Why oh why are there no events & quests?

[Ironwood]

What do you have in mind where events and quests are concerned?

Now, maybe I'm a little behind the curve with regard to Civ games, having not played 4 (though I played 3 extensively), but I'm not sure what you mean by "quests" in the context of Colonization. Personally, I prefer for the gameplay to flow naturally from the interaction between static elements and dynamic elements. I burn down that village because it suits my strategy, not because I need to "go to Arawak village X and Get Ye Flask."

Sure, I've done that sort of thing plenty in Pirates!, and it fits well (conquer a town, install a governor, and, oh yeah, grab that Evil Spaniard (tm) while I'm there).

But maybe this isn't what you have in mind where quests are concerned, so please elaborate.

As to events, did you play the original Colonization? It already had natives occasionally showing up and giving gifts of resources, begging for food, making demands, or attacking. After a while, a mineral resource is depleted. Sometimes a colonist spontaneously develops a speciality... but of course, none of these things are "random events" but rather flow directly from the way the game works. And buildings are sufficiently valuable in Col that I would be PISSED if there were something like random fires destroying buildings or something.

So elaborate. What do you have in mind?

[snoopy369]

He's referring to something specific to Civ4, yes. They are sometimes "build X units and get Y reward" (quests), and sometimes they're "X random thing happens, either good or bad stuff happens to you, sometimes you have a choice between which good/bad thing happens".

[player1]

Actually, "build X and get Y reward" thing could really flow well with the game, if done as King requests.

Do something, and I reward you (or don't get angry more).

[Ironwood]

Is there a historical precedent for the King making specific requests of the colonies, as opposed to just raising taxes and then buying whatever it is he needs? I ask because I really don't like adding that sort of thing in unless there's a really good reason. I believe the scale of the simulation should be considered. When the game is about general economic development, and then it suddenly becomes personal, that strikes me as an an interruption in the flow of the game. It just seems gimmicky.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Ironwood
Is there a historical precedent for the King making specific requests of the colonies, as opposed to just raising taxes and then buying whatever it is he needs? I ask because I really don't like adding that sort of thing in unless there's a really good reason. I believe the scale of the simulation should be considered. When the game is about general economic development, and then it suddenly becomes personal, that strikes me as an an interruption in the flow of the game. It just seems gimmicky.

Lol

Yes the Kings of Europe did nothing but tax their colonies in the real world.



The KIng already demands gold or resources at random, the only thing that is different is that the King could now demand you have X of Y by turn Z and he would even reward you not just be offended that you refused to hand him over your gold. The King might also want to encourage you to develop in a certain direction (your colony needs to be producing X of Y per turn) or he might give you quest to conquer a competitors city or to convert X indians or many many other things.


Again there is no good reason not to add events & quests and leave the off by default.

[snoopy369]

I think there are plenty of good reasons (such as making the gameplay less smooth), and less of a TBS and more of an RPG, which is not the point (at least of the base game). I certainly think you could have them and have an interesting game, but it would be much less 'simple', and usually for the base game, simple is better. Just like with Civ4 - they started with Simple, and made a game that had excellent gameplay value, and then added on features as they saw how people played and how the game balance worked.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Ironwood
Is there a historical precedent for the King making specific requests of the colonies, as opposed to just raising taxes and then buying whatever it is he needs? I ask because I really don't like adding that sort of thing in unless there's a really good reason. I believe the scale of the simulation should be considered. When the game is about general economic development, and then it suddenly becomes personal, that strikes me as an an interruption in the flow of the game. It just seems gimmicky.

I've not seen anything beyond raising taxes, but I haven't read quite as much as Hera has apparently about the upcoming game ...

[Impaler[WrG]]

game developers may as well sell game creation kits for 30-40 euros.

Spore

[Ironwood]

Originally posted by Impaler[WrG]


Spore

I'll see your Spore and raise you an Elder Scroll.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by snoopy369


I've not seen anything beyond raising taxes, but I haven't read quite as much as Hera has apparently about the upcoming game ...

The king occasionally demands a lump sum of gold from you.