TheLimey:

Very nice summary but some of the details will have to be worked out.

Power Level: I disagree with this one. The Mongol empire at its peak was infinitely more powerful than any other country and within a few generations it crumbled. In 1815 the British Empire stood supreme, but lost it by the time Germany unified. I think that if the AI can be improved to battle ICS almost any civ will have a chance to rise again.

Social: Perhaps, but you would be required to hold it for a good number of turns to win.

Religious: ditto

Resource quantity: ICS will become an even bigger problem with this.

The rest are really good, and I'll back up any one of them.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'll be waiting eagerly for more great ideas in this thread.

Also, what's the difference between SMAC's rarely-used economic victory and the proposed religion victory. It sounds like both will require a lot of gold (which is unfeasible, considering the market crashes) and will also not be practical on large maps.

For a not green civ, the same concept can be translated into "develop a robotic race with -turing complained- artificial intelligence".

Hmmm, more suggestions will follow in a few days. Stay tuned

I think that the pathway to victory that you described is what most people mean by a tech and build victory, i.e. discover some very advanced technology, (positronic nanorobotics, for example) and build a really expensive wonder such as a "Positronic Brain".

Personally, I think that its a good idea to have something like this so that when you are tired of actual combat there is still a way to win.

quote: Originally posted by UltraSonix on 07-16-2000 06:32 AM Just wanted to mention that the "power level" way of winning above isn't so great 'cause if you were 5x powerful then you'll just be able to conquer everyone anyway.

Actually, this is precisely why I like the idea. It saves you the tedious end bit where you're really only mobbing up your last standing opponents. It can make the game drag on for to long. So I'm in favour of adding a power level end. A lot of players end the game anyway when it is totally obvious that they've won. They don't feel like micromanaging 100+ cities for those last pointless turns. But they (at least I) regret not getting a proper end (and a rewarding video sequence).
Maybe they ought to make the overpowering ending optional, letting the player decide when the moment is there whether he wants to take this win or annihilate his last enemies.

Perhaps this option should be enabled as an option that could be switched off, but I would have doubts even so. After all, this could only encourage ICS, because players would strive rapidly to become vastly powerful than their neighbors, neglecting proper management, and then win using this option.

However, there should be a score bonus for finding and killing the last opposition. The power difference score bonus should be only 80% of the bonus of complete conquest. However, if you can keep a power difference for, say, 10 game turns, then mop up would probably be inevitable.