It is worth saying that this idea was prompted by a very entertaining stream, where one Russian gaming journalist had to eat a newspaper, due to the fact that, a week before he was "lucky" to conduct a morning news gathering, where the news about Civilization 6 said:"...Only it had not entered the battle Royale! I'll eat the paper if that's the case...". And I thought, and this is really an idea, to experiment (within reason) on different formats. 

Say, add a "sandbox" mode where you can try out the mechanics without spending a lot of time. Or "One against all", or cooperative mode against one very strong artificial intelligence ...

 Ideas can come up with a lot. And it is possible to implement in two ways (at the same time - it is possible and at the same time) - to enter on a permanent basis, as a game mode, or as an event (by the way, I wrote an idea on this topic a month ago: https://www.games2gether.com/amplitude-studios/games2gether/ideas/2585-tournament-and-events-on-g2g?page=1 (imperceptible self-promotion)). 

What do you think about it?

P.S. the Idea for the future.

I think this is quite a good idea, even if there is a lot of scenarios like that on the base game. I think, an even more unrealistic thing would be a tool to create our own gamemods, by twisting the rules of the game itself, like overwatch did with the workshop. from that, there could be a lot of things that could arrive, like a steam workshop, or something like that. Time will tell.

I'd say a map editor with the power of WC3 World Edit, where you can make complex scripted scenarios and stuff, would be a nice addition.

Yes, I also think it would be quite nice to get a level editor. You can even, as in Portal2, simple, intuitive, in-game and with the ability to share their experiences (through Steam Workshop for example).

There is an entire "Mods" section of the forums for recommendations like this, so this will probably get shifted at some point.

It all depends on how much mod support is baked into HK. Keep in mind that it's been 5 years since EL was released, and XML and AI tweaks are about all that can be done. Image swaps, new 3D models and rigs, even creating map layers are either impossible or poorly documented.

This is something that could also probably just get modded, but I had thought of a game mode called crisis mode. Basically, before you can transition to the next era, an event is triggered for some kind of existential threat. You have to make it through 15 or so turns of the event before advancing to the next era.

For instance, switching from the bronze age to the classical era triggers the Bronze Age collapse. There is a spike in instability, and a new faction called the Sea People spawns to send several waves of aggressive units at you. Even if you defend your cities, there is a chance that some of the population converts into nomad units and wanders away. If you lose too much population, you lose the game.

Switching from the classical to medieval era triggers the Crisis of the 3rd Century/ Warring States Period. Your own military units begin to mutiny and attack you, and there is a dark ages of sorts where science and influence yields drop by 50%. If you lose too many cities to mutinies, your empire collapses and you lose the game.

Between the medieval and rennaisance eras, there is the Black Plague. Trade routes stop, and certain cities are marked with the plague, which spreads gradually. Cities marked with the plague have higher instability and lose population turn by turn. If instability gets too high, your people lose faith in your faction and you lose the game.

Between the rennaisance and industrial eras, there is a Revolutionary Wave. You automatically lose a city to rebellion, and if you do not get it back fast enough then the rebellion spreads to other cities, causing a jump in instability. If you lose your capital, your whole empire revolts and you lose the game.

Between the industrial and modern eras, there is the Great Depression. Inflation causes maintainence of units and buildings to increase by 50% while economic stagnation causes sources of gold to yield less. At the same time, an unkillable "demagogue" hero will spawn, which spreads instability. Spend influence or gold to maintain the favor of your people before the demagogue attempts a coup. If you do not maintain enough favor, the coup succeeds and you lose the game.

Before the end of the game, a final challenge comes which is based on your gameplay. If you have a number of enemy factions, you face Mutually Assured Destruction. Your enemy with the most cities gets the same number of nuclear weapons as you hold. If you can't stay ahead in the military arms race, there is nuclear armeggedon and you lose the game. If you have few enemies and are below a certain technology threshhold, you face Global Climate Change. Sea levels rise and desert tiles start to spread. Spend influence to get other factions and your own cities to agree to decrease carbon emissions. If you lose too many tiles to desertification and flooding, there is climate collapse and you lose the game. If you have few enemies and are above a certain technology threshhold, you face The Singularity. An indestructible "AI supercomputer" building is built in your city with the highest science output. It will replicate the initial science output of this city and double its science production every other turn. If the net science the supercomputer produces (which would end up being your highest science output city * 382) is higher than the net science of the rest of your cities and those of your allies (which is the science output of all of these cities over 15 turns) you lose the game.

I know it would probably be a stretch to see something like this anywhere other than in the game mods, but I thought it would be an interesting game mode to face the possibility of just losing outright at several points through the game.

grug wrote:

This is something that could also probably just get modded, but I had thought of a game mode called crisis mode. Basically, before you can transition to the next era, an event is triggered for some kind of existential threat. You have to make it through 15 or so turns of the event before advancing to the next era.

For instance, switching from the bronze age to the classical era triggers the Bronze Age collapse. There is a spike in instability, and a new faction called the Sea People spawns to send several waves of aggressive units at you. Even if you defend your cities, there is a chance that some of the population converts into nomad units and wanders away. If you lose too much population, you lose the game.

Switching from the classical to medieval era triggers the Crisis of the 3rd Century/ Warring States Period. Your own military units begin to mutiny and attack you, and there is a dark ages of sorts where science and influence yields drop by 50%. If you lose too many cities to mutinies, your empire collapses and you lose the game.

Between the medieval and rennaisance eras, there is the Black Plague. Trade routes stop, and certain cities are marked with the plague, which spreads gradually. Cities marked with the plague have higher instability and lose population turn by turn. If instability gets too high, your people lose faith in your faction and you lose the game.

Between the rennaisance and industrial eras, there is a Revolutionary Wave. You automatically lose a city to rebellion, and if you do not get it back fast enough then the rebellion spreads to other cities, causing a jump in instability. If you lose your capital, your whole empire revolts and you lose the game.

Between the industrial and modern eras, there is the Great Depression. Inflation causes maintainence of units and buildings to increase by 50% while economic stagnation causes sources of gold to yield less. At the same time, an unkillable "demagogue" hero will spawn, which spreads instability. Spend influence or gold to maintain the favor of your people before the demagogue attempts a coup. If you do not maintain enough favor, the coup succeeds and you lose the game.

Before the end of the game, a final challenge comes which is based on your gameplay. If you have a number of enemy factions, you face Mutually Assured Destruction. Your enemy with the most cities gets the same number of nuclear weapons as you hold. If you can't stay ahead in the military arms race, there is nuclear armeggedon and you lose the game. If you have few enemies and are below a certain technology threshhold, you face Global Climate Change. Sea levels rise and desert tiles start to spread. Spend influence to get other factions and your own cities to agree to decrease carbon emissions. If you lose too many tiles to desertification and flooding, there is climate collapse and you lose the game. If you have few enemies and are above a certain technology threshhold, you face The Singularity. An indestructible "AI supercomputer" building is built in your city with the highest science output. It will replicate the initial science output of this city and double its science production every other turn. If the net science the supercomputer produces (which would end up being your highest science output city * 382) is higher than the net science of the rest of your cities and those of your allies (which is the science output of all of these cities over 15 turns) you lose the game.

I know it would probably be a stretch to see something like this anywhere other than in the game mods, but I thought it would be an interesting game mode to face the possibility of just losing outright at several points through the game.

What would happen to the players who survived? For instance, if multiple players are going through the Climate Change problems, that seems like the sort of thing that would lead to everyone losing if nothing was done. Actually, that could apply to all the other endgame events.