hurricanes and natural disasters

[Dis]

I hope the timing isn't inappropiate because of events in certain parts of the world. But it has caused me to ask this.

Should these be in the game?

If they are in the game, I would want it put in a meaningful way. I don't like the way black death was put in civ3: conquests scenarios. If you are going to put in hurricanes, you would have to include some sort of weather system. As it isnt realistic to have hurricanes hit coastal cities near the polar regions. But putting in a weather system would be very complicated. Hell, we still don't even know how Earth's weather system works.

But they do have significance. They have been responsible for wiping out early colonization by England to wiping out entire cities today. It would seem wrong to disregard them in a game about exploration, colonization and city building.

note: I'm not sure if natural disasters are actually in civ4. So if anyone knows, just let me know.

[Senethro]

Random events are bad.

2 kinds are acceptable: very minor localised ones that can be both positive/negative. (goodie huts)
Or large global events that affect everyone equally. (sea levels rising, global warming) However, these tend to have a trigger mechanism such as a vote in council or too much human expansion causing pollution and so can't be said to be truly random/unexpected.

[Harovan]

No. Random events are annoying.

[bongo]

I don't have a problem with random events caused by mother nature as long as they are predictable to some extent and limited in effect. Like triremes crossing dangerous waters...

A meteor wiping out an entire continent just ain't fun.

[Nikolai]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=137072&highlight=natural+disasters