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one year after the end of the game
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This blog post is part of a
series in which I explore the science fiction elements that I discovered in the computer game
Civilization VI. As described in my
previous blog post, the
English Empire became culturally dominant in 1912, officially ending my game (
cultural victory). Below, I share some of the interesting post-game events (in the years after 1912) that I observed while continuing to learn the tricks for promoting international tourism.
Shown in the image to the right is Capek's story, "War With the Newts", obtained as a cultural attraction in 1913 and put on display for tourists at Oxford University.
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files from the future
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Some science fiction stories are set in the past, but I usually prefer stories that have futuristic settings. In the real world, Edward Morgan Forster published "
The Machine Stops" in 1909. That proto-science fiction story was about a future society where people almost never traveled to other parts of the world and remained inside their home cities. Forster could not imagine digital computers, so his depiction of future technology seems rather silly from the perspective of people living 100 years in his future. While preparing this blog post, I had the benefit of screenshots from the future (see the image to the left). So, although my game of
Civ VI ended in
1912, we can look into the future of England....
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Figure 1. Constructing Estádio do Maracanã, a late-game wonder (left) and a list of England's spies (right).
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England's first musical culture item; 1920
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As the world leader in culture, I used spies (Figure 1, above) to guard some of my cultural sites. One of the biggest generators of culture (Estádio do Maracanã, which I was in the process of constructing when the game ended) is also shown in Figure 1 (left panel). Paintings, Statues and musical items on display in cultural centers can be stolen by spies, but I did not suffer this indignity during the game. Playing on the easiest game setting, my path to victory was only occasionally blocked by adverse events thrown at me by the game's AI software.
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The completed Estádio do Maracanã (major source of culture), next to Pantanal National Park (upper right).
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The last world wonder built in England.
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The final wonder that I constructed in England was
Broadway. Broadway gives a large boost to culture in a city. Broadway is one of the wonders that looks best a night and I'll share images of a few others, below. Sadly, I was not able to complete construction of some very useful wonders before the end of the game.
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The Great People of the England Empire. Bottom: my first Great Person obtained after the end of the game.
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England's aircraft carrier
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The image above shows most of the Great People that the English Empire had during its ascendance to world cultural domination. I was not really interested in Great Admirals, but I did build many seaports which attract Great Admirals, even if you are not fighting sea battles. Grace Hopper did give me a technology boost, but my other two Great Admirals were completely useless for England's cultural development. After the end of the game, I built an aircraft carrier simply because I wanted to see what that Civ VI unit looked like. I ended up using the aircraft carrier to escort an archeologist from the city of Eastport to a distant shipwreck where I obtained an ancient artifact for display in one of my British Museums.
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gunboat archeology: going into Indonesia
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Another WarI also used my other two naval units to escort archeologists to distant continents where additional ancient artifacts were available. The last ancient artifact that I got was from a shipwreck in Indonesian territory (see the image to the left). As it was, even after obtaining that last shipwreck artifact, I still needed one more artifact to complete the collection of artifacts at my last British Museum.
I actually had to start a war with Indonesia in order to get the artifact shown to the right. For 369 game turns that map tile with the shipwreck (see the image above) was not claimed by any civilization, then just one turn before my archeologist arrived, the border shifted. I did not continue playing my game beyond 1948. I could see one more ancient artifact, but it was in Egyptian territory and I was not really interested in fighting wars simply to obtain a few more ancient artifacts for my museums. I had proven the point: making use of England's special building, the British Museum, is a great way to achieve a cultural victory.
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#1 tourist attraction: 56 tourists
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In 1948, England's best tourist attraction was in the city OrangePearls, the location of the first British Museum that I constructed. The theater district in OrangePearls accounted for 8.7% of England's international tourists (641 total in 1948).
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Juventino Rosas in a theater district
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In 1919 I finally obtained a Great Musician. In the real world,
Juventino Rosas died in 1894, but in my game, England obtained "
Sobre las Olas" as a cultural artifact in 1920.
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1912: 1 turn until Eastport's museum
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Over the Waves. My first music acquisition in 1920 came during the time when I was preparing to send a few archeologists across the ocean to distant archeological sites. I had already obtained all of the available ancient artifacts inside England's territory (
North America and Australia) by the end of the game in 1912. To fill my last two British Museums (not constructed until after 1912) with artifacts, I would have to journey to archeological sites located on other continents.
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archeology in distant lands
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Shown to the left is a distant island where I collected several ancient artifacts.
While traveling the world in search of ancient artifacts, I was also building more wonders in my cities.
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Mont St. Michel was built at the northeast tip of Australia, not far from Port Paine.
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A night-time view of the Eiffel Tower in the city of Irony.
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Some of the World Wonders that I built after 1912 had no major benefits for the development of England's culture, but any wonder has a chance of attracting tourists. Frankly, I built many wonders simply because I wanted to see what they look like. In some cases, the most beautiful views of the wonders come at night (an example is shown in the image to the right).
After the end of the game, I was beautifying eastern Australia with Mont St. Michel and the Eiffel Tower, but my play was interrupted when the Indonesians built a city (Surabaya) in Australia close to my city of Irony. I had been expecting to test a nuclear bomb on an Egyptian city because Egypt had been aggressively building new cities close to my cities in western Australia. I decided to nuke the new city of Surabaya.
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Figure 2. The Indonesians provided a convenient test site for my nuclear bomb: Surabaya.
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Bombing Surabaya. The Bomber has just flown over the city.
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The image above (Figure 2) shows the targeting view for dropping a nuclear bomb from a bomber. After the end of the game in 1912, I built an airport and a bomber and developed the technology for nuclear weapons. In this game, I dropped my atomic bomb in 1938, seven years before nuclear warfare in the real world.
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Nuclear war in 1938.
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My nuclear attack on Surabaya seemed rather dangerous since the Indonesians had built their city so close to my city of Irony. However, all I lost in the bomb blast was my tea plantation. After I nuked Surabaya, I sent in a cavalry unit and took the city. After capturing cities, you have the option of keeping the city or destroying it. Since I did not want another city there crowding Irony, I erased Surabaya. The next turn, my cavalry unit died, apparently from radiation poisoning.
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Nothing can stop a determined tourist. Lower right: seaside resort.
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In a game of
Civ VI, there is a period of 9 years during which
nuclear contamination persists near an atomic bomb blast site. However, as shown in the image to the left, even nearby nuclear war and lingering fallout could not stop determined tourists from visiting a popular seaside resort (
6 international tourists). By this point in the game, the number of international tourists in England was almost as large as the number of domestic English tourists.
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a medic (right) in Delhi National Park
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I also wanted to see the
medic unit that is available in
Civ VI. I had no use for a medic, so I sent her to Delhi National Park (see the image to the right). I can pretend that she is the park ranger.
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Figure 3. After the Ibuka bonus, now even London's industrial district ( 1 ) is a source of culture.
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Back to Building Culture. My little nuclear experiment was conducted simply to allow me to see what a nuclear blast looks like in a game of Civ VI. My purpose in continuing to take game turns past the end of the game in 1912 was to explore additional ways of getting culture and attracting tourists. I was able to obtain Masaru Ibuka as a great merchant and then my industrial districts began to attract tourists. As shown in Figure 3, above, the industrial zone for London had quickly attracted an international tourist ( 1 ).
You can also see in Figure 3 that by this point in time, Pantanal National Park had become the most popular tourist site in London ( 23 ), pulling ahead of the Holy Site ( 21 ).
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Mr. Ibuka visits an English industrial district.
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I always try to develop my industrial districts in every city in order to get the productivity bonuses that come from
factories and
power plants. It was only after I'd won the cultural victory in 1912 that I learned how to turn industrial districts into an attraction for tourists. The industrial district shown to the left only has a
market. Not every city needs to build factories and power plants. If another nearby city has a factory or a power plant then the production benefits automatically spread.
Also visible in the image to the left is an oil well. Oil wells provide a big productivity bonus to the nearby city.
I finally got a great artist,
Gustav Klimt. His paintings went on display in one of my theater districts and began attracting tourists, but this was long after I had already achieved a cultural victory.
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put on display in 1940
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One of Gustav's paintings is shown to the left. "The Kiss" was put on display in 1940 while had archeologists in the field trying to collect a few remaining ancient artifacts. I have to wonder if I should have begun the process of earning points towards great artists sooner in the game, but I was counting on ancient artifacts in my British Museums being far more important. It was somewhat frustrating to see other civilizations with works of art early in the game, but for a cultural victory, the other civilizations also need to be generating domestic tourists. That creates a pool of tourists that England's international tourists can be drawn from.
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the 12 City-states in this cultural victory game
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City-states are one of the sources of culture that quickly become apparent to players of
Civ VI. Some City-states provide you with a culture bonus when you send them
emissaries. The three City-states color code pink were sources of culture.
Vilnius was located just southeast of London, so it was an early source of culture that helped London
expand its borders.
The other City-state that I had early contact with was Yerevan. Faith points from Yerevan helped me obtain some early growth in my religion while I was competing against aggressive Hindu missionaries.
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Who was Sydney? My opera house is located in Hors Dymynds.
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I'm going to end this investigation into England's future with some images of world wonders that I built after the end of the game in 1912. Although most of England's cities were in Australia, I constructed the
Sydney Opera House in the city of Hors Dymynd, located in North America. The image to the left provides a night-time view of the Opera House.
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Diamonds.
The city of Hors Dymynd was given its unusual name because of the two special resources that I found in that part of the North American continent:
horses and
diamonds. Early in the game, before England had access to any
iron resources,
horsemen were an important military unit for England.
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Opera House (lower left), diamond mine (lower right)
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It
looks like visitors would have to enter the Opera House by passing
through the diamond mine. Maybe a good tourist attraction would be an
underground tram-line to carry patrons from downtown Hors Dymynd to the
Opera House with the tunnel passing through the abandoned shafts of the
mine.
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Another world wonder that was not built until after 1912 is
shown in the image to the right. There are restrictions on where the
various world wonders can be built, so my Mausoleum ended up near the
city of OrangePearls and adjacent to a seaside resort.
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Mausoleum (left), seaside resort (right).
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8 international tourists in this seaside resort
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By 1948, the seaside resort was attracting 8 international tourists and the adjacent Mausoleum was attracting 3.
As shown below, the Bolshoi Theatre ended up being constructed next to one of the many KCIV broadcast centers of England.
Destruction. One of the most horrifying science fiction stories that I read as a young boy was
Level 7, which was published the year I was born. I was about 13 when I read
Level 7. That book's depiction of nuclear war haunted me through the years of the
cold war.
After winning a cultural victory for England, I could not resist exploding a nuclear bomb. Sadly, in this game, I never saw any of the space age game features that are in the Civilization VI game, items like spacecraft that I usually associate with the science fiction age. However, I've designated 1950 - 1983 as the "Uranium Age" of science fiction. In my game, technology developed slightly faster than in the real world, so I was able to explode a nuclear bomb in 1938.
I'm a bit saddened by the fact that although I set out to play a game of
Civilization VI in which I would try to minimize the fantasy violence and focus on cultural developments like art and music, I ended up having a 150-year-long war with Gandhi the pacifist and during my investigation into the future of England (after 1912) I dropped an A-bomb on a city. 😔
However, along the way to victory I did encounter a few science fiction elements in the game and also got to see some of the nice artwork that is embedded in the game. I wish some truly Sci Fi elements like Tesla's Peace Ray were available in Civilization VI.
When playing for a science victory (described here), I reached Mars in 1912. In my cultural victory game, had not even built a spaceport by the time of my victory in 1912.
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Is this what players asked for?
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The question must be asked: would playing at a higher
difficulty level make the end game more interesting? Based on my past experience with Civilization games, the answer is NO. Higher difficulty levels just make the early game slower. There is a feature in that
Civilization VI allows you to start the game in a later historical
era. However, that feature is not well balanced and deprives the human player in the competitive advantages that you can develop through planning and hard work early in the game.
Someday I'll probably experiment with the
Gathering Storm expansion, but I have no reason to believe that they made an attempt to grace the new "future era" with a science fiction tone and fun features. Instead, there are new annoyances such as natural disasters and resource depletion. Sadly, I've seen the
future technologies that were added to Gathering Storm described as "
totally random", which does not bode well for science fiction-themed game play as you try to reach a distant
exoplanet.
Related Reading: the first post in this series
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colonizing Australia
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Next:
follow the dingo.
The Outback Tycoon scenario for
Civilization VI. To win, you must be earning at least 200 gold per turn by turn 60 of the game and have the highest score among the four players.
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