Because Civilization is essentially a snowball game.
Lin Lixin smiled and took the initiative to explain to Sam.
Numerical design is always one of the most complex aspects of a game.
For strategy games, the ability to design numerical values effectively is crucial to the gameplay itself.
"Contrary to your understanding, Seondeok is actually a simple yet highly effective character."
"Look at this Seowon. In other Civilization, it needs an adjacent mountain range to receive a technology bonus."
"A super toilet surrounded by four mountain ranges—I mean, a super feng shui treasure is extremely rare, but the hills restricted by the Seowon are much easier to find."
"And the adjacent mines can provide even more research value—"
Sam was a little confused. He had played the hexagonal programming optimal solution game that Lin Lixin had made before, so he understood what Lin Lixin meant to some extent.
So, regional planning for Seowon will be simpler?
"No, you almost led me astray. The problem of minimal stat bonuses still hasn't been solved!"
Even if the entire area is surrounded by mines, it only adds 6 technology points. What can you do with that?
Lin Lixin chuckled. Only those who have played this type of game can understand how crucial those precious few tech points are in the early game.
"Didn't I tell you? This is a snowball game."
"Advanced technology means we can unlock the next stage of technology more quickly, and it means we have stronger national power to support expansion."
"As we expand, each of our cities can easily gain near-full academy bonuses."
It's difficult to express the numerical growth of this type of game using simple addition and subtraction.
With various factors and systems stacked together, even the highly simplified numerical panel of Fire Emblem cannot ignore the difference between +1 and -1.
Don't forget the ride area.
Lin Lixin directly revealed the key core of this numerical stacking game.
"Passenger area?"
"Yes, percentage bonus."
Lin Lixin nodded, rummaged through a pile of forms, and found a stack of documents labeled "Policy Card".
"Imagine we have such a capability."
"Any college with at least a +3 bonus will grant the city a 50% science bonus."
As he spoke, he turned to the page that read "Rationalism ".
Sam looked at the contents of the document, did a quick mental calculation, and exclaimed in astonishment, "Expanding exponentially!"
This is a chain reaction of numerical inflation.
Just as Lin Lixin said, higher and higher technology values represent more advanced units, which means they can occupy or expand more cities and build more colleges.
The initial developments almost directly determined the course of the entire battle.
Whoever can seize the early operational advantage will be able to maintain, and even expand, this advantage during the rapid expansion of numbers.
From this perspective----
That seemingly stingy +4 on Seowon is actually quite frightening.
A civilization where farming and scientific research Civilization extremely exaggerated.
"Don't forget that the academy itself can be upgraded with even more buildings."
Lin Lixin's words struck him like a heavy hammer, hitting him on the head once again.
Sam even had the strange thought that "+4 might be too strong."
This is only a highly simplified numerical model.
In actual gameplay, the multiplier area will definitely be much larger than this.
Other game mechanics, policy card effects, and other factors combine to create an interplay of these elements.
"I get it—this is outrageous."
Sam murmured, then looked at Sid and Will, who were still discussing the design of Byzantium, and suddenly seemed to understand what they were arguing about.
"Each holy city that converts to a new faith grants all units +3 combat strength----"
While the Byzantium bonus appears to be a perfectly linear additive increase, it is far more complex in actual gameplay.
The reason is simple: a battle isn't just about size.
The one with higher combat power will take less damage and inflict more damage on the opponent during a fight.
This back-and-forth exchange also represents a significant advantage.
If you add another policy card that grants +4 combat power, combined with the +10 combat power Crusade attribute from religion----
An Byzantium unit could even stack up to a combat power approaching or even surpassing that of units from the Classical era.
Just go through it in your mind once, and everything will fall into place.
Sam suddenly shuddered.
When he looked at the "+3 combat power" on the whiteboard that had been altered multiple times, his expression changed.
No wonder, no wonder they had to adjust the values one or two at a time.
This isn't being stingy, this is being scared!
This is extreme caution.
Even a slight overdoing can turn a character into a boring, overpowered monster.
"Then why does the Byzantium seem more like a supermodel?"
"That's true, but it's fun."
Sam twitched the corner of his mouth, suddenly realizing that he should perhaps be more cautious about getting involved in this.
If a truly awful character is created and successfully added to the game, players will likely send them death threats.
He glanced at the other people in the room and suddenly realized something was wrong.
"Wait a minute, even Carmack is involved, so what about game development? They can't all be game designers, can they?"
Game development requires cooperation from people in various positions; no one can work alone.
Someone has to do the design and planning, but someone else has to be responsible for bringing them to fruition.
Otherwise, these things would remain just fantasies on paper.
Sam's understanding was that the office should be divided into two parts, with those more technically inclined, like Carmack and Will, responsible for the implementation of the technology.
Talented planners like Sid and Kojima should be busy with this part.
If everyone is just wasting time here, it would seem like they're slacking off and wasting manpower.
"Development? We finished developing it a long time ago."
Carmack, who had been sitting quietly to Lin Lixin's other side, heard Sam's words, curled his lip in disdain, and showed an arrogant look, his nose almost pointing to the sky.
"Huh?"
"This is a new development model proposed by Lin, and what we are doing now is planning and matching tables."
"Huh??"
"We enter the data into a spreadsheet, and then the game automatically recognizes it."
"Huh???"
Sam became increasingly confused as he listened.
This development model is simply unheard of.
"Well, to put it simply, our development department will now divide developers into two parts: 'programmers' and 'designers,' instead of being a single entity."
Seeing that Sam was confused, Lin Lixin explained it to him carefully.
As games grow in scale and development processes become more formalized, a more modern development system is naturally necessary.
"We designed a table-reading system in the game that automatically generates the corresponding content based on what we designed during the planning stage, without having to rewrite the hard-coded content every time."