Volcanoes/Earthquakes and Tsunamis

[tiny toad]

Yup. i think its settled then. we all want natural disasters in an expansion pack.
I used to love seeing the volcanoes go off for one turn in civ3 It just looked so cool......imagine that with this superb 3d map in civ4 ( which i think is just the BEST eye candy so far in the civ series)
On an off-point Who zooms right in on a city just before you nuke it !!! WOW...

[Adagio]

I'm not sure if I would want it... maybe in some games, but not in all...

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by tiny toad
Yup. i think its settled then. we all want natural disasters in an expansion pack.

When was this settled? I guess I missed it

[Alex]

It's being settled right now, in this very thread.

[LordShiva]

What's being settled, if anything, in this thread, is that it's not the case that "we all want natural disasters in an expansion pack."

Perhaps a poll would be a good idea. I like polls.

[Axxaer]

Ok. Your dream has come true.

[MasterDave]

I dunno, in all the other 4X games I have played, having natural disasters never provided for much "fun", especially when something awful and game-changing would happen at a critical juncture. I think the best disasters are the types that can be mitigated by strategies, such as a plague (with several options of how to address it) are better than one time events like earthquakes that just destroy everything with no way for the player to mitigate the effects.

We already have some random events that are beneficial such as finding new resources in mines and we love the king day.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by MasterDave
I think the best disasters are the types that can be mitigated by strategies, such as a plague (with several options of how to address it) are better than one time events like earthquakes that just destroy everything with no way for the player to mitigate the effects.

This reminds me of Master of Orion, where you could counter the effects of these disasters if you act quickly. For example, a plague that doesn't wipe you out right away, but only decrease your population slowly until you find a cure.

[madmaxxam]

I think it would be good, if you had earthquakes, if they didn't just come out of nowhere, cause they usually don't in real life. It'd be cool if you got messages about tremors, small earthquakes occuring in cities occasionally with minimal/no effects (the game could have certain areas that are fault lines, etc.), and that would warn you about somewhere being earthquake prone. You could then, with certain technology, build some building that has the effect of reducing the damage of any large earthquake that does occur (the equivalent of setting up building codes for earthquake safety like they have in countries like Japan). You wouldn't want to build this in every city, only at risk cities. Then some technology such as physics would just reveal all of the fault lines, let you know the relative risk of an earthquake in all cities. A system like this wouldn't be nearly as random, and would let the player control possible damage.

[tiny toad]

Hey ...Axxaer, thanks for the poll... I`ve just voted

[_BuRjaCi_]

Volcanoes/Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Please.

Pretty please.

And a realistic nuclear holocaust and meteor impact if it is not too much trouble.

[Dis]

Originally posted by madmaxxam
I think it would be good, if you had earthquakes, if they didn't just come out of nowhere, cause they usually don't in real life. It'd be cool if you got messages about tremors, small earthquakes occuring in cities occasionally with minimal/no effects (the game could have certain areas that are fault lines, etc.), and that would warn you about somewhere being earthquake prone. You could then, with certain technology, build some building that has the effect of reducing the damage of any large earthquake that does occur (the equivalent of setting up building codes for earthquake safety like they have in countries like Japan). You wouldn't want to build this in every city, only at risk cities. Then some technology such as physics would just reveal all of the fault lines, let you know the relative risk of an earthquake in all cities. A system like this wouldn't be nearly as random, and would let the player control possible damage.

uhh, earthquakes do come out of nowhere. We can't predict them. Remember last year scientists tried to predict an earthquake in southern california? They thought for sure one would hit by Sept 5.

[johnmcd]

The other thing with predicting them (which is emphatically not possible, regions likely to have them are defined though) is that until relatively recently earth tremors would not have resulted in your people clamouring for dampening foundations but demanding more goats be sacrificed.

[Delta-V]

Originally posted by Dis
uhh, earthquakes do come out of nowhere. We can't predict them. Remember last year scientists tried to predict an earthquake in southern california? They thought for sure one would hit by Sept 5.

Prediction is different than detection. We KNOW southern California is prone to earthquakes. We KNOW that there will be another big earthquake there. And we have, as madmaxxam suggests, put into place means to midigate the damage. The fact that we can't predict an earthquake doesn't invalidate the assumption that the area is earthquake prone.

OTOH, the knowledge that an area is prone to severe earthquakes is derived from experiencing said earthquakes. Prior to 1811, who would have thought that New Madrid, Missouri would be prone to massive earthquakes? And the means to deal with them in large cities would be a very late-game technology.

I think I'll pass on the natural disasters. Too much unpredictable disruption.