Terrorists

[GhostWriter16]

I actually think this would be interesting. I definitely think after the Middle Ages, Barbs should be replaced by Pirates. In the 20th century, terrorists would replace them. This is realistic. In the Ancient Era and Medieval, Barbarian swarms would attack the land, in the 16th or 17th century, Pirates would replace them and attack by sea, then those would be replaced by terrorists which primarily participated in Espionag0e and secret attacks.

Good thoughts.

 

[Earthling]

Won't be room for them to spawn on maps with at most a couple dozen cities; all will be filled up by the modern age. Only way to implement this would be to have cities revolt from player control and that always has been/likely still will be rejected as an unfun mechanic.

 

[Willem]

we can have Terrorist to replace Barbarians in the information age. Every civ and city is prone to Terrorist planes attack.

No way is that ever going to happen, it's far too politically sensitive. Especially the part about plane attacks. Sept 11 is still very fresh in alot of people's minds.

 

[civ_king]

To make the game more exciting and irritating

we can have Terrorist to replace Barbarians in the information age. Every civ and city is prone to Terrorist planes attack. Improvements such as Intelligence Agency in BTS would be able to prevent and lower risk of Terrorist attack.

This can be part of the story as we play. It would be random as well.

Planes? I can't recall terrorist attacks involving planes except the guy who tried to destroy an IRS building and 9/11...

 

[weekend_warrior]

NO.Do not want.

 

[globalempire]

@Earthling

to solve this my ppost on page 1

 

[702]

Won't be room for them to spawn on maps with at most a couple dozen cities; all will be filled up by the modern age. Only way to implement this would be to have cities revolt from player control and that always has been/likely still will be rejected as an unfun mechanic.

Or change the way barbarians/terrorists spawn.
Perhaps they could spawn in territory which was culturally split between 2 different civs, if those civs had poor relations with each other.
Or perhaps not, but otherwise, because as you say in the modern age the map is essentially full, a new way will be needed to decide how they spawn.

Pirates. They should be able to spawn throughout the game, as pirates have existed throughout history (Caeser fought them 2 millennia ago, we fight them today).
However, they shouldn't, in the modern age, spawn any random modern age ship how many pirate battleships, cruisers or destroyers are there? None, they couldn't take on a navy, so in civ terms it'd have to be something which only posed a threat to oceanic improvements.
In addition, I thought the pirate ships with hidden nationality in Civ 4 were a great way to represent what many pirates were at that time, state sanctioned, but with conditions attached (attack their ships not ours!).

 

[Ahriman]

Though piracy exists today in the Horn of Africa and the Straits of Malacca, it has been of fairly trivial amounts since ~1800. The overall impact on global trade is tiny.

Not worth representing in-game.

 

[Chalks]

Though piracy exists today in the Horn of Africa and the Straits of Malacca, it has been of fairly trivial amounts since ~1800. The overall impact on global trade is tiny.

Not worth representing in-game.

It exists far more than modern era barbarian raids - which is something you end up with in Civ games quite frequently.

Short of removing the system entirely once people reach the modern era, evolving it into piracy (and perhaps allowing them to target trade routes to force you to actually care about them rather than them just being stupid little triremes that throw themselves at the bows of your battleships) would be a nice touch.

The only reason piracy is confined to a few places in the modern era is because countries spend resources patrolling their coastal waters. Pirates and smugglers combined are probably a significant enough element of the modern world and in an alternate history where countries have not spent resources in defeating the threat, perhaps they would still rule the seas.

 

[Ahriman]

It exists far more than modern era barbarian raids - which is something you end up with in Civ games quite frequently.

Really? I haven't played vanila much in a long time, but in my games barbarians were gone by the modern era.

The only reason piracy is confined to a few places in the modern era is because countries spend resources patrolling their coastal waters.

And because in strong states, even without coastal patrols government could find and arrest the pirates on land.

Its not really about patrols; there are MORE patrols around the horn and in the straits of Malacca than most places (well, maybe US Coast Guard in the florida straits). Its the combination of high-density shipping + nearby on-land safe sanctuaries in Somalia and Indonesia.

 

[Chalks]

Perhaps it depends how much attention you pay to their silly little ships in the earlier eras but those boats do tend to stick around even if they don't spawn any more.

 

[Crazy George]

This is about Civ5, and as such, there would be no spies to initiate (espionage is out).

Hadn't really consider that. But I suppose that's because when I hear them say Espionage has been eliminated, what I take that to mean is that the Espionage Point system has been elimated.

But there are other ways to effect dastardly deeds.
Back in the day, weren't Diplomat units capable of performing some "Spy like" functions in addition to founding Embassies?

 

[qwerty25]

Or change the way barbarians/terrorists spawn.
Perhaps they could spawn in territory which was culturally split between 2 different civs, if those civs had poor relations with each other.
Or perhaps not, but otherwise, because as you say in the modern age the map is essentially full, a new way will be needed to decide how they spawn.

Pirates. They should be able to spawn throughout the game, as pirates have existed throughout history (Caeser fought them 2 millennia ago, we fight them today).
However, they shouldn't, in the modern age, spawn any random modern age ship how many pirate battleships, cruisers or destroyers are there? None, they couldn't take on a navy, so in civ terms it'd have to be something which only posed a threat to oceanic improvements.
In addition, I thought the pirate ships with hidden nationality in Civ 4 were a great way to represent what many pirates were at that time, state sanctioned, but with conditions attached (attack their ships not ours!).

Make pirate ships fast moving, hard to catch, and weak, but mostly just attacks oceanic improvements or steals gold from cities.

 

[mccracken97]

If I recall, in Civ II, occasionally in undeveloped areas where no cities were settled, in modern times fundamentalists would spawn just like barbarians. I don't remember what the exact message was but it was something to the effect of "Religious fanatics have taken up arms." This is off topic, but the barb system in Civ I and Civ II was so much more interesting and more of a real threat when they spawned as there would be an entire group of units to deal with that develped over time. Also, you could actually have your government be fundamentalist and it was probably the best military production government you could have in that game. And it allowed you to build fundamentalist units which were rather weak but cheap.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Well, if it offends a large number of people, then keep it out. Its not a big deal. However, terrorism in the Modern Era would be realistic. Still, having Hitler in the game is also realistic in a sense yet it isn't done (And probably correctly so) because of the offensiveness. Definitely start spawning pirates after Astronomy though.

 

[Che Guava]

Make pirate ships fast moving, hard to catch, and weak, but mostly just attacks oceanic improvements or steals gold from cities.

Like privateers?

On that note, the only thing I would like to see added in the guerilla/barbarian vein is the addition of more 'anonymous' units like privateers in Civ4. Rather than take on an opponent directly, send it weak melee/gunpowder units flying the 'barbarian flag' to pillage thier countryside, tear up their roads and generally make useful nuissances of themselves.

 

[702]

I like the idea of keeping privateers and pirates seperate. Privateers represent the "Golden Age" of piracy, when ship captains would get a letter of marque which was a permission to attack another nations ships, in a way which would be an act of war otherwise. A bit like fighting wars by proxy. I've seen land versions of this in a mod somewhere, Special Forces, you need to meet certain military requirements (have West Point for instance), but then you can build 3 land/soldier type units which function the same as privateers.
But not all piracy was state sanctioned, some were... outlaws lets say, operating on behalf of no-one but themselves.
I think it makes the game more interesting if you have both.

 

[Abraxis]

Has anyone else ever played War On Terror, the board game?
http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/

I think if terrorists were sorta their own AI faction, but with no actual cities, rather just influence within certain cities, this would be an awesome game play mechanic to spice up the modern era, which is a little bland in my opinion.

For example, if you have some extra money laying around, you can pay the terrorists to maybe takeout great people, cause chaos in a rival city, cutoff trade or access to resources, take out buildings... Inversely the terrorists could also demand money from the player and AIs in order to leave them alone. As the terrorists are payed through various means and accumulate more wealth, they would gain more influence, creating a backlash against them from nations both human and AI. Which might have some interesting diplomatic repercussions.
You could choose to work with the terrorists, which would grant you some underhanded venues for crippling your opponent, but if you're caught it would mean serious negative responses from most nations.

really there are plenty of possibilities, I'm not overly creative and some of my ideas are from the current espionage system, but I really do think there is a lot of potential in this idea, if handled properly. It would make the game way more dynamic and could be worked to stir up diplomacy in much the same way city states are going to.

 

[Rusty Edge]

What if we had Algiers as one of our city states? It would thrive on extortion and piracy. The gold would finance more piracy, slavery, and result in larger fleets of rushed pirate galleys and corsairs. You could 1)pay them off, causing them to focus on your rivals,2)you could build a substantial navy and go to war with them, or 3) you could do nothing and suffer the consequences.

 

[civ_king]

What if we had Algiers as one of our city states? It would thrive on extortion and piracy. The gold would finance more piracy, slavery, and result in larger fleets of rushed pirate galleys and corsairs. You could 1)pay them off, causing them to focus on your rivals,2)you could build a substantial navy and go to war with them, or 3) you could do nothing and suffer the consequences.

or 4) you are so much more powerful than them that they don't bug you