unofficial GAME OPTIONS, PREFERENCES, & UNIT OPTIONS

[russellw]

Remember the good old Ironman option? How about the...

WIMPYMAN OPTION
Combined with the "alarm clock" feature, this option would cause the game to save itself and quit when the alarm went off.

Obviously, this is for the folks who fall prey to the "just one more turn" syndrome, but really do need to stop at a certain time. I don't have the discipline, so it would be nice if the game would just close up shop so I wouldn't be tempted to continue.

The alarm clock option was (I think) from meowser on the OTHER thread. Maybe you could also have it trigger on other things, like 100 turns or "The Discovery of Gunpowder". Also, it could pop up a notepad that would allow you to jot down a few notes before it turned itself off.

[Theben]

I believe in letting this thread live or die based on # of posts (which, at the moment, looks to be an early death). If I'm going to do COMBAT then less work for me is always a plus . I feel it necessary to remind anyone who posts ideas here that they should post on the thread deemed appropriate for the subject, so their idea isn't lost if this thread closes.

[Flavor Dave]

2 thoughts. One, I like Harel's victory conditions options. I'd add two--1st, achieve any of them. That would make the game interesting--if you're a warmonger, you race to conquer a bunch of allies, before they can elect one of their own as UN leader.
2nd, RICHES. Something like, 3/4 of the world's gold reserves up to economics, 2/3 up to capitalization, and 1/2 after that. This would reflect the increasing importance and fluidity of money. With this option, you'd also want to find ways to increase defense, or the diplomatic penalties of war. Otherwise, you could pull a Reagan and bankrupt your enemies by forcing them to worry too much about their military, but that ain't really the point of this victory condition.

2nd, about the confusing options, and beginners--Firaxis could solve this pretty simply by dividing the options into basic and advanced. And include in the manual a very strongly worded "suggestion" that the beginner forgo the advanced options.

[mindlace]

I hope I'm not stepping on your toes, Theben, but I just put a bunch of this stuff that I think is applicable to CUSTOMIZATION there.

The other things I think are really suited towards other categories.

Thanks,

~mindlace

[Theben]

A *BUMP* and a message to all that they should post these ideas elsewhere if they want them to live on. Feel free to put them on CUSTOMIZATION, or maybe this could be moved to the "suggestions" page. I won't bump it again.

It's all yours, mindlace.

[mzilikazi]

Good thread - to which I'd add a couple of points:
First, another victory condition I feel is necessary beyond what Harel and Theben have suggested: a transcendence/happiness/utopia type victory, i.e. a way for a small-but-perfectly-formed civ to win (ie along the lines of Sweden or Australia in the real world). This would require some or all of the following conditions: very high happiness, zero/low pollution, max 5 cities, very low military service & no nukes, high "reputation" abroad and discovery of certain techs (lots of Recycling, Future Tech, Ecology, and maybe even the discovery of the wonderful game of cricket - for those who followed the 'Cricket as a wonder' thread). My list is far too long, but I feel there is a need for a victory condition like this, and would add it to the list of options.

Secondly, we need the 'style' option, as in city style - should cities be oriental/mediaeval/classical/stone age (and maybe some new options too: e.g. Slavonic (lots of onion domes) or Middle Eastern (lots of whitewashed low square buildings) in appearance. There has been discussion whether this style should extend to unit appearance as well as city appearance. whatever, the option should be on the menu.

[Francis]

Here's a real game option: click a box to get a notepad. Click another, and one pops up automatically at the end of each of your turns. This would be helpful to those of us who play challenges like One-City Space Race, in which we like to keep a log of what we do when. It would probably also help new players, and more experience ones who want to jot down a newly discovered strategy or bug. Sure, you can do this already by swithcing into another program, but I don't know a single player who hasn't forgot to log events because the game got too engrossing. Similarly, there's often discussion of odd events or strategy notes where the player can't quite remember exactly what happened. A little notapd function would help immensely. Even though it is kind of boring.

[mindlace]

Francis and mzilikazi, I've rephrased your comments and placed them in Customization.
What do you think?