Unicorn McGriddle

Join Date 03/2006

In media res: midgame start option

A lot of the time, I put off playing a strategy game because of the startup -- the early turns where there's less to do and less information to go on. Inspired by times on CivFanatics when members have taken someone else's save and turned it around, I realized that perhaps there could be a game mode in Elemental that starts in the midgame. You've got some resources, some of the map is exposed, and maybe you're even in a brushfire war already.

Although I doubt it would be trivial to implement, I do see a brute-force way to do it: run the game with AIs until some criterion or other is met, then hand control over to the player.

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AKA scenarios. Although i am sure there will be some form of single shot scenarios we can play, the ability to generate them would be pretty cool.

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This is good. I'd like to expand on it too.

Given the link up the game will have with the Stardock servers (to up and download mods, patches ect) I think it would be very easy to set up a "Game of the Month" like on the civfanatics forum. Give the pure single player a way to compare vs others. Games could either be from the start of a game or part way through, where Stardock has set up a tricky situation to manage. Eventually GotM's could be with quality mods. Allow users to upload their challenges to other players, eventually there would be a plethora of pre-started games for players to take hold of and get the high score for. Of course a save system based on Stardock servers would need to be in place to limit cheaters. Heck, on CivFanatics they are still hosting GotM's for Civ III.

I never got into the GalCiv thing, where there were clans and a galaxy to take over, was it successful? I could see a system where players are rewarded with goodies for achieving things. Goodies are not bonus in-game content, don't discriminate against the casual gamer, but nice little things like each player has a "hall" like in the original Civ, and the more you achieve the more you can add to the hall. Or whatever.

*edit* very bad syntax. very bad

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Yeah, scenarios are nice for a while, but it's all about random challenges in the long term.

Using these as the basis for a CivFanatics Game of the Month is an AWESOME idea.

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psychoak

Join Date 07/2007

+225

If only I liked quickstart options...

Oh well, I'd still like them to be in there.

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Like i said, the ability to generate scenarios would be quite nice. Basically i rephrased what you said only with 'scenario' instead of "someone else's save". They are basically the same thing.

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I think "scenario" implies special pre-set circumstances -- and doesn't particularly suggest skipping the earliest stages of the game. To me, a scenario includes special rules, scripted events, or victory conditions, like "you must hold these three cities on turn 50," or "the Liir must return the crown jewels to the Hiver homeworld," or "the rain in the mountain pass connecting the two sides of the map is toxic, and units moving through the pass during foul weather will die." I'm talking about a non-scenario custom game that you can run for a while under AI control and then take over.

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I was thinking of scenario as any game you play where there are pre-set anythings that are non-standard. So starting with a small nation already built would count as a scenario as would have special rules. A scenario would include anything that is not a basic game started with standard rules from the start.

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But it's really just a custom game where all the players are AIs until you step in. If "non-standard pre-set anything" makes a scenario, then playing a Huge-map game of Civ4 is a scenario.

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Solam

Join Date 03/2007

+16

A sand box mode where you get a mid game. I do not see why this could not be done. The parameters could be set for mid instead of beginning.

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