If you could bring anything back from a past Civ game what would it be

The idea of this is that if there's anything from a past game you could bring back what would it be and in what form it would be in.
P.S doesn't have to be in exactly the same form as it was in that game

Personally I'd love to see civics back but instead of the civics being unlocked by technologies they'd get unlocked by social policies. Which I think would very interesting and develop some underdeveloped social policies.

Won't be popular, but:

Transports.

Apparently the main reasoning behind 'embarkation' was to make naval invasions easier for the AI and help it deal better with the naval aspect overall. Decide for yourselves if it worked.

I miss most the immersive way trade worked in civ4, when rivers and coast connected cities after certain techs, rivers connected resourses, resources had to be connected, more things to trade such as health resourses etc, trade routes per city that gave more if it traded with a city overseas or from a different civ...
Its just too simple and easy in civ5. just make the improvement and you get the resource. No connecting anything with rivers. No need to have a road or coastal trade route if you want to sell another civ a resource etc.

Civ 2 Advisors, civ 4 tile improvements, more resources and better culture/era specific music. I want flavor!

Civil Wars from Civ II. I had the Sioux enter a civil war after their war weariness got so high. A whole new civilization entered the game when their country split in 2.

Civologist said:

Civil Wars from Civ II. I had the Sioux enter a civil war after their war weariness got so high. A whole new civilization entered the game when their country split in 2.

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I agree with this. I think a more serious effect of high unhappiness like that would add lots of flavor. I would also add city health, which could tie into nationwide unhappiness.

IV's Diplo structure. You could even hide most of the modifiers from our view... there were hidden ones anyhow...

1. Foreign trade routes - would have to have a road/railroad and open borders with the other civ.
2. As mentioned by others, rivers should qualify for trade routes, but buildings necessary in both cities that cost maintenance (docks?).
3. Towns as tile improvements that provide gold, grow, and count towards population (at least for science, maybe not for trade route income).
4. I don't know if this was in any prior games, but I think trading posts (or towns) that are built on roads that are part of a trade route should provide extra gold.
5. Colonies or some other mechanism that allows you to grab a resource without planting a full-fledged city. Maybe for this type of resource a trade route would be required to hook up the resource, so the choice is between unhappiness and gold maintenance?
6. I'm 50/50 on this one, but Health. It adds a layer of complexity and difficulty.
7. The map of relations in Civ 4. I'm not interested in the overall diplomacy debate, but I really liked being able to see at a glance who was allied with whom, at war, liked/disliked, etc. The lists are usable, but not as easy.
8. I think Civ4 handled victory so much better. I enjoy reliving my wins at the end, and while progress has been made here, I liked 4's better.

@skyclad - I know what you're saying, but I personally prefer not having a road on every tile. It adds a very real layer of strategy and logistics to the game, especially in terms of troop movement, planning, weighing benefits of a non-profitable road vs the costs, etc. I know 1upt is frequently panned because of the way it complicates troop movement, but I actually highly enjoy the logistics of moving a large army and having to handle choke points, etc. My only gripe with it is I can't pass civilians through foreign units like I can with military units.

I also think the trade of strategic resources is more complex and immersive than in civ4, with the finite quantity and its impact on your ability to create units. It definitely makes trading SRs more of a choice that you have to weigh.

I'll just re-iterate what I (and many others) have asked for countless times, in countless posts:

save advanced setup settings & a regenerate map option.

I would also like to see war weariness in the game in some form, and I REALLY miss the throne room from CIV III.

Justinian
Smoke-Jaguar
Mao
Mr.Lincoln
I think those are the faces I miss most when playing Civ 5, although, I understand that with the better leader pages in Civ 5 it makes sense to not put certain leaders in the game, they just might look too silly...but then again, I don't care.

If I could ask for any meaningless update that was purely for show, it would be an update for ALL civs that gives you the choice between two leaders for each Civ. That would be freaking awesome, but then again, coming up with appropiate and new scenery for each new leader that stays unique enough from other leader pages might be tough.

Boudica's page looks a lot like Genghis khan's, just with no horse. I don't know, purely fantasy.

I'm assuming SMAC is allowed in this, and the extension?

Assuming it is:

Aliens and alien life...
Planets other than earth-like ones...
Far more future era techs and weapons (yes, I know I never tend to get to the end of the tech tree normally, but I could start at, say, Renaissance).

Civologist said:

Civil Wars from Civ II. I had the Sioux enter a civil war after their war weariness got so high. A whole new civilization entered the game when their country split in 2.

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Yes, this would be my pick - Civ 1 did it too. Other things I'd bring back would be dynamic borders (as in Civ IV, when you could culturally steal tiles and small cities from a nearby but culturally inferior city), foreign trade routes and map trading. And, yes, as others have mentioned, end-game cinematics (or at least a picture, not the Civ V logo). The "We Love the King Day" Lego castle from Civs I-II, with the Civ II architecture graphic options.

The map of relations in Civ 4. I'm not interested in the overall diplomacy debate, but I really liked being able to see at a glance who was allied with whom, at war, liked/disliked, etc. The lists are usable, but not as easy.

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Absolutely (and also from Civs I-III as I recall). If we're adding stuff like this from the interface, the Civ IV style interface rather than hiding most of the demographic info etc. in a submenu, and a Civilopedia with the detailed tech/unit/civ histories of the descriptions in Civs I-II rather than the less informative catchphrases of Civs IV and V.

A palace you can add to

It was fluff - but so memorable!

What I would bring back if I could raise the numbers of hours in a day is foreign trading. (seriously, 24h is not enough when modding and keeping a life is involved)

The rest I'd like is either coming with G&K (Religions, Spies), already modded (relation map in Infoaddict, dynamic borders in Cultural Diffusion, advanced setup settings saved in c.a.s.s) or W.I.P (empire splitting with war weariness in Revolution)

But, well, I'd really like foreign trade routes, so if I could steal discretely a few hours here and here...

Health. Not in exactly the same way though.

There are a lot of things from more than 20 years of Civilization ...

- Civ4 wild animals

- Civ1 caravans to help build wonders or install trade routes
- trade as a ressource as in Civ 1 with sliders for tax, science, luxuries, (culture)
- +1 trade per road, no road-upkeep, better road-graphics
- railroad-bonus for tiles, no railroad-upkeep
- trade routes

- Civ3 ethnic population, ethnic worker
- Civ3 worker (cost 1 population and you could add the worker to a city again to increase pop by +1)

- Civ1 entertainer (elvis) (specialist which adds happyness to city)
- local happiness (as in Civ4 : unhappy people just do not work)
- martial law (military units make unhappy citizens content)
- revolting unhappy cities

- unlimited unit stacking in cities
- conquered foreign cities revolt if military garrison is to weak

- spreading culture as in Civ3 / Civ4 (ev. with a spread-bonus along road-tiles)
- taking cities by culture
- Civ4 luxuries / health system
- Civ4 spy system
- settling GP in cities as in Civ4 (GP tile improvements usually cost food and therefore limit city growth)
- GP buildings as in Civ4 (academy, military academy, ...)
- Civ4 religion

imho :
Optimum Civ = Civ3 ethnic population + Civ4 BtS + Civ5-like modern graphics + hex-tiles + 1upt + social policies + support of 360 x 180 map with up to 50 players on std PC for epic gameplay (Remember : 10 years ago Civ3 supported bigger maps and more players than Civ5 supports today!)

lordrune said:

A palace you can add to

It was fluff - but so memorable!

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Oooh yeeeah! That WAS kinda cool.

The features I'd most like would be
1. Foreign trade routes
2. Dynamic cultural borders
3. Civil wars
4. Colonies

Diplomacy that matters

Alpha Centauri