What's your opinion on civ switching?

[UWHabs]

I liked it personally. It was only like 10-15 turns. I dont mind clicking through that. Plus, I didn't just click next though it, I continued playing through the 'drama' of Earth each of those turns. Back then you were always at war with the world at that point. I always have been more drawn to the narrative in my games than the getting my win. I think the exciting part here though in that space race victory design is not knowing where your opponent is at exactly. That makes it scary. Lately in civ there is always some way to track where your opponent is and your comparison. I think this info should be hidden behind espionage. As stealth_nsk says, it's just different for different players, some like the number crunchy direct route to victory side of civ, some the simple drama of it, and everything in between. We all fall in there somewhere.

I didn't mind it. Sure, it was a little of the click click click, but there were a few caveats
1. If someone else launched first, you could add your extra thruster or whatever and beat them there still
2. There was also the system where if you captured their capital, their shuttle would crash. So you still had a way to "stop" someone else if needed. Definitely remember more than once getting a Nuke and patatroopers ready to capture an AI capital if they launched.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I think even science victory in its pure form was redundant. The most sandboxy system is just a victory by gaining X points, where points could be gotten from population, special projects, wonders and so on. You see someone launching space expedition? Taking some of their cities, especially big and wonderous would greatly delay their victory. Whether this sandbox victory is actually interested for the majority of players, is hard to say.

 

[GeneralZift]

Actually, I think Civ 1 had the best setup for victory conditions. They definitely had the best space victory. You only had conquest, Space, and score. However, the Space Victory was more dynamic. You would have to build the ship but you could build thrusters, life support, fuel reserves, habitats, and solar panels. You could see if your ship could make the journey. However, without enough life support your people could die before you reached Alpha Centauri losing you the victory. You could run out of fuel or power, etc. Whats cool was the game announced whenever opponents launched and it was nerve racking. You would start adding thrusters and fuel to speed up your flight time to try to beat them even though they launched before you. Sometimes, the game would announce you opponent's crew died on their journey. I would love to see a variation of this come back.

I think it would also be cool if they could figure out a way to do this type of thing with the united nations for a diplomatic victory. Though you would not be building space ship modules, you would push influence into "building" humanitarian efforts like Green Peace or Red Cross. This would actually boost food and happiness yields for an opponent's empire or even globally risking giving an opponent an edge for another victory.

You know this is really cool, I didn't know this about Civ1!

They could definitely work something like this back into the Science victory to make it more interesting, since it hasn't been interesting in forever

Plus your idea for a new diplomatic victory is also really good. I think as long as Victories have more player interaction, they are better. Same with most mechanics really.

 

[King Flevance]

I didn't mind it. Sure, it was a little of the click click click, but there were a few caveats
1. If someone else launched first, you could add your extra thruster or whatever and beat them there still
2. There was also the system where if you captured their capital, their shuttle would crash. So you still had a way to "stop" someone else if needed. Definitely remember more than once getting a Nuke and patatroopers ready to capture an AI capital if they launched.

I forgot about the capital thing. I always thought that was dumb, but young me was ok with it as an insurance policy.

I feel this system could easily be revisited and tweaked to offer a better experience than we have today. It should be viable to want to be first to launch, but the ability to launch later and still beat your opponent makes it so interesting, otherwise just keep it as it is. Whoever builds first wins. I would like to see those last 10-20 turn play out like expeditions in Anno 1800. Where every 3-5 turns you have a narrative event that your ship encounters that could be a problem or a small boost. Have this happen 3or 4 times, then victory if you make it. This way, taking extra supplies improves your chances.

 

[Siptah]

I would like to see those last 10-20 turn play out like expeditions in Anno 1800. Where every 3-5 turns you have a narrative event that your ship encounters that could be a problem or a small boost. Have this happen 3or 4 times, then victory if you make it. This way, taking extra supplies improves your chances.

That would be brilliant imho. Not just for the space race, but for all victories. Payment of resources or even small quests on the map that can speed up the victory or slow it down, depending on your choices in events. Granted, similar to Anno, after so and so many hours, you know the outcome of the choices though and always go for what fits your current situation.

 

[GeneralZift]

I thought about this and I think counter space missions would be interesting.
So you may not have enough capability for a science victory, but you could, for example, fire space debris at the enemy spaceship with some kind of satellite mission.

Then you could slow each other down, build your ship with extra armour to protect against that, build thrusters for faster victory etc. Etc.

I would have loads of fun with this. Firaxis get on it!! Then add Gandhi

 

[Krikkit1]

I thought about this and I think counter space missions would be interesting.
So you may not have enough capability for a science victory, but you could, for example, fire space debris at the enemy spaceship with some kind of satellite mission.

Then you could slow each other down, build your ship with extra armour to protect against that, build thrusters for faster victory etc. Etc.

I would have loads of fun with this. Firaxis get on it!! Then add Gandhi

Space Warfare would be an interesting Hail Mary mechanic.