Civilization Uniqueness

I like the uniqueness of civilizations in civ3, with the unique units, traits, and art.

Maybe it would be cool if each civilization had a unique city improvement, similiar to the unique units. Also if you conquer another civs city and it has that civs special improvement and it happens to survive, you get to keep it (though you still cannot build new ones). Maybe each each civ should have two unique somethings...some would have a unique unit and a unique city improvement, some would have two unique units, some would have a unique unit and a unique wonder...

Another possiblity would be to tie the aditional unique buildings, wonders to civilization "groups" (Native American, European, Asian, Classical, and Mid Eastern). For example, if you are Persia you not only build immortals but you can also build an additonal unit unique and a unique building that the other Mid Eastern civs can also build.

Another possiblity would be to borrow from the Black & White and Galactic Civilizations schools of thought: civs get a good/neutral/evil attribute based on their actions during the course of the game. Certain actions will pull the civilization toward good or evil (using a right of passage agreement to position your army for a sneak attack on the host civ would be an example of an evil action). A civs good/evil alignment will change the look of the cities and advisors, confer special units, powers, etc.

Perhaps the current system is the best. Perhaps these changes would be too much and ruin a good thing (see Not Another MOO3). Or maybe it would be awesome. What do you think?

Perhaps a unique unit per era, or units unique to a culture group?

PROBLEM:About your unique building for Civ groups, What do you do with America. It doesnt fall within any group it is its own group but if you have it the only country be able to build a certain wonder then that would be cheap, as noone would get that advantage.

Other than that All For Your Idea

IM DONE +<

A good fix for the "America" problem is adding a new culture group, the "Neo-Europeans" or something similar in name. Basically, it would be nations like the U.S., Mexico, etc... though it should be a small group, at best.

I'm a big fan of increasing civ uniqueness, but think it should be done in a more 'evolutionary' way.
That is to say that, though each civ will begin with set characteristics, preferred government/religion types and a UU, how that civ develops would depend a great deal on things like gameplay style, resource availability, and to a lesser degree even your environment.
As a simple example, lets say you have a militaristic civ but, due to close proximity with strong neighbours, you embark on a commercial/trade-heavy gameplay style. Over time, this will alter your civ characteristics from militaristic to commercial which, in turn, will impact on the speed at which you research commercial techs. In addition, your civs preferred government and social engineering types will change towards those that promote individual freedoms, a mulicultural foreign policy and liberal economics policies.
If, on the other hand, your civ is geographically isolated by mountains, jungles etc, you might start to evolve a more 'expansionist' philosophy (as you have no one to prevent it), and your tech discoveries might even start to drift towards those that are best suited for either your isolated environment, or the specific environment you live in (like techs which make the best of mountain terrain, for example). In social engineering terms, your people might take a more xenophobic outlook towards the outside world!
In line with Diogenes suggestion, though, I was thinking that instead of giving 'civ-specific' buildings, why not have a sub-set of units/improvements and wonders which are dependent on Civ characteristics and even terrain type? For instance, an industrial civ would have an improvement and/or wonder which only they can build (and which only functions as long as the civ fits that character). In addition, you could buildings which can only be built if you have a forest or a jungle in your city radius (or within your borders). Really, this idea is just a 'logical' extension of the resource requirements for buildings and units.
Anyway, when taken together, this will not only ensure that each civ is completely unique, but that no two games of civ will neccessarily leave you with the identical civ at the end of the game!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

Oh, BTW Anty, I think the best way to deal with the America problem is to have more culture groups-like West European, East European, Mediteranean, North African, Central African, South African, Middle Eastern, Asian and SE Asian. Then make Americans a 'West European' civ.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker

I'm all for adding Canada as a civ. Would that help?

ManOfMiracles said:

I'm all for adding Canada as a civ. Would that help?

Click to expand...

Well, in that case I wanna see Sweden. Great European power some 500 years ago. We can go on forever adding new Civs and all but I feel there are other departments that are in more dire need of improvement. If you wanna play Canada, replace them with any Civ of your choice and play.

There could be a bonus for each civ that no other civ can get

RTS (read the sticky)

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85183

I like my thread better.

your missing the point, but to make it easier for all persons involved, it would be best to keep dicussion in on a topic to one thread to easily have all viewpoints in one place, and if everyone made a new thread everytime they had a 'devolpment,' 'improvement,' or 'possibility' the forum would be very clutered and would be hard to find new topics

Agreed. You should delete the other guy's thread immeadiately.

OK, I'll stop.

Actually I just noticed something. The other guys thread is about Unique Units. My thread is about civlization uniqueness in general (did you read my initial post?). Game on...

Game on.........Everyone will just read the former thread and continue here.

For this model I will use the term Nexus, and my meaning is a time of decision and change. All your Nexuses occur whenever a new technology is discovered.

At each Nexus you have a chance to improve something about your civ. What may be changed and the degree to what is changed is based on what is researched. Improvements follow one of these ideas, (1) reduce cost, (2) improve effectiveness, (3) solve unique problem.

(1) The most obvious is making improvements or units cheaper, in shields or resources. More often impovements though. It may also reduce maintenance or happiness costs.
(2) Usually it will be for units. Additional attack, defence, movement, HP. Could also be for improvmeents(extra happy face for temples). Final is traits or tax efficeincy, etc.
(3) This is when you see a problem you would like to fix. Ex: You are surrounded mostly by jungle, which really slows down your improvement. A couple solutions could be found. One would be to improve slashing time, the other to make it more productive terrain. Maybe your primary concern isn't infrastructure, but defence. Your units now operate better in the jungle, making invasions that much more difficult for your open terrain enemy.

The other paradigm at work would be Immediate Need vs. Long Term Need. Choices would be present at each Nexus which would offer a range between, very immediate, and very long term.

Your other option would be purposely making part of your civ worse, so another part could be really good. AT each Nexus you could also choose a downgrade, and then you would have what's called Super-Nexus. THe Super-Nexus lets you choose a lot more powerful options(usually the way you get rid of unit resource requirements). This would also let you abandon parts of your game you don't really think you'll need. So you can neglect your navy if you are mostly landlocked in order to increase what matters more.

Sorta like tech except it doesn't require beakers, just time. Civ picks up more minor traits over time. Adds to strategical decisions. Interesting.

Colonel said:

PROBLEM:About your unique building for Civ groups, What do you do with America. It doesnt fall within any group it is its own group but if you have it the only country be able to build a certain wonder then that would be cheap, as noone would get that advantage.

Click to expand...

Civ3 considers America to be Native American and I am satisfied with this. I know, I know... its not. But I suppose lumping it in with the Europeans makes even less sense.

The big problem would probably be balance and emergence of traits everyone chooses every time.