Civilization (video game): Difference between revisions

** And of course you and your enemies' armies could become this as well if you don't bother upgrading your units.

* [[Art Deco]]: A major inspiration for the gameplay interface for ''Civilization V''.

* [[Artificial Stupidity]]: So much over the various installments that all the examples were moved to the trope page.

* [[Ascended Extra]]: By the time the ''Brave New World'' DLC for ''Civilization V'' was released, previously ignored countries like Austria, Poland and Brazil finally got their time to shine as playable civilizations.

** On the unit side of the scale, broadswordsmen fall on this category.

* [[Big Brother Is Watching]]: Two wonders from ''Call to Power'', [[Government Agency of Fiction|The Agency]] and the [[Master Computer|AI Entity]]. The AI Entity in particular is [[Nightmare Fuel|terrifying]]--[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPuU8Pq9D3Q&NR=1 see for yourself], but the Agency [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-GymYlnV2I&NR=1 doesn't lack for disturbing], either.

* [[Blood Knight]]: There are certain rulers who seem to really, ''really'' enjoy war. If you find yourself on a map with Queen Isabella of Spain, Shaka Zulu, or Montezuma of the Aztecs, expect them to attack you at some point, even if they have [[Artificial Stupidity|absolutely no chance of victory]], and ''especially'' if they don't share your religion.

** Somewhat justified with Montezuma in ''Civilization V'', as his trait is to generate culture by killing enemy units.

** The implementation of resources in ''Civ 3'' didn't help with this. What you may expect is a Cap on how much the resource can be used before it disappears, and that, annoyingly, there's no counter for how much longer it will last. Actually, there is no Cap at all; each resource just has a small % chance of disappearing ''every'' turn, even if you just started using them last turn.

* [[Cartoon Bomb]]: Used by Grenadiers in ''Civilization IV''. Seeing as [[Cartoon Bomb|Cartoon Bombs]] are modeled after early cast-iron, black-powder grenades, this is [[Justified Trope|not surprising]].

** Fairly common in "Civilization V", and recently the dialogue was updated to show when the AI does it. Once you´ve been at war with a player, you can expect it to happen again just after the peace treaty expires, even if they´ve been acting friendly and forgiving. And if you liberate a capital for a defeated AI, they will often denounce you just a few turns later... although they are still forced to vote for you in an UN Vote.

** Some AIs will take you to war several times, negotiate peace, and go [[Blatant Lies|right back to being friendly again]].

* [[Cutscene]]: The Wonders get them. In ''Civilization II'' these [[Full Motion Video|were made of]] [[Stock Footage]], later games have renders.

* [[Damage Over Time]]: In ''Civilization II'', helicopters received minor damage for every turn they spent in midair -- this was intended to simulate their limited fuel reserves without requiring them to return to base every time. Later ''Civ'' games removed this.

* [[Death of a Thousand Cuts]]: In ''Civilization IV'', due to how reduced [[Hit Points]] also reduce combat strength, it is relatively common for two or three low tech units to gang up on and defeat high tech units. This, however, is arguably superior to previous versions in which [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|a single die roll]] determined the outcome of each battle. In ''Civilization II'', the hit point system allowed units to be overwhelmed by enough less powerful ones, though the resource costs would usually make doing this an impractical option. City sieges would also sometimes turn into this, due to the high defense bonuses of city wall type improvements.

** In ''V'', every unit has 10 hit points. A stronger unit will lose less HP and inflict more, but every encounter between two melee units will take at least 1 HP from both units involved. Ranged attacks also do at least 1 HP of damage, and they don't injure the attacker. Long story short, five ancient-era archers with the "logistics" promotion (which allows them to attack twice) are guaranteed to take down even the Giant Death Robot if they attack first.

* [[Diagonal Speed Boost]]: In every game up to ''Civilization V'', which is played on hex tiles.

* [[Easy Mode Mockery]]: The game compares you to a famous (or infamous) world leader after it ends. On easy mode, you can beat the AI by a mile and still get compared to "[[Warren G Harding]]," or worse, "[[Dan Quayle]]." See [[Take That]].

* [[Easy Communication]]: All of your soldiers and cities can be instantly ordered to do anything, even in the ages before radio. ''Possibly'' justified by having turns take much longer in earlier eras.

* [[Easy Logistics]]: Troops can "heal" (replenish their numbers) regardless of how far away they are from your civilization, and Civ 5 takes this a step further with the "instant heal" promotion. Incidentally, the same game has a Logistics promotion, which allows ranged siege units to attack twice in one turn.

** [[Leonard Nimoy]] in ''Civ IV''. Though Nimoy wasn't hired for the expansion packs, and their narration ends up quite jarring.

** W. Morgan Sheppard in ''Civ V''.

* [[Neutral No Longer]]: In ''II'', a Spy planting a nuclear device causes all civilizations to go at war against the perpetrator. In ''V'', city-states become permanent enemies to a civilization which keeps attacking and conquering city states.

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: In ''Revolution'', granting certain upgrades gives the unit a title, so you can wind up with unit called a "Ninja Samurai Knight Army." And it is just as awesome as the name would suggest.

* [[Permanent Elected Official]]: You. Heck, not even ''TIME'' will free them from your rule.

* [[Please Select New City Name]]: The [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Politically-Correct History]]: As mentioned elsewhere on the page, the Civilopedia and leader descriptions desperately try to portray all civilizations in an entirely positive light. They glorify expansion without necessarily mentioning what that entailed (say, for the Spanish or Mongols), and gloss over some inequality. For instance, Korea's Joseon Dynasty is praised as intellectually and culturally enlightened, while not mentioning how conditions were [[No Woman's Land|for females]].

* [[The Power of Rock]]: Rock 'N Roll is a constructable Wonder of the World in ''Civ IV''. It even plays [[The Velvet Underground]]'s "Rock and Roll" during the movie. Thanks to the [[Tech Tree]], it usually gets finished around the same time a Diplomatic Victory becomes possible. Since building it allows you to export "Hit Singles," you can build global good will by giving them away for free right before elections are held, thereby literally winning the game via [[The Power of Rock]].

** In ''Civilization Revolution'', the advance that makes the great person Leopold Stokowski more likely to appear is Superconductor.

** In Civ IV, [[Julius Caesar]]'s greeting to you when you first meet him is "Welcome to Rome, <player>. Care for some salad? I made it myself."

* [[The Stoic]]: Augustus Caesar in ''Civ 5''. Everything he says, including a declaration of war or the announcement of his total defeat, comes out bored and monotonous. His body language isn't more vivid either: he sits on his throne and occasionally waves a hand as he speaks. It's possible that [[Fridge Brilliance|this is him after the Battle of the Teutoburger Forest]].

* [[Suspiciously Small Army]]: A "unit" can be anything from one ship or aircraft to 10 soldiers, depending on the game. Most players, however, seem to regard this as a non-issue, regarding land and air units to represent larger groupings (what seems to be ten Riflemen is actually a whole division of rifles; what seems to be one Jet Fighter is actually a whole wing of jets). For naval units, early units like Galleys seem to be groupings, but it would actually make sense for later units to be individual ships (those things are big and expensive enough, and tend to be built in smaller numbers anyway).