The following is a list of things that have gone from previous CIVs but they all added spice to the game that I wish would come back, risk v reward systems are far more fun and exciting than the blanket boring restrictions in some areas of the game - liven the game up again developers! (sorry for long rant but read if you wish):
1 - First to navigate the globe gets +1 Naval movement. This used to be a fun challenge with a useful reward, sending off a boat ASAP to scout the world, trying to find your way right round first. Think it came in in 3/4 but no need to get rid of it. Im sure there were similar land based challenges that add great value for small outlay.
2 - Early boats were able to get to the open seas. In Civ 1 & 2 (cant remember if 3 or 4 removed this) but the very first boats were not restricted in how deep water they could go rather once you entered the ocean each turn you only had a 25% chance of survival. What this did was to allow you to chance your arm at early exploration at your own risk and sometimes you would make it to the island that would then allow you to explore further. It was a slight chance but it was yours to take and was quite fun.
3 - Map trading - Why cant we exchanges maps anymore? Was always logical and realistic to me. Again risk v reward, expose your locations and knowledge v gaining info of the world.
4 - Tech trading - Theres always talk of 'balance' in game mechanics but I find rather than slow the leaders, let those lagging behind do some catch up via trade. Any 2 wishing to swap Tech is their choice you dont give away the shiny new techs. I remember sometimes needing to catch up and finding other civs behind willing to swap was great but also rejecting anyone wanting my new stealth technology!
5 - Wonders that were grand - The wonders in the last few iterations have been pretty bland. Quantity of quality (especially the version with all the nation wonders with world wonders, to many with not enough value).
In civ2ish I recall the pyramids was an early wonder that would provide a granary in every city, adam smith trading co would provide huge gold, leonardos work shop would provide free upgrades to all units - things that were game changers if you could get them. Again risk v reward, you want to spend 40 turns building it and potentially missing out or sneak in and get it done first and gain the reward. Much better than building something with great effect than something that offers 1/2 culture per turn! Its a bit like modern society, remove all contest so nobody loses!
6 - Spies as units - A spy as a unit could be used to investigate the map and enemy cities. You can see troop locations, city specifics but were visible to other spies who could then get rid of you. Maybe integrate the turn based system of Civ 6 by moving them into a city to do missions but the surveillance aspect of troops, cities etc is currently gone and needs to come back.
7 - Unit gold from deleting - What a panic in the first patch, simply scale back to ludicrous sums not get rid of it all together.
8 - CIVIL WAR! - I miss this one so much. Another great early Civ counter to a large empire. If someone is huge (not sure of the size that would invoke this but it was only very large empires) then you attack the capital and if you can take it it splits the nation in 2. Was such a great system. Naturally was hard to capture a captial buried deep but it is meant to be a challenge. What a great mechanic that disappeared in I think Civ 3.
9 - The space race landing - In Civ 1&2 you did not win the space race by launching you won by landing on Alpha Century and the time it took to get there was subjective to how much power you build to your space ship (more power longer build time). The purpose of this was that once you launched it was announced to the world and you had a limited time to capture the capital to bring it down and get back in the game. Made for some very exciting and tactical end games, once you got the message someone launched, you either had to make a made dash for the capital and try and bring it down (which would stop the space ship) or launch your own quick enough and hope it was faster to beat them to victory.
10 - The unit stats - Used to love looking at how many units I had lost, built and same for my enemies. Would be great if this came back and was expanded to group into overall, specific wars and such. Little things but added great interest to me.
1 - First to navigate the globe gets +1 Naval movement. This used to be a fun challenge with a useful reward, sending off a boat ASAP to scout the world, trying to find your way right round first. Think it came in in 3/4 but no need to get rid of it. Im sure there were similar land based challenges that add great value for small outlay.
2 - Early boats were able to get to the open seas. In Civ 1 & 2 (cant remember if 3 or 4 removed this) but the very first boats were not restricted in how deep water they could go rather once you entered the ocean each turn you only had a 25% chance of survival. What this did was to allow you to chance your arm at early exploration at your own risk and sometimes you would make it to the island that would then allow you to explore further. It was a slight chance but it was yours to take and was quite fun.
3 - Map trading - Why cant we exchanges maps anymore? Was always logical and realistic to me. Again risk v reward, expose your locations and knowledge v gaining info of the world.
4 - Tech trading - Theres always talk of 'balance' in game mechanics but I find rather than slow the leaders, let those lagging behind do some catch up via trade. Any 2 wishing to swap Tech is their choice you dont give away the shiny new techs. I remember sometimes needing to catch up and finding other civs behind willing to swap was great but also rejecting anyone wanting my new stealth technology!
5 - Wonders that were grand - The wonders in the last few iterations have been pretty bland. Quantity of quality (especially the version with all the nation wonders with world wonders, to many with not enough value).
In civ2ish I recall the pyramids was an early wonder that would provide a granary in every city, adam smith trading co would provide huge gold, leonardos work shop would provide free upgrades to all units - things that were game changers if you could get them. Again risk v reward, you want to spend 40 turns building it and potentially missing out or sneak in and get it done first and gain the reward. Much better than building something with great effect than something that offers 1/2 culture per turn! Its a bit like modern society, remove all contest so nobody loses!
6 - Spies as units - A spy as a unit could be used to investigate the map and enemy cities. You can see troop locations, city specifics but were visible to other spies who could then get rid of you. Maybe integrate the turn based system of Civ 6 by moving them into a city to do missions but the surveillance aspect of troops, cities etc is currently gone and needs to come back.
7 - Unit gold from deleting - What a panic in the first patch, simply scale back to ludicrous sums not get rid of it all together.
8 - CIVIL WAR! - I miss this one so much. Another great early Civ counter to a large empire. If someone is huge (not sure of the size that would invoke this but it was only very large empires) then you attack the capital and if you can take it it splits the nation in 2. Was such a great system. Naturally was hard to capture a captial buried deep but it is meant to be a challenge. What a great mechanic that disappeared in I think Civ 3.
9 - The space race landing - In Civ 1&2 you did not win the space race by launching you won by landing on Alpha Century and the time it took to get there was subjective to how much power you build to your space ship (more power longer build time). The purpose of this was that once you launched it was announced to the world and you had a limited time to capture the capital to bring it down and get back in the game. Made for some very exciting and tactical end games, once you got the message someone launched, you either had to make a made dash for the capital and try and bring it down (which would stop the space ship) or launch your own quick enough and hope it was faster to beat them to victory.
10 - The unit stats - Used to love looking at how many units I had lost, built and same for my enemies. Would be great if this came back and was expanded to group into overall, specific wars and such. Little things but added great interest to me.