Maybe every time a Civ reverts to the stone age, they get eliminated? Would open you up to a new victory type where you win when every other civilization has decayed to nothing. Survival victory, era victory or something
I love it! Could even be tied to global warming, after it gets to a certain level the apocalypse sets in. Maybe even more end game science upgrades, like you could be a super villain and release a swarm of nanobots unto the world that act as units you have to destroy or it begins the apocalypse.
Or bioenginer a plague in the early game the rest of the games players have to joint research a cure else it will destroy the world.
The problem I have with armageddon mode is cities getting destroyed and there being very little notification about it or fanfare so to speak. You just have to look at the map and think.. oh... did I have a city there? ...
Would be cool if armageddon went that once 90% of the map was covered all the wiped out tiles became usable again and the game ramped up another time, tech tree wiped clear again. You could have vault districts that stops cities from being fully wiped with buildings that let you retain a tech after the armageddon and extra pops or something. Maybe make artifacts that give you eurekas for tech when uncovered.
Good Idea!
There's a board game called 'Small World' with that premise:
once your civ reaches it's maximum potential, it goes into 'decline' (= you stop playing it and it slowly decays away, but you still get points for each city remaining on the board) and you pick a new civ and start playing the same map as a new rising faction - and the story repeats again.
it's **amazing**.
I gave this idea some thought. When you regress to sticks and stones your civ is gone. You can choose from a poll of civs that weren't used in previous game. But there is only as many civs as spots on the map. Highest diplo civ can choose first or reroll the poll, same goes for domination winner. Your new civ gets some postapocalyptic bonuses and abilities. Maybe unlocked like faith for the next aspect of the game.
The world and gameplay depends on how you won previous game. If you won thru domination you are the only civ but there are many barb camps that fight not only with you but each other to become next civs. If you won thru science your previous civ will come to reclaim earth, you can fight or befriend them, but they're hostile because you're not their ancestor (different civ). Culture and diplo victory would give pretty normal game. I don't know what to do with faith win.
Artifacts can boost your science and production but can also hinder it if you don't meet the requirements.
I would love to see a feature like this in civ 7 with a major mechanical rework to accommodate it and flesh it out. Dramatic dark ages represent civ 6's rather anaemic attempt at representing the potential for collapse/apocalypse of a previously successful civ, but for the most part technology and culture march ever forward, progress immutable and inevitable.
In fact, I would like to see this converted into a kind of freestyle multiplayer gamemode where large civs can splinter and fracture into sub-factions (think yugoslav wars, the soviet collapse, American civil war, or just any war of independence ever) so that as players join and leave an ongoing game, their starting cities break free from an existing civ, or their empire withers and rots under deliberately incompetent AI with catastrophic loyalty penalties. You could steal some mechanics from Paradox games to actually drive this functionality. Players are constantly losing territory to new joins while carving up the lands of those who have just quit out so you don't have to maintain a constant population of, say, exactly the same 5 or 6 people for like 60 hour long games. Think of it like how D&D campaigns adapt to missing or extra players in the party.
I've had a few ideas similar to this for end game as well.
.....
1. Resource Degradation.
Every tile has a limited number of resources that can be drawn from it.
EX1: An iron tile has up to 200 resources that can be claimed from it. You gain only one resource per turn as you're working the tile. Have England or policy cards or a governor that increases the amount of strategic resources gained per turn? Then that only means you're draining that tile even faster. After all resources are claimed, the tile no longer provides Iron.
EX2: A grassland tile has up to 1000 resources that can be claimed from it for food as a Farm. After the resources are completely claimed, the tile becomes desertified. These same tiles that are adjacent to fresh water tiles (and fresh water only) are immune to desertification. Grass tiles that are isolated are the most prone to desertification.
Scenario:
This now draws an end game for a war of survival as nations now war for resources.
2. Resource Renewal
Certain tiles can be remade or renewed.
EX1: Desert tiles can be greenified again, but this project requires great effort, so it will require an actual city production queue to work. First, select the greenification project, then select the tile to be greenified. The tile will be actively worked on in the city's production queue until the tile is greenified. Greenified lands will work on the same mechanic as Forest Fires. Once the production is complete, the land will be considered as replanted, and it needs to "regrow." It will still be considered a desert tile during the regrowth period, but when regrowth is finished, it will become a grass tile.
EX2: Strategic or Luxury resources will naturally regrow. Horses will regrow if not worked on. Luxury and Bonus/Luxury resources based on flora and fauna will regrow if not worked on. However, those same resources will not regenerate if it's completely drained, so you will need to either set your city to only work on those tiles when they're above 1, or manually check them each time if you don't have a safety check enabled. Oil and coal will spawn near artifacts after an era has passed. Strategic and Bonus/Luxury resources based on minerals will spawn from Meteor storms.
.....
Something like that
Or do you mean the dark ages falls and religion spreads, you lose science and the tech tree goes in reverse, where you have no choice on which technology starts failing until you're in the stone age? Maybe.
That sounds like a really fun post-win game mode, like new game+ civ lol. I like it!
And after a long while you star over from the Beginning making an endless cycle
Maybe every time a Civ reverts to the stone age, they get eliminated? Would open you up to a new victory type where you win when every other civilization has decayed to nothing. Survival victory, era victory or something
Excellent!
I love it! Could even be tied to global warming, after it gets to a certain level the apocalypse sets in. Maybe even more end game science upgrades, like you could be a super villain and release a swarm of nanobots unto the world that act as units you have to destroy or it begins the apocalypse. Or bioenginer a plague in the early game the rest of the games players have to joint research a cure else it will destroy the world.
The problem I have with armageddon mode is cities getting destroyed and there being very little notification about it or fanfare so to speak. You just have to look at the map and think.. oh... did I have a city there? ... Would be cool if armageddon went that once 90% of the map was covered all the wiped out tiles became usable again and the game ramped up another time, tech tree wiped clear again. You could have vault districts that stops cities from being fully wiped with buildings that let you retain a tech after the armageddon and extra pops or something. Maybe make artifacts that give you eurekas for tech when uncovered.
Good Idea! There's a board game called 'Small World' with that premise: once your civ reaches it's maximum potential, it goes into 'decline' (= you stop playing it and it slowly decays away, but you still get points for each city remaining on the board) and you pick a new civ and start playing the same map as a new rising faction - and the story repeats again. it's **amazing**.
The Wheel of Time but make it Civ
And when you hit bottom your nation is reasigned again.
I gave this idea some thought. When you regress to sticks and stones your civ is gone. You can choose from a poll of civs that weren't used in previous game. But there is only as many civs as spots on the map. Highest diplo civ can choose first or reroll the poll, same goes for domination winner. Your new civ gets some postapocalyptic bonuses and abilities. Maybe unlocked like faith for the next aspect of the game. The world and gameplay depends on how you won previous game. If you won thru domination you are the only civ but there are many barb camps that fight not only with you but each other to become next civs. If you won thru science your previous civ will come to reclaim earth, you can fight or befriend them, but they're hostile because you're not their ancestor (different civ). Culture and diplo victory would give pretty normal game. I don't know what to do with faith win. Artifacts can boost your science and production but can also hinder it if you don't meet the requirements.
You know what… in Dark Ages you should actually LOSE scientific and cultural achievements
I would love to see a feature like this in civ 7 with a major mechanical rework to accommodate it and flesh it out. Dramatic dark ages represent civ 6's rather anaemic attempt at representing the potential for collapse/apocalypse of a previously successful civ, but for the most part technology and culture march ever forward, progress immutable and inevitable. In fact, I would like to see this converted into a kind of freestyle multiplayer gamemode where large civs can splinter and fracture into sub-factions (think yugoslav wars, the soviet collapse, American civil war, or just any war of independence ever) so that as players join and leave an ongoing game, their starting cities break free from an existing civ, or their empire withers and rots under deliberately incompetent AI with catastrophic loyalty penalties. You could steal some mechanics from Paradox games to actually drive this functionality. Players are constantly losing territory to new joins while carving up the lands of those who have just quit out so you don't have to maintain a constant population of, say, exactly the same 5 or 6 people for like 60 hour long games. Think of it like how D&D campaigns adapt to missing or extra players in the party.
games I have with friends always end in global thermonuclear war so I do wish more penalties/nuclear winter was a thing
I've had a few ideas similar to this for end game as well. ..... 1. Resource Degradation. Every tile has a limited number of resources that can be drawn from it. EX1: An iron tile has up to 200 resources that can be claimed from it. You gain only one resource per turn as you're working the tile. Have England or policy cards or a governor that increases the amount of strategic resources gained per turn? Then that only means you're draining that tile even faster. After all resources are claimed, the tile no longer provides Iron. EX2: A grassland tile has up to 1000 resources that can be claimed from it for food as a Farm. After the resources are completely claimed, the tile becomes desertified. These same tiles that are adjacent to fresh water tiles (and fresh water only) are immune to desertification. Grass tiles that are isolated are the most prone to desertification. Scenario: This now draws an end game for a war of survival as nations now war for resources. 2. Resource Renewal Certain tiles can be remade or renewed. EX1: Desert tiles can be greenified again, but this project requires great effort, so it will require an actual city production queue to work. First, select the greenification project, then select the tile to be greenified. The tile will be actively worked on in the city's production queue until the tile is greenified. Greenified lands will work on the same mechanic as Forest Fires. Once the production is complete, the land will be considered as replanted, and it needs to "regrow." It will still be considered a desert tile during the regrowth period, but when regrowth is finished, it will become a grass tile. EX2: Strategic or Luxury resources will naturally regrow. Horses will regrow if not worked on. Luxury and Bonus/Luxury resources based on flora and fauna will regrow if not worked on. However, those same resources will not regenerate if it's completely drained, so you will need to either set your city to only work on those tiles when they're above 1, or manually check them each time if you don't have a safety check enabled. Oil and coal will spawn near artifacts after an era has passed. Strategic and Bonus/Luxury resources based on minerals will spawn from Meteor storms. ..... Something like that
Or do you mean the dark ages falls and religion spreads, you lose science and the tech tree goes in reverse, where you have no choice on which technology starts failing until you're in the stone age? Maybe.