What is "The Great Mistake"?

[Skipity]

The Great Mistake?

That's Easy.

1UPT.

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[Verified_Confection_Being]

The Great Mistake?

That's Easy.

1UPT.

Can we please not turn every thread into a debate on 1UPT?

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[SS-18 ICBM]

I don't think even the Civ III veterans were that obnoxious about trumpeting the virtues of their game over Civ IV. They kept it to threads specifically comparing the two.

 

[Aeson]

That's probably because there were roughly 8 people who thought Civ III was better than Civ IV ... and they were clearly wrong

 

[leif erikson]

Moderator Action: Please let us get back to the subject of this thread. It is not Civ5 and it is not 1 upt. There are plenty of threads that are discussing those issues with a modicum of civility. Back to topic please.
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[CaterpillarKing]

I imagine things like tech quotes, descriptions, and other little things will give clues as to what happened. Kind of like in Civ IV Final Frontier.


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[otaman1]

I hope Firaxis makes a teaser trailer about the "Great Mistake".

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

Not sure if it's been mentioned so far, but in the mega panel, one of the devs mentioned the great mistake and then said anyone who is a Dan Simmons fan will get the reference.

Well in Simmons' novel Hyperion, there was a "Big Mistake" which led to the exodus of the human population of the earth. This big mistake was the creation of a black hole on earth.


Of course, looking at the images coming out, and the trailer, it's clear mass pollution is involved too, and sea level rise, presumably as a result of global warming. Looking at the density of lights in North Africa we can also assume overpopulation. And of course the devs have also mentioned a nuclear exchange in the Asian subcontinent.

So the Great Mistake perhaps refers the the modern period as a whole rather than a specific single incident. A series of blunders, accidents and malicious actions, a whole bunch of these individual mistakes, led to the "Great Mistake" of mankind, leaving earth frail and pushing mankind into the dark age the devs talked about.

 

[otaman1]

Which would kind of be like a black hole. The Earth is left with empty black holes caused from mankind.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

I just re watched the BE trailer and saw some interesting things. Not only is a good part Egypt under water but it looks as if New York WAS under water. The buildings appear very dilapidated. That means you could determine that the sea levels did rise and we either did lower them or made dams and dikes around our main cities.


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[GeoModder]

...but it looks as if New York WAS under water. The buildings appear very dilapidated. That means you could determine that the sea levels did rise and we either did lower them or made dams and dikes around our main cities.

Or that the part of Manhattan Island we see in the trailer undergoes tidal flooding, and it happened to be low tide when the shuttle departed.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

Or that the part of Manhattan Island we see in the trailer undergoes tidal flooding, and it happened to be low tide when the shuttle departed.

I don't think people would have markets set up and live in a place where the flooding is twice a day. The flooding would have had to ha been somewhat solved at least for the city to be populated.


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[Nikolai II]

Or that the part of Manhattan Island we see in the trailer undergoes tidal flooding, and it happened to be low tide when the shuttle departed.

 

[GeoModder]

I don't think people would have markets set up and live in a place where the flooding is twice a day. The flooding would have had to ha been somewhat solved at least for the city to be populated.

Were else would they find enough open space to set up market stalls then in the streets? Or sufficient housing if overpopulation is still an issue?
But you're right, instead of daily tidal flooding, call it a bi-monthly springtide.
Or river floods. Climate change may cause dense rainstorms with rivers flooding their banks as a result on a more irregular basis.

And that could perhaps explain why the pyramids are flooded while Manhattan, Rio, and Paris look dry. The Nile happens to undergo its annual flooding and the course of the river isn't under 'control' anymore by the locals.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

I suppose it is possible if people don't actually live permanently there on flooding zones. It might just be a good place to trade and barter goods.


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[archmagej]

Overall I think it is likely some type of global change, possibly caused by nukes. I think a black hole anywhere close to earth would have caused much more devastation. Also I dont think it was the moon, i think it looks normal in one of the shots. I guess it could have been too many boreholes being drilled warming the planet and melting the ice.

now get off my lawn

 

[Sezneg]

They wanted to have a ecological disaster that wouldn't be a distraction/point of disagreement among playerbase.

So they left it intentionally vague.

 

[BrazilianSpacer]

According to the trailer, it seems to be these things: the rise of the sea levels, overcrowded cities and the scarcity of natural resources. Perhaps even a Malthusian catastrophe?

OR, it could be like in the new movie Interstellar, in which extreme weather conditions don't allow us to grow food anymore.

 

[Jman5]

A large asteroid is detected that will impact the Earth in a matter of years. The international community mobilizes to create a countermeasure that will deflect the asteroid just barely. However, in the rush to complete the project someone screws up the math converting meters to feet. The resulting failure dooms the mission and the meteor impacts the Earth causing a massive long term devastation.

The dust cloud blocks out a tremendous amounts of sunlight killing crops and devastating the solar energy industry that the entire world relies on for power. The electrical grid of the civilized world practically collapses under its own weight. Within a matter of days, panic ensues. With no end in sight, countries begin re-opening abandoned coal plants exacerbating the climate problem. After years of this, many feel we have reached a point of no return and expeditions to colonize a new world are formed.

The Great Mistake was a simple math error that doomed a planet.

 

[Krajzen]

A large asteroid is detected that will impact the Earth in a matter of years. The international community mobilizes to create a countermeasure that will deflect the asteroid just barely. However, in the rush to complete the project someone screws up the math converting meters to feet. The resulting failure dooms the mission and the meteor impacts the Earth causing a massive long term devastation.

This fits the human history perfectly (obviously such space mistakes already happened and lead to lose of few billion dollars )

I really like it, especially as it makes the Great Mistake caused mainly by nature, not humanity (I'm not sure why but I don't like the concept of 'Hey we are 100% responsible for destruction of our home planet, let's go to a new one!')

Less ironic version:

Asteroid is incoming, mission is sent to destroy it, but due to the Great Mistake in a global plan the entire mission is screwed and while damaged asteroid doesn't annihilate humanity it cripples it severely.