{The List} - Game Atmosphere

[Naokaukodem]

it's anarchist

well in fact what's wrong with being gay is that i'm not gay, therefore, i don't "give a ****".

So for me, gay is just gay.

[Skanky Burns]

Anthems.
Remember conducting diplomacy in Civ 1? Each civilization had a different feel because of the background music they played which of course was that nations national anthem. Imagine how much better it would sound with today's technology as compared to internal speakers of yesteryear. I feel that playing a country's anthem in the background during diplomacy with that nation would give Civ4 an appropriate atmosphere.

[K.J.H.]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Anthems.
Remember conducting diplomacy in Civ 1? Each civilization had a different feel because of the background music they played which of course was that nations national anthem. Imagine how much better it would sound with today's technology as compared to internal speakers of yesteryear. I feel that playing a country's anthem in the background during diplomacy with that nation would give Civ4 an appropriate atmosphere.

Is there a Mayan Anthemn?

[Proserpine]

There are some great ideas here, and this is something that I have been thinking about for awhile and think would add immensely to atmosephere.

- Diplomacy. here are my ideas:

- when you have an MPP, you should have a "go-to-war" or "not-go-to-war" option if your MPP mate declares war on someone else. And vice versa of course. It is obvious that there would be a reputation hit if you choose not to fight.

- I would like to see the ability to impose a peace. Say, you are Rome with Greece on one side and Egypt on the other. You can offer to mediate. The response might depend on your reputation, but could vary from one or both declaring war on you to both sides agreeing a truce or treaty.

- how about a "non-aggression pact" option (I agree not to attack you for X turns)

- truce option (less than full treaty, a la SMAC)

- peace treaties/truces. The no. of turns should be variable, maybe not infinitely (0 to 540) but prehaps between say 5 and 40 turns.

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Anthems.
Remember conducting diplomacy in Civ 1? Each civilization had a different feel because of the background music they played which of course was that nations national anthem. Imagine how much better it would sound with today's technology as compared to internal speakers of yesteryear. I feel that playing a country's anthem in the background during diplomacy with that nation would give Civ4 an appropriate atmosphere.

Very true! But it was not necessarily national anthems. Sometimes it was just some other kind of national music (e.g. the Volga Boatmen song for the Russians).

Anyway, it would really be great for the game atmosphere if we could hear some national music while dealing with a particular civ.

[The Vagabond]

Another thing that I miss from Civ1 is the diplomatic screen. It was so much better than what we have in Civ2 and Civ3! Remember, it was a leader with a bunch of advisers. The number of advisers (from one to four) depended on the size of the AI civ relative to yours. Their dress and the background landscape depended on the type of government and the epoch. The leader could smile or frown at you, and the advisers started smiling or frowning with some small but noticeable delay relative to the leader. That was really a hell of a game atmosphere! It's simply amazing how a game of just 10 MB on the hard drive could produce so much better game atmosphere than a game of 1 Gb + CD inserted!

[Dauphin]

I played as the Romans in Civ1 just to here their theme music. Mongol music was amusing when you met them too.

Putting in a CD with Soviet era Russian music (Ok the best I had was Russians by Sting and some songs from The Hunt for Red October but you get the idea) added heaps to the atmosphere in Civ2 - especially when playing the WW2 scenario.

[The Vagabond]

Dauphin

[Deathmerchant]

Originally posted by Naokaukodem
it's anarchist

well in fact what's wrong with being gay is that i'm not gay, therefore, i don't "give a ****".

So for me, gay is just gay.

So saying something is gay in a forum full of strangers isn't exactly a good thing then, is it? Try to consider your words carefully. Please?

[DarkCloud]

bump.

[anti patriot]

yay to the anthems!!! one thing i missed was the fact that in civ 2 you got an ambasador from that country, not the king of some nation running out of the woods with their warriors to meet you

[Brent]

City Names

When you start a new game, choose one or more list of city names. Be able to set a list in the editor, in startup, or ingame. Each list can represent an Internal Province. Be able to fill out a new list in game or bring into your current game a list that you created in the editor after starting the game or one that you just didn't designate in startup. Be able to modify a city list and use it in a current game. I don't want issues of city names to keep my game out of the hall of fame.

For America, there could be a separate city list for each state included in the game, except maybe separate New England states. Maybe limit the detail to regions like the South, the Southwest, and Midwest, maybe have just a few lists for specific states, like California and Texas. Have a main American list, a list of names that are used in several states, and possibly individual state lists would skip major cities.

I'd like separate lists included in the game for many countries, every country on the American Mainland, countries not to be included would be Vatican City, Andorra, Luxembourg, etc.

This concept could be convenient for when you invent a new civ during startup.

[Arrian]

Allow the player to name parts of the map (I understand this was something you could do in SMAC, although I never noticed it). That would definitely add to the atmosphere.

Humorous newspaper headlines would be good too. In CivIII, if two civs go to war, you just get a message that says "the Celts declared war on the Indians." It might be cooler if you saw a newspaper headline: Celtic princess elopes with Indian mogul, embarrassed Brennus leads "rescue mission."

The graphics... CivIII's were fine for me, although the graphics sets made by some of the modders (Snoopy, et al) were even better.

-Arrian

[ZargonX]

Allow the player to name parts of the map (I understand this was something you could do in SMAC, although I never noticed it). That would definitely add to the atmosphere.

This would be especially fun/useful for PBEM/MP games. Instead of referring to places as "that bunch of tiles between those two rivers and south of those mountains," you could simply name them on the map and all players would immediately know to what you are referring.

[Arrian]

How about if it not only allowed you to type a name in, but also to select an area (hold down an action key and click/drag to select tiles) and shade it.

Not only would that look cool (IMO), but it could make border negotiations easier in the MP context too (in certain situations, obviously. If you want those negotiations secret from humans who can see that part of the map, you would need to do it out-of-game).

-Arrian