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Acme Intercontinental Ballistic Missle Company
Just finished another three day civ game. At the end, as my spaceship neared completion, I just said to hell with it and started lobbing ICBM's at France and Persia. In the previous eight or nine games I'd played I had never seen a nuclear attack (mostly because I only played to the modern era on three occasions).
My gawd...
The nuclear attack animation...is that supposed to be a joke? Honestly, I'm not being nitpicky here...but a thermonuclear attack that is going to vaporize hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and military personnel and lay waste to hundreds of miles should be both horrible and awe-inspiring. Instead, I was treated to a little mini-cartoon of a missle driving straight down into the city and an explosion that appeared no more severe than a cruise missle attack. After the third or fourth time of seeing this I was struck by a strong sense of deja vu. Where had I seen the likes of this before?
Then it hit me. Anybody ever watch the old Roadrunner cartoons? Remember all the gadgets Wily E. Coyote ordered from the Acme company? The ones that would always backfire and end up ****ing Wily up? I can recall seeing an episode where Coyote order a big rocket that ended up missing the Roadrunner and hitting Wily himself. That is what I was remembering, and that is not a good sign.
I would instead suggest that the launch of a nuclear weapon cause all music/sound fx to cease. The screen should jump to the city being targeted. We should not actually see the nuclear device, only a sudden flash of light that temporarily covers the whole screen. After the light fades, a mushroom cloud should appear over the city and background noise should filter in--the massive rumble of explosions, the creak and groan of twisting metal...
I would also make changes to the gameplay rules. Nuclear attacks would be much more severe. Radiation would be treated much differently than pollution (perhaps it should be symbolized by the death's head symbol from CivII). It would take at least twice as long to clean up; units on irradiated squares would not heal lost hitpoints, and every turn they would stand a chance of dying from radiation sickness; above all, units in the blast radius would only have a 10% chance of survival, and even if they live they would be reduced to one hitpoint.
A nuclear attack would be something to fear. Ground zero would become something to flee...
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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis
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