[DESIGN/GRAPHICS] Natural disasters

[child of Thor]

I'm not sure about pre-arranged disasters(unless in a scenario)........and in Cradle i just used to think that well it was 3500bc, and my size 7 cities(70,000 inhabitants) were asking for trouble in their unsanitary living conditions

But yes this feature needs to be dealt with carefuly, having the player choose to have them in the game or not, and the scale of them(like when you choose the level of barbarians in the game) would seem a good way to do it i think.

[Gilgamensch]

What is then the point of having those events at all? If you are being hit, (like vulcano) and you receive at the same time a 'goodie', why even bother about it?

OK, it would add a bit of 'reallity' into it, but still not sure, if it is worth the 'extra' work.

To implement it, some programmers need to change the code in a lot of places, so I am not sure, if it is worth in the moment. There are, at least for me, far more important issues, like AI-improvements, map-creation and similar.

And as CoT said:

Yes i think its the scale of impact that people are worrying about, not so much that they could be in the game.

That is, I think, what most people are really concerned about.

I don't know if you folks know Populos. There you were able to send the disasters by yourself, provided you had enough Mana, that could be a nice feature

Gilgamensch trying to remember where is his copy so that he could play again

[SMIFFGIG]

Gilgamensch wrote

I don't know if you folks know Populos. There you were able to send the disasters by yourself, provided you had enough Mana, that could be a nice feature

Pixies and cloud cities could also be a cool feature

Anyway as i said this thread should really be the "random events thread"

There could be some (VERY RARE) large disasters, that have a global impact (discussion on this is needed)
But also some very large and very rare events that have a positive impact

Things like meteors landing on earth could cause radial damage for a forseeable short term. But in the long term dispersed gold deposits could be found at its crash site (as does happen, gold being from outer space anyway, as it is impossible to be actually created ON earth)

things like this
when this is balanced, this will be a great feature

[Gilgamensch]

There could be some (VERY RARE) large disasters, that have a global impact (discussion on this is needed)
But also some very large and very rare events that have a positive impact

And how do you want to determine the place to crush?

Now imagine that the meteor would for example hit the center of your empire and destroy your 3-4 core-cities, you are gone, whipped out, destroyed, annihilated, .........

[The Big Mc]

What about a really hard substance in the meteorite

[The Big Mc]

Well in the case of volcanoes you know what you are getting into

When you get to the modern age you could have the chance to deflect it with nukes or failing that your sdi deafens could have a pop

[SMIFFGIG]

or even a wonder that automatically grants all your cities immunity to meteors/comets (possibly other disasters too)

earthquakes could be prevented in the late game with a tech advance (that allows you to build more durable buildings)

Volcanos could be prevented early on, by simply not building near areas with tell tails signs that they may errupt into a volcano (% chance on it will ever erupt or not)
However volcano sites would have very rich lands around them, so you take the gamble at your own risk

[The Big Mc]

well the un erupted volcano tile is different to conventional mountains so you are an idiot if you don't see it coming

[Gilgamensch]

Originally posted by SMIFFGIG
or even a wonder that automatically grants all your cities immunity to meteors/comets (possibly other disasters too)

earthquakes could be prevented in the late game with a tech advance (that allows you to build more durable buildings)

Volcanos could be prevented early on, by simply not building near areas with tell tails signs that they may errupt into a volcano (% chance on it will ever erupt or not)
However volcano sites would have very rich lands around them, so you take the gamble at your own risk

Tell tails sign...........that's a good one Mother nature put them there, or the lord himself? Or the lords layer?????

The BIG question is as well, can we teach the AI to handle it properly? In the moment I would say no, so just opening another door for exploit for the human.........

[The Big Mc]

Simple just tell the ai never to settle within 4 tiles of a volcano that way the volcano never threatens the city.

[MrBaggins]

I'd say that for the most part, I dislike these ideas.

Random destructive events are counter productive... they annoy the player.

Disease is less annoying, but if its just random, then its something that encourages reloading, even if its avoidable.

How about avoidable, but predictable and (if the situation is bad enough) enevitable disease...

I.E.

As population grows in a city, its pop generate a certain number of disease 'points'. Unhealthy CI's add to this total, and healthy CI's subtract.

The city keeps a running tab (which can't go below zero.)

You'd have levels of disease points that would have effects (which would only happen once each, and only if the total rose, obviously)

125 Penalty to happiness
250 Penalty to food/prod/comm
375 Population loss
500 Penalty to happiness
625 Penalty to food/prod/comm
750 Population loss
875 Penalty to happiness/food/prod/comm
1000 Epidemic

Epidemics can pass disease to other cities via trade routes.

===

Although I've proposed the system... I'm not entirely sure I'd want it in the game... however.

I just wanted to provide some material for you guys to chew on.

[Gilgamensch]

But then he would/could be weaker than the human, as he will just take the risk (maybe).

I know that I am dreaming, BUT so long the AI can't compete all the way with the human, I don't really want to see another exploit. This just sounds to unbalancing to me and maybe even again a greater gain for warmongers, which again suits the human better.

[MrBaggins]

I tend to agree. I don't see this as a pressing need at all right now.

[The Big Mc]

I think disease is going to far. but lesser natural disasters like the occasional meteorite far away from anybody’s cities will be good or a volcano erupting at the distant edge of you city is a good and healthy. It makes the map feel like it is alive and that can only be a good thing.

[MrBaggins]

Originally posted by The Big Mc
I think disease is going to far. but lesser natural disasters like the occasional meteorite far away from anybody’s cities will be good or a volcano erupting at the distant edge of you city is a good and healthy. It makes the map feel like it is alive and that can only be a good thing.

Brian Reynolds, the award winning game designer, thinks its a bad thing, however... and I agree with his reasoning... sorry.

I'll dig up the article if you'd like.