Volcano

[Howard Mahler]

I have been playing BTS recently with random events.
(I am not a big fan of random events, but does represent a change of pace.)

I do not like the Volcano event.

It can be very bad for a player, which I can live with.
However, in my opinion it is not well thought out.

First, in the real world not all mountains are active volcanos.
(Not all mountain ranges contain active volcanos.)
Second, having mountains in your starting area is already a negative (in almost all cases other than the rare case where they make an enemy army take a long way around.) The volcano random event just makes them more of negative.
Third, land near an active volcano is usually richer farmland; in Civ you do not get this gain, just the pain.

In addition, given the scale of most maps, where a square might be 200 miles across, only very big eruptions would affect adjacent squares.
If adjacent squares are close enough to the volcano to have improvements destroyed, they are also close enough to have the benefit of richer soil.

 

[Jarlaxe Baenre]

You could mod the event so that it also gives richer soil. (+1 food on all affected tiles)

 

[scyt4l3]

dude, that's a very good idead. I personnaly hate that event, but giving it a plus like that would completely change the way I see it.

 

[Emory]

It's an interesting idea, if it can be done. Makes taking land near the volcano a gamble. Will the volcano erupt, or will your farms be left in peace?

 

[Ambidexter]

It's an interesting idea.

 

[Jarlaxe Baenre]

Or it could do both. Erupt and give you excellent farmland.

 

[Bushface]

So you don't like the volcano event. Its effects are negative: you're not supposed to like it.
So it's not realistic. No more are many other events, nor indeed are many other game features.

Or maybe get modding. Peak becomes volcano, erupts, blows megatonnes of fertile soil on to adjoining farmland while carefully avoiding cottages etc, peak becomes hill with new Titanium resource giving -25% to cost of jets, stealth bombers, and SS parts.

 

[Howard Mahler]

It is not just negative, not fun, and unrealistic.

It is a bad game mechanic, since it exacerbates a bad starting position.

So you don't like the volcano event. Its effects are negative: you're not supposed to like it.
So it's not realistic. No more are many other events, nor indeed are many other game features.

Or maybe get modding. Peak becomes volcano, erupts, blows megatonnes of fertile soil on to adjoining farmland while carefully avoiding cottages etc, peak becomes hill with new Titanium resource giving -25% to cost of jets, stealth bombers, and SS parts.

 

[Dave Hartwick]

If it was realistic it could wipe out one of your cities, not just tile improvements. As it is, you might avoid building cottages next to mountains if you have a choice. Farms and mines are little trouble to rebuild.

 

[acivguy55]

Hi,

There are some mods in which active volcanoes have different graphics from regular mountains... just thought to mention that.

 

[CivDude86]

You should enable the tsunami event that can destroy cities if you want to have some real fun.

 

[karadoc]

I think the event is fine. I'm not the kind of person who cries over every little negative effect the random-number-generator throws at me.

Clearly some people think that having improvements destroyed is not "fun". But here's how I see it: it shifts how the game plays out. It adds new and unexpected challenges to overcome. It can be painful to lose all your towns to an unlucky event like this, but when it happens it throws new choices at you – forcing you to decide how you are going to deal with this (minor) problem. It adds variety to the game. Obviously it would be bad if the outcomes of all civ4 games were decided by luck, but this event has a very minor effect compared to other luck aspects of the game.

Look, I don't mean to imply that this is a really well designed event or anything like that. I don't really care about existence of this event one way or the other. I just strongly object to people saying "such and such is bad because it is not fun" – such empty statements should be argued against. The fun of any game is created by combining parts that are not fun by themselves.

 

[theskibum]

I think the event is fine. I'm not the kind of person who cries over every little negative effect the random-number-generator throws at me.

Clearly some people think that having improvements destroyed is not "fun". But here's how I see it: it shifts how the game plays out. It adds new and unexpected challenges to overcome. It can be painful to lose all your towns to an unlucky event like this, but when it happens it throws new choices at you – forcing you to decide how you are going to deal with this (minor) problem. It adds variety to the game. Obviously it would be bad if the outcomes of all civ4 games were decided by luck, but this event has a very minor effect compared to other luck aspects of the game.

Look, I don't mean to imply that this is a really well designed event or anything like that. I don't really care about existence of this event one way or the other. I just strongly object to people saying "such and such is bad because it is not fun" – such empty statements should be argued against. The fun of any game is created by combining parts that are not fun by themselves.

this is good insight and well put words to my feelings of random events. I love random events for particularly this reason. Even if they do negatively affect me.

 

[Howard Mahler]

I did not complain about negative events per se.
(I am not a fan, but that was not my point.)

Tornado wipes out your farm or pasture.
Early in the game this can be a relatively big deal.
However, it does not go out of its way to penalize those who have a worse starting position.

Similarly, we don't need random events that make it worse to have lots of desert in your starting position. (I am not aware of any, but of there were I would have the same complaint.)

In addition to its other problems, the Volcano can have much more negative effect than most other random events.

 

[Howard Mahler]

Agree.
Let us note that is you have more than one mountain near your start point, there may be many tiles on which neither a mine nor a farm may be built (prior to Civil Service or Biology.)

Had such a start recently.
Had to build next to mountains; no viable alternative assuming I wanted to found a second city anywhere even remotely close to my capital.
Got hit by Volcano early.
Rebuilt improvements.
Soon after rebuilding, got hit by Volcano in same location.
Quit.

Yes I could have tried to think of clever ways to try to revise what I was doing.
However, my poor starting location combined with this bad luck put me so far behind as to not be much fun to continue playing. (I do not use worldbuilder, although there would have been nothing wrong with using it in a Single Player game such as this one.)

If it was realistic it could wipe out one of your cities, not just tile improvements. As it is, you might avoid building cottages next to mountains if you have a choice. Farms and mines are little trouble to rebuild.

 

[Dave Hartwick]

Random events have caused me to quit a game occasionally and once directly caused me to lose a game. I know I'd be annoyed by getting hit twice by a volcano, even once is a bother. Depending on how early in the game it was I might quit.

Even if events had caused me to restart dozens of times it would be nowhere near how often I restart because I don't like the look of my position. Often I'll have an idea of how I want to play a particular game and if I end up in isolation or something I'll restart. Or I want an inland or coastal capital.

I wouldn't want to have them on all the time but I'd enjoy the option for realistic events with historic disasters.

If Emancipation available and Slavery is active,

X = X + 1

ChanceCivilWar = X/100


If Player = Khan and SoDOnTransports = True

ChanceDivineWind = .1


If TradeRouteToAsia = True

Call BlackDeath

 

[acivguy55]

You should enable the tsunami event that can destroy cities if you want to have some real fun.

How do you do that?

 

[karadoc]

I did not complain about negative events per se.
(I am not a fan, but that was not my point.)

Tornado wipes out your farm or pasture.
Early in the game this can be a relatively big deal.
However, it does not go out of its way to penalize those who have a worse starting position.

Similarly, we don't need random events that make it worse to have lots of desert in your starting position. (I am not aware of any, but of there were I would have the same complaint.)

In addition to its other problems, the Volcano can have much more negative effect than most other random events.

You make a fair point — the volcano event is more likely if you happen if you have a particular kind of bad starting location. But I still don't think it's a big deal. I've never seen a game where volcanoes had a significant effect on the outcome of the game. What Howard Mahler described might be such a case, but I've never seen a case like that personally – so I assume it must be pretty rare (I've played a lot of games).

Yesterday I played a one-city-challenge game in which my starting city had some of its fat-cross resources on another island; the sheep pasture on the other island got washed away so many times that I ended up permanently garrisoning 2 workers on it, ready for a quick rebuild. That particular starting location was pretty bad, and the pasture problem was just making it worse – but I don't think it's really a big deal. It just adds to the challenge of the game. The events aren't completely unpredictable; they are just another thing to take into account.

Having said all that, I would not discourage you from modding the event out of your game, or replacing it with a more interesting / 'balanced' event.

 

[6K Man]

The volcano event IS annoying.

The only way I can think of to mitigate it is to try not to surround the volcano with cottages. Cottages take forever to regrow, while a new farm/mine/workshop is immediately useful once rebuilt.

I'd like the Civ1 option to build a Temple with which to propitiate the volcano gods. Failing that an option to sacrifice a citizen to the volcano, in order to prevent the destruction (option disappears with Scientific Method).

 

[Callonia]

The volcano event IS annoying.

The only way I can think of to mitigate it is to try not to surround the volcano with cottages. Cottages take forever to regrow, while a new farm/mine/workshop is immediately useful once rebuilt.

I'd like the Civ1 option to build a Temple with which to propitiate the volcano gods. Failing that an option to sacrifice a citizen to the volcano, in order to prevent the destruction (option disappears with Scientific Method).

Won't 1 pop point of a city means thousands of people sacrificed to the volcano to appease it? XD