[R&F] 21 things I can’t believe aren’t in Civ

Twenty-one (mostly) small things I can’t believe aren’t in Civ:

1. Unique Units for City States. Why don’t City States have their own unique units, eg swiss guard, Landsknecht? It would add some easy flavour to City States, make them a bit more durable, and it using them would be a nice perk when you levy City States.

2. We Love the King Day. This has been in every version of Civ so far. How has it not been referenced somewhere in Civ VI? Look, the function of WLTKD has basically been taken over by amenities, bonuses from happiness and ages. Bringing it back as it was would be at best redundant and at worst bad mechanics. But how is there not a Dedication called WLTK, or maybe a Policy card? Seems like a missed opportunity for a cute callback.

3. Trebuchet. How is this not in the game? I mean, there’s a good argument it’s not needed for gamebalance, although if you stuck it at Military Tactics it might help that leaf tech. But really, there are so many memes about Trebuchets it seems like an obvious win with fans.

4. Harbours give adjacency bonus to Industrial Zones. Harbours and coastal cities are a little underpowered overall. Harbours already give a major adjacency bonus to Commercial Hubs which does buff both Harbours and Coastals. Why not a buff for Industrial Zones too? (While you’re at it: how about +1 gold for Lighthouses and Markets on foreign continents to boost colonial cities and mid game expansion; and +1 production for lighthouses built in coastal cities, to give coastal cities a bit more umph.)

5. Factory and Powerplant bonuses from having coal, oil and uranium. Currently getting Coal, Oil and Uranium is not a big deal - the total opposite of our real world - because all these resources do is unlock some late game units. Instead, these resources should have some real impact on your economy. If you have one or two of these resources, they should boost your Factories, Powerplants, and maybe also your Seaports and Encampments. IZs need a buff anyway. Linking them to late game strategic resources would be an easy way to buff them. (While you’re at it: have Workshops give +1 housing and give +1 gold to pastures and camps; and have Factories and Powerplants also give regional housing andor amenity bonuses).

6. International Airport. How is it that you build an aerodrome, but it only does things with military units? Last time I checked, most major cities have quite a few airports, and they’re mostly for commercial flights. Seems pretty easy to have an alternative tier 3 building for the aerodromes (say “international airport”) focused on commercial flight instead of military, perhaps boosting tourism, trade routes and or gold.

7. Parliament etc. I can build a Ministry of War, but not a Parliment (or a senate or a congress)? How does that work? Come on guys. I literally don’t care what a parliament does: it could be as big as an extra policy card slot or as small as some bonus gold and or loyalty. But if I play Rome, I should be able to build a senate. If I play England, I should be able to build a parliament. Make it a unique building for your cap. Done.

8. Buy Roads. why can’t I just buy roads between two cities? Roads from Traders is a great idea; but it’s a bit sad it’s the only way to get roads practically, because Military Engineers are so limited at road building. Surely an easy solution is just you click on the city screen for a city, go to the gold purchase screen, and see a list of nearby cities and gold costs (on top of or under all the units / buildings you can gold buy). Press “buy” and you get an insta-road. For roads to foreign cities, you could maybe limit it to Civs you’re friends with or allies. For balance, you could also maybe limit the ability to Tier 2 or 3 Governments.

9. Railroads. This comes up a lot, I know. But leaving out railroads is daft - Railways are a big deal historically. I think they’d be fairly easy to implement. Just take the idea of gold buying roads, and extend it to allow you to build railways. Maybe only cities with high pop can purchase railways. Make the railways improve travel speed, but also maybe buff yields to and from that city. Easy!

10. Trade Nodes. This idea may sound a little tricky, but stay with me, it’s actually pretty simple. So, we already have trading posts. You get them by running a trade route between two cities. But there’s never any upgrade to trading posts. My thought is this: after you research cartography, and if your city has a harbour, and has at least three sea routes to another continent from that city, then that city gets a "Trade Node", which improves yields and tourism (i.e. cultural power). Catch is, each continent can only have one or two Trade Nodes total. So, you’re racing other Civs to establish Trade Nodes, and then after they’re established, you have a new reason to fight to control the handful of cities that have them. It would also make sea routes more important and make mid late game conquest more meaningful.

11. Great Prophets. Why do GPs stop after all the Relgions are gone? It really makes Holy Sites underwhelming that they don’t give any great people for most of the game. I’m happy with capping Relgions, but GPs should keep coming. They could evangelise beliefs (instead of Apostles), or give relics or other buffs (a bit like Great Merchants). Whatever. Just something, please.

12. Anti-Cav. Let’s talk military some more. How are anti-cav still rubbish. FXS obviously know AC have problems - they buffed them by adding AC to Oligarchy etc and adding Pike & Shot. But they’re still rubbish. Make them cheaper. For God Sake, just make them cheaper. ( And then, while you’re at it: change Melee’s Battle Cry so it doesn’t work on Anti-Cav, swap AC’s +1 movement promotion for something else (given that Melee can now also get +1 movement, and earlier than AC to boot) and lastly give AC a defensive bonus in their own territory and or on hills etc. so they have some more umph.)

13. Military Tactics. Speaking of AC, the key tech is Military Tactics (Pikemen). But no one wants to get MT because it’s a leaf tech. Buffing anti-cav would help, because that would buff pikes, but it’s still a pretty bad tech. Just make MT a pre-req for something and give the tech a more general buff: maybe you need Military Tactics to unlock city range attacks, or to get Trebuchets or something.

14. Ranged Defence for Seige Units. Thing is, Seige units are basically a dead letter until Artillery, because with the no move and shoot and low defence they just get chewed up by city range attacks. Players don’t build them, and the AI borks itself by building them. Just give them +4 ranged defence if they’re on a hill or have not moved last round. Fixed. Would obviously go well with bringing back Trebuchets...

15. Knights. Make them harder to rush, and stop people spamming them. Knights should feel special. They should be hard to build, just like Varu. Change the Eureka for Stirrups, or better yet make it a leaf tech. Make Knights more expensive. And then make all Heavy Cav cost an additional +1 Mainentance. Seriously, how has this not happened already? (While you’re at it, give all Light Cav a -17 v cities - Horsemen and Cavalry are way too powerful and are meant for raiding not taking cities).

16. Oil for Infantry and Mechanised Infantry. These guys are way too easy to rush because they don't need resources. And making them require oil would make oil more valuable anyway. Maybe the ai would need a leg up with oil, and maybe players might need a way around this (eg factories maybe able to provide one oil with a certain card), but Inf and MInf need to be harder to get.

17. ZOC for Machine Guns. I’m okay with making MGs one range, but then give them some other buff. ZOC would be good (you’d have to swap out the suppression promotion). Maybe also a defensive bonus when in a district.

18. More tactical policy cards. Miltary cards are mostly focused on loyalty, production and unit maintenance cost. By why not more cards which change what your army can do, to add a more tactical element? Discipline and Logistics are good examples, as is Oligarchy’s bonus. But why not more? e.g. Cards which improve healing time, or combat bonus on foreign continents if you have suzerains on that continent?

19. Dedications. Why do you always get the same dedications every era? What if instead of choosing between four dedications you got to choose between five. Four would be the existing picks, but the fifth would be dictated by what government you were in when you entered the next era. That would make governments more interesting, make eras more and dedications more dynamic and make heroic ages better - choose between 3/5 rather than 3/4.

20. Projects. Fine, don’t have a production queue. Bold choice. I like it. But please let me auto renew projects. There are cities I really don’t need to look at every turn. If they’re not actually building units or buildings or whatever, let me flip them to projects and forget about them. It would kill so much late game tedium without undermining the “no production queue” philosophy.

21. Elizabeth I. So, maybe an alt leader isn’t such a small change. But. Elizabeth I as alt leader for England, and so two female leaders for England, completely fits FXS diversity focus. Civ 4 also had Vicky and Liz, so there’s a precedent too. Liz could really take England in an interesting direction, eg spies and religion, and having another leader with Spies at Castles would make for fun games against Catherine, or against both of them if you’re neither England nor France. But here’s the real reason: “Do you want a trade agreement with England?”. Cute call back. Reddit would go nuts. It’s even better than a Trebuchet or WLTKD.

Feel free to comment or add more...

 

You have some nice ideeas but the problem is;I DIDT FIND ANY OIL,IRON,COAL,URANIUM,HORSES on a American game.They really need to make this resouses more avaible for all

 

@VladimirYutin I think that’s a feature not a bug. You have to work for resources.

Look here for some thoughts on getting iron or doing without it. You can also often get one copy of a resource from trade or suzerainty which should be enough to let you upgrade units. And of course, you don’t need resources for unique units or defensive units (anti-Cav and ranged) or for early naval, walls, or for diplomacy...

 

Considering she was a decided moderate in terms of religion, I don't think she'd be the English leader to select for religious bonuses. Edward the Confessor would be the most obvious choice. James I would be another. But, despite intermittently persecuting Catholics, Elizabeth I generally took a middle-of-the-road approach to the debates between High Church and Low Church Protestants. My impression of Elizabeth I is a woman who knew how to use religion to her advantage but did not have deep religious convictions herself.

Better: have her talk in all Shakespeare quotes, as I believe she did in either Civ2 or Civ3. At the very least make it "Wouldst thou care to make a trade agreement with England?" I very much want Elizabeth I back--she's one of my favorite historical figures--but I found her stilted, composed attitude and plain Modern English in Civ5 offputting. She should have the mercurial mood she was famous for and speak Elizabethan English (also called Shakespearean English or Early Modern English--or "Old English" by people who have absolutely no clue what they're talking about ). I'd also propose basing her appearance on the Rainbow Portrait, thus contrasting young Victoria with older Elizabeth I, who was said to have grown quite melancholy and contemplative in her later years.

 

@Zaarin Thanks! I'd agree with basically all of that!

A few more thoughts.

This is how I'd like to see IZ and their buildings change (production and maintenance costs remain the same).

• Industrial Zone: +1 GE, Major Adjacency (+2): other IZ or Harbour, Standard Adjacency: Mines, Quarries and Strategic Resources (these stack, so an Iron Mine would provide +2), Minor Adjacency (+0.5): other districts, lumber mill.
  
  
• Workshop: +1 GE, +1 Specialist Slot, +4 Production, +1 Housing, All Camps and Pastures receive +1 Food
  
  
• Factory: +1 GE, +1 Specialist Slot, +5 Production, +1 Housing, +1 Amenities, benefit extends to all City Centres within 6 Tiles. After Industrialisation, Production and Regional Production increased by +2 if you have 2 Coal.
  
  
• Powerplant: +1 GE, +1 Specialist Slot, +7 Production, +1 Housing, +1 Amenities, benefit extends to all City Centres within 6 Tiles. Production and Regional Production increased by +2 if you have 2 Coal or +4 if you have two Uranium (both stack with Factory bonus for Coal).

• Oil: after Industrialisation, all cities receive +1 housing if you have two Oil, and all Cities receive +1 Production and an additional +1 Production for each Neighbourhood.
  
  
• SeaPort: additional +4 Production if you have two Coal.

• Queen Elizabeth (Alternate Leader, England). Leader Ability, “Video et Taceo”. Your Capital and any of your cities following a religion you have founded or your majority religion receive an additional +2 loyalty. Your spies in any city with an established Governor (including City States) operate at +1 level (always +1 in your capital). Unlock spies at Castles. Receive the Sea Dog unique unit, which replaces the Privateer. Sea Dog can heal in Neutral Territory in addition to capturing units. (I'd replace England's UU with a Ship of the Line or Dreadnaught).

 

my idea for railroads is simple.

Let trader unit build them. and traders gain +2 movement while moving along a railroad

 

A few more random thoughts.

22. City Projects. Districts are awesome. You know it. I know it. We all know it. But. The problem is that, as great as districts are, it’s sort of now become just all about the districts. Cities without at least one district are just terrible and almost worthless, particularly as they can’t run any projects which is the key thing you want cities doing mid and late game. This is a real problem late game when you can build districts easily, but it’s a more general problem because it makes cities very same same. Solution? Let Cities have a few base projects they can run. These could generate just flat gold or other yields - ie no great people - but it would mean you could have cities without districts that still have some use.

23. Less Campuses. Being able to spam Campuses in every city is nuts. This doesn’t need a big solution. Just make new Campuses cost more for each Campus you already have in your empire. While you’re at it: maybe remove the base science from universities, and instead give the, science based on Appeal; and make Cities with Campuses more vulnerable to spies.

 

I've suggested the Tier 2 building for the Aerodrome be a mutually exclusive choice between a Military Airbase and a Commercial Airport. The Airbase could function as the Airport does now and the Airport could either boost tourism and/or provide a trade route.

I'm with you 100% on this.

The City Center could use a project relating to food production/population growth. I'd also like to see the Government Plaza get a Diplomatic Summit project that generates influence and/or envoys.