Some General Ideas.

[North King]

Make trade based on supply and demand, with trade routes. Like you have trade routes that can be pirated and blocked by civs. And supply and demand... So many things to do with that. You could actually have a realistic fur trade... and the spice trade? Wow, there is just no way to represent that in Civ3, given that the portugese made FIFTY TIMES the money they spent on those trips.

Also, revamp internal politics. Those revolutions, make some state sponsered, but make some entirely by the will of the people. For instance, a message pops up: "People are Revolting! Do you support or Fight the revolution?" If you Support it, you may have to fight loyalists, if you fight it, you fight the rebels.

Also have an independance system. If a certain area of the country is unhappy, they ought to be able to rebel and form their own civ. And each civ could have their own database of rebel states. Like Britan could have Canada, South Africa, Australia, and so on for revolters. France could have Algeria, Vietnam, Lorraine, Provence, and so on, Germany could have Poland, Bavaria, Prussia, Hannover, Saxony, and so on...

Sorry if the above sounds a little incoherent, but I'm a bit hurried today.

[Furius]

And if a trade route passes through your land or sea you should get a cut in it. That way the silk road actually means something and having a city on an isthmus (like Panama or Suez) becomes profitable.
Maybe trade routes should cost you a bit too, 1g per ten tiles distance, or something that way you would try for the shortest route possible.
Sea routes would have to be less expensive of course.

[Pook]

Originally posted by Furius
And if a trade route passes through your land or sea you should get a cut in it. That way the silk road actually means something and having a city on an isthmus (like Panama or Suez) becomes profitable.
Maybe trade routes should cost you a bit too, 1g per ten tiles distance, or something that way you would try for the shortest route possible.
Sea routes would have to be less expensive of course.

Excellent idea. Currently the only real advantage to being on an isthmus is to be able to pass naval units between oceans, and to block your opponents expansion. I'd also propose a canal fee- whoever owns a canal passing between two bodies of water could charge a fee for passage, or totally block passage to ships from a country against which it had an embargo. I was on a ship in 1995 passing through Suez and the total fee (with everything) was $650,000 US. Not bad.....