What triggers aid emergencies?

[Leucarum]

So, since getting Gathering Storm I have seen a total of 2 aid emergencies, one of which I called on myself just to try. I'm reading that lots of people are getting multiple emergencies each game, which seems like it might make diplomatic victories more realistic.

Following some advice I've tried using larger maps and rushing to meet everyone, maxing out disaster settings and polluting like crazy to raise global warming... but still no aid emergencies...

Am I missing something obvious? What other factors are there? I'm not running any mods. Does AI opinion of you play into their decision to call emergencies?

 

[Brutus2]

I've completed 10 standard speed and size games in GS now and never had more than two aid emergencies in one game including one with disaster on 4. Maybe that's because I have also only had one game that I actually reached any future era civics or techs because Culture, Religion and Domination victories all can be easily reached long before future era. Maybe if I had games that lasted longer, there would be more?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I've completed 10 standard speed and size games in GS now and never had more than two aid emergencies in one game including one with disaster on 4. Maybe that's because I have also only had one game that I actually reached any future era civics or techs because Culture, Religion and Domination victories all can be easily reached long before future era. Maybe if I had games that lasted longer, there would be more?

Probably not. My current game has had several and it's only in the global Industrial Era.

 

[lordhaw]

Not knowing what the exact parameters are it may have something to do with the level of destruction after the disaster? I seem to get several of them in the earlier stages after the world congress starts up. They seem to dry up in the modern eras when global warming is taking shape, though I do get some from big storms and the like. They aren't frequent but they aren't rare in my games either.

 

[Victoria]

If the game is treating aid like any other emergency then the chance is random.
Certainly you need to know the civ exists to give it aid
Looking in the XML the clear requirement is you loose population.
Also The chance of events occurring changes with the events ‘realism’ setting and I must point out the loss of population increases significantly with higher level.

You need to know the civ
The civ must have settled next to something that will cause loss of life
The level of realism recalling increases your chances and I know many people who play a dip victory increase realism.
There is no guarantee an emergency will be triggered, maybe it has to be requested. Not sure on this, I tend to play fast and have not noticed.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

If the game is treating aid like any other emergency then the chance is random.
Certainly you need to know the civ exists to give it aid
Looking in the XML the clear requirement is you loose population.
Also The chance of events occurring changes with the events ‘realism’ setting and I must point out the loss of population increases significantly with higher level.

You need to know the civ
The civ must have settled next to something that will cause loss of life
The level of realism recalling increases your chances and I know many people who play a dip victory increase realism.
There is no guarantee an emergency will be triggered, maybe it has to be requested. Not sure on this, I tend to play fast and have not noticed.

Yes, the game gives the victim of the disaster the option of requesting aid. The human player will almost always decline (gold? Bleh) instead of awarding a DVP to another player.

 

[Phoenix1595]

As @Victoria mentioned, the emergency mechanic is random. Each turn, there is a small chance that an emergency will be initiated IF one of the potential catalysts occured on the previous turn (i.e. city capture, natural disaster, etc.). I can’t recall the percentage now, but it was posted on the forums not long ago. It was fairly low, so the fact that you can go through a whole game and only get a few emergencies is not unusual.

 

[Victoria]

Cheers @Eagle Pursuit , I tend to play on level2 and do not even notice the choice, I guess it is an alert icon?

I can’t recall the percentage now, but it was posted on the forums not long ago. I

I wish I had seen it, looking in the files the % look the opposite so it is a bit odd

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Cheers @Eagle Pursuit , I tend to play on level2 and do not even notice the choice, I guess it is an alert icon?

I wish I had seen it, looking in the files the % look the opposite so it is a bit odd

Yeah, after a disaster, city-state capture, city capture, or Holy City conversion, there's a chance you will get a WC notification on the right side of your screen. It sticks around for a few turns or until you dismiss it. It asks if you want to call a special session of the WC to deal with the emergency.

 

[Amrunril]

Yes, the game gives the victim of the disaster the option of requesting aid. The human player will almost always decline (gold? Bleh) instead of awarding a DVP to another player.

Declining emergency gold seems (in most cases) like a poor choice to me. Diplomatic victory is quite easy to block, so aid offers are pretty much free gold.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Declining emergency gold seems (in most cases) like a poor choice to me. Diplomatic victory is quite easy to block, so aid offers are pretty much free gold.

It's a very small amount of gold. In all my experience, the participating AIs rarely contribute more than 200G a piece. Most are less than 100G. And that's over the whole duration of the emergency. I play huge maps and estimate the typical haul to be between 500-1000G. That's pretty pathetic compared to the 150-200G per turn I normally make during the mid-game.

 

[Phoenix1595]

I wish I had seen it, looking in the files the % look the opposite so it is a bit odd

It was sometime before release, and it came from another poster and not Firaxis, so who knows if it was an accurate statement. I just remember being puzzled by the statement because, for someone who enjoys the emergency mechanic, I was disappointed on how low of a chance one had to get it after a major event.

Hopefully, you are correct and it is higher (or was made higher via GS release). It just seems odd that a hyped mechanic would be downplayed in the actual programming.

 

[Leucarum]

Thanks for the insightful replies everyone. I prefer playing slower, builder type games so it was puzzling me why I hadn't seen more. I guess the answer is probably more RNG than anything then...

Looking in the XML the clear requirement is you loose population.

Good to know. I guess that means civs which settle near disaster sites are more likely to spawn aid triggers... Hungary, I'm looking at your flooding rivers...

a very small amount of gold. In all my experience, the participating AIs rarely contribute more than 200G a piece

The one time I tried it Jadwiga was the sole participant, she gave me a minute handful of gold and took her victory point.

It was sometime before release, and it came from another poster and not Firaxis, so who knows if it was an accurate statement. I just remember being puzzled by the statement because, for someone who enjoys the emergency mechanic, I was disappointed on how low of a chance one had to get it after a major event.

Hopefully, you are correct and it is higher (or was made higher via GS release). It just seems odd that a hyped mechanic would be downplayed in the actual programming.

The emergency mechanic definitely had the promise to shake up the midgame, I guess it was a difficult balance to strike for firaxis and they decided to lowball it...

 

[Phoenix1595]

The emergency mechanic definitely had the promise to shake up the midgame, I guess it was a difficult balance to strike for firaxis and they decided to lowball it...

The only thing I can think of is if, during the course of, sayfor example, a lightning fast invasion, there was concern that multiple city conquest emergencies popped up. Keeping the emergency chances low would prevent that sort of redundancy to a minimum.

 

[Leucarum]

The only thing I can think of is if, during the course of, sayfor example, a lightning fast invasion, there was concern that multiple city conquest emergencies popped up. Keeping the emergency chances low would prevent that sort of redundancy to a minimum.

Possibly they were worried that a stream of emergencies would be too frustrating for warmonger players?

 

[Takfloyd]

Emergencies are a bad idea with even worse implementation. Their very existence is a symptom of bad game design - Firaxis realized diplomacy is too weak and boring and the AI too ineffectual, so they put in a "feature" that artificially forces diplomatic interaction and for the AI to act towards a goal, at basically random points in the game.

If the game was better designed, the reactions caused by emergencies would happen naturally and dynamically. The AI would team up to contain a major threat without needing an invisible hand to force them. Sending aid could be something you always have the option to do after a disaster, not an active competition that randomly triggers. And so on.