I have an idea which is pretty drastic and may not even be suitable for civilization, but I'd still like to put it out there. It’s basically a kind of affinity system which determines which civilization you play as.
So anyone who has downloaded the Historical Start Point Mod by Gedemon (not too sure what it’s called to be honest) will have some idea about what I'm talking about. In that mod, AI civilizations enter the game depending on when their empire first emerged. For example the US appears in 1776 in the renaissance era, with some techs already unlocked but would be unable to build ancient wonders (for e.g.)
Anyways my idea is somewhat along these lines. Basically there would be no more choosing a civilization from the start of the game. All players start with a basic generic "caveman" civ if you will. Then depending on actions, buildings, relationships with other players, wonders built, social policies and landscape, your civ starts gaining "Civilization points". Once you have amassed a certain number of these points, you can choose to unlock a civilization. Early civilizations such as Assyria and Babylon would require less points, whereas the US and Brazil would require a heck of a lot more, (and possibly require you to be in the Renaissance Era/Industrial era).
So allow me to explain further.
These civ points could be split into various categories, such as Wonder building, aggressiveness, Road-Building, The Arts, etc. Based on your decisions for the game, you will be awarded "civ points" in these respective categories. For example, if you start denouncing players in the start of the game and attacking them, you would be awarded "aggressiveness" Civ points. In the same way, if you built the Pyramids, you would gain "Wonder-Building" civ points.
Different Civ's would require a certain amount of civ points in each category before it could be unlocked. For example Egypt might need 10 points in the "wonder category", 5 for "neutrality" and 7 for "population". Each wonder for example would contribute 3 points, but the Pyramids (if built) would provide 5... (Whether this pyramid bonus would only apply to Egypt (due to cultural relevancy) is still something that would need to be discussed).
A unique civ-point could be terrain. This would be completely dependent on where you start in the game. If you wanted to choose a desert civilization, then this would help you, but that is not to say you can't choose Egypt if you're in tundra, it just will be slightly harder (but definitely not impossible). Again, exactly how this aspect might work is still a bit misty (even to me) and it may even be too complex, and/or need re-working.
Now that you have unlocked a civ, you will immediately be able to build its UU and UB, and gain its UA. You will now not be able to choose any other civ for the rest of the game. Obviously if you were focused on early game domination you would choose Assyria or Babylon, enjoy the early game benefits, and then lose the advantages by the late game. On the other hand, saving up your points for a late-game civilization might be extremely rewarding, (in other words if you chose USA, minutemen would be really powerful compared to the standard units).
Another slightly alternative idea would be to first specialize your civ according to historical region or perhaps personality through use of a social policy system. For example you could unlock the "Native-American" tree, which would immediately give you some flat bonuses and some unique abilities, before then specializing in a specific civilization. Alternatively perhaps a better system could be if you chose from some personalities. For example you could unlock the "Warlike" policy, again giving you some flat bonuses towards warfare, before you then choose from a set of historically militaristic and aggressive civilizations.
Some issues would this would definitely be diplomacy, it might be a bit boring to interact with "bland cavemen" until they specialize, and they will be hard to predict since they don't have any personality flavours, (or at least are completely random). However I would envision a super-cool graphical transformation of your caveman into your leader and civilization (which could possibly make up for this
)
Another one would be that you couldn’t choose which civilizations are in the game. This would make stuff like TSL maps a bit difficult.
A solution to this would be to make this system optional, but I think that defeats the purpose of making a new civilization game. The aim is for something in it to be completely new. Civilization V for example wouldn’t have been the same if you tick an option to keep a grid system.
Basically, I think what I’m describing is kind of an affinity system, but this system is central to the entire game. Whether this is suited to civilization or not, I’ll let you judge.
So anyone who has downloaded the Historical Start Point Mod by Gedemon (not too sure what it’s called to be honest) will have some idea about what I'm talking about. In that mod, AI civilizations enter the game depending on when their empire first emerged. For example the US appears in 1776 in the renaissance era, with some techs already unlocked but would be unable to build ancient wonders (for e.g.)
Anyways my idea is somewhat along these lines. Basically there would be no more choosing a civilization from the start of the game. All players start with a basic generic "caveman" civ if you will. Then depending on actions, buildings, relationships with other players, wonders built, social policies and landscape, your civ starts gaining "Civilization points". Once you have amassed a certain number of these points, you can choose to unlock a civilization. Early civilizations such as Assyria and Babylon would require less points, whereas the US and Brazil would require a heck of a lot more, (and possibly require you to be in the Renaissance Era/Industrial era).
So allow me to explain further.
These civ points could be split into various categories, such as Wonder building, aggressiveness, Road-Building, The Arts, etc. Based on your decisions for the game, you will be awarded "civ points" in these respective categories. For example, if you start denouncing players in the start of the game and attacking them, you would be awarded "aggressiveness" Civ points. In the same way, if you built the Pyramids, you would gain "Wonder-Building" civ points.
Different Civ's would require a certain amount of civ points in each category before it could be unlocked. For example Egypt might need 10 points in the "wonder category", 5 for "neutrality" and 7 for "population". Each wonder for example would contribute 3 points, but the Pyramids (if built) would provide 5... (Whether this pyramid bonus would only apply to Egypt (due to cultural relevancy) is still something that would need to be discussed).
A unique civ-point could be terrain. This would be completely dependent on where you start in the game. If you wanted to choose a desert civilization, then this would help you, but that is not to say you can't choose Egypt if you're in tundra, it just will be slightly harder (but definitely not impossible). Again, exactly how this aspect might work is still a bit misty (even to me) and it may even be too complex, and/or need re-working.
Now that you have unlocked a civ, you will immediately be able to build its UU and UB, and gain its UA. You will now not be able to choose any other civ for the rest of the game. Obviously if you were focused on early game domination you would choose Assyria or Babylon, enjoy the early game benefits, and then lose the advantages by the late game. On the other hand, saving up your points for a late-game civilization might be extremely rewarding, (in other words if you chose USA, minutemen would be really powerful compared to the standard units).
Another slightly alternative idea would be to first specialize your civ according to historical region or perhaps personality through use of a social policy system. For example you could unlock the "Native-American" tree, which would immediately give you some flat bonuses and some unique abilities, before then specializing in a specific civilization. Alternatively perhaps a better system could be if you chose from some personalities. For example you could unlock the "Warlike" policy, again giving you some flat bonuses towards warfare, before you then choose from a set of historically militaristic and aggressive civilizations.
Some issues would this would definitely be diplomacy, it might be a bit boring to interact with "bland cavemen" until they specialize, and they will be hard to predict since they don't have any personality flavours, (or at least are completely random). However I would envision a super-cool graphical transformation of your caveman into your leader and civilization (which could possibly make up for this
)Another one would be that you couldn’t choose which civilizations are in the game. This would make stuff like TSL maps a bit difficult.
A solution to this would be to make this system optional, but I think that defeats the purpose of making a new civilization game. The aim is for something in it to be completely new. Civilization V for example wouldn’t have been the same if you tick an option to keep a grid system.
Basically, I think what I’m describing is kind of an affinity system, but this system is central to the entire game. Whether this is suited to civilization or not, I’ll let you judge.
Or maybe it would lose a lot of the historical flavour if nobody chooses for a long time and it's just a whole game with barbs v barbs v barbs v barbs!
