Last Night's Ideas

After playing the game for a few hours last night (been awhile since I had time to just play civ for a few hours straight), these were some ideas that came to me:

1. Workers upgrade to archaeologists. Players can build new workers or archaeologists. Why? Because I have several workers just standing around and I’d like to pay for their education so that they can become specialized contributors to society, as archeologists.

2. New terrain improvement—wetland refuge. An improvement for marsh land; available with discovery of an appropriate modern technology. Why? It seems like the only terrain that doesn’t get an improvement, the graphics could be made to look cool; and it could provide a little perk for not draining marsh land and turning everything into farms/tradeposts. Anyways, I like diversity. I’m thinking, maybe one beaker and one happiness per wetland refuge.

3. Purchase tactical intelligence—units can purchase the line-of-site from adjacent units w/ whom they are not at war. In other words, you can maneuver one of your units to a tile adjacent to another civ’s unit, and expend some gold to obtain the other civ’s unit’s line-of-site. Your unit's turn ends upon purchase of other unit's line-of-site.

4. Lend direct support—you can move one of your units into an adjacent tile to another civ’s injured unit, and opt to expend gold to help heal the injured unit (1 gold per HP). Turn ends upon lending direct support. The mechanic could include sending notice to civs at war with the owner of the injured unit. Example of a possible notice from military advisor: “Our troops on the front-line are reporting that Assyria is aiding our enemy." Options could also be created: "Shall we denounce Assyria, declare war, or forgive them?”

5. Buy, sell, or trade research beakers—beakers per turn can be traded/gifted . Why? Because sometimes I’d like to help the little guy as much as possible, especially if the little guy is in danger of getting steamrolled by a runaway rival. So, I can offer X gold to purchase Y beakers; agree to sell Y beakers for X gold, or make trades where trade beakers serve as consideration, or make deals involving beakers per turn. Accordingly, I will gain or lose that number of beakers (lump sum or per turn).

6. Create a new concept, ‘Statecraft,’ which would piggyback the culture/tourism system, but would create a clear contrast between passive culture/tourism mechanic and active Statecraft. Basically, culture is your influence, tourism is your access, and statecraft is what you can do with that influence and access. A rough idea that I haven't fleshed out, but I'll flesh it out over time.

I like the idea of a Wetland Refuge.

They are kind of useless for anyone but the Dutch, and I'd like some way to use them other than draining them as everyone else.

7. Scout line: [scout --> mounted scout (scout on horse) --> motorized reconnaissance (Jeep) --> modern motorized reconnaissance (Humvee) --> aerial reconnaissance (Drone).]

8. Ranged naval line: Frigate --> Drednaught --> Battleship

9. Share Intrigue. If a civ asks you to agree to go to war, then you can share that info as intrigue. As it is, intrigue is limited to info gathered by spies.

There is definitely a need for a recon line past scout.

Shared intrigue would be nice as a way of making a proper alliance with another civ. Maybe it requires a defensive pact and declaration of friendship but shows you all their cities like an embassy and some other bonuses during wars and stuff.

10. Embarked Anti-Aircraft Units. Allow anti-aircraft units to defend against air attacks, even if embarked. There is historical and real life precedent for anti-aircraft naval units, and this would allow anti-aircraft units to be used in a support role for naval invasions etc.

11. Building Reducing the Discontent associated with Ideologies. Example: National Propaganda Ministry--Available w/ Radio; national wonder; must have broadcast tower in every city; 25% less unhappiness associated with pressure from opposing ideologies. National News Service--Available w/ Satellites; national wonder; requires discovery of Telecommunications; 25% less unhappiness associated with pressure from opposing ideologies.

12. Social Polices that reduce Unhappiness from Ideological influences--"Protectionism" and "Isolationism."

Atwork said:

After playing the game for a few hours last night (been awhile since I had time to just play civ for a few hours straight), these were some ideas that came to me:

1. Workers upgrade to archaeologists. Players can build new workers or archaeologists. Why? Because I have several workers just standing around and I’d like to pay for their education so that they can become specialized contributors to society, as archeologists.

Click to expand...

These are different unit classes. They do different things so workers shouldn't be upgraded into archaeologists. Workers are still needed for repair functions later on in the game.

2. New terrain improvement—wetland refuge. An improvement for marsh land; available with discovery of an appropriate modern technology. Why? It seems like the only terrain that doesn’t get an improvement, the graphics could be made to look cool; and it could provide a little perk for not draining marsh land and turning everything into farms/tradeposts. Anyways, I like diversity. I’m thinking, maybe one beaker and one happiness per wetland refuge.

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Maybe just 1 beaker. Marshland is pretty worthless right now, outside of a little scientific research.

3. Purchase tactical intelligence—units can purchase the line-of-site from adjacent units w/ whom they are not at war. In other words, you can maneuver one of your units to a tile adjacent to another civ’s unit, and expend some gold to obtain the other civ’s unit’s line-of-site. Your unit's turn ends upon purchase of other unit's line-of-site.

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I think there is a better solution here. Give players the ability to trade tactical intelligence for 10 turns. With this trade, you can see all the opponent units that they can see. However, this is also considered by other civs as support of your war and thus they can suffer negative consequences from it.

4. Lend direct support—you can move one of your units into an adjacent tile to another civ’s injured unit, and opt to expend gold to help heal the injured unit (1 gold per HP). Turn ends upon lending direct support. The mechanic could include sending notice to civs at war with the owner of the injured unit. Example of a possible notice from military advisor: “Our troops on the front-line are reporting that Assyria is aiding our enemy." Options could also be created: "Shall we denounce Assyria, declare war, or forgive them?”

Click to expand...

I think another alternative would be to have a higher level Open Borders agreement that would allow units to be healed in their territory.

5. Buy, sell, or trade research beakers—beakers per turn can be traded/gifted . Why? Because sometimes I’d like to help the little guy as much as possible, especially if the little guy is in danger of getting steamrolled by a runaway rival. So, I can offer X gold to purchase Y beakers; agree to sell Y beakers for X gold, or make trades where trade beakers serve as consideration, or make deals involving beakers per turn. Accordingly, I will gain or lose that number of beakers (lump sum or per turn).

Click to expand...

I think this would be hard to implement.

6. Create a new concept, ‘Statecraft,’ which would piggyback the culture/tourism system, but would create a clear contrast between passive culture/tourism mechanic and active Statecraft. Basically, culture is your influence, tourism is your access, and statecraft is what you can do with that influence and access. A rough idea that I haven't fleshed out, but I'll flesh it out over time.

Click to expand...

I want to see this idea as you further develop it. It has potential!

Atwork said:

10. Embarked Anti-Aircraft Units. Allow anti-aircraft units to defend against air attacks, even if embarked. There is historical and real life precedent for anti-aircraft naval units, and this would allow anti-aircraft units to be used in a support role for naval invasions etc.

Click to expand...

Destroyers and Missile cruisers should be able to provide anti air umbrellas.