What Events and Quests do you like? (a modder's curiosity)

[<Nexus>]

What Events and Quests do you like? And what kind of Events/Quests would you like to see in the game?

 

[Thrasybulos]

Not the answer you'd like, and probably not very helpful, but here it is: none.
I hate quests/events (and characters) in 4X strategy games.
Unfortunately for me, 4X game designers (and modders ? ) are apparently now addicted to them...

 

[<Nexus>]

Yeah, I know that not all people like them. I don't even try to understand why but easily accept it

 

[a pen-dragon]

The problem with these is that they are very hard to balance. Some quests give you nothing (e.g. holy mountain), while you might randomly receive a golden age from others (national sports league with statue of zeus, marathon event).

Also beyond balance these have to feel relevant, i.e. powerful, which actually makes balance much harder to achieve.

 

[Fippy]

From a deity perspective, there's already so much important random stuff happening without events.
So i would prefer small fun events..not those that threaten my game further (like barb invasions).

I always liked the idea of an event that makes being in slavery a bit risky.
But capitals in revolt for an unknown time isn't fun imo.
An angry worker unit leaving for example would be reasonable..i could think okay we whip a new one then

 

[a pen-dragon]

I always liked the idea of an event that makes being in slavery a bit risky.
But capitals in revolt for an unknown time isn't fun imo.
An angry worker unit leaving for example would be reasonable..i could think okay we whip a new one then

+1

 

[AcaMetis]

Yeah, I know that not all people like them. I don't even try to understand why but easily accept it

This could be my memories playing tricks on me since it has been a while since I played a game with random events, but my issue with them is that they're, of all things, not random enough .

You adopt Slavery and you know you're rolling the dice every turn on a slave revolt event. You also know that sooner or later you'll get the herbal medication event and have to sacrifice 1-2 pop in every city for a...I think 90% chance at a permanent +2 health in every city buff, you know you have to keep some gold on hand at all times because any given tile improvement/forest could be flooded/burn down/etc. and if it's critical you need gold to buy it back., if you ever swap into Universal Suffering you're praying to roll the close vote falling within error margins event so you can get a permanent bonus, etc. It all feels so...predictable.

The issue isn't just a general lack of events (or at least common ones, you're not going to see the event specific to the Aztecs and their Sacrificial Altar UB very often), but a lack of variety. The only event tied to running Slavery is the occasional slave revolt, there's no option for a positive outcome or even a different negative outcome. I know getting a positive event for running Slavery probably sounds bizarre, but if all you get from Slavery is a single bad event that's a balance lever with a broken wristwatch, not a random event.

So, what kind of random events/quests would I like to see in the game? Actual random events/quests, for a start .

 

[<Nexus>]

Now it is getting insightful

you have to keep some gold on hand at all times because

I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. I mean, there are many other things in the game that you need to take care of and do in a certain way to be successful.

The only event tied to running Slavery is the occasional slave revolt, there's no option for a positive outcome or even a different negative outcome. I know getting a positive event for running Slavery probably sounds bizarre,

Not at all. At least not from a designer POV. Actually I always thought about the slave revolt event as a feature of Slavery civic rather than a random event.
A positive outcome? Like what? Can you suggest anything?

I don't think it's a bad thing that some have no choices just a "Look! Something bad has happened!" *
They problem is when choices are not really choices at all, like there's a good, a bad and an even worse outcome to choose from. Well, if you can choose the good outcome only with certain limits (e.g. have enough gold) is sort of okay. Sort of...

*I like the Worker unit revolting idea though. I may implement it into my mod. Thx!

The issue isn't just a general lack of events (or at least common ones, you're not going to see the event specific to the Aztecs and their Sacrificial Altar UB very often), but a lack of variety

Yeah, I don't like events that can trigger only to certain civ. From a design POV those are just a waste of time to create on the first place.
Tying events to civics on the other hand... Especially when civics are designed well and it's not just newer=better but different ones support different strategies. In my mod I have far more civics than in BtS, so this will be a good place to start with.

And going a step further: while IMO events unique to certain civs or leaders is pointless... But events tied to Traits could work as well.

 

[AcaMetis]

A positive outcome? Like what? Can you suggest anything?

Not saying these are well balanced or even necessarily good, but a few possible ideas:

"A group of escaped (foreign civ adjective) slaves have been spotted around (city name). How will we respond?"
-They're not causing trouble, so we can't spare this matter any attention. (no effect)
-Order the military to capture and escort them back to (foreign civ), they can handle the rest. (requires a military police unit in the city. Consumes military police unit's turn. +diplo with foreign civ)
-They're on our soil now. Send them to (city name) and put them to work locally. (some kind of production bonus, -diplo with foreign civ)
-Contact their owner and offer to purchase the escaped slaves. (requires and consumes a small sum of gold, same production bonus as above option without the diplo penalty)

"Poor practices among slave drivers in (city name) has become untenable, and a new leader is needed. Where should we draw a new leader from?"
-Have the slaves organize themselves. (no effect)
-Local militia. (requires a barracks in the city, barracks gets a bonus yield)
-Local merchants. (same, but a market)
-Local academia. (same, but a library)
-Local clergy. (same, but a state religion temple/monestary)
-Local lawman. (same, but a courthouse)

"The auction platform in (city name) is starting to gain a reputation. If we aided it (city name)'s commerce could increase nicely."
-We don't have the resources to spare on this plan. (no effect)
-Invest (sum of gold) to expand the platform. (pay gold for some kind of commerce related bonus)
-Divert all of the city's efforts into expanding the platform. (lose some amount of production, same commerce related bonus as above)
-Use all able bodies to expand the platform quickly, without delaying existing projects. (lose 1 pop and gain one hit of whip anger, same commerce bonus)

"A fight broke out between two groups of slaves in (city name). Their masters threatened to deny food to the group who made less progress, and one group's work suddenly collapsed. How should we resolve this matter?"
-Forbid these sorts of unhealthy competitions entirely. (+1 happy in the city)
-Force the masters to adjust their terms and encourage a healthy competition. (some kind of production bonus, maybe one hit of temporary whip unhappy?)
-Order the local militia to search for any saboteurs, and take measures to prevent future incidents. (requires a barracks, barracks gets a bonus yield?)
-Ask the local monestary to confirm whether the sudden failure is a divine sign, and to spread the word if so. (requires a monestary of your state religion, gain a Missionary unit of your state religion)

"A wealthy (foreign civ adjective) merchant was caught buying (city name) citizens as slaves. Locals believe the man knowingly cooperated with local criminals, but (foreign civ) insists he is innocent. How should we respond?"
-Release the merchant from all suspicion. (temporary unhappy in city, +diplo with foreign civ)
-Permit the merchant to pay a hefty fine for his freedom. (temporary unhappy in city, small sum of gold)
-Detain the merchant until our citizens are returned. (no effect)
-Interrogate the merchant before responding to (foreign civ)'s requests. (temporary happy in city, -diplo with foreign civ)
-Extract confessions from the other criminals implicating (foreign civ), and push the matter as far as it can go. (permanent +1 happy in city, force foreign civ to DoW)

 

[<Nexus>]

These are really good. Sure I'll implement some or all into my mod. THX

 

[<Nexus>]

What about Quests? How to have interesting ones?
I know this is an even harder question.
In RPGs quests are usually a combination of kill X NPC/monster and bring Y item to Z place/NPC.
Civ4 quests are even more... shallow: Build/train X number of Y building/unit or acquire X number of Y resources. These are things that the player would do anyway and only encourages snowballing effect.

There are a few ones that I find interesting though:
Blessed Sea: Have cities on 1.5*default number of players for this map size (10 for standard) landmasses while never switching State Religion.
It's a neat idea to encourage the player to settle on not ideal locations instead of following perfect strategy.
Holy Mountain: Build 2*default number of players for this world size temples/monasteries (14 for standard), cathedrals count as 4 temples/monasteries to reveal the holy mountain peak. Settle at the holy mountain peak to control it.
It also starts as a "Build X of ..." I like it because it feels like a puzzle. (Not giving a good reward is a different thing).
Crusade: Declare War on the owner of the Holy City, stay in war until you conquer the Holy City
Greed: Declare War on the owner of the resource triggered, stay in war until you conquer the resource
I have never triggered these two but I like the idea of locking the player into war although he could prefer to make peace.

So the question is: In your opinion what are some good quest aims that feel worth pursuing and not just encourage snowballing?