A Wishlist Thread for Civ VII

[jsciv69]

And Now that we know Civ VII is a reality. Let's breakout the features we think will make this a more enjoyable and as real adventure as possible.

Here is a few things I would like to see.

Starting Date: 7000 BCE. This was when Cities began to arise in various places. Of course there can be options. Such as 6000 BCE(Fast game), 7000(Standard game), 8000 BCE ( Marathon game).
Years per Turn: 10 years per turn Should be ideal pace for the Ancient and Classical Eras. This would give enough time to grow, develop, and prepare our Cities and Civilizations for the later Eras. The year increments should then reduce with each new Era.
Getting Started: Each Civ starts with a Settler, Military Unit, and Scout/Explorer Unit. Each new City automatically produces an automated Worker(tends the mills), Cultivater(tends the crops), and Hunter unit. ( will locate, hunt, and gather surrounding game). The Hunter unit creates ranches to domesticate livestock.
Advisors: This is a return of those charming characters from Civ II. Each Civ Leader is provided advisors of particular departments i.e Agriculture, Tech and Education, Military, Diplomatic etc.
Towns within Cities. Groups of peoples within a city form Towns. Each town grows enough population to form into a new City for the Civilization.
Settling Cities. Here is a concept from Civ III( which I still regard as the best of the franchise). I would like to eliminate the annoying zones of control. How frustrating to spot a nice patch to settle. Only to be rejected because it's too close to someone's borders. It should be any land outside any border is fair game to be settled!
Return of Wild Animals: In Civ IV, The game would begin with dangerous wild animals like Lions and Wolves that had to be dealt with. This is a concept I'd like to return.

These are just a handful of things I would like to see in Civ VII.

 

[mrus16]

I would love to see a nod to myths and lore from History. For example, the History Channel, the Bible, and other historical texts have made mention of mysterious ancient peoples who, at certain times, brought or gifted knowledge and technology to peoples. They have been called the Nephilim, Atlantians, Anakim, or just giants. Modern times have stories of gifting of technologies from aliens and/or time travelers. It seems like this could be a mod that could be added in with the Heros and Legends to increase knowledge or advance technology.

 

[jsciv69]

I would love to see a nod to myths and lore from History. For example, the History Channel, the Bible, and other historical texts have made mention of mysterious ancient peoples who, at certain times, brought or gifted knowledge and technology to peoples. They have been called the Nephilim, Atlantians, Anakim, or just giants. Modern times have stories of gifting of technologies from aliens and/or time travelers. It seems like this could be a mod that could be added in with the Heros and Legends to increase knowledge or advance technology.

It can be called the Mod of Myth and Legend.

 

[Blue whale]

I see the starting date being 4500 BC would be better and having a new chalcolithic era for the very early game. And for the starting units i think it should be a military unit a recon unit and a settler but having all these different kinds of workers would be a bad idea. And wild animals have no reason to exist because we already have barbarians and they break immersion

 

[Something12]

Starting Date: 7000 BCE. This was when Cities began to arise in various places. Of course there can be options. Such as 6000 BCE(Fast game), 7000(Standard game), 8000 BCE ( Marathon game).
Years per Turn: 10 years per turn Should be ideal pace for the Ancient and Classical Eras. This would give enough time to grow, develop, and prepare our Cities and Civilizations for the later Eras. The year increments should then reduce with each new Era.

Wouldn’t this lead to an over 700 turn long ancient + classical era? assuming my math is correct and since you want longer Era’s and don’t want the Medieval Era in 5000 BC? Or am I missing something?
Also your idea of letting people settle cities anywhere doesn’t sound very fun, I don’t want the ai placing a city in the middle of my entire empire or placing one right outside my new city’s borders.

 

[GeneralZIft]

Wouldn’t this lead to an over 700 turn long ancient + classical era? assuming my math is correct and since you want longer Era’s and don’t want the Medieval Era in 5000 BC? Or am I missing something?
Also your idea of letting people settle cities anywhere doesn’t sound very fun, I don’t want the ai placing a city in the middle of my entire empire or placing one right outside my new city’s borders.

Government-mandated Marathon mode

 

[vorlon_mi]

Wouldn’t this lead to an over 700 turn long ancient + classical era? assuming my math is correct and since you want longer Era’s and don’t want the Medieval Era in 5000 BC? Or am I missing something?
Also your idea of letting people settle cities anywhere doesn’t sound very fun, I don’t want the ai placing a city in the middle of my entire empire or placing one right outside my new city’s borders.

The number of years per turn varies throughout the eras in each of the Civ games. Depends a lot on where the designer *wants* the focus of the game to be. I would have no issues with a 700 turn game; Civ3 had a limit of 540 turns, while Civ6 has a limit of 500. Many players achieve one of the victory conditions before turn 300 in single player. I expect that the game would need to support different "speeds" for online, multiplayer and single player.

In Civ2, cities could be placed nearly anywhere and some players found that settling lots of cities close together provded advantages.
In Civ3 and later games, cities established a cultural radius which expanded and overlapped between cities. It wasn't possible to settle in the midst of another civ's territory without declaring war. The minimum distance between cities has varied among the games. Aggressive settling has been a thing; I wouldn't mind still seeing it in Civ7.

 

[Something12]

G

The number of years per turn varies throughout the eras in each of the Civ games. Depends a lot on where the designer *wants* the focus of the game to be. I would have no issues with a 700 turn game; Civ3 had a limit of 540 turns, while Civ6 has a limit of 500. Many players achieve one of the victory conditions before turn 300 in single player. I expect that the game would need to support different "speeds" for online, multiplayer and single player.

I’m not talking about having a 700 turn long game which isn’t a problem, I’m talking about having a 700 turn ancient + classical era which seems a little extreme for a standard speed game and seems to be the goal of the original poster considering he mentioned that it’s for giving more time to “prepare for the later eras better”

 

[jsciv69]

Multi-tasking Research and Building
Here is another bright idea. Imagine a situation where our cities in the middle of constructing important buildings. Then suddenly another Civilization or City-State decides they don't like us for some reason. Now we have to fight a war. We need to build units to defend our Civilization. But we don't want to stop construction projects. So why not do both. So we can develop and defend ourselves at the same time. And the same for researching Techs. Researching just one Technology and just one building project at a time is just not realistic. Instead of choosing between agriculture techs. Maybe allow to research Irrigation, Animal Husbandry, and Mining at the same time. And again Cities should be granted the same ability to multi-building projects. Instead of choosing a building or a unit. Why not choose a building, unit, and wonder all at once. And this is closer to reality. As ancient cities did grow because a greater population was able to do more things. The idea is to develop and prepare for the upcoming Era's. And also keeping up with the other Civs.

 

[jsciv69]

In Civ3 and later games, cities established a cultural radius which expanded and overlapped between cities

In many ways I think Civ-III was the best and most realistic installment of the Franchise. Any land outside of any border was fair game. We were even allowed a function of settling cities within our own borders. It was especially important if we wanted to grab a strategic resource. And even if the AI settles a city next to our border. If our culture is strong enough it will entice that city to join our Civilization. Or at least attract citizens of that city into our own. I sure would love to see that feature return in Civ-VII

 

[GeneralZIft]

Multi-tasking Research and Building
Here is another bright idea. Imagine a situation where our cities in the middle of constructing important buildings. Then suddenly another Civilization or City-State decides they don't like us for some reason. Now we have to fight a war. We need to build units to defend our Civilization. But we don't want to stop construction projects. So why not do both. So we can develop and defend ourselves at the same time. And the same for researching Techs. Researching just one Technology and just one building project at a time is just not realistic. Instead of choosing between agriculture techs. Maybe allow to research Irrigation, Animal Husbandry, and Mining at the same time. And again Cities should be granted the same ability to multi-building projects. Instead of choosing a building or a unit. Why not choose a building, unit, and wonder all at once. And this is closer to reality. As ancient cities did grow because a greater population was able to do more things. The idea is to develop and prepare for the upcoming Era's. And also keeping up with the other Civs.

Why not have the game play itself and send me the results at the end? I'm so confused. What choices is there left to make if you can build and research everything at once?

 

[jsciv69]

G

I’m not talking about having a 700 turn long game which isn’t a problem, I’m talking about having a 700 turn ancient + classical era which seems a little extreme for a standard speed game and seems to be the goal of the original poster considering he mentioned that it’s for giving more time to “prepare for the later eras better”

Were used to having the Ancient and Classical Eras start with 20-40 years per turn. This should be slowed down to maybe 5-10 years per
turn.

The idea of these is to be better prepared for the Modern and beyond eras. So we're not stuck fighting a Tank with a Crossbowman. Also 4,000BCE has been the usual starting Age. But since we start with individual cities it would be more Historic accuracy to have a 7000-6000 BCE start.

 

[Something12]

Were used to having the Ancient and Classical Eras start with 20-40 years per turn. This should be slowed down to maybe 5-10 years per
turn.

The idea of these is to be better prepared for the Modern and beyond eras. So we're not stuck fighting a Tank with a Crossbowman. Also 4,000BCE has been the usual starting Age. But since we start with individual cities it would be more Historic accuracy to have a 7000-6000 BCE start.

Again, wouldn’t that lead to an ancient + classical era that lasts hundreds upon hundreds of turns on standard speed?
Also if a player is having to fight tanks with crossbowmen that means one of 2 things
1. They didn’t invest enough in research
2. Somehow the opposing player got away with just spamming science and not making a proper army or is playing Babylon

 

[Something12]

Multi-tasking Research and Building
Here is another bright idea. Imagine a situation where our cities in the middle of constructing important buildings. Then suddenly another Civilization or City-State decides they don't like us for some reason. Now we have to fight a war. We need to build units to defend our Civilization. But we don't want to stop construction projects. So why not do both. So we can develop and defend ourselves at the same time. And the same for researching Techs. Researching just one Technology and just one building project at a time is just not realistic. Instead of choosing between agriculture techs. Maybe allow to research Irrigation, Animal Husbandry, and Mining at the same time. And again Cities should be granted the same ability to multi-building projects. Instead of choosing a building or a unit. Why not choose a building, unit, and wonder all at once. And this is closer to reality. As ancient cities did grow because a greater population was able to do more things. The idea is to develop and prepare for the upcoming Era's. And also keeping up with the other Civs.

Where is the strategy in being able to do everything at once and research everything at the same time?

 

[jsciv69]

Where is the strategy in being able to do everything at once and research everything at the same time?

The idea is to have some historic accuracy. Even in the Ancient times, Cities did multi-task. Training fighting men, building structures, and improving the terrain and agriculture all at the same time. perhaps the Tech tree can group certain advancements in categories: Agriculture, Domestic infrastructure, Science/metals, Strategic(military)/ Diplomatic. For instance Irrigation, Cultivation, and Animal Husbandry/aka Domestication can be placed in a Agriculture Development tech tree. Each player selects one tech from each group. City production can be done in a similar fashion. Meaning The player selects one Building, one Wonder, and one Unit. And as time jumps our Cities and Civs are developing and being better prepared for future techs. All while being able to defend the Civ properly.

 

[jsciv69]

Again, wouldn’t that lead to an ancient + classical era that lasts hundreds upon hundreds of turns on standard speed?
Also if a player is having to fight tanks with crossbowmen that means one of 2 things
1. They didn’t invest enough in research
2. Somehow the opposing player got away with just spamming science and not making a proper army or is playing Babylon

A 20-25 year per turn jump is a but much if we continue with the 4,000 BCE starting age. Maybe there can be a choice in the setup. for instance: 7,000 BCE(Marathon game- 25 years per turn Ancient Era), 6,000 BCE(Standard Game-15 years per turn Ancient Era), 5,000BCE(Quick-Game-10 years per turn-All Eras). We could go with 8,000BCE as a Marathon start since that's when towns and cities did begin to sprout in various places. But to be reasonable. I think a 6,000BCE starting age might be more logical. And make for a more realistic experience.

 

[Something12]

The idea is to have some historic accuracy. Even in the Ancient times, Cities did multi-task. Training fighting men, building structures, and improving the terrain and agriculture all at the same time. perhaps the Tech tree can group certain advancements in categories: Agriculture, Domestic infrastructure, Science/metals, Strategic(military)/ Diplomatic. For instance Irrigation, Cultivation, and Animal Husbandry/aka Domestication can be placed in an Agriculture Development tech tree. Each player selects one tech from each group. City production can be done in a similar fashion. Meaning The player selects one Building, one Wonder, and one Unit. And as time jumps our Cities and Civs are developing and being better prepared for future techs. All while being able to defend the Civ properly.

I value good gameplay more than historical realism, and generally making cities able to do everything at once reduces strategy and therefore makes the gameplay worse, but that’s just my opinion.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

The idea is to have some historic accuracy. Even in the Ancient times, Cities did multi-task. Training fighting men, building structures, and improving the terrain and agriculture all at the same time. perhaps the Tech tree can group certain advancements in categories: Agriculture, Domestic infrastructure, Science/metals, Strategic(military)/ Diplomatic. For instance Irrigation, Cultivation, and Animal Husbandry/aka Domestication can be placed in a Agriculture Development tech tree. Each player selects one tech from each group. City production can be done in a similar fashion. Meaning The player selects one Building, one Wonder, and one Unit. And as time jumps our Cities and Civs are developing and being better prepared for future techs. All while being able to defend the Civ properly.

You can already do this in Civ VI, but the amount you can do is limited by the currencies you use for it:

You can use Production to build just about anything.
You can use Religion to build units and some buildings
You can use Gold to buy some units and buildings
You can use Great People to instantly build or upgrade units.[

I have, on more than one occasion in a Civ VI game, instantly 'bought' two different units (warrior monk and military combat unit) in the same city on the same turn with Gold and Religion while keeping the current 'production' intact. The only reason I couldn't have bought a second military unit instantly is that the city did not have a second place to put the bought unit - put in an Encampment, and I could have 'produced' 3 units in one turn in the same city.

And keeping limitations in how much and how often you can do this by requiring different 'currencies' to do it keeps the game playable.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

.....

Starting Date: 7000 BCE. This was when Cities began to arise in various places. Of course there can be options. Such as 6000 BCE(Fast game), 7000(Standard game), 8000 BCE ( Marathon game).

....

Why not 10,000 BC?
Actually 4000 BC is VERY late. especially IRL cities had already been built with strong stonewalls or similiar strong walls made of either compressed dirt or baked clay bricks.

 

[Phrozen]

England should be changed to Britain.
There should be Civilization Wonders that are wonders but not on the world scale ie St. Louis Arch, Rijksmuseum, Crystal Palace, Circus Maximus, Nijō-jō, etc.