Terrorism

[HoMM3 fanatic]

Do you think terrorism is/or should be implemented in game?

I mean, there is no corruption element anymore in game (at least not by same name as in civ3), so I guess mainteinance costs of cities somehow is meant to simulate this. I don´t know how this is implemented in the game mechanics, number of cities and their distance to palace(s) affect mainteinance cost, or am I wrong? But do you think terrorism should be there as a more concrete element during modern times? There could be many ways to simulate this, like those events (I don´t know if there is such events already, haven´t played that much yet).
One thing what I thought was if there was a civic for allowing government to fund terrorism against rival civs and then you could train terrorists in your cities, just like you could train missionaries and corporative executives. But there is already spies, so they´d need to be somehow different. It could be third thing to spread to enemy cities just like religions and corporations, with negative effects to target civ of course. Or then terrorist units could just conduct one time jobs like spies, for example - plane captures and suicide bombing. What do you think? There should be some ability to fight terrorism as well, like polices&fbi and such. Organized crime would be another issue to discuss about. Might be a bad joke if Mafia was one of the corporations...

 

[Al Capone]

Great idea, generally, but I haven't got too much fantasy, so discussing how terror should work in civ is not left to me, but I would really appreciate that!

 

[Pogo]

I think that terrorism would better be represented through random events. Even though some countries sponsor terrorism they don't have much control over the exact missions. So there could be a chance of one of your building being destroyed, particularly at risk could be public transportation. It could even cause a population point drop in a city, not only representing the people blown up but people moving away to the quieter, safer countryside.
Maybe have the chance of a terrorist attack increasing the more cities you capture.
If you want state sponsored terrorism you've always got your poison water supply option.

 

[Ad Hoc]

i consider spies and their missions as terrorism, poison water, sabotage buildings and ferment unhappiness are all effects which can be called terrorism.

 

[DelphiDie]

You are right, that terrorism is a part of human history (especially of the younger history), but I don´t think that there is any need for government trained terrorists. The main reason is, that the current spy system already has many options which you can describe as active terrorism. Just think about what you can do with a Spy:

Poison water: While the effect ingame doesn´t seems to be dramatic you can starve metropolis sized cities to small towns with this act. This translates to millions of people dieing because of the poisoned water. I call that terrorism.

Sabotage Buildings: you can destroy Buildings in a city, and I also would call this terrorism.

Change Civic: While this does not seem to be terrorism on the first sight you must think of it a a coup d'état. You are forcing another civ to change their civics by supporting the opposition, which might lead a state from universal suffrage to a police state or something else.

While there are other options I think these are very comparable to what you would call terrorism. And to be honest, I really dislike that doing this to another civ does not come with any global diplomatic penalties when a spy is caught. I´d even go so far and make an UN resolution which forces everyone to declare war against someone who has repeatedly tried this kind of things (at least 5 Spies caught or something along this lines). I think the current system already goes a bit too far.

 

[Ad Hoc]

And to be honest, I really dislike that doing this to another civ does not come with any global diplomatic penalties when a spy is caught. I´d even go so far and make an UN resolution which forces everyone to declare war against someone who has repeatedly tried this kind of things (at least 5 Spies caught or something along this lines). I think the current system already goes a bit too far.

i would like to see a un resolution banning the use of spies outside your own cultural borders, you could always defy the resolution and take the diplo hit.

 

[ComradeDavo]

i consider spies and their missions as terrorism, poison water, sabotage buildings and ferment unhappiness are all effects which can be called terrorism.

Indeed. Terrorism is already resent with the espinoage feature.

 

[DelphiDie]

i would like to see a un resolution banning the use of spies outside your own cultural borders, you could always defy the resolution and take the diplo hit.

That sounds like a great idea!

 

[Dominico]

The whole point of spies is that they are not working for the country they are spying for. If they are caught then they deny everything. The points where the nationality is brought up is through torture/interrogation and the owning civ would still deny it.

You can never make resolutions on spies etc.

As said already the way the game works symbolises terrorism. Remember terrorism depends entirely on your point of view.

Pretty much most of the spy missions are terrorist missions with the exception of stealing tech etc.

As for a dedicated terrorist unit i dont think there is a need to label it as such. Terrorists never have a real massive impact on the country unless you let them. Fear yes, but militarily they have little impact. I think the increased spending on espionage shows the cost of defending against terror and the damages done to cities and improvements shows their attacks.

After i have just written that i thought. It could be usefull to have a privateer style landunit which you could buy. This could symbolise putting money into terrorists and then denying it so it has no noticable nationality. Similar to what Syria and Iran do nowadays to war with countries stronger than them without getting directly involved.

Maybe make the unit invisible but weak. It can attack the military but will only cause damage, rarely wipe out a unit if ever. Also it could pillage etc. Then you would need to create a unit which could see it, ie a counterterrorist unit. Maybe give them a suitcase nuke since russia alledgedly has lost 10's of these things (not sure i believe that)

I loved the Eco terrorist in Call to power who could turn an entire city into a jungle with his eco bomb, reclaiming it for nature

Anyway i waffled on for long enough...

 

[BeyondCivilized]

I would like to bombard civilian buildings, destroy civilian infrastructures and capture civilians as hostages so I could torture them until "God sorts them out" and gain 1,000,000,000 (One Billion) espionage points.

 

[BeyondCivilized]

Oh and I would like one of those modified F-16 in my game too. Witnessing one in real life bombarding the local civilian power plant at 6 am in the morning proved to me how much it can be effective as a weapon of justice in CIV.

 

[Tee Kay]

The revamped espionage system already incorporated terrorism.

 

[Perfxion]

A land privateer unit which can attack cities(but can't enter to capture/raze), pillage lands(improvements as well), and kill units(but be weaker than normal units so it isn't as over powered). Make it in the mold of the CIV-III Guerrilla unit.

So it would be able to attack and destory units a generational back from them, ie it comes with Marines but can only fight well against riflemen/musket men/longbow men.

As for direct terrorism. There is so much terrorist activity in the game.
-poison water, change civics, privateers, destroy building, sabotage production, pillage improvements, capture civilians, burn cities to the ground, defend fights against non-civilized beings. All thats missing from old days was planting nukes.

 

[Steiner-Davion]

Don't forget there are plenty of random events in the game (Especially with Solvers BtS pre-v3.13 Patch, and those included in BtS v3.13) random tile improvements, building being destroyed through various means, including Arson, etc...)

I too like the idea of a land-privateer unit. I'd also like to see a "modern" or "industrial" age Naval Privateer unit, that the age of sail privateers could upgrade too. There are still plenty of pirates around today, particularly in the Indan Ocean off of Africa and in the confined waters of South East Asia etc... Some of them are quite brutal too.

EDIT: Just found this link on Yahoo about two pirate attacks this week: 21st CEntury Pirates

and here is a related Video form the AP: AP Video on Pirates

 

[dragodon64]

Love privateers and the whole concept of going to war without declaring war, so I'm all for the land privateer and the industrial/modern privateer.

 

[CoZe]

I think national wonders should be possible targets for spies/terrorism too ... basicly that's what happened at 9/11. wall street/WTC, Heroic Epic-West Point/Pentagon.