Do you think culturally linked starting locations will return in BTS? I enjoyed them greatly in CIV III(forgot which expansion included them). They bring a sense of realism to random maps, in my opinion. For example It annoys me on random maps(which I rarely play, maybe because of this reason?) if im say the Romans and I'm next to the Chinese and the Persians. I would prefer to be linked near say Carthage and Greece. What are your thoughts on this?

Personally I prefer the random nature of settling next to any Civ. I think I would find it a little stale if I was next to the same Civs each game, particularly since I only play as a few specific leaders based on traits. Historical accuracy/realism is not important to me in Civ 4. If it's an option for maps, fine, I'll deselect it.

It would be a nice option (particularly for Terra maps)

I don't think they'll include it. Although some people liked the feature, IIRC most players were a bit annoyed about having the same neighbours each time they played.

Of course, they could still implement it as an option, but the game mechanic represented by cultural groups (i.e., forming blocks of civs who like each other a bit more) has been replaced by religion anyways. So I don't really see a reason to include it.

seconded-make it an option and I would try it occasionally but I don't mind if its excluded either..

Since cultural groups are in BtS anyway (to allow for plausible colonies), I would love to see this in as an option.

Yes, it will be a good option. When I want a bit of realism, I will play with them on, when I want a bit of randomness, I'll switch them off.

Not a permanent feature, but as a little "checkbox" feature like Aggressive AI, I would use it on occassion. So long as it didn't always give you Native American neighbors like it did in Civ3.

As a check box option I'm ok with this, but if it was a standard thing I'd stop playing any european powers EVER, think about how close half the world world would start to your empire on every map! OUCH!

Yeah, make it Optional but default to Off. I personally liked it, and if I didn't want the same civilizations as last game, I didn't choose them (I always use Custom Game). :)

It would nice to have as an option. I usually didn't use in CivIII but sometimes I specifically want to start off like that, so it would be nice to have as an option.

Seems pretty split down the middle. I agree with you though an option would be perfect(just like it use to be), so people can have the choice to have it on or off.

Provided it wasn't broken, have them as an option.

It would be a nice option (particularly for Terra maps)

Yeah, it would be the perfect option for Terra maps!

I'd probably never use it (I don't think I ever did in previous versions of civ), but would be OK with it as an option.

should have an option to do it. yes

I never liked it. In civ III I remember playing as the Incas and being on a peninsula my neighbor being france with culturally linked starting positions.

I never liked it. In civ III I remember playing as the Incas and being on a peninsula my neighbor being france with culturally linked starting positions.If there were no other American civs on the map, it happens. Depending on the size of map you play, this might be unlikely, but it's not impossible.

Or it's possible that another American civ started on the island right across from you or something. If neither of those are true, then yeah, something was messed up but I still think this is moreso an exception than a rule.

Oh, and I say reimplement it. I'm not going to use it, but I doubt it would take more than 10 minutes of coding and a lot of people would appreciate it.

Because this has not been an option so far, I'd be surprised if it were included at this point in time.

It would be a nice option, but, frankly, I'd rather the developers spend their time on making sure everything works and is balanced rather than trying to add stuff like this at the last minute.

Perhaps this could be in the third expansion pack.

Nice, but not necessary. At this point, I just want the developers to concentrate on finetuning the intricacies of BtS, not adding new features.