Storms at sea

[skullmaker]

Is there a chance of storms at sea in the age of discovery game
It woud be like a hurricane you can see it and try to get out of its way it would only affect ships not land units and cause damage or sink ships.

 

[Pirate]

Very interesting idea! In a regular game a galley has a probablility of sinking in an ocean. A storm would apply that same probability to a region of squares for all ships that pass through it. The question is, why make it avoidable? During the age of sail, if you were close enough to see a storm, then it was already too late to get out of the way.

Another natural sea hazard could be the doldrums. A region of ocean where sea movement is cut in half and visibilty is reduced by one square for ships that have more than one square visibilty. This region would not move, but it would block passages around continents as you approached the poles. Maybe not for the Age of Sail, but doable for a mod?

 

[sealman]

some good ideas to improve the naval aspect of the game.

Hope something is done to improve movement and combat.

 

[Portuguese]

Cool indeed

 

[Patroklos]

Awhile ago I made a unit that was a cloud with lighning that I gave to the Barbarians, made pretty much invisible, and it just went around randomly sinking what it ran into. Was pretty interesting, but it was on my last (crashed) comp and lost. I hadn't quite finished it but it wouldn't be too hard to make

 

[ComradeDavo]

The idea of weather in general being added to the game is very intresting, and having volcanoes is a good first step towards this

Storms are kinda represented already by the way you can loose a galley if it goes outside coastline (like Pirate said).

 

[Gogf]

Originally posted by Pirate
Another natural sea hazard could be the doldrums. A region of ocean where sea movement is cut in half and visibilty is reduced by one square for ships that have more than one square visibilty.

Well, first, you shouldn't cut visibility for ships with radar (as that is unrealistic), and also, what exactly are the doldrums?

 

[warpstorm]

From Webster's 1913 edition:

Definition: \Dol"drums\, n. pl. [Cf. Gael. doltrum grief,
vexation?]
A part of the ocean near the equator, abounding in calms,
squalls, and light, baffling winds, which sometimes prevent
all progress for weeks; -- so called by sailors.

{To be in the doldrums}, to be in a state of listlessness
ennui, or tedium.

 

[Dargoth]

Originally posted by skullmaker
Is there a chance of storms at sea in the age of discovery game
It woud be like a hurricane you can see it and try to get out of its way it would only affect ships not land units and cause damage or sink ships.

Interesting idea

You could base it on how a volcano works

Every now and again a random ocean square is declared the eye of a Hurricane all ships within 2 squares of the hurricane are sunk or loose hps

 

[Pirate]

Originally posted by Gogf


Well, first, you shouldn't cut visibility for ships with radar (as that is unrealistic), and also, what exactly are the doldrums?

Yes of course, full visibilty with radar, and full movement with artificial power. The doldrums would be a way to slow down sail movement and delay colonization of a part of the map until the advent of ironclads and transports.

Thanks for the definition, Warpstorm. You got it. Also, read "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" - a great epic poem about a captain who kills an albatross while stuck in the doldrums, which curses his ship and turns his crew into zombies. "Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink!"

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I'd love it if you could lose a ship to disease, occasionally though, again, these and weather factors are probably behind the whole 'sinking in ocean' probability!!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Roundman]

What are the current chances of the Galleons and Frigates sinking in the ocean?

I think that the ocean storm is a good idea.

 

[slothman]

I thought of this idea since I heard of the Spanish Armada's fateful loss. Storms or one reason they lost and another storm kept the Chinese at bay when attacking the Japanese. The Protestent and the Kamakazi winds changed the course of history. I think an easy way would just be have certain sea, or even land, squares have a chance of storms. Like disease now. The faster units will have a better chance of coming out unscathed.

 

[Loaf Warden]

Oooh, some very nice ideas here. I've also thought about the possibility of having storms at sea (and pre-set volcanoes, and earthquakes along pre-designated faultlines, and a variety of other natural disasters), but I'd never considered the addition of the doldrums. I love it already. First of all, naval units from the age of sail onward need to have their movement dramatically increased anyway. Then, they could add a 'Doldrums' terrain square that we could put on the map with the Editor, and pre-modern ships passing through that terrain would suffer movement penalties. I admit that in gameplay terms, it would probably function as little more than a minor annoyance. But it's a nice little touch of realism that wouldn't take anything away from the game. I give it a big

Edit: And maybe a Gulf Stream terrain square that would increase naval movement? I wonder if they could design it to be one-way. It wouldn't be realistic if you could gain speed going both ways, but if they could make them one-way, that could be cool.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

That would be so fun. Our Galley has been sunk by a hurricane. Or whirlpool, tsunami, waterspout

 

[Gogf]

Great idea, about dolrums being a terrain, and thanks for the definition warpstorm. So, what we could do is make all sea terrain (coast, ocean, doldrums, sea) have a chance of "disease". We change the probability around so that 50% of the time you lose the ship, it's disease, and 50% of the time it's a storm. All of these are nullied for ships that are farthre up in the tech tree than the ironclad (the USS Monitor, one of the most powerful ships of the time was lost in a storm).

 

[Gabryel Karolin]

Would the AI navys go completely suicidal and attempt to "kill" the storm and sail all their ships into it if its a barbarian unit?

If it can be done it would be great though, a bit like the random events in SMAC, but animated.

 

[Pirate]

Rather than losing the entire ship to disease, have a chance of losing one of the units aboard to disease. You set sail with 4 swordsman but there's a small chance that only 2 or 3 make it there alive. I just know I'd be devastated to have a bad RNG streak and lose boatload after boatload of knights.

 

[ComradeDavo]

Originally posted by Pirate
Rather than losing the entire ship to disease, have a chance of losing one of the units aboard to disease. You set sail with 4 swordsman but there's a small chance that only 2 or 3 make it there alive. I just know I'd be devastated to have a bad RNG streak and lose boatload after boatload of knights.

Thats a good idea.......I think it woudl be better for a scenario thoguh cuz if it were in standard game i'd get annoyed all the time

 

[Arbustro]

Building a navy is already a problem. Why build boats when you can invest in land units and conquer the continent. Navy already has a short role on Civ adding more difficulties to it seems suicide. Some changes were made in C3C to improve the importance of seas on our strategy and those are welcome.
But imagine i build my galley and there i go with my settler after wasting time shields and 2pop on it plus building a galley instead of a land unit to conquer the continent, and after all these investment, a storm appears out of nowhere and sunks it all… hell!!
That would make the game more realistic, sure, but first reduce the costs of ships at least… or they don’t sunk just loose hp… (but would that be realistic?)
We can’t think on a way to make it harder, before we make it real.

Btw: gulf stream seems fine to me