

 

[alamo]

Well, there could be a chance of error built in - bad launch, guidance failure, meteor hits, ect. That would get everyone mad!

The civ2 SS:

You had to build a minimum number of components to launch, but the more you built the faster it went and the better chance of sucess (supposedly - I never saw it fail due to loss of the sole habitat module).

The launch decision was a toss up between lauching sooner and going slower or launching a faster ship later.

Before launch a SS could be destroyed by capturing the capital city.

After launch, you had to hold out until the ship reaches alpha centauri to win. Usually anyone with an axe to grind starts nuking you.

 

[scloopy]

You also had to decide if you wanted points (more people on your SS) or just get there first. You also had to build the right combo of parts not too much of one and not enough of another. If you built extra modules you were stuck with lugging them into space. I had a couple of weird looking space ships.

 

[t3h_m013]

that sounds much more interesting... At the moment its just however has faster research and production wins.... its all decided before you get to the modern era

 

[scloopy]

I have not played many games in III but I think the next game I try I will eliminate the Space Race Victory ability and see what happens.

 

[thebrose]

You can sabotage production in a city, so you could sabotage parts of a shuttle.

I did exactly that in gotm31. You could examine the other civ's cities if you are not at war. I was at war with a civ who was at 9 out of 10 parts complete. I took an educated guess on the city building the part and got lucky destroying it and enabling me to squeak out a diplo win.

I liked the spaceship launch decisions required in Civ II. Maybe they will creep back into Civ IV.

 

[Kozmos]

It annoys me the minute you build the spaceship you have to launch it.