Sword_Of_Geddon
Arbiter of the Sword
Here is afew of my ideas on what a mod designed around the "expansion pack" concept could look like:
Civiization V: Dawn of Tomorrow
New Features:
New Civilizations:
-Anasazi(they almost made it into BNW, it would be great to have them represented in a Civ game)
-Cahokia: Always thought the Mound Builders would be fun to play as
-Khmer: A fun civ originally in Beyond The Sword returns with a vengeance.
-Romania: Need I say more?
-Nubia: The Black Pharoahs would take CivV by storm..
-Armenia
-Zapotecs
New Eras:
One thing I'd love to do is expand the early parts of the game, but also focus on the endgame as well.
Stone Age: Set before the Ancient Age, learn to survive and research the ability to do things that normally are taken for granted in the Ancient Age.
Expanded Ancient and Classical Ages, with more technologies taken from Civilization games past.
Dark Age: Covering the Early Middle Ages more thoroughly with a new era.
Expanded Middle Ages and Renaissance: Not only bringing back and adding new technologies to flesh things out, but also bringing forward the new politics gameplay. While the Renaissance would get new technologies and units, some things would be taken(see below)
Enlightenment Era: New era in between the Renaissance and Industrial Ages. Ideologies would become available sooner towards the end of this period. Some Vanilla Renaissance content would be moved here.
Synthetic Age: Set after the Information Age, more Sci-Fi inspired units and buildings would become available, like the Arcology Shields from Civ4's Next War scenario. Also, a choice must eventually be made, do you choose to stay human, or go beyond human and become Transhuman? Both have serious end game consequences.
This also could tie-in as Nazguleater suggested below, with the upcoming Beyond Earth game. Finishing a game in the Synthetic Era and then playing some Beyond Earth could be made to feel like a natural continuation of your game.
Politics:
Going beyond social policies, a new event will take place every few turns, the character of which depends on your policy decisions. A monarch will have to contend with the demands of his subjects, meet with the nobility and parliament, which a President will have to contend with a senate.
Will you work with government or do as you please? The way your civilization evolves and how you are viewed by outsiders depends on your decisions.
Think of this as diplomacy, but with your own civilization. Different sections of your Civilization could grow in power to the extend that you can interact with them. In the earliest parts of the game this could be with rival tribal cheftains or powerful priests, later, with nobles you could ally or make enemies of, then eventually senates and parliaments, which depending on your form of government could influence things beyond your own nation.
Finally you would be dealing with corporations and special interests in the last few eras. There could be serious repercussions with getting in bed as it were, with corporate interests.
Existancial Ideologies:
Three new ideologies that must be chosen in the Information Age.
Humanist: We are human, there is nothing wrong with us, it is a blessing, not a curse or something that can be improved.
The Humanist values the status quo of human existence, for a variety of reasons. They are wary of advanced, true artificial intelligence and greatly fear(perhaps with very good reason) genetic engineering. They value the sanctity of human life, even at the expense of what some call progress.
Artificial: The future is now. The age of the machine is here. Machines can do things we can't, and handle many of the mundane jobs we humans really don't want to do. Let them fight our wars and bag our groceries, we have better things to do.
This ideology values the increased role of AI. They want a society completely run by machines. Machines fight the wars, they self-manufacture, and all jobs once done by humans is now in their very capable hands. This leaves humans to do things of meaning to them, like spend time with loved ones or seek thrill, entertainment or adventure.
Transhuman: Humanity is great, it really is, but there are things it can't do. With the science we now possess, it truly is a sin for a child to be born with blindness, deafness or some genetic disease. We can fix humanity, we can perfect it...but why stop there?
Imagine being able to fly like in your wildest dreams. Imagine being able to move things with your mind, to make the super heroes of comic book and movie past into reality?
This is progress...this..is evolution.
The Transhuman wants to improve humanity. They want to open the Pandora's box feared by many. This is the eugenics movement, the Island of Doctor Meroe, X-Men and more, for better or for worse.
New Units:
Axeman: From Civ4, counter-melee unit, like in Civ4 would be the natural enemy of the Swordsman. They are weak to Cavalry units however.
Maceman: From Civ4 and Civ3(was called the Medieval Infantry in that game), an upgraded, stronger successor to the Axeman.
Cavalier: A dark ages Cavalry unit, stronger than the Horseman, but weaker than the Knight, but also faster.
Cuirassier: Upgrades from the Cavalier and the Knight, becomes available in the Renaissance, is weak against Lancers. Can switch modes between a melee and ranged, cannot function as both at once however.
Cruiser: A return from Civ3 and Civ4, the Cruiser is stronger than a Destroyer but weaker than a Battleship. They have long range and can attack from two spaces away. They become available during the Modern Age and is basically an early Missile Cruiser, which it upgrades to.
Early Jet Bomber: Missing Link between Bomber and Stealth Bomber units
Early Jet Fighter: Missing Link between Fighter and Jet Fighter units.
Stealth Destroyer: A new Information Age naval unit. The Stealth Destroyer is a slightly stronger and stealthy upgrade to the Destroyer.
Railship: New Synthetic Era unit, is an upgraded and more powerful Battleship with powerful ranged combat ability.
UAV Drone: An aerial scout unit which has some bombing capabilities, can be intercepted like normal aircraft, and also hacked and taken control of by certain modern infantry. Becomes available in the Information Age.
AI Drone: (Bomber, Fighter) Upgraded Drones becoming available in the Synthetic Era with the Synthetic ideology, past aircraft also upgrade to this unit.
Orbital Fighter: Upgrades from both Jet Fighter and Stealth Bomber, becomes available in the Synthetic Era with the Human ideology.
Psion: Powerful infantry unit only available if you pick the trans-human ideology.
Objective Force Warrior: Power armored super soldiers of the future, ranged units with a self-healing ability and a cloaking device. Become available in the Synthetic Era.
Mecha Units: Giant Death Robot becomes the Titan Mecha, in addition to that giant killing machine there would also be the Hermes Mecha, which is smaller, weaker but faster. The Hermes would upgrade from Mechanized Infantry.
Civiization V: Dawn of Tomorrow
New Features:
New Civilizations:
-Anasazi(they almost made it into BNW, it would be great to have them represented in a Civ game)
-Cahokia: Always thought the Mound Builders would be fun to play as
-Khmer: A fun civ originally in Beyond The Sword returns with a vengeance.
-Romania: Need I say more?
-Nubia: The Black Pharoahs would take CivV by storm..
-Armenia
-Zapotecs
New Eras:
One thing I'd love to do is expand the early parts of the game, but also focus on the endgame as well.
Stone Age: Set before the Ancient Age, learn to survive and research the ability to do things that normally are taken for granted in the Ancient Age.
Expanded Ancient and Classical Ages, with more technologies taken from Civilization games past.
Dark Age: Covering the Early Middle Ages more thoroughly with a new era.
Expanded Middle Ages and Renaissance: Not only bringing back and adding new technologies to flesh things out, but also bringing forward the new politics gameplay. While the Renaissance would get new technologies and units, some things would be taken(see below)
Enlightenment Era: New era in between the Renaissance and Industrial Ages. Ideologies would become available sooner towards the end of this period. Some Vanilla Renaissance content would be moved here.
Synthetic Age: Set after the Information Age, more Sci-Fi inspired units and buildings would become available, like the Arcology Shields from Civ4's Next War scenario. Also, a choice must eventually be made, do you choose to stay human, or go beyond human and become Transhuman? Both have serious end game consequences.
This also could tie-in as Nazguleater suggested below, with the upcoming Beyond Earth game. Finishing a game in the Synthetic Era and then playing some Beyond Earth could be made to feel like a natural continuation of your game.
Politics:
Going beyond social policies, a new event will take place every few turns, the character of which depends on your policy decisions. A monarch will have to contend with the demands of his subjects, meet with the nobility and parliament, which a President will have to contend with a senate.
Will you work with government or do as you please? The way your civilization evolves and how you are viewed by outsiders depends on your decisions.
Think of this as diplomacy, but with your own civilization. Different sections of your Civilization could grow in power to the extend that you can interact with them. In the earliest parts of the game this could be with rival tribal cheftains or powerful priests, later, with nobles you could ally or make enemies of, then eventually senates and parliaments, which depending on your form of government could influence things beyond your own nation.
Finally you would be dealing with corporations and special interests in the last few eras. There could be serious repercussions with getting in bed as it were, with corporate interests.
Existancial Ideologies:
Three new ideologies that must be chosen in the Information Age.
Humanist: We are human, there is nothing wrong with us, it is a blessing, not a curse or something that can be improved.
The Humanist values the status quo of human existence, for a variety of reasons. They are wary of advanced, true artificial intelligence and greatly fear(perhaps with very good reason) genetic engineering. They value the sanctity of human life, even at the expense of what some call progress.
Artificial: The future is now. The age of the machine is here. Machines can do things we can't, and handle many of the mundane jobs we humans really don't want to do. Let them fight our wars and bag our groceries, we have better things to do.
This ideology values the increased role of AI. They want a society completely run by machines. Machines fight the wars, they self-manufacture, and all jobs once done by humans is now in their very capable hands. This leaves humans to do things of meaning to them, like spend time with loved ones or seek thrill, entertainment or adventure.
Transhuman: Humanity is great, it really is, but there are things it can't do. With the science we now possess, it truly is a sin for a child to be born with blindness, deafness or some genetic disease. We can fix humanity, we can perfect it...but why stop there?
Imagine being able to fly like in your wildest dreams. Imagine being able to move things with your mind, to make the super heroes of comic book and movie past into reality?
This is progress...this..is evolution.
The Transhuman wants to improve humanity. They want to open the Pandora's box feared by many. This is the eugenics movement, the Island of Doctor Meroe, X-Men and more, for better or for worse.
New Units:
Axeman: From Civ4, counter-melee unit, like in Civ4 would be the natural enemy of the Swordsman. They are weak to Cavalry units however.
Maceman: From Civ4 and Civ3(was called the Medieval Infantry in that game), an upgraded, stronger successor to the Axeman.
Cavalier: A dark ages Cavalry unit, stronger than the Horseman, but weaker than the Knight, but also faster.
Cuirassier: Upgrades from the Cavalier and the Knight, becomes available in the Renaissance, is weak against Lancers. Can switch modes between a melee and ranged, cannot function as both at once however.
Cruiser: A return from Civ3 and Civ4, the Cruiser is stronger than a Destroyer but weaker than a Battleship. They have long range and can attack from two spaces away. They become available during the Modern Age and is basically an early Missile Cruiser, which it upgrades to.
Early Jet Bomber: Missing Link between Bomber and Stealth Bomber units
Early Jet Fighter: Missing Link between Fighter and Jet Fighter units.
Stealth Destroyer: A new Information Age naval unit. The Stealth Destroyer is a slightly stronger and stealthy upgrade to the Destroyer.
Railship: New Synthetic Era unit, is an upgraded and more powerful Battleship with powerful ranged combat ability.
UAV Drone: An aerial scout unit which has some bombing capabilities, can be intercepted like normal aircraft, and also hacked and taken control of by certain modern infantry. Becomes available in the Information Age.
AI Drone: (Bomber, Fighter) Upgraded Drones becoming available in the Synthetic Era with the Synthetic ideology, past aircraft also upgrade to this unit.
Orbital Fighter: Upgrades from both Jet Fighter and Stealth Bomber, becomes available in the Synthetic Era with the Human ideology.
Psion: Powerful infantry unit only available if you pick the trans-human ideology.
Objective Force Warrior: Power armored super soldiers of the future, ranged units with a self-healing ability and a cloaking device. Become available in the Synthetic Era.
Mecha Units: Giant Death Robot becomes the Titan Mecha, in addition to that giant killing machine there would also be the Hermes Mecha, which is smaller, weaker but faster. The Hermes would upgrade from Mechanized Infantry.
, though I'm surprised that you've not chosen any South American/Mesoamerican civs; as I recall, they were of interest to you. Leugi's civs have a selection from that region and you should consider having one or two of them in. No restrictions for number of civs like there was in Civ III!