[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Keir Maxwell:
If we are talking really Ice Age then I would have though Abysians and C'tis would need to be drastically different as its just too cold for them. Abysia could live underneath the surface perhaps where rivers of Lava raise the temperature.

The nations should probably feel tribal rather than nations in the main. If they still do have something decribable as a nation then this could be a reflection of a very organised, disciplined, response to the Ice Age. I think you would want none of the nations to bear more than a passing similarity to present nations.

If the Ice Age came suddenly, a modern C'tis would be turning to its shamans, desperately seeking a magical solution. On the other hand... I was envisioning Dinosaur C'tis, made of lumbering giants. Ultimately, of course, the cold kills them off and only the small, agile C'tissians with opposable thumbs, tool use, and mastery of fire survive. However, this extincition has not yet come. Let us say that it is the beginning of an ice age... either way, of course, C'tis would be very different from modern C'tis. Maybe their temples could radiate heat =)

On the other hand, Abysia would be tough to play. I imagine their heat scale would be capped at +1, with the Smouldercone given an additional effect of +2 heat scale in the capitol only - so essentially they would be clinging to their homeland for warmth, and recruiting indies to conquer. Maybe it would lead to the origin of the humanbred, able to tolerate Abysia, and able to conquer cold lands as well.

As the game will see the development of grand empires, not normally what happens in an Ice Age, it might make sense to set the game at the end of a period of Ice Age with whoevers God wins gets to decide the conditions in the next period - if its Caelum then its more Ice, Man, Pangaea etc then the greening of the world begins while if its abysia then the Lava rivers spout forth as volcanos light the horizens and the world is roasted beneath the fiery light of great sun.



Keir

...of course, that would be awesome... but somehow I think it would not be possible with the current or soon-to-come mod tools

I like the idea of Ctis and Abysia burrowing toward the warmth of the core . But I'm not sure how to realistically accomplish it, except on custom maps.

Also, if indy populations had their own scale modifiers, all the Ice Age indies could be set to cold+1 to give a semblance of an ice age...