A return to the good old days of the space race

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Zebitty


No that would be a bit dull.......but trade sanctions by other UN members or even war (depending on the magnitude or frequency of the transgression) would be a nice (and more realistic) option.

We had war at SMAC, IIRC, if at the last vote (World President) minority players refuse to accept. It became a world war, usually a rush to kill civs already weak. Sometime it added to the game, often only a tedius bunch of more turns.

May be an option for Civ 4 first extension?

[Grumbold]

It doesn't come as much of a surprise to me that the end-game varianta are a little rushed. They are inevitably going to be the parts that get finalised and tweaked last, once the rest of the game is in good shape, and the addition of too much complexity onto a feature that is only going to be relevant in some of the games is always going to be a trade-off with resources needed elsewhere. I'm sure its something we will see done better as official patches and xpacks come out if the modders don't get there first.

The only thing I will say about rushing the capital is that it made a fair amount of sense. Nations won't have dozens of different space launch facilities, so destroying their key site almost certainly would ruin their chances. Much more sensible than trying to hit a factory somewhere making ceramic tiles, electronics or aluminium struts.

I did like the 20 turn 'lag' in early civs while the spaceship made its journey, since it was an opportunity to clean house and prepare for victory. In Civ4 that has to be weighed carefully against the opportunity for another nation to rush in and grab a UN victory after you'd launched. I don't think that would feel very satisfying, since unless you are UN secretary there is nothing for them to lose in calling the vote. Especially in an MP game where they could effectively broker a deal to ensure victory goes to anyone else but the SS owner if they don't like him.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Willem
But they have a point from a gameplay aspect. Why, at the end of the game, should all players be forced to adopt a particular government form? That just removes the element of choice in the game. What's the point of having all these different civics if in the end you're just going a have to adopt a particular one anyway?

Willelm, I see your point.

OTOH, the choice to build/become U.N. leader is a strategic one, too. You chose to invest in "popularity" to gain vote, then you have a return because you can chose the proposed worldwide regulation: you try to gain power and control by politics (kind of) and not by armies or economics.

You can ingnore the U.N. election rush, and spending your effort in armies you can conquer your enemy while the regulation fight against you on a different plan

Anyway a tuning is still possible with the Civ IV first expansion, I bet, so keep suggesting and may be at Firaxis they'll listen to you.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Grumbold
Especially in an MP game where they could effectively broker a deal to ensure victory goes to anyone else but the SS owner if they don't like him.

Good point! Expect a lot of personal calling in MP game like that!

[Mylon]

If I can wrap my head around the modding aspects of the game I'll try to fix the UN. A player is allowed to refuse one UN command, on the second one they are kicked out of the UN and suffer a -2 penalty from all remaining UN members. Possibly a +1 bonus from other members that had been kicked out. Editing the AI to make use of these options is probably beyond me...

I'll also see what I can do to make the space race/endgame more fun. Towards industrial era I keep seem to be hitting a technological singularity: Increasing number of cities, increasing number of population, increasing number of +research buildings all keep adding up to one huge glob of research that ultimately yields a technology in 2-3 turns.