08-03-2005 22:53									#1
	Re-writing history: The promise since Civ1 Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

How about a "History book" feature that allows a player to "scrapbook" screenshots, enter text, make statistical notes, graphs, and charts, etc.

This textbook could be an xml file, which obviously opens up possibilities.

How cool would it be to re-read the history book of your first Civ game? Death tolls on a per-battle basis, the growth of literacy, the fall of those backstabbing SOB Russians... the American-Chinese nuclear war...

	09-03-2005 02:16									#2
	Increase the size of your Attachments

I think it's a splendid idea. I really like graphs
Could it be kind of what's in EU2?

	09-03-2005 18:19									#3
	Get a bigger avatar today!

How did they solve it in EU2?

	09-03-2005 22:18									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

I came up with this idea a year or two ago, so naturally I support it

Ok, my idea is a little different with the fact that it's the computer that writes the story. For the computer to write the story of course there has to be lots of options for it to be varied, but it would still be easy to make it write like this: (days and months are just random dates the computer insert to make it more like a history book)

February 6 1904: The backstabbing Indians broke our peace treaty by attacking our glorious fleet
June 21 1904: Our allies the Zulus joined the war on our side
July 4 1910: We sent out the first nuclear bomb on Earth. Indian capital destroyed
May 21 1911: Our army conquers the last Indian city on this continent (landmarks should be named to make it easy to read the history book). India surrender

	10-03-2005 00:38									#5
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

quote: Originally posted by Max Sinister How did they solve it in EU2?

There is a ledger which gives most info you want about the state of the game.

	10-03-2005 01:09									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

This is a very cool idea. Adagio's suggestion could work well since the computer keeps track of all that stuff anyway, except we only get to see it on the little VCR summary at the end of the game.

I would like to have a log book to refer back to or even just a text note book to make some strategy notes.

Maybe I can have a recordkeeper as a 7th adviser, or maybe the cultural adviser could do it. You know that guy has some spare time.

	10-03-2005 01:33									#7
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by 1889 This is a very cool idea. Adagio's suggestion could work well since the computer keeps track of all that stuff anyway, except we only get to see it on the little VCR summary at the end of the game.

I was thinking about making it possible to see it while playing the game, not just after

There could be two versions of it:

1)
The one you can see while playing the game. This one is nation specific so you can only read what your nation knows at the time of the events. This 'book' goes into detail about your nation, like when did your nation connect the first two cities with a railroad

2)
A world history book that tells all the greatest things happening on Earth. It doesn't tell about minor nation acomplishments as the above, but only about events that changed the world (like when the first nation to connect two cities with a railroad). Minor wars with only few casualities probably wont be recorded
This 'book' comes after the end of the game (and is save-able)

	10-03-2005 01:43									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Actually, now a days a history book for a western country is more likely to read:

Feburary 6 1904 The Brave Indian freedom fighters attacked our fleet full of greedy sailors. We deserved it because our govtment refused to meet the Indians modest demands.

June 21 1904 The Zulu govt is bribed into joining the war on the brave Indians.

July 4 1910 Our govt violates international law by dropping a nuclear bomb on the Indian capital and killing millions of inconent civilian Indians, including thousands of children.

May 21 1911 Hostilities cease with the Indians, but our govt in violation of international law continues the occupation of all Indian lands on the ____ contientant.

quote: Originally posted by Adagio I came up with this idea a year or two ago, so naturally I support it Ok, my idea is a little different with the fact that it's the computer that writes the story. For the computer to write the story of course there has to be lots of options for it to be varied, but it would still be easy to make it write like this: (days and months are just random dates the computer insert to make it more like a history book) February 6 1904: The backstabbing Indians broke our peace treaty by attacking our glorious fleet June 21 1904: Our allies the Zulus joined the war on our side July 4 1910: We sent out the first nuclear bomb on Earth. Indian capital destroyed May 21 1911: Our army conquers the last Indian city on this continent (landmarks should be named to make it easy to read the history book). India surrender

	10-03-2005 03:07									#9
	Get a bigger avatar today!

quote: Originally posted by joncnunn Feburary 6 1904 The Brave Indian freedom fighters attacked our fleet full of greedy sailors. We deserved it because our govtment refused to meet the Indians modest demands. (...)

That would probably be the way it's written in the Indian history book... but it's still much better than what I wrote

	11-03-2005 02:00									#10
	Put an end to popups!

One would normally think so, but a lot of the more recent US history books are written by ivory tower professors with an anti-US view.

quote: Originally posted by Adagio That would probably be the way it's written in the Indian history book... but it's still much better than what I wrote

	11-03-2005 03:27									#11
	Got spare money?

But who says the country I was talking about was the US? It could be that this history book belongs to a nation that only has done good (everybody's happy etc) so I doubt a history book written in that nation would be negative towards it's own country...
And this is a history book written by the government, which of course only wants it to look like they're right

	11-03-2005 23:56									#12
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by joncnunn One would normally think so, but a lot of the more recent US history books are written by ivory tower professors with an anti-US view.

Oh, so are you an expert?

	13-03-2005 13:44									#13
	Support Apolyton

AFAIR Civ 1 had the option to export the worlds History into a text file at the end of the game. I really liked this feature.

It would be a great idea to be able to write your own log, with entries for every turn (and of course with automated entries like cities built and inventions made).
In some games of CtP/Civ I even tried to make one on paper
(but it got too strenuous after a while)

	13-03-2005 20:02									#14
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

quote: Originally posted by joncnunn Feburary 6 1904 The Brave Indian freedom fighters attacked our fleet full of greedy sailors. We deserved it because our govtment refused to meet the Indians modest demands.

Genius! Give the man a cookie.

	15-03-2005 00:03									#15
	Increase Your PM Length

@Proteus: Really, they had? I had Civ1, but can't remember.

	15-03-2005 01:14									#16
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: Originally posted by Max Sinister @Proteus: Really, they had? I had Civ1, but can't remember.

Never seen that feature either.

	15-03-2005 01:32									#17
	Inflate your Upload Space

quote: Originally posted by Max Sinister @Proteus: Really, they had? I had Civ1, but can't remember.

Yep,
you could choose to save the Replay.txt at the end of the game,
it contained a rough sketch of all continents and cities (as rough as you can do it in a textfile)
and entries for the years where your civilization discovered new technologies, made war and peace and also for times when cities where destroyed.

See also here
(in an online-version of the original manual: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ1_man.htm )
(search for replay.txt)

I was very sad that it wasn´t included in Civ 2 anymore and, although I found Civ 2 to be the better game,
still played Civ 1 for some time because of this feature

	15-03-2005 18:21									#18
	Suffering from ads?

And I never saw that feature in all the years... now I have to dig out my Civ1 to test it :-)

	18-03-2005 00:21									#19
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Civ I had such a feature, but I never used it, so I'm not sure what it did exactly. It was still nice to see a replay of the game.

But what I'd _really_ like to see is a dedicated scrapbook, for all intents and purposes. An ability to save screenshots, write captions and text, as well as import any graphs and statistics that you deem desirable.

Think of how that would change the stories forum...

	18-03-2005 00:22									#20
	Tired of ads?

And now that I think about it, some Simcity style overlays could be cool, though obviously difficult or impossible to implement at this stage I'm sure...

	19-03-2005 00:22									#21
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I remember doing a small programme that took the data from the .txt file and attempted to draw the world map from it. The data was too scarce though, just dots.