[GS] Why nothing about earthquakes (and fracking)?

[PeterChu]

Oh yeah ... "RUIN VALUE"!

(Okay, sorry. This was evil. )

A sort of "culture heritage", similar to religious relics in CIv 6.

 

[Pietato]

It’s also worth mentioning from the thread title that hydraulic fracturing (something that doesn’t exist in Civ VI anyway) is not associated with serious magnitude earthquakes. The most powerful human-induced seismicity occurs as a result of waste water injection from oil and gas production, and from underground nuclear tests. Even these pale in comparison, particular when damage to infrastructure and loss of life is considered, to naturally occurring earthquakes. I can see no reason to bother implementing them in this expansion.

It’s a shame that earthquakes don’t seem to feature, but as others have said, there’s not quite the same risk vs reward tradeoff as there is with volcanoes and floodplains.

I believe fracking caused a 5.5 in South Korea.

 

[Pietato]

They could make quakes reveal new resources, or new molemen allies.

 

[Myomoto]

Hence the question:
If earthquakes are part of the disaster pandemonium - what active meassures can the player take in order to counteract them?

Active I'm not so sure, but definitely later up in the tech-tree you would have earthquake countermeasures like earthquake resistant architecture.

 

[PeterChu]

From Industiral era, there could have some techs for players to check fault zones and to determine the risk level for earthquake.

 

[Civbra]

I still think - again I don't know if demands a lot of coding - that earthquakes could be something like, damage at first, and after that the terrain affect could change . For example: You have City A with 8 tile range nearly a continetal border. The EQ occurs and 4 tiles are damage (2 farms, 1 district level 2 and 1 tile, lets say a plain, uneproved) - The farms are pillage, the district fall down and the plain now became a hill and one of the tile farms, revel a miner (either bonus, strategic or luxury), or could became a valley or a canyon (with faith, cultural, science and even turism yieds).
Even more advanced, if you are near mountains could happen a Slipping, turn that tile into a hill or a mountain with more appeal.

Later on with tech you can mitigate the damages with some kind of improvemnt ou center buildng.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Things earthquakes have changed, just for historical reference:
1. A city one tile from the sea could suddenly become a Coastal city when a tile 'subsides' as a result of a coastal quake.
2. Terrain change within the city or next to the city boundaries: most likely a marsh into a plain or grassland, grassland into a plain, plain into a grassland, either into a marsh or floodplain, river changing course, 'sink hole' opening up a lake region or one-tile lake (in game terms) - and any of the new terrain features might come with Resources - sea birds, fish and shellfish recolonize marshlands and coastal areas very, very quickly, for example: what price a new (and free!) Crab, Pearl, Rice or Fish Resource in your city radius?
3. Urban Renewal. San Francisco, Edo/Tokyo, Lisbon were all massively rebuilt after major earthquake/Tsunami events. Perhaps the earthquake has the possibility of removing a District so you can rebuild the tile with something else? IF that were the only way to replace a District, it could potentially be a very powerful 'benefit' from earthquakes.

 

[AriochIV]

Having earthquakes improve tiles would be gamey nonsense.

They certainly could do things like earthquakes and plagues, but the conspicuous lack of any mention of such mechanics makes it seem very unlikely. I think it's very unlikely that there are additional major features in the expansion which they neglected to mention. Not least of which because the expansion already has a lot of announced features.

I say this as someone who really liked the random events in previous civs, but I think I'm in the minority on that.

The Black Death scenario doesn't mean that there are any plague mechanics in the game. Previous plague scenarios were done with slapdash bolt-on plague mechanics that didn't translate to the regular game, and I expect this one will be similar.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I could also see a mechanic where a city destroyed by a volcano or an earthquake could turn up in the Industrial Era as a ruin you can excavate!

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Having earthquakes improve tiles would be gamey nonsense.

They certainly could do things like earthquakes and plagues, but the conspicuous lack of any mention of such mechanics makes it seem very unlikely. I think it's very unlikely that there are additional major features in the expansion which they neglected to mention. Not least of which because the expansion already has a lot of announced features.

I say this as someone who really liked the random events in previous civs, but I think I'm in the minority on that.

The Black Death scenario doesn't mean that there are any plague mechanics in the game. Previous plague scenarios were done with slapdash bolt-on plague mechanics that didn't translate to the regular game, and I expect this one will be similar.

No less gamey than storms improving tiles. The whole point is that tectonic boundaries-as others have stated-not only grant some of the best terrain in the game, but could also have higher chances of having minerals & precious stones-thus making them worth settling around (just look at most of California as an example).

I am not 100% ruling out the chances of earthquakes being in the game merely based on its absence from the first livestream. Lets wait & see. Either way, I would be happy enough if they simply give modders the tools to include them.

 

[AriochIV]

No less gamey than storms improving tiles.

It is slightly less gamey. Rain can be beneficial; earthquakes never are.

The whole point is that tectonic boundaries-as others have stated-not only grant some of the best terrain in the game, but could also have higher chances of having minerals & precious stones-thus making them worth settling around (just look at most of California as an example).

Having rich land that comes with increased risk of earthquakes is not the same thing as having earthquakes that improve tiles.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

It is slightly less gamey. Rain can be beneficial; earthquakes never are.


Having rich land that comes with increased risk of earthquakes is not the same thing as having earthquakes that improve tiles.

My point was simply that you don't need earthquakes to literally improve the terrain in order to have them in the game as a reasonable "risk/reward" mechanic under the new disaster system.

That said, though, Earthquakes changing tile types and/or revealing new bonus, luxury or strategic resources could be incorporated, & be entirely inkeeping with the designers' dynamic map system.

 

[AriochIV]

My point was simply that you don't need earthquakes to literally improve the terrain in order to have them in the game as a reasonable "risk/reward" mechanic under the new disaster system.

That said, though, Earthquakes changing tile types and/or revealing new bonus, luxury or strategic resources could be incorporated, & be entirely inkeeping with the designers' dynamic map system.

It doesn't seem like this would be meaningfully different in game terms from how volcanoes work.

I'm not against having earthquakes in the game. I'm just trying to explain why it appears that they aren't in the game.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

It doesn't seem like this would be meaningfully different in game terms from how volcanoes work.

I'm not against having earthquakes in the game. I'm just trying to explain why it appears that they aren't in the game.

For me it's about diversity.

 

[BenZL43]

Earthquake could give faiths. I know from the recent earthquake and tsunami in my country. Apparently Gitarja gets bonus faiths with "religious revival" here and there. Science as well. The more we've experienced earthquake, the better we understand the mechanism, mitigation plan, etc

 

[acluewithout]

If the benefits have to be terrain based, then just make the tile yield faith or culture or science. Faith and culture, because people now tell stories about the angry gods or whatever. Or science because people learn about...er... earthquakes.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

If the benefits have to be terrain based, then just make the tile yield faith or culture or science. Faith and culture, because people now tell stories about the angry gods or whatever. Or science because people learn about...er... earthquakes.

and Geology in general .

 

[Alucard648]

I wish that earthquakes, naval nuclear explosions and volcanic eruptions can trigger devastating tsunamis, as powerful as in Civ4 BtS. Tsunamis never occur on it`s own and can insta-kill any naval unit on it`s path. Imagine your entire fleet being insta-destroyed by one triggered from remote point of map. And it followed by full-on invasion from neighbouring aggressive player. That was a fate of Minoan civilization.

 

[AriochIV]

Imagine your entire fleet being insta-destroyed by one triggered from remote point of map.

You say that like you think it's a good thing. I'm a fan of random events in general, but random "you lose" events that you can't predict, prevent or even mitigate are not a good thing to anyone who isn't a masochist.

By the way, tsunamis and most other large waves don't affect ships in deep water. The waves only rise up when they reach the shore, so your hypothetical fleet wouldn't be affected unless they were all on the coast.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

You say that like you think it's a good thing. I'm a fan of random events in general, but random "you lose" events are not a good thing to anyone who isn't a masochist.

By the way, tsunamis and most other large waves don't affect ships in deep water. The waves only rise up when they reach the shore, so your hypothetical fleet wouldn't be affected unless they were all on the coast.

I agree with you on that point. As much as I want all these disasters in the game, an insta-destruct system is the opposite of fun. I want risks that I can actually manage .