Greater Immersion is needed for Civ 5- some ideas welcome.

masterofroflnes said:

what about trading world maps? The entire world has done it for centuries and Civ 5 doesnt do this!!!!!!!!!

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Because exploration is a big part of the game. One of the key fundamentals to the game is to discover all of the AI opponents and esp. all of the city-states. Why shortcut that or dumb it down?

masterofroflnes said:

what about trading world maps? The entire world has done it for centuries and Civ 5 doesnt do this!!!!!!!!!

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They took it out as if cartography never existed. On top of that spies loved to try to steal another civs map. That could open up espionage, which needs help severely. No maps or air reconnaissance. Spies that don't spy, no religious hate. One religion per civ. So many weird changes. Just weird man. It should simulate at least the basic principles of the real world. A lot changes they have made in CiV are handicaps that reduce the fun of the game. Furthermore they are ridiculous, and completely unrealistic. The first time I got a plane, I was like great now I can do some reconnaissance, and open up the fog of war a bit. It was very frustrating not to be able to do that.

If we can't do that at least give us the ability to have a chance to steal maps via espionage.

Buccaneer said:

Because exploration is a big part of the game.

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Since when hasn't it been, in a civ game?

There should be UN Resolutions. One of them could be something about the customary law principle of fishing vessels in wartime being protected from destruction (if signed onto, any violation of it should result in lower diplo ratings). Other UN Resolutions like Stopping a War and so on would help make diplomacy more nuanced--not helping a friend of yours by vetoing a resolution terrible to him should result in your friend disapproving of you more, etc.

There need to be more ways to get AI to like you, i.e. trade, and mutual military cooperation. Also, that whole "you built wonders we liked" ought to be removed, it's stupid. Especially since the human player shouldn't be expected to constantly map scroll to see what wonders the AI is building in the shadowy dark.

And yes, allow for religions from AI to peacefully coexist--allow cities to adopt multiple faiths, but allow only one state religion per player, as in Civ IV. But only the founder of a religion should be able to enhance that religion (incentivizing players to stick with religions they founded, but switching over to religions AI players found may be preferable for diplomatic bonuses, maybe).

INTERNATIONAL TRADE ROUTES PLEASE.

And in line with the "we're part of a bigger world than just ourselves" theme, allow map trading with Optics or Astronomy. Maps from the AI should be expensive, but not impossible to get.

Allow AI players to Demand things from you aggressively, and allow them to gloat when they beat you in war and get you to surrender.

I would much welcome any gameplay element or visuals or anything
that would let me feel more what historic era I and my civ are in...

like:

- visual: background to the leaders I meet could change with era
- text: conversation with leaders also could reflect the era somewhat
- visual: trading posts should be more like little cities that have a look accordingly to the era
- optional add-on: advisors could show up at times with a screen and info - background and text proper to the era
- visual: map window could have texture, detail and look (paper, signs, colors) reflelcting the era

Morningcalm said:

Allow AI players to Demand things from you aggressively, and allow them to gloat when they beat you in war and get you to surrender.

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And allow the human player to tell any AI to GTF off my lawn or else, when they park 10 panzer divisions right on my porch. What's good for the goose....

I also could imagine Social policy window be more immersive:

It would be full sized window Throne Room that:

- visually shows what policies you have, also in line with what era you are in...
it would be an actual royal room filled with motives that reflect the policies AND the era

- you could read a text that in one intelligent reading describes what are the achieved policies you have (the most advanced in each branch you have opened). like for example:
"In the year of x of the y age, you are leading an empire that follows the ideas of republic, tradition, military caste and mercantilism"

- the policies you have to choose would be roll-down menus on a top-bar or sg. like that, not occupying much place on the screen

we have the little map view window on bottom-right

visual idea: you could click on it, it would change to a full screen view and:

- give you a 2D global view of the known world
- be drawn in style of the era you are in
- with details you know according to tech level and diplo treaties /edit:/ and spying you have

and as someone else already stated:

Great People with name in accordance with the civ and the era and the type they appear in...

Good stuff all. I also agree trading maps should be in the game. It actually does not spoil exploration, it simply makes exploration easier- You are still exploring. Who wouldn`t ask to know more about the world from the foreign people they meet? It`s simply wisdom.

Good suggestions all.

Very good suggestions. That should give the devs something to think about. I love the throne room information center idea. Brilliant!

Morningcalm said:

Leaders should have more than one Request line. That way they won't sound like robots, and immersion will be increased.

Quite simple to implement--Firaxis already has the multiple Request lines recorded (they aren't in the game files though). They'd simply have to add those extra lines in (and the variants for the upset/happy AI).

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Didn`t see this one.

Seems little, but would add a lot. The Leaders do sound like robots a lot of the time. It`s the little things like simply add more variety to requests (even if it basically amounts to the same thing) that would help immersion a LOT. Humans rarely say the exact same thing twice. I really hope that Devs in the future will put much more effort into IMMERSION aspects like this which wouldn`t take that much to do.

Socratatus said:

Good stuff all. I also agree trading maps should be in the game.

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Too right.

The maps could be vague and patchy (like the bonus from ruins) until you reached the Renaissance, or perhaps just cities locations & roads...

CiV should take a hint from Victoria II. Aeronautics: Unlocks the Airplane Unit, the Best Reconnaissance unit in the game. Even they know over at Paradox what airplanes are for.

I am joking really, but I do hope the Devs look into changing a few obvious things.

I kind of wish they brought back air transportation into civ 5

i just want to be able to rename my units at any time

Map Trading... There is a .xml row for that. Care to try My Mod To See If Anything Happens? (Can´t play Mods)

Attached the .civ5mod file

Start on the Renascience and open the Tech Tree and Look for Cartography

Please Report

Does Map Trading Appear in the Diplomatic Options?

What did the Civ You Met Offered for Your Map?

Did Cartography Appeared in the Tech Tree?

EDIT: Link to file http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=479612

Please download the v3. The other one is wrong

ferretbacon said:

Do some players actually play in that view? I don't even use it for strategy; I use it sometimes if I'm not clear on tile placement, but that is rare.

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I have. It's quite a lot easier on a computer and when I've been playing on a crap laptop, every little bit helps.

I actually find it pretty reasonable, but then I don't mind the board game aesthetic at all. I do play in standard view 95% of the time on my main PC, though (the other 5% being that I find it easier to search for resource tiles in strategic view, and a bit easier to manage workers when things aren't entirely clear on the main view).

Genghis: Fairly sure the map trading XML isn't hooked up to anything. I believe this is something that could be set up entirely in Lua, but it wouldn't exactly be easy to do.

There are lots of things they can do to improve immersion, many of which have been mentioned already (such as less references to "player", a throne room, random events, UN resolutions).

I'm going to suggest 2 further immersion improvements, (but not in detail just yet):

identifiable/cultural Geography - imagine being able to name mountain chains, lakes, and important rivers. This would make the world feel more alive!

social policy system that makes sense realistically - how can I be reaping the benefits of theocracy while at the same time reaping the benefits of reformation?? That's non-immersive.

I like that idea.