Elsewhere I have proposed a 4th Age (which we believe is coming to the game) that I would call the Age of Technology. In that age, the Artic and Antarctic are added as separate maps, along with an coastal undersea terrain map for submarine warfare. The Artic is mostly an undersea map, and it's purpose is to create adjacency for Northerly settlements that have previously been separate due to longitude, but now can be threatened from the other side of the globe. The Antarctic is meant to be a "last frontier" of exploration gameplay for science pickups, since now that there are satellites, the map has no more mysteries.
I also proposed a menu based satellite layer, with satellites that affect military, economic, scientific and cultural yields, in addition to a layered Mars Colony science victory condition.
I'd like to expand on this concept and propose a 5th age: The High Frontier Age.
This would be all about space colonization. I'm only posting this because a game that models realistic space colonization using O'Neill Cylinders where the purpose of the space colonies is to interact economically with Earth is a game I've always wanted. I've realized Civ can model it, especially because the cities on Earth will serve as the consumers of space products and the settler pools as well.
In this Age you would have three new map screens: Moon, Mars, Lagrange. Moon and Mars are smaller than Earth but bigger than Antarctica. For the hell of it, let's add the entire undersea map for sea colonies. Lagrange would be a hex tile based representation of free floating structures in orbit. It would be cool if you could position entire "country sized" structures in different places. Like movable islands to optimize adjacency bonuses.
There would have to be an elaborate menu for different rocket options, with the Space Elevator as a significant late game wonder. Speaking of Giant Death Robots, of course there would be Gundams. The general missile shuttles and armed mars rovers.
There would be a very specific economy of lunar resources and mass drivers to construct orbital structures, with the occasional expensive launch from Earth to get rare minerals into space. Mars would entail a separate economy where sending resources there takes so long it's not worth building an engine around, it's more of a way to gain a quick advantage. Mars's own local production can support developing asteroid mines, however, making it relevant. In the late game either asteroid mines or a space elevator will become essential to scaling up in Lagrange.
Win conditions include: sending a pioneer colony ship to Alpha Centauri, moving a massive mineral rich asteroid to Earth orbit (economic victory), crashing an asteroid into Earth to force its population to permanently settle into space (military), have enough presence and development on Earth/sea/moon/mars/lagrange to win a future ideology victory (cultural).
A major part of the 5th age will be a split between techno-futurist civs and neo-antiquity civs. Hive mind ideologues, transhumanists, space explorers, Neo-Egyptians, Neo-Hellenes. The neo-antiquity civs share an anti-transhumanistic perspective and choose to embrace the future through the lens of repurposed Neoplatonic pagan traditions. In that technology is treated as promethean fire from the gods and regulated by a priestly caste, the society then takes on a structure that emulates ancient class and caste systems.
As a result of this, there is asymmetric gameplay and constant ideological battles. This is how the cultural victory is formulated and is treated as an all around victory.
Both the economic and military victory will have an asteroid sub map where you might expect the collective space/robot armies in the entire game to try and spawn in and fight a massive battle over it.
I also proposed a menu based satellite layer, with satellites that affect military, economic, scientific and cultural yields, in addition to a layered Mars Colony science victory condition.
I'd like to expand on this concept and propose a 5th age: The High Frontier Age.
This would be all about space colonization. I'm only posting this because a game that models realistic space colonization using O'Neill Cylinders where the purpose of the space colonies is to interact economically with Earth is a game I've always wanted. I've realized Civ can model it, especially because the cities on Earth will serve as the consumers of space products and the settler pools as well.
In this Age you would have three new map screens: Moon, Mars, Lagrange. Moon and Mars are smaller than Earth but bigger than Antarctica. For the hell of it, let's add the entire undersea map for sea colonies. Lagrange would be a hex tile based representation of free floating structures in orbit. It would be cool if you could position entire "country sized" structures in different places. Like movable islands to optimize adjacency bonuses.
There would have to be an elaborate menu for different rocket options, with the Space Elevator as a significant late game wonder. Speaking of Giant Death Robots, of course there would be Gundams. The general missile shuttles and armed mars rovers.
There would be a very specific economy of lunar resources and mass drivers to construct orbital structures, with the occasional expensive launch from Earth to get rare minerals into space. Mars would entail a separate economy where sending resources there takes so long it's not worth building an engine around, it's more of a way to gain a quick advantage. Mars's own local production can support developing asteroid mines, however, making it relevant. In the late game either asteroid mines or a space elevator will become essential to scaling up in Lagrange.
Win conditions include: sending a pioneer colony ship to Alpha Centauri, moving a massive mineral rich asteroid to Earth orbit (economic victory), crashing an asteroid into Earth to force its population to permanently settle into space (military), have enough presence and development on Earth/sea/moon/mars/lagrange to win a future ideology victory (cultural).
A major part of the 5th age will be a split between techno-futurist civs and neo-antiquity civs. Hive mind ideologues, transhumanists, space explorers, Neo-Egyptians, Neo-Hellenes. The neo-antiquity civs share an anti-transhumanistic perspective and choose to embrace the future through the lens of repurposed Neoplatonic pagan traditions. In that technology is treated as promethean fire from the gods and regulated by a priestly caste, the society then takes on a structure that emulates ancient class and caste systems.
As a result of this, there is asymmetric gameplay and constant ideological battles. This is how the cultural victory is formulated and is treated as an all around victory.
Both the economic and military victory will have an asteroid sub map where you might expect the collective space/robot armies in the entire game to try and spawn in and fight a massive battle over it.
