Landmarks

from Elemental Forums

Recently, I was on vacation and visiting national landmarks.  So-and-so rock, famous overlook, bridge this, and valley that.  Civilizations name forests, mountains have names, monuments are erected for famous events, people and so forth.

 

While playing Civ4 I noticed that none of these things were identified.  If I own territory, a specific mountain range may provide me with strategic advantage, but beyond that I have no connection to that piece of land.  Rivers, fertile grassland, forests, all very valuable real estate, never really have any cultural significance to the civilizations controlling them.

 

What I propose is that Elemental allows for the naming of geographic features such as forests and mountain ranges, as well as a system for the marking of locations of significance such as the where major battles have taken place.

 

Such a system could be automated, while allowing the owning player to edit them.  The system would give areas a generic name, and allow for a brief description giving players the opportunity to tie landmarks to their civilizations culture.  Of course all of this would be optional, ideally to the point of being disabled in the options menu.

 

Thoughts?

8,643 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Already in. I hope. I think it is........ but not sure.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I vaguely recall some positive dev response to this idea the last time it came up. I definitely remember getting schooled by a multiplayer fan (NTJedi?) because I wanted to have the game support unique maps for each faction so we could have something like the Falklands-Maldive thing. I'm still weird enough to think it would be fun to see what labels an AI puts on things when I make a successful map trade, especially if we both name-claimed something like a river or mountain range.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I definitely think that user established landmarks (like labelling a Desert "arrakis" for example) should be viewed by all players (and AI, but only humans can think and find it significant of course)

a few functions I would like .... global labels, team-only labels, global pings, and team only pings.

- this might usually be overlooked, but it would be very nice in multiplayer ... ways to communicate other than simple typing. Sometimes much more effective.

 

A good global label would be like Desert of Arrakis, or the Forests of Verdoon. Meanwhile team-only labels could be City-here, or attack-here.

Global pings could do much the same thing, but is a less text based and more immediate point of reference. Meanwhile team-pings are to attract the eye of their team-mate to something important. Like locating an enemy army, or a quest location.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I really like the above, but would want to add pings for (a) specific other player(s). Tell an AI that another is going to attack it *here*, that sort of thing.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

yes, in Civ IV in diplomacy you can tell/ask an AI to attack a certain city. I was thinking more in terms of multiplayer as pings are a much more "human" concept imho.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

yes, in Civ IV in diplomacy you can tell/ask an AI to attack a certain city. I was thinking more in terms of multiplayer as pings are a much more "human" concept imho.
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I was actualy thinking more in terms of communicating with an AI in a manner similar (although a bit more limited, of course) as you would with a human player: stuff like "The Lords Of Furbook have started mining dilithium in the Womboogy mountains" or "I'm going to sign a research treaty with King Vleeg Of The Vlog in three days".

No actual conversation, but definately a list of actions you and the others are doing that you can choose to inform the others about or not.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

I would certainly like to landmarks named too.  Beyond that, though, I think they should give some special benefits too.  If you build your city in the shadow of a magnificent, statuesque mountain, it should give you some prestige.  They could also give you certain resource bonuses too (think Alpha Centauri or Fall From Heaven 2.)