What things are more important in Civ than in reality, and vice versa.

[direblade99]

Nobody found cities on hills in real life. I think founding cities on hills should be given a penalty... like a maximum population of some arbitrary number..

Because Rome, Moscow and Istanbul have small populations and little relevance

 

[isau]

Open Borders (in modern+ history). Who does the U.S. not have some sort of open borders treaty with presently? Cuba, Iran, North Korea. Maybe Syria? Is that it? Are there actually countries that only do one-way open border treaties (and not reciprocal?) Basically unless you have almost no diplomatic relationship, you have open borders. In Civ, you can buy them for a few gold, and the civ isn't that annoyed if they aren't reciprocal. Granted the game mechanic is massive simplification of reality (and multiple levels of 'openness/visas' and an immigration mechanic would be a cool addition). But as is, their diplomatic importance in civ is much lower than reality.

FWIW the US has recipirocal "Open Borders" treaties with almost no one. It has what might be called Open Borders granted to it by several countries around the world regarding specific military operations. In this game "Open Borders" represent the right to field a foreign military, not civilian immigration (which is not represented at all) or trade (which is represented but only by World Congress resolutions).

Virtually no modern state would allow foreign tanks and battleships to pass through their territories without something to say about it. Outside of specific military operations (probably too complex for this game to handle) even small countries tend to get testy when foreign militaries roll in. But yes, sometimes nations do sell or trade for the right to do this, and the inability to attack while the agreement in place, while artificial, at least represents the fact that few would be willing to accept such a condition lightly.

 

[Merciorum]

Nobody found cities on hills in real life. I think founding cities on hills should be given a penalty... like a maximum population of some arbitrary number..

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Rome
Moscow
Istanbul
Tehran
Cuzco
Addis Ababa
Mexico City (arguably)
La Paz
Ankara
Lhasa
Bogota
Athens (initially)

And so forth and so forth. Many cities, often very important cities, have all been built on hills, hill plateaus, or extremely high areas otherwise. Afraid your theory does not hold up.