I think the developers have done a fantastic job with the recent patches and I am looking forward to playing the New Frontier Pass!
Below is an updated version of my own list of recommendations for the game. I posted a version of this about a year ago, but I’ve updated and added some thoughts based on the recent patches.
Again, I do not claim that all of these ideas are original; they are just a collection of things I have thought while playing the game and read.
Regarding New Civ Content:
· There are a few civs that have not been included in the Civ franchise partially because of a lack of a clear leader for that civ. Given what a nice job the developers did with city-states, I think one option would be to develop playable city-state federations. Examples that could fit this bill would be Switzerland, Italy, and the UAE, to name a few. The way I would suggest that they work is that there be a limited number of potential cities you can found in a city state federation. For example, if playing as Switzerland, you could have Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern—5 potential cities (just as an example). City-state federations would have the total number of cities that you could found capped (but more than one, as that was rather limiting in Civ 5 as Venice). Rather than a leader, the Civ would just be a flag (think the Napoleonic Europe scenario in Civ3). Rather than a leader bonus, each city-state federation would just be the Suzerain bonuses of those cities, and each city would have a unique bonus. The capital city and order of cities founded would be random, and each city would have a unique Suzerain bonus. As cities are founded, you acquire each individual city’s Suzerain bonus—for example Geneva would have its science bonus, Lausanne could have some Lake adjacency bonus, Lucerne could have a mountain adjacency bonus (or earlier ski resorts) etc. There could still be a unique improvement/unique building for the city-state federation, but there would not be a leader bonus, and the Civ’s bonus would be the individual Suzerain bonuses. However, if the city-state federation lost the city due to loyalty, it would become a free city-state rather than a free city. I personally would prefer a setup similar to this rather than what was done with Venice in Civ 5, as in Civ 6 there are more bonuses to settling different terrain types, and you really need to settle at least three cities. Also, I don’t think that just assimilating the city-states (as was Austria’s bonus in Civ 5) in Civ 6 is as desirable, as often the individual Suzerain bonuses are quite strong. Italy could also be represented as a city-state federation (with a few more cities, for example Venice, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Palermo, Bari), or there could be different city-state federations for Venice and Tuscany.
· I think it would be great to have the Pueblos of the American Southwest as a civilization! However, I’m sure that would have its logistical limitations. One alternative would be to have Mesa Verde or one of the other now uninhabited Pueblo cities be a city state. They could produce pottery which increases the housing from Granary and provides amenities.
· I think that the list of actual city states in Civ5 was more congruent with actual city-states than the list in Civ6—where a lot of capitals of countries which have not made it into Civ. Where is Singapore? Where is Monaco? Also if Italy does not make it into Civ6 (which would be disappointing) then there really needs to be catch-up of the Italian city states, which were actual city states.
· While every player has his or her list of wonders that he or she would like to see added to the Civilization franchise, I do think that it would be interesting to see the Empire State Building added to Civ 6. I realize that there are already enough NYC wonders in the game, but it is one of the most iconic skyscrapers.
· I think Hollywood should make it back into the Civ franchise. I think the degree to which Hollywood has partially framed the current world, regarding what a cultural victory would look like, cannot be underestimated.
· Other wonders I would like to see added include the Ponte du Garde aqueduct, given the engineering emphasis of Civ 6, and the Dome of the Rock, to provide more Middle Eastern representation.
· I personally think that the Great People are one of the strongest additions to Civ 6—they are really very well done. However, I was a bit disappointed that expansions didn’t add any more great people, and only modified the bonuses of some. I think it would be nice to see some additional Great People, so that the exact Great People that you get in each game is less predictable. It would be nice to have some Great Engineers who could rush districts, rather than wonders.
· With the de-stacking of cities in Civ 6, this lead to the late game playing out very differently from other versions of Civ. Since there are not as many tiles to work for production and food, these need to come from alternate sources. I think the production is at least partially improved by the implementation of the power plants and power system in gathering storm, although I think that could be further improved. However, there really is not a great substitute for the lack of using tiles to generate food The farming adjacency bonuses only provide so much food, and I rarely find myself with a city with a population above 27; I also very rarely have any specialists in my cities. I think that there need to be some ways to bring food into key cities other than domestic trade routes, which only provide a limited amount of food and take away from international routes. I think one potential way would be that if two cities were connected by a railroad or by airports, that you could dedicate a tile in one city to actually provide the food to a different city. Another way would be to have increased food bonuses for buildings like the food market and the seaport etc.
· I also think it would be interesting to have the ability to move portable/plantable resources around the map. Humans have moved resources around the world quite a bit, from to the introduction of horses by Europeans to the Americas to the global movement of coffee production etc. I think once you have certain resources that are improved, for example cattle, then you could have the option to produce or buy a rancher, which you could then use to transport cattle to another location and try to introduce cattle onto a tile elsewhere that doesn’t currently have a resource on it. The moving resources would have a certain failure rate, including if you try to move it onto a tile where there’s a currently unrevealed resource. Similar options could be there for wheat, horses, bananas, coffee, cotton, so that if one are of the map is empty but relatively resource scarce, you have the opportunity to try to buff that location up a bit with some bonus or luxury resources.
· It would be interesting to see disease and have it interface with the disaster system in gathering storm. For example, a flood could lead to an epidemic, which could be mitigated or travel with trade routes depending on the Civ’s policies/buildings etc. It would be nice to see a medical district with an apothecary, hospital, and medical research building, or some similar escalation, as well as have great healers. I would also like to see pollution as a result of city growth and burning carbon, which could be mitigated by medical buildings as well as mass transit systems and other city center buildings. Although the developers have been clearly most interested in creating buildings which can be visualized in the districts etc, I think some additional city center buildings could be created without the need for artistic representation—such as a mass transit system, recycling centers etc.
· The legal system has been conspicuously absent in Civ 6. I think it would be nice to at least have courthouses in Civ 6, which could interface with the governments. For example you could need to have a certain number of courthouses (or some legal currency) in order to get the major and minor bonuses of each government. I also think it would be nice if each government had an increase in the number of minor bonuses for each level (i.e. level 2 governments had two minor bonuses etc.).
· I think that the developers could think about one more naval DLC in the future. I think they have done a great job of making Civ6 one of the most naval-focused iterations of the franchise. However, I have a bit of a problem with the embarkation being so easy. I think builders should only be able to embark onto the tiles that are part of a given city’s borders. I also think that the Civ3 version of requiring transport ships to allow land units to travel on the sea is more realistic—it seems a bit odd when swordsmen just embark and start traveling on the coast.
Below is an updated version of my own list of recommendations for the game. I posted a version of this about a year ago, but I’ve updated and added some thoughts based on the recent patches.
Again, I do not claim that all of these ideas are original; they are just a collection of things I have thought while playing the game and read.
Regarding New Civ Content:
· There are a few civs that have not been included in the Civ franchise partially because of a lack of a clear leader for that civ. Given what a nice job the developers did with city-states, I think one option would be to develop playable city-state federations. Examples that could fit this bill would be Switzerland, Italy, and the UAE, to name a few. The way I would suggest that they work is that there be a limited number of potential cities you can found in a city state federation. For example, if playing as Switzerland, you could have Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern—5 potential cities (just as an example). City-state federations would have the total number of cities that you could found capped (but more than one, as that was rather limiting in Civ 5 as Venice). Rather than a leader, the Civ would just be a flag (think the Napoleonic Europe scenario in Civ3). Rather than a leader bonus, each city-state federation would just be the Suzerain bonuses of those cities, and each city would have a unique bonus. The capital city and order of cities founded would be random, and each city would have a unique Suzerain bonus. As cities are founded, you acquire each individual city’s Suzerain bonus—for example Geneva would have its science bonus, Lausanne could have some Lake adjacency bonus, Lucerne could have a mountain adjacency bonus (or earlier ski resorts) etc. There could still be a unique improvement/unique building for the city-state federation, but there would not be a leader bonus, and the Civ’s bonus would be the individual Suzerain bonuses. However, if the city-state federation lost the city due to loyalty, it would become a free city-state rather than a free city. I personally would prefer a setup similar to this rather than what was done with Venice in Civ 5, as in Civ 6 there are more bonuses to settling different terrain types, and you really need to settle at least three cities. Also, I don’t think that just assimilating the city-states (as was Austria’s bonus in Civ 5) in Civ 6 is as desirable, as often the individual Suzerain bonuses are quite strong. Italy could also be represented as a city-state federation (with a few more cities, for example Venice, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Palermo, Bari), or there could be different city-state federations for Venice and Tuscany.
· I think it would be great to have the Pueblos of the American Southwest as a civilization! However, I’m sure that would have its logistical limitations. One alternative would be to have Mesa Verde or one of the other now uninhabited Pueblo cities be a city state. They could produce pottery which increases the housing from Granary and provides amenities.
· I think that the list of actual city states in Civ5 was more congruent with actual city-states than the list in Civ6—where a lot of capitals of countries which have not made it into Civ. Where is Singapore? Where is Monaco? Also if Italy does not make it into Civ6 (which would be disappointing) then there really needs to be catch-up of the Italian city states, which were actual city states.
· While every player has his or her list of wonders that he or she would like to see added to the Civilization franchise, I do think that it would be interesting to see the Empire State Building added to Civ 6. I realize that there are already enough NYC wonders in the game, but it is one of the most iconic skyscrapers.
· I think Hollywood should make it back into the Civ franchise. I think the degree to which Hollywood has partially framed the current world, regarding what a cultural victory would look like, cannot be underestimated.
· Other wonders I would like to see added include the Ponte du Garde aqueduct, given the engineering emphasis of Civ 6, and the Dome of the Rock, to provide more Middle Eastern representation.
· I personally think that the Great People are one of the strongest additions to Civ 6—they are really very well done. However, I was a bit disappointed that expansions didn’t add any more great people, and only modified the bonuses of some. I think it would be nice to see some additional Great People, so that the exact Great People that you get in each game is less predictable. It would be nice to have some Great Engineers who could rush districts, rather than wonders.
· With the de-stacking of cities in Civ 6, this lead to the late game playing out very differently from other versions of Civ. Since there are not as many tiles to work for production and food, these need to come from alternate sources. I think the production is at least partially improved by the implementation of the power plants and power system in gathering storm, although I think that could be further improved. However, there really is not a great substitute for the lack of using tiles to generate food The farming adjacency bonuses only provide so much food, and I rarely find myself with a city with a population above 27; I also very rarely have any specialists in my cities. I think that there need to be some ways to bring food into key cities other than domestic trade routes, which only provide a limited amount of food and take away from international routes. I think one potential way would be that if two cities were connected by a railroad or by airports, that you could dedicate a tile in one city to actually provide the food to a different city. Another way would be to have increased food bonuses for buildings like the food market and the seaport etc.
· I also think it would be interesting to have the ability to move portable/plantable resources around the map. Humans have moved resources around the world quite a bit, from to the introduction of horses by Europeans to the Americas to the global movement of coffee production etc. I think once you have certain resources that are improved, for example cattle, then you could have the option to produce or buy a rancher, which you could then use to transport cattle to another location and try to introduce cattle onto a tile elsewhere that doesn’t currently have a resource on it. The moving resources would have a certain failure rate, including if you try to move it onto a tile where there’s a currently unrevealed resource. Similar options could be there for wheat, horses, bananas, coffee, cotton, so that if one are of the map is empty but relatively resource scarce, you have the opportunity to try to buff that location up a bit with some bonus or luxury resources.
· It would be interesting to see disease and have it interface with the disaster system in gathering storm. For example, a flood could lead to an epidemic, which could be mitigated or travel with trade routes depending on the Civ’s policies/buildings etc. It would be nice to see a medical district with an apothecary, hospital, and medical research building, or some similar escalation, as well as have great healers. I would also like to see pollution as a result of city growth and burning carbon, which could be mitigated by medical buildings as well as mass transit systems and other city center buildings. Although the developers have been clearly most interested in creating buildings which can be visualized in the districts etc, I think some additional city center buildings could be created without the need for artistic representation—such as a mass transit system, recycling centers etc.
· The legal system has been conspicuously absent in Civ 6. I think it would be nice to at least have courthouses in Civ 6, which could interface with the governments. For example you could need to have a certain number of courthouses (or some legal currency) in order to get the major and minor bonuses of each government. I also think it would be nice if each government had an increase in the number of minor bonuses for each level (i.e. level 2 governments had two minor bonuses etc.).
· I think that the developers could think about one more naval DLC in the future. I think they have done a great job of making Civ6 one of the most naval-focused iterations of the franchise. However, I have a bit of a problem with the embarkation being so easy. I think builders should only be able to embark onto the tiles that are part of a given city’s borders. I also think that the Civ3 version of requiring transport ships to allow land units to travel on the sea is more realistic—it seems a bit odd when swordsmen just embark and start traveling on the coast.