If you were in charge of a new CIV IV patch...

[AdamCrock]

Also nerf/redesign slavery. It needs too much micro to use efficiently but is the only realistic labor civic for large stretches of the game. And/or improve the options in that column in general.

A labor civic choice which allows You to pay gold to finish production before universal suffrage - that would be a viable alternative for slavery, as for the universal suffrage - instead of allowing You to pay gold to finish production - unlimited specialists ?

 

[Kid R]

Hmm, not sure having civics do similar things to each other is good - i.e. alternative caste system as you're saying.

In any case slavery is a well-designed civic in many ways. The idea of converting food into hammers (or something) is required, especially early on when the standard map types tend to leave us with too much food which we can't use because of the happy cap. Also as a concept working citizens to the death makes sense (at least for construction work anyway, not so much for training soldiers ) And letting you sacrifice virtually your entire empire population for a concerted war effort later on is a good option too and gives you a bit of a chance against crazy high-level AI bonuses.

My problem is the micro. Some simple changes would really sort that out though:
(1) Remove the penalty for whipping a build with zero hammers invested. This would mean you could go into a city, do a load of whipping in one go, no need for a spreadsheet and calculator, then get back out to the map and grand strategy and let the city regrow on its own.
(2) Allow partial-build whips, not just to complete a build. So then none of the hokey overflow shenanigans we have to get involved in to try and get round the system. 1 citizen death equals N hammers into the current build, simple
(3) Too powerful? Yes definitely, so balance by reducing the hammers per whipped citizen. 30 is too strong in any case already. Try 20. Playtest. Adjust. Repeat. End result: perfectly balanced, simple-to-understand, minimum-micro slavery civic, and not to drastic a change from the current situation.

But anyway there are tons of "fix slavery" threads and other ideas - some people even want more micro so you can't please everyone! Also "fix serfdom" which is the other big balance disaster in that column ... (another purely numerical factor which they might have playtested and fine-adjusted a bit better).

 

[AdamCrock]

^ Good thinking , I also liked the idea of a partial pay like it was done in Alpha Centauri for example (a pop up window asking You how much You would like to invest in hurry production )

ad 1) If we would remove the handicap for zero hammers whipping it would rather empower the slavery I think - sure it would simplify the calculations

ad 2) Very good idea imho , but also we should remove the overflow hammers completely for the reason You've stated - it's very powerfull exploit which allows to accumulate hammers for next in queue wonder production for example

ad 3) Also keep in mind that the number 30 is on normal speed , it's even more on slower speeds so we should also adjust for that

 

[Pangaea]

To nerf slavery a bit, not that I would want that, you could make each citizen count 20 pre-math, just like with chopped forests. Wouldn't make much sense, perhaps, but who cares

 

[Pisskop]

Id want to redefine ai-ai interaction, or even allow espionage to uncover trades made.

I play with no tech brokering, but damn if they don't all share techs somehow with it off. Trade routes and how they work could use some help.

And Id like more barbarian variety/organization. Barb horsemen being standard would be cool, but darn if I see them.

 

[jagd]

Hmm, I would probably start by nerfing early rushes . . . in my experience these usually serve to make the game less fun, especially in multiplayer matches. In fact, I would probably re-balance how the game works specifically for multiplayer to be better.

Although how to do it is the question. I mean, some of the issues I've had with multiplayer have to do with the players themselves, not with the game.