Three things you look forward to in Gods and Kings, big or small

I'm love to read top lists and stuff like this, so I'm asking now for three things that you are excited about or are curiously looking forward to in the spring expansion. They can be big features or just minor details. Mine:

1) World War I units
I've wanted machineguns to the game for a while now, actually made a topic to Ideas forum about it. And now we're getting almost a new era, militaristically, with so many WW1 -style units about to hit the scene. Nice!

2) Embarked units can defend themselves
Another thing that is probably to thank the new lead designer for. I guess his strategy boardgame designer and AI programmer backround gets to good use in the expansion.

3) Just so MANY things added
In my mind I always thought expansion would be like.. Three new civs, two new wonders, four new units and a new big feature.
Instead it's such an epic blast of stuff to arrive, so many civs, new and reworked features.. one of the magazine articles even points out that there are 50 beliefs to choose from when customizing your religion thru the ages.

Cheers to the developement team.

In regards to embarked units, I wonder if Askia of the Songhai will get a bonus or that trait replaced with something else? (Askia has gold from camps + embarked units defending themselves as his traits; I play him all the time -- though admittedly more for the former, since the AI never manages to muster a navy to menace my embarked units aside from random barbs just as I'm sending exploration units out)

1) New wonders: I've always loved the wonders ingame, and seing brand new ones - some of which I've previously made - have just made my day, and I can't wait

2) New Civilizations: I'm loving the prospect of so many new civilizations to play as, especially the chance of some new faces that I've been campaigning long and hard for

3) The sheer possibilites: As a modder having released wonders for nearly a year, I've begun to run short of ideas for effects and places to put wonders. When all wonder mods are activated, there are about nine wonders in both Theology and Acoustics. The chance of more religious techs in between is awesome, as is the hope for a Sub-saharan Art style

hopefully they'll fix the naval AI so continents and all those "D-Day" style maps can be usable and playable. I've been playing Pangaea almost since the games release. I want to be able to be attacked by another civ from an overseas continent in strength without them just sending one unit then offering all of their gold and resources after a 10 turn phony war.

I also hope that all AI meet each other because right now, they all stick to their own little spheres and not really wander around meeting civs that might be overseas or all the way across whatever continent they're on

-Mark

1) Being able to scout enemy lands with spies when you can't get open borders during peace time.
2) If spreading religion works like it did in Civ 4, we have a good reason to sign a mutual open borders agreement instead of just selling ours for 50 gold.
3) All the changes to naval combat.

1) Enhanced diplomacy
2) Reworked HP system/naval units being able to defend and the related AI/conceptual fixes to combat
3 Religion that I can customized

Hello,

here is my (short) list:

1) Apparently, the AI will be influenced by your adapted policies / religions. My hope is that this will lead to a more reliable AI; not necessarily a more predictable one. My biggest issue with the current AI is that it can go from Friendly to DoW within one turn. Maybe Gandhi will no longer be angry at me, because I am more peaceful than him.

2) Spies revile AI plans sounds interesting. Maybe I will be able to understand some of the AI decisions that are incomprehensible to me right now. But how useful this feature will be needs to be seen. Right now, I can already kind of tell which AI is likely to attack me. And it's save to assume that everyone will attack me eventually (see my point 1).

Monthar said:

1) Being able to scout enemy lands with spies when you can't get open borders during peace time.

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I don't think that will be an option. Spies will work more like in Master of Orion than in Civ. They aren't controllable units, instead they are assigned through a menu.

What I look forward to:

Improved diplomacy: I hope they improve AI and change the way relatinships work. I don't want to see them go again from Freandly to Hostile and back to friendly over 20 turns, and I do't want to see any suicides by backstab from weaker civs. I also hope there'll bemore options than resource trades and RAs.

Espionage: Seeing AI plans and being able to conduct Cold War style 'diplomacy' with City States (election rigging coups) will be a grat addition to the game. I also hope it will give me more uses for my money in the late game.

City States: No more pumping money into them in the late game. It will now be harder to outright buy their friendship, and City States will offer multiple quests at the same time., It was annoying you couldn't get any new quests until the current one was finished, especially when that quest was to eliminate your other ally.

1) New civs: Probably the biggest thing for me. I really want diversity in the way we can play. The Mayans, Byzantines, Celts, Carthaginians, and Dutch should all feel different be fun to play with.
2)Changes to City-States: 2 new types, new ways to influence them, spies, etc. All of these should make City-States more important.
3)Changes to navy: Navy just isn't stressed enough in this game. Hopefully all the new units and rule changes will make them important across all map types.

Diplomacy if it they still use the same system like in the original civ 5 where it is out to win the game and allways will backstabb you then I am not going to buy it

apocalypse105 said:

Diplomacy if it they still use the same system like in the original civ 5 where it is out to win the game and allways will backstabb you then I am not going to buy it

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Same here. Hope they make it more like the AI is playing a real world Civ then a player that is trying to just win or stop you from winning. One can hope. I just want diplo to matter. Right now it doesn't.

Rupe said:

Same here. Hope they make it more like the AI is playing a real world Civ then a player that is trying to just win or stop you from winning. One can hope. I just want diplo to matter. Right now it doesn't.

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Exactly, that's my bigest problem with Civ 5 it's impossible to imagine you're playing against a world leader who cares about their nation. Every civ feels like they're just some other person playing a game, but who isn't particularly good at the game.

The big things I'm hopeful for are:

1. Improved AI, they've talked about more balanced armies, and appear to be tweaking naval combat to make things easier for them with Melee ships, and all embarked units being able to defend. Hopefully there's more behind this.

2. Improvements to diplomacy, religion sounds like it would have the possibility of allowing you to establish good relations with another civ. Currently it feels like the only way to remain friendly with another civ is to never EVER do anything that irks them in the slightest. One of my favorite things from Civ 4 is having another civilization that works with me, at least through a reasonable length of the game, and that normally happens as a result of religion. Again, hopefully there's more behind this.

3. Improved city states. City states sounded like such a good idea when they were getting ready to release Civ 5, but I quickly realized once I started playing that it was all about who could spend the most gold on them. The mechanic was far too simple to be enjoyable. The idea that city state diplomacy will now be based more heavily on an expanded quest system, espionage, and more limited gold spending sounds like a great improvement.

4. Ok one extra that hasn't been mentioned. Improved multiplayer stability. The main way I play Civ now is online with friends. We gave up on Civ 5 because it was too slow, and crashed too often. Maybe it's better after the recent patches, we haven't gone back to test. I'll be paying close attention to any mentions of multiplayer in the reviews.

3. Espionage, I love games that allow to effect change through subtle machinations.
2. New civs, the more the merrier, even if I never play them anything that reduces the chances of me starting a new game with Alexander as my neighbor is to the good.
1. VICTORIAN SCI-FI SCENARIO OMG!

IF the following are in (as I hope), I look forward to them:
-Can request things of AI, instead of simply demanding things from them.
-Actual pros and cons to certain diplomatic actions
-AI being more reliable allies.
-AI not hating you if you liberate them.
-UN resolutions (world trade, military action, condemnation of nations like the real UN disapproving of certain nations for doing certain things--forces everyone to add a negative modifier in diplo against the condemned civ if successful, etc).

The much stronger naval aspect.

Optional said:

The much stronger naval aspect.

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This for me, too. I'm really excited by the prospect of melée naval units, shipboarding and using ships to raid cities.

As for the other two:

1. Religion. I actually disliked it in CIV and was glad it was gone - it just felt a bit like a cheap way of getting money, and I really hated the way some leaders (I'm looking at you, Isabella and Charlemagne) would instantly despise you if you were a raging heathen. But I'm surprised to say I'm excited by the overhaul it's been given, and the way that the type of religion you adopt is in some way shaped by your surroundings sounds awesome.

2. City States being improved and developed - more quests, more options, more things to do with them other than buy them or conquer them, really. I'm also looking forward to seeing how they interact with religion and espionage.

Other than that, the new content! I can't wait to play as the Celts!

blackcatatonic said:

This for me, too. I'm really excited by the prospect of melée naval units, shipboarding and using ships to raid cities.

As for the other two:

1. Religion. I actually disliked it in CIV and was glad it was gone - it just felt a bit like a cheap way of getting money, and I really hated the way some leaders (I'm looking at you, Isabella and Charlemagne) would instantly despise you if you were a raging heathen. But I'm surprised to say I'm excited by the overhaul it's been given, and the way that the type of religion you adopt is in some way shaped by your surroundings sounds awesome.

2. City States being improved and developed - more quests, more options, more things to do with them other than buy them or conquer them, really. I'm also looking forward to seeing how they interact with religion and espionage.

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This is exactly what I said.

blackcatatonic said:

Other than that, the new content! I can't wait to play as the Celts!

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Personally, the Netherlands is my favorite addition.
I also love Carthage and the Mayans though.

Others are looking forward to playing as new civs. I'm looking forward to playing against new civs. That helps benefit more from the production values. I'm looking forward to Religion and am cautiously optimistic about Espionage (especially the ability to influence citystates).

I'd say those are my top three at the moment.

1) Religion
2) New Way to achieve Diplomatic Victory
3) More Flavor in Hotseat and SP games.

1) Espionage
2) More Espionage
3) Even More Espionage