Black Death

JohnDoe3815 · January 22, 2004, 23:35

I am still playing the middle ages conquest. The only problem I am having at this point is the Black Death. It seams little by little all my cities are getting it and once they do it never seems to go away. Does anyone have any info on Black Death?

Willem · January 22, 2004, 23:46

It's a hit and miss thing. It sometimes affects only one or two cities, or sometimes affects almost all of them. Sometimes you don't even get it at all. Same thing goes for duration. If you're having a problem with it in your game, it's just bad luck

Kuciwalker · January 22, 2004, 23:54

What does it do? Does it just kill pop?

Willem · January 22, 2004, 23:56

No, it can also kill units that are in the city as well. Mostly population though.

Willem · January 22, 2004, 23:57

Incidentally, it spreads quicker if a city is connected by a road, and apparently Walls make it more lethal. Or so I've read.

Wittlich · January 23, 2004, 00:00

Though I haven't played the Middle Ages Conquest yet...I do have an idea as to why it's spreading around your Empire. This is what I would do if one (or more) of my cities were struck by plague:

1. Cut all roads to the infected city (isolate it from the rest of your cities)

2. If the infected city has a port - sell the port (again, isolating it from the remainder of your Empire).

3. And lastly, like the Civ2 Advisor always said:
Build City Walls!!

in your uninfected cities to hopefully slow the spreading of the disease down.

Since I haven't played the Middle Ages Scenario yet, these are just guesses...but they do make sense.

Wittlich · January 23, 2004, 00:03

Quote:

Incidentally, it spreads quicker if a city is connected by a road, and apparently Walls make it more lethal. Or so I've read.

Makes sense - If an infected city has walls, the infection would be greater - but the infection would also burn itself out if it is kept contained to the city in question.

JohnDoe3815 · January 23, 2004, 00:14

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnDoe3815
I am still playing the middle ages conquest. The only problem I am having at this point is the Black Death. It seams little by little all my cities are getting it and once they do it never seems to go away. Does anyone have any info on Black Death?

Well finally the Black Plague has ended. Matter of fact all my cities were cured all at the same time. I am not sure what happened to get this result, but I am happy that it is over. Thanks for the quick responses.

Willem · January 23, 2004, 14:17

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnDoe3815

Well finally the Black Plague has ended. Matter of fact all my cities were cured all at the same time. I am not sure what happened to get this result, but I am happy that it is over. Thanks for the quick responses.

Like I said, it's a hit and miss thing. If you go into the editor, you can find some of the parameter used in the Scenario Properties section.

steven8r · January 23, 2004, 15:00

Kinda cool animated vultures surrounding the infected cities.

Steven

joncnunn · January 23, 2004, 18:31

There might be a tech somewhere late in the middle ages conquest that greatly reduces the chance of plague.

In the with plague mod, Sanitation does the trick.

Theseus · January 23, 2004, 20:41

The vultures are very cool. My eyes popped out of my head and I fell out of my chair when I first saw them.

I think it's also important not to move any units from cities with Black Death to uninfected cities.

Kuciwalker · January 23, 2004, 21:44

Has Firaxis provided any documentation on the exact mechanics of the Plague? If not, this would be a really cool thing for alexman to test

The Mad Monk · January 24, 2004, 01:57

As it is, without date, this is sorta reminding me of how the actual civilizations reacted to the real plague...

Switch · January 24, 2004, 05:02

Quote:

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
As it is, without date, this is sorta reminding me of how the actual civilizations reacted to the real plague...

They asked their god for the details of the plague, and barring that got a top notch scientist to do testing on it?

And I'm not so sure they were too quick on quarintine either...

ratster · January 24, 2004, 09:00

Does it only happen in the scenarios, or in the main/random game also?

MoonWolf · January 24, 2004, 10:33

Quote:

Originally posted by ratster
Does it only happen in the scenarios, or in the main/random game also?

Only in certain scenarios. However, you can edit the original game to make it occur there as well. When the final big-change-patches are done, I think I'll inlcude it.

Kuciwalker · January 24, 2004, 10:35

Firaxis provided a scenario with C3C that enables the plague (that's the only rules change, and there's no map).

joncha · January 24, 2004, 15:20

Quote:

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
As it is, without date, this is sorta reminding me of how the actual civilizations reacted to the real plague...

Quote:

Originally posted by Switch

They asked their god for the details of the plague, and barring that got a top notch scientist to do testing on it?

And I'm not so sure they were too quick on quarintine either...

Hehe... or you can just single out one of the conquered minorities in your civ as the scape-goat, and pop-rush or starve them away for that added touch of brutal realism.

jon.

joncnunn · January 24, 2004, 17:25

It's called "with plagues"

I'm also placed my modifications into that file to avoid touching the standard one.

My first change was that I increased the plague effects.

Quote:

Originally posted by skywalker
Firaxis provided a scenario with C3C that enables the plague (that's the only rules change, and there's no map).

Purple · January 24, 2004, 20:40

I wonder whether anyone has used plague as a weapon. For example, send one of the units from a plague-infested city across the border to a neighboring civ and see what happens.

Has anyone done something like this?

Theseus · January 24, 2004, 21:34

Evil, Purple, evil. I like it.

asleepathewheel · January 24, 2004, 21:49

Quote:

Originally posted by Purple
I wonder whether anyone has used plague as a weapon. For example, send one of the units from a plague-infested city across the border to a neighboring civ and see what happens.

Has anyone done something like this?

what about gifting a plagued city?

Wittlich · January 24, 2004, 22:05

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel

what about gifting a plagued city?

Now there's an evil twist!

Kuciwalker · January 24, 2004, 22:21

I doubt the unit would do anything... but gifting a plague-city almost definately would.

Even better, make a quick strike to take one of their cities, wait for it to catch plague, then sue for peace, giving it back

Merepatra · January 25, 2004, 02:45

Quote:

Originally posted by Purple
I wonder whether anyone has used plague as a weapon. For example, send one of the units from a plague-infested city across the border to a neighboring civ and see what happens.

Has anyone done something like this?

Plague isn't spread by units moving from city to city therefore this wouldn't have any effect.

Gobi Bear (Ed Beach, the BreakAway Games producer of Conquests) posted the following on CivFanatics a while ago which explains a bit about how plague works and the editor settings for it.

Quote:

Here is a quick explanation of the Plague in the Middle Ages scenario.

Start by looking at the "4 Middle Ages.BIQ" file in the editor and look at the Disasters! tab in the Scenario Properties dialog.

It lists:
"Earliest Start = 1346" ... means that the AVERAGE date it starts in 1346 AD (the historical date)

"Variance = 50" ... as explained in the editor online help, this is a measure of how variable the actual chosen start date is from 1346 AD.

"Duration = 50" ... number of years plague will remain active ACROSS THE ENTIRE MAP (affecting all Civs) once it starts

"Strength = 100" ... the Black Death in the Middle Ages scenario is set to be the strongest possible type of plague

"Grace Period = 100" ... normally minimum number of years between plagues, but it is irrelevant in this case due to the next entry

"Max Occurrences = 1" ... plague will never come back after its 50 year-run in this scenario.

Plague affects both units in cities and the population of cities.

It affects all players at the same time.

As I recall, the chance of a city contracting plague is determined by the level of trade going on in that city (harbors, resources, etc.), the size of the city, the strength of the plague, and whether or not there are walls (walls increase the chance of plague).

Once a city has contracted plague, all you can do is wait it out (and move out the military units if possible).

Kuciwalker · January 25, 2004, 02:53

joncha · January 25, 2004, 03:19

Quote:

Once a city has contracted plague, all you can do is wait it out (and move out the military units if possible).

That and pray, pray, pray to the RNG gods.

jon.