Aliens

[Alex 14]

Should aliens be brought into the gameplay late in the modern age?

You start a game;
you find a few other civs;
you find every civ;
you keep playing;
you get bored;
you reach a special scientific advance that allowes you to make contact with new other (not on earth) civilizations.

[Urban Ranger]

The big question is: how would aliens bring excitement back into the game?

[campmajor!]

As long as it contributes something extra.

I didn't like the aliens in ToT....

[Grumbold]

I've certainly no objection to any expansion packs or scenarios where aliens enter the plot. Just keep them out of the main game, please

[Solver]

They are out there, and they're as real as anything else, so why not?

[Footie Mad]

To Sci-Fi for me, if you want them go play SMAC.

[Dugrik]

If the game is balanced properly you don't get bored late in the game.

[KrazyHorse]

Civ is about human civilisation, something we have experience with, not aliens, something we don't.

[Sabre2th]

I wouldn't mind seeing 1 or two alien scenarios, but no alien civs in the main game.

[Recurve]

My games always get boring towards the end. Given that aliens aren’t a viable option, an alternative could be nations like the USA and Soviet Russia that rise meteorically and ‘all-of-a-sudden’ threaten your position.

Of course that’s not an option either, but is there any solution to the end-of-game boredom?!

[loinburger]

I would like alien civilizations if:

• there are also robot civilizations
• these robot civilizations have robot ninjas (like the ones in Robocop 3)
• the aliens use plasma rifles (and/or ghost lasers)
• Civ III incorporates elements of a first person shooter (like Doom; the cacodemons are my favorite, with cyberdemons running a close second)
• we are allowed to design our own pants

[Sabre2th]

[DarkCloud]

Not at all.
It takes away from the essence of civ, a 'building game emulating the real world history.'

Perhaps, as Grumbold says they should be in an expansion pack or something- however the aliens in ToT really did nothing to civ... To fully have aliens you need a seperate unit evolution chart and technologies and everything... Not every species will have evolved exactly as we have.

It just wouldn't seem 'real' to have aliens piloting tanks.

[Mahdimael]

Ways to relieve end game boredom:

-Cities start disappearing randomly. Guess which one is next and it stops.

-Baby boom in all your cities forces you to micromanage every city

-Game shuts down 1-2 turns before your spaceship reaches Alpha Centauri and deletes all your save files.

-A 3d head of Sid Meier appears in game year 1900, smirking and making fun of you for not being done already.

-Your shores are invaded by 100 barbarian worker units, which start destroying all of your terrain improvements.

-The graphics start degrading from Civ3 style to Civ2 style to Civ1 style until you're eventually reduced to playing in 80x24 ASCII mode.

-The game secretly dials up the internet and gets a human player to take over the computer civs, telling him that you called him a loser. The game also arms him with a large stockpile of extra long range nukes.

[Sabre2th]

LOL Mahdimael! A game we might actually lose for once

[Inverse Icarus]

no aliens in civ.

thats what scenarios are for.

"THE XEL'NALAGAINS REFUSE TO TRADE YOU THEIR OIL"

[Alex 14]

Originally posted by campmajor!
As long as it contributes something extra.

I didn't like the aliens in ToT....

What were they like in ToT?

[Trdi]

Oh, my God. I haven't expected 2/3 against the aliens. Well, I'm against them, too. It takes away my concentration.

[Jarouik]

I agree - an alien civilization makes no sense and would take the authentic 'history' feeling out of the game, as it seems aliens haven't been a significant player in human history thus far... However, I always thought that in Civ the fact that the SETI Program increases your science rate meant that building SETI Program actually results in you contacting aliens and getting valuable scientific information, as the civilopedia or manual text in Civ seemed to indicate that, if I recall correctly.

[Sabre2th]

I don't recall what the manual said and I REALLY don't feel like digging it out, but I always thought it increased science simply because its a scientific research program. I guess I never really thought about it.

[Adagio]

I don't remember the aliens in ToT that much, I only remember that as I played as the aliens there wasn't much of a change on how aliens works (Got the same buildings and units, maybe a few other special units, don't remember), and to play as the only race on a planet got boring so I never got more than half finnish with the alien level. And as the humans, I noticed there was some inventions I couldn't invent so I couldn't visit the aliens, and the aliens never came down to eath. I only played one human game (and didn't finish it) because it made Civ2 boring, so I just uninstalled everything and installed Civ2 again

If there should be any aliens in the game they should be different, like one alien race (yes there should then be more of them, and it should be optional if they are in the game or not) is really demanding a lot of things to make them happy, but the plus site could be the defense of the cities are much higher than normal!!!

Just for an example, IF they are going to be in the game, which I don't believe they will be, at least not in the first release

[Kassiopeia]

If not aliens, then there should be the possibility of a common threat for the whole planet Earth IMHO. Maybe a meteor, even the much-spoken global warming would do. My point is, that there should be a huge crisis, like a nasty disease, that threatens the whole mankind. There could be a race to discover a virus; if you get it first and distribute it, you could be elected like leader of the world and if you keep it to yourself, the others will die out

[Provost Harrison]

Nah, a silly idea. Civ3 is a game about our history to the present day, and we have not yet discovered aliens (different to predicting their existence). So it should be omitted. If you are going to include anything, it should be something predictable (victory on first moon base/mars base/even AC base).

I think this wouold add a groan factor to the latter end of Civ3. You get engrossed in the game partially because you are rewriting history on your own terms. So for something totally unrealistic like this to come along would blow that one out of the water.

[Sabre2th]

I agree with PH, to aliens. Aliens are fine for scenarios, but don't belong in plain old civ.

[Mahdimael]

Yeah, exactly like the futuristic units in CTP did...the "Diamond Age"? Come on...lame

[Gangerolf]

What exactly would aliens do if one was to meet them in civ3? You can't go to war with someone who has the technology to travel xxxxxxxx light years in space. They'd just blow up the planet, or make people their :banned:s.
And if you cant kill them, then what? Maybe try and steal their technology? Sell them souvenirs perhaps. is my vote on ALIENS. I've never found sci-fi appealing anyway.

[SerapisIV]

Well, after various surveys on this board, most people have declared their desire for a Civ3 with only near-future tech (Civ2 techs mostly) Being that the only place aliens have been proven to exist is in Hollywood movies, I don't think that aliens fit into the near-future category.

I'd much rather have Firaxis time spent on making sure overpowering units like the Civ2 howitzer don't exist then play-balancing War of the Worlds. Save the aliens for mods.

[Grumbold]

Dont be so sure. Half the world leaders are really aliens *twitch* but don't let them know that you know *shudder* or you will suddenly vani

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by Grumbold
Dont be so sure. Half the world leaders are really aliens *twitch* but don't let them know that you know *shudder* or you will suddenly vani

That must be where Elvis is, he was an alien. Damn it that better not be Firaxis' excuse for not including him in Civ3, him really being a little green man under those jumpsuits.

[loinburger]

Geez, a 1/4/1 result split. Why does everybody have to go hating on the aliens like that?