Worst Random Events

[Kord]

I always find myself digging in and building as much defense as possible first before running out screaming death to my enemies, i'm more of a "A good offense is a good defense" kind of gamer..where i work on the resources within my territory to build my army of death that slowly takes over the land surrounding,converting or decimating,then expanding.. but i recently was on a custom game map between me and one other enemy,seperated by two continents and an ocean. I was expecting a serious naval battle followed by a coastline invasion. SO.. i build my capital,build cities around the coastlines of my continent,and start building patrols followed by the backbone naval ships.

When it comes to continental invasions i go seriously crazy as they are my favorite. I milk my lands resources for all it can offer and build enough naval force to make a civilization off the steel in the water alone. Then i make one leader flagship unit,comprised of 5 carriers,fillied with prophets,merchants,scientist etc,also followed by a few carriers carrying military infantry,mordern armor etc. i place this unit in the middle of my naval division and then we are OFF..to invade,capture and in general make alot of other people angry.

So tell me why.. when 3 tiles away from the enemy coast.. my primary carriers,who happen to all be on one tile,are all of a sudden completly wiped out by a bermuda triangle random event.. in one random swoop, my great leaders followed by 2 military carriers are raped by the waves,drowned by the oceans right hand,sent to their watery graves..and now,, even though my naval steel may own the gulf of the enemy coastline.. we have absolutly no invasion method.. because some "random" (terrorist) event raped my world leaders,not to forget the brave men and women serving their country..

I notice i made a critical error putting all my carriers in one tile,thankfully i did have military infantry carriers as a backup..however the invasion didn't go as smoothly as planned..

 

[1_more_round]

So tell me why.. when 3 tiles away from the enemy coast.. my primary carriers,who happen to all be on one tile,are all of a sudden completly wiped out by a bermuda triangle random event.. in one random swoop, my great leaders followed by 2 military carriers are raped by the waves,drowned by the oceans right hand,sent to their watery graves..and now,, even though my naval steel may own the gulf of the enemy coastline.. we have absolutly no invasion method.. because some "random" (terrorist) event raped my world leaders,not to forget the brave men and women serving their country..

I notice i made a critical error putting all my carriers in one tile,

This is why when the US President is addressing a joint session of Congress, the VP is not in the building, nor are several other key members of the government. This is also why the President and VP do not travel together. Many corporations insist on key executives traveling seperately.

Wasn't there a pending invasion of Japan wiped out by a storm? (I'm thinking Mongol but not positive).

Random happens in the real world and changes "foregone conclusion" endings.

Question is do you want it in your game.

I'll probably start with it to see what happens and then decide.

 

[Deckhand]

So tell me why.. when 3 tiles away from the enemy coast.. my primary carriers,who happen to all be on one tile,are all of a sudden completly wiped out by a bermuda triangle random event.. in one random swoop, my great leaders followed by 2 military carriers are raped by the waves,drowned by the oceans right hand,sent to their watery graves..and now,, even though my naval steel may own the gulf of the enemy coastline.. we have absolutly no invasion method.. because some "random" (terrorist) event raped my world leaders,not to forget the brave men and women serving their country..

Seems like you survived better than the Spanish when their Armada was destroyed by storm. Looks like a very realistic random event.
However, not a very fun event (for human vs AI).

 

[r_rolo1]

The Spanish ( cough, more Portuguese ships than from anywhere else, but who cares ) Armada was not destroyed by a storm, it was dispersed by it. The two things are very diferent

 

[1_more_round]

Three years after the Mongol empire changed its title to Yuan in 1271, an allied fleet of 900 battleships with 20,000 Mongolians and 7,000 Goryeo soldiers aboard sailed from Happo in Masan in 1274. They landed on Tsushima Island and defeated Japanese forces there before moving on to invade Iki Island. Upon receiving the news from Tsushima, the Dazaifu of Kyushu hurriedly prepared to defend itself but it was unable to fight off the expedition force that landed at Hakata bay. In the face of collective fighting and explosive weapons that the Japanese had never seen, Japanese troops struggled and were pushed back near the Dazaifu. That day the allied forces withdrew and returned to their anchored ships. That night a storm struck the harbor and a large number of ships were sunk and destroyed, forcing the expedition force to return to Happo

Unfortunate random event. Wonder if the Mongols could reload/refresh?

 

[Kesshi]

Seems like you survived better than the Spanish when their Armada was destroyed by storm. Looks like a very realistic random event.
However, not a very fun event (for human vs AI).

Realism should never be an excuse for sloppy game mechanics.

However, since you opened up the realism door...

Spears can kill tanks.
A Great Person lives for thousands and thousands of years.
Units sometimes take hundreds or thousands of years to move across a continent.
We get reports from units that have crossed continents in the Bronze Age.
We can communicate freely with foreign civilizations the instant we meet them.
With one resource we can supply enough of that resource to build an army worldwide.
We can use the Slavery Civic in conjuction with the Universal Suffrage civic.
We build the Apollo program to fly to Alpha Centauri.
Even when the number of thrusters and engines are the same, it takes a different amount of time to travel to Alpha Centauri depending on which year we launch our spaceship.
Destroying a city's capital before the spaceship has taken of doesn't destroy the enemy's spaceship.
Destroying a city's capital while the spaceship is in flight will destroy the enemy's spaceship.

Do you really want to say that some backwards random events are okay because of realism in this game?

 

[Deckhand]

Realism should never be an excuse for sloppy game mechanics.

However, since you opened up the realism door...
...
Do you really want to say that some backwards random events are okay because of realism in this game?

It was certainly not my intent to open the realism door.
The Game is an abstract simulation of history with emphasis on fun game play. If you try to interpret anything in it literally, it will collapse. Storms have altered the results of battles throughout history. That the game makes provision to do this is to be commended. That we don't like it is a reason to turn it off.

Spoiler :

I concur that this event should be nerfed.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The problem with events remains that they are not balanced, and will frequently punish solid play. The #1 priority for a feature is game play, because without it the game will suck no matter how realistic or good-looking. Event design forgot that, apparently.

 

[attackfighter]

Spears can kill tanks.

They could ambush the crews in the night or something.

A Great Person lives for thousands and thousands of years.

Maybe their work or whatever wasn't recognised until much later. For example, they were working on some advanced technology put didn't publish their work, so it wasn't discovered and utilized for a long time.

We can communicate freely with foreign civilizations the instant we meet them.

The Europeans and Native Americans started trade straight away too.

We can use the Slavery Civic in conjuction with the Universal Suffrage civic.

Maybe the government isn't very strong, like in some African countries the government doesn't sanction slavery but it goes on anyways.

We build the Apollo program to fly to Alpha Centauri.

You build the apollo program to start an intrest in space exploration, which leads to the space race to alpha centauri.

Even when the number of thrusters and engines are the same, it takes a different amount of time to travel to Alpha Centauri depending on which year we launch our spaceship.

Maybe each civ game is it's own little univers where the laws of time are different.

Destroying a city's capital before the spaceship has taken of doesn't destroy the enemy's spaceship.

Presumably, the parts for the spaceship are built over a long period of time and then assembled quickly before launch, so destroying the capital would only destroy a fraction of the ship (which could later be recovered if the destroyers aren't thorough)

Destroying a city's capital while the spaceship is in flight will destroy the enemy's spaceship.

It doesn't destroy the space ship, but it cuts off contact with the colonists so that when they reach Alpha Centauri they no longer represent you.

 

[stagnate]

Regarding the mines collapsing, forges burning, etc - just keep money around. If you don't keep a rainy day fund then you live with the consequences.

I have rarely, if ever, let those events cause the stated impact; the cost to prevent is not very substantial. I have, however, felt more interest when I 'had' to spend my treasury down for whatever reason and focused on building it up to a more reasonable level.

 

[Glassfan]

Question: I've only experienced disappeared ships when then were "parked" somewhere off my coast, guarding a port city. Some of you sound like you're saying that whole fleets on their way somewhere are vanishing - is that the case?

 

[r_rolo1]

Yes, that is the case. The bermuda triangle event simply erases all ships in a water tile. If you are unlucky to have all of your navy in that tile, bye bye navy....

 

[pesgores]

Random events should have visual effects. Then, hurricanes would stop being so annoying.

 

[NKVD]

Random events should have visual effects. Then, hurricanes would stop being so annoying.

yeah... exactly!

 

[Malician]

After reading a thread debating the topic of whether on whether Praetorians happened to be imbalanced, I decided to try a game as Romans. Unfortunately, as Praets massed to attack my copper-less neighbor..

I got the -1 diplomacy event to him. However, I also got the "everyone is upgraded with cover!" promotion.

Does this count as the least harmful negative event?

 

[BigChiefLizzy]

After reading a thread debating the topic of whether on whether Praetorians happened to be imbalanced, I decided to try a game as Romans. Unfortunately, as Praets massed to attack my copper-less neighbor..

I got the -1 diplomacy event to him. However, I also got the "everyone is upgraded with cover!" promotion.

Does this count as the least harmful negative event?

Heh, I got that event one game as rome, then also the build x number of swordsmen soon after, so in cities with a barracks I was getting praets with cover, first strike (I waited till I beelined monarchy? for the option), and combat 1/or city raider 1.

I went on to kill of all 3 of the other civs on my continent with a flood of highly promoted praets. Then shortly afterwards my economy went down the toilet due to unit costs and city maintainance costs (I kept all 3 captured capitals, doh). Mansa launched SS while I was still stuck in middle ages

I've also had one game which I quit in disgust; 3 forges in same city burned down, after I'd rebuilt it the fourth time, I started building the colossus and the next turn one of the AI finished it

 

[fdgsgds]

For some reason it's happened to me a bunch, the first improvement I build is immediately destroyed by a tornado or bandits or something.

 

[Tristan_C]

I've also had one game which I quit in disgust; 3 forges in same city burned down, after I'd rebuilt it the fourth time, I started building the colossus and the next turn one of the AI finished it

Whoa! You're an amazing person for even getting that far. I would have raged after the first forge burned down. Of course, like I said earlier in the thread, I keep the random events turned off... this setting allows my computer monitor to remain unworried about sudden defenestration.

 

[1_more_round]

The problem with events remains that they are not balanced, and will frequently punish solid play. The #1 priority for a feature is game play, because without it the game will suck no matter how realistic or good-looking. Event design forgot that, apparently.

There is a similar phenomenon in Poker, better players have more bad beats put on them. By defination they have better card selection than their oponents, when they get beat it is likely to be a "bad beat." (someone coming from behind to beat them).

We forget all the positve expected value plays that work the way they are supposed to, we remember the suck outs.

Is it possible that sid "punishes" solid play to make it more challenging for the good player?

 

[xchen08]

The problem with events remains that they are not balanced, and will frequently punish solid play. The #1 priority for a feature is game play, because without it the game will suck no matter how realistic or good-looking. Event design forgot that, apparently.

Most games have some degree of randomness, and that's generally considered a good thing, and games can remain fun even when randomness can, in isolated instances, dominate skill; witness poker.

And it is inaccurate to say that the events punish solid gameplay. They punish, period, and whether or not your play is solid determines whether you can recover afterwards. A strong player can recover from a forge burning down, or an invasion fleet being sunk by event, or the prolonged whipping to get enough spears to hold off an invasion of barbarian horse archers, while a weaker player cannot, and a strong player would know how to take advantage of the cover event to place oneself in a dominant position without breaking his economy while a weaker player cannot do as well. The only event that really is broken is the Aryan uprising one, since in some cases, it can come before one is able to whip out a defense force, and even that doesn't specifically punish solid gameplay.