Here are a dozen more ways to improve Civilization IV. Some of these you should be able to mod, but I'm not sure how many or to what extent. They are all things that I think would improve the game if included. (I am sorry if I've duplicated any...except for point 4.)

1) Add a button (in the main menu?) that will take you strait to the world builder without having to generate a random map first or include any civs.

2) In the custom menu you should be given the option of playing a custom civ. NOT the option of creating a custom civ using the XML files, but being able to choose two of the traits and a UU. This would save quite a bit of time for those of us who like to customize their own civ, but have everything else standard.

3) Allow workers to build in bad terrain at higher tech levels. In my current game I can build farms in tundra where the tundra is next to a fresh water source, but irrigation does't spread with farms in tundra...only farms in grassland or plains. Seems a little inconsistent to me. (Perhaps allow settlers to change terrain as well?)

4) I know it's been said before but I really want to see it happen...Redo Global Warming! It really needs to be re-thought. Other game aspects have been changed due to them being "un-fun"...include this one in that catagory as well.

5) Shut the people up who are complaining about warriors beating tanks and include an auto-win option. No more randimidity for those who really can't stand it. (Personally, I think they way it's done is great!!! I would never use this option. But there does seem to be another opinion floating around out there.)

6) Include a suer interface for all these changes that people are saying you have to make in the .ini file (and others). Things like, if you want to play in window mode you have to open the .ini file and change a property. Put that in a UI.

7) Zone of control for fortifications (and cities?) so that they aren't completely useless. (I know this was in Civ III, but I'm thinking ZOC for forts and cities only, not units)

8) When you get a free tech, you should be able to see the tech tree before choseing which one you want.

9) The diplomacy screen needs a "see the big picture" button so you can see current diplomatic relations before commiting to a war or the like.

10) The city queue being empty shouldn't cause you to not be able to do anything unless you fill it right now. As it is, when a turn begins and a city has an empty queue you have to select something for the city to build before you can do anything else. This should be change to "it needs to be done before ending your turn, but you can do it at any point during your turn".

11) Allow joint projects in multiplayer (not totaly sure how you would do this in single player) for techs and things like world projects...internet for example. Allow two or more players to combine resources into building things or researching items. You would probably need to increase costs if this was done, but if it was an option to include in a game that would be very possible.

12) Better ending movies!!! I just saw the end movie when you win by space-race...wow did it suck! The game was awesome, but not the end.

2) This would completely unbalance the game, IMO. Everyone would choose the same UU's and traits, and the game would become boring and repetitive.

5) Wasn't there an option in Civ2 that pretty much guaranteed that the stronger unit wins? Simple combat or something like that? I like it the way it is now, too.

7) I agree, I think forts should have a ZOC, but a Civ3-style one, not a Civ2-style one (i.e. units passing your ZOC take damage, but are still allowed to move).

8) I thought this was already the case? Can't you just click "see the big picture"?

9) Good idea!

10) This isn't true - I've closed the city screen before choosing my next build item, and even ended my turn without having a city build something.

11) This is already the case - you research techs together in multiplayer (I'm not sure about team projects, but I'd bet that your spaceship parts are combined among all team members).

12) The conquest movie is pretty sweet

A very well thought out list. I agree with every one of these (except maybe 7, something needs done, but I'm not sure what).

2) This would completely unbalance the game, IMO. Everyone would choose the same UU's and traits, and the game would become boring and repetitive.

Yeah, you might be right. How about choseing a base civ and being able to modify it? Including having a choice between certain UUs that would be unique to that civ? Or even, a different UU for each leader instead of the civ as a whole?

8) I thought this was already the case? Can't you just click "see the big picture"?

In my games I have never seen the "see the big picture" button when given a free tech. Anyone know for sure....am I just missing it?

10) This isn't true - I've closed the city screen before choosing my next build item, and even ended my turn without having a city build something.

Again, all I know is what has happened to me...which is that if I chose to view city and exit without choseing something I am just brought back to the select-a-build-item screen for the same city again.

12) The conquest movie is pretty sweet

Ahhhhhh...my next goal is....

2) This would completely unbalance the game, IMO. Everyone would choose the same UU's and traits, and the game would become boring and repetitive.

If the traits and UUs are truly balanced, then there's nothing to fear. There will be plenty of variety, even if people customized their civs.

PHI+IND would be an exception, but there's gotta be a workaround for the multiplicative math.

PHI+IND would be an exception, but there's gotta be a workaround for the multiplicative math.

What about assigning each trait and avaiable UU a point cost and giving a custom civ a certain amount of points to spend? At the same time, do this in such a way as to make sure that the default civs actually have more points then normally available and there is now more reason to play with a default, but the option of playing a customized civ without feeling like you're cheating.

Here are a dozen more ways to improve Civilization IV.
12) Better ending movies!!! I just saw the end movie when you win by space-race...wow did it suck! The game was awesome, but not the end.

I miss the launch spaceship button :(

13) The culture win hurts your score because you are diverting gold into culture instead of technology and score is partially based on technology and has no culture component.

14) The game saves should include the civ name defaulted in the file name along with the date.

If you could customize traits, the easiest way to nerf IND+PHI is to only give philosophical bonuses when it comes to specialists, rather than wonders. If that makes PHI a little weak, it could be tweaked up again, with cheap libraries instead of universities.

Either way, you'd end up with a set of traits that are all balanced, and don't lead to any weird uber-powerful combos.

I think you should be able to choose what you want, even phi/ind.
In a person game you can do whatever you want so using the excuse of overpowered doesn't mean much.
You can cheat anyways.
Or if overpowered just don't use it.
I don't care if others do and they will more likely win.

10. That should apply to other civ's requests and what not.
I liked civ2 where when you changed gov'ts you could change to any new one during that turn.
That way you could look at the effect of each.
With this it would apply with diplo, civics, and religion.

11. What kind of projects? Like the Internet?
Right now that can only be done in one city anyways so allowing multiple civs would be a big step from just adding any city in single player.
If you mean like the space race then it does make sense.

11. What kind of projects? Like the Internet?
Right now that can only be done in one city anyways so allowing multiple civs would be a big step from just adding any city in single player.
If you mean like the space race then it does make sense.

Yeah, I was thinking things projects like the internet. The idea is to include an option where, if selected, the costs for all world projects is increased by a factor of 10 (or whatever) and multiple cities and civilizations can work together on them. Maybe place a limit on the number of cities per civ, or the total % of a civs production, or whatever.

While this is one of my "not-so-well-thought-out" ideas I do think that there could be something to it.