Time

[bg2soatob]

In Civ 3, my warrior takes about 100 years to get to the border of his country. A peace-treaty lasts a minimum of 20 years (if the treaty was made after 1950), and often must last at least a century. I understand why Civ 3 measures time in years, but often it becomes completely warped. I have no idea how this could be fixed in Civ 4, but somehow I think it should be.

 

[dh_epic]

Don't bother trying to make sense of the timeline in Civ. Use it strictly as a guideline. Complaining about timeline realism is rather insignificant. I'm not about to ask them to make my units die after 40 years, or change it so training a unit takes less than a year.

You're not the first to complain about it, and you won't be the last. But I just don't think this concern is worth the energy -- no disrespect intended.

 

[bg2soatob]

Good point.

Btw, I just thought of another interesting thing. "BC" and "AD" are world-dependant. Unless there's a Jesus in each and every game at the exact same year (but in a non-existent civ, since the Hebrews, Israelis, Israelites, Jews, etc. don't exist), it's a bit odd. But, of course, it's just a game, and this is simply nitpicking.

 

[Vael]

They should get rid of the dates and use turn numbers instead. The years don't mean anything.

 

[Che Guava]

They should get rid of the dates and use turn numbers instead. The years don't mean anything.

True, the years don't really mean a thing, but I do think it's nice having a year to compare to. I always take some small bit of satisfaction when I discover electricity in 1602....

 

[Vael]

With so many people upset by the fact that the dates don't match up with real-world events ("Why does it take a Warrior 50 years to move one tile?") it may not be worth keeping...

 

[Naokaukodem]

Civ is like Quantum Physics, full of probabilities that contradict each other but form the reality.

Example: If your warrior seems to live 2000 years, it's just that an apparition of a warrior of yours went to those different places, not necessarily one warrior or a group of warriors. Everything in civ is potientiality, not classic physic.

 

[dh_epic]

I think a good way to get over it would be to have a very "relative" time. Just have "centuries". 40th century BC, 5th century BC, 18th century AD. And these centuries would switch up depending on the leading technological nation. If I was halfway through the tech tree, then it would be the 16th century. A quarter of the way, 6th century.

Of course, then you'd need to create a game with a flexible number of turns.

 

[bg2soatob]

So some people would be centuries ahead of others?
A timeless game works, I think it's best if it's just in turns (although it is fun to have them say at the end that your capital was established at 4000 BC instead of turn 1).

 

[dh_epic]

And these centuries would switch up depending on the leading technological nation.

To repeat myself and clarify... the leader would set the pace. So if he discovered rockets, it would be the 20th century, even if you were still discovering theology. Or, vice versa, if you were the leader with industry and everyone else was still at monotheism, the century would be 19th.

But like I said, I really don't ultimately care. I think this system could be made to work, but it would take enough time and is just ultimately a waste. The timeline doesn't deserve that much attention.

 

[sir_schwick]

Here was my solution which takes a tiny bit of effort to understand or implement:

The amount of time each year takes is somehow dependant on technology. Some ideas how will be displayed in the spoiler tag below. Also, the zero point is determined by the player. When the game starts, one of the options is starting year. This can range from 32768 BC to somepoint before 32768 AD. This year, along with the current date, really have no meaning outside a way to tell your civilzations story. The default setting would be 4000 BC, like we all know and love.

Spoiler Years per Turn Algorithims :

Leader Determination:
The player with the most techs at the end of turn is used to determine how many years are counted till the next turn. Each of there techs takes 'x' amount of years off the default 50. If the sum of the x's is 10, than the next turn only counts off 40 years instead of 50.

Global Average System:
This is a bit more complicated, but not terribly. If T is the amount of years taken away from the default 50 per turn then:
T is the sum of techs for x*%of players who have tech.
This means if there are 4 players, a tech normally takes 4 years off, and three players have the tech, then 3 years are taken off from that tech alone.