A New Start Option

[Miliowilix]

Reading a preview on the new Civ 6 got me wondering about a play mode that could actually be really cool to implement in the game. I am not a big fan of mods so excuse me if this idea already exists.

When my friends and I play Civ 5 we often take random civs. It is a good choice and a fair one for all, especially if you are not sure at the very beginning how you want to play and what you might expect from others. Unfortunately often you get one of those civs you really wanted to avoid. So that got me thinking.

How about they make a mod, implemented in the game as a starting option, where you start with no civ, just a settler and a unit on a random piece of land, be it the shore, dessert, forest, whatever. Then you play a couple of turns being only able to build scouts (or better hunters or trackers, who can move as fast as scouts but cant attack settlers). After a certain number of turns, lets say up to 20 tops, you get to choose a civ with a recommendation from the AI. From that point on you play a normal game. This would give you a chance to meet your neighbors, plan the right place for your city, explore the map a bit and then choose a good civ. This also makes the whole "building a civilization from scratch" thing a more believable scenario since sometimes I feel that my settlers just fell down from space at the start of the game not knowing anything about the world.

So there you have it. Would anyone try to play a game like this?

 

[Amrunril]

Very interesting idea. I especially like the way it would let civs fit more organically into their start biases I do have a couple concerns about implementation.

First, some civs are focused very heavily on the early game. To use Civ V examples, the Shoshone, Ethiopia, the Celts or the Huns would be substantially less appealing if they couldn't receive any unique bonuses until 20 turns in. The prohibition against building units other than scouts (which I would actually remove if not for this issue) would mitigate this somewhat, but not entirely. There is a lot of important gameplay that happens during early city growth and exploration, and unique bonuses that impact this can have extremely powerful snowball effects. Are you alright with early game civs being weak in this game mode? Or would it be possible to make your choice early to try to benefit from one of them?

Second, it seems like pick order would be very important. Seeing your neighbor take an early cavalry focused civ and countering with a civ with a spearman UU would be incredibly powerful. So would seeing your neighbor take a "tall" civ and taking an expressionistic choice to exploit the likely extra land. On the flip side, there could be a lot of competition for certain civs, which could make early picks very important. I have no idea how these competing forces would balance. They could make for a very interesting dynamic, but if one ends up being significantly more important it could introduce a lot of imbalance. Some sort of blind pick would also be an option, but it would come with the possibility of players ending up with the same civ.

 

[criZp]

Could be cool but I think everyone should choose civ at the same time. And no limitations on what you can do/build.

Might make it so that when you start you get to see a bigger area around the start location, and then immediately have to pick a civ to fit that geography.

 

[Miliowilix]

Well I was thinking that at the start you would only get a settler and a so called hunter or whichever unit, but I guess that just a settler would work just fine. You would then be able to build a city at any point during these 20 turns. This could be also quite fun cause it would allow for an opportunity to meet your neighbors and even settle near each other. This is also a bit more realistic since historically many cultures did start off bordering each other.

Lets say that the moment you make your first city you can choose your civ, but you CANT start building anything (except for these hunters maybe) and it CANT grow until the others have also settled, or until the end of the starting faze, that is turn 20. The players without a city must by turn 20 choose their civ whether they have a city or not. All the civ bonuses till this point do not count. When all the civs have been chosen the game starts normally. This way if you find a suitable spot early on, you can choose an appropriate civ. On the other hand you can also wait to see where the players will settle and who they will choose. Lets say you see someone taking Ghandi and then you settle near them and choose Gingis Khan. The players who want to be secluded and boost science lets say can go deep into the jungle and start as Korea for example.

Of course if a civ is taken, others cant have it. That makes an early choice even more important. Or if you wait till turn 20 who knows... maybe you find a natural wonder.