Another list of suggestions for future Civ iterations

[sen803]

I would like to congratulate and thank the developers of Civ 6 for putting together two very creative and addictive expansions. The developers have brought some very interesting concepts into the franchise, including the loyalty systems, the eras, and the natural disasters. I think the game play design regarding the planet and global warming worked very well, and have made the game even more enjoyable to play. The unique features of each civilization make each game unique.


While the expansions were very creative and have brought several interesting concepts to the franchise, I do think that Civ6 is not currently complete. I think that some of the new concepts need a little bit of reworking to optimize balance and implementation. I also think there is some classic content from the civilization franchise that is missing from Civ6.


Here are my suggestions for what I would change in patches, if there is additional DLC, and if there is another expansion. I realize that it is more likely that we will see additional DLC, if there is additional content to civ, than an expansion—but I am putting my two cents in here before the first patches and any additional content is released. Also, I do not claim that all of these ideas are original; they are just a collection of things I have thought while playing the game and read.

 

[sen803]

Suggestions for DLC


While I would like to see another expansion for Civ 6, I can also see why the developers might not want to do that. Too much content into a single game could make it too busy, and the game is already quite complex.


If there is not another expansion of Civ6, I do think that the developers should bring back some of the classic civ content in a few additional DLCs, and add some additional content (new civs, new wonders, and additional great people etc.). After all, the developers not only have to consider actual history, but at this point they have to consider the history of the civilization franchise!


I think that there is enough additional content that could be easily added for a few geographically themed DLCs. There are some players who want all of the European wonders that were in civ5 to also be included in civ 6 and a few additional European civs. Other players view Civ5 as too Eurocentric and want more Southeast Asian wonders, African wonders, etc.


I think a European, a Middle Eastern/African, an Asian, and an American DLC could each be released with corresponding scenarios, civs, alternate leaders, wonders, great people etc, allowing players to hone in on the geographic areas that they are most interested in. Then after some time, a final Civ 6 complete could be released.

 

[sen803]

Regarding classic civ content in DLC:

· There are a few classic civs who are missing from Civ6—most obviously the Babylonians, but also the Maya, the Byzantines, and Portugal. I think it would also be great to see Ethiopia and Siam return from Civ 5.

· There are a few classic Civ wonders that are also currently missing. Given that the Globe theatre has been included in each iteration of Civ, I do think that it should make an appearance in Civ 6. I would also love to see how the art department would depict the Globe.

· The Sistine Chapel has also been included as a wonder in every iteration of Civ. I understand why it hasn’t been included in Civ 6 given that it isn’t really magnificent from the exterior, and the wonders have all included a very nice artistic representation. However, I do wonder if there is a way to also include the Sistine Chapel as a wonder, and not simply as a work of art. Although St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel are not one entity, it might be interesting to have St. Peter’s as a wonder, which produces three great works that are components of the Sistine Chapel ceiling/Last Judgment that are automatically themed (in addition to another trait, such as great works of art produce great artist points). Michelangelo the great artist could just produce three sculptures.

· Some other classic civ wonders that are missing are the statue of Zeus and one of the great Dams. Given all of the engineering projects and wonders in Civ 6, I am surprised that neither the Hoover Dam nor the Three Gorges Dam have made in into the game yet.

· Given the Copernicus featured so prominently in multiple versions of Civ, I am surprised that he is not included as a great scientist. Although observatories have been a bit overemphasized in prior versions of Civ, it might be nice to have a modern observatory as an improvement for mountains, or maybe for Volcanoes?

· I am surprised that Civ6 has not found a way to include longbowmen, which is historically been important in the Civ franchise. I was somewhat expecting Eleanor to have a unique unit for the English and for the French (a longbowman and some sort of crusader, respectively). I think Eleanor is a great addition to the game, but the reality is that her unique ability doesn’t really come into effect until the industrial era, at the earliest, as the number of great works is comparatively small earlier. I think it would be nice if she would receive her own set of units as England and France, which would decrease loyalty in surrounding cities when they won a battle—similar to the decrease in religion when a religious unit is killed. Granted longbowmen don’t fit perfectly with when Eleanor was Queen, but it is close enough. I think a unique unit for Eleanor and then a decrease in the strength of her current ability would be better for balance and timing of her strength.

 

[sen803]

Regarding additional DLC:

· There are a few civs that have not been included in the Civ franchise partially because of a lack of a clear leader for that civ. Given what a nice job the developers did with city-states, I think one option would be to develop playable city-state federations. Examples that could fit this bill would be Switzerland, Italy, and the UAE, to name a few. The way I would suggest that they work is that there be a limited number of potential cities you can found in a city state federation. For example, if playing as Switzerland, you could have Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern—5 potential cities (just as an example). City-state federations would have the total number of cities that you could found capped (but more than one, as that was rather limiting in Civ 5 as Venice). Rather than a leader, the Civ would just be a flag (think the Napoleonic Europe scenario in Civ3). Rather than a leader bonus, each city-state federation would just be the Suzerain bonuses of those cities, and each city would have a unique bonus. The capital city and order of cities founded would be random, and each city would have a unique Suzerain bonus. As cities are founded, you acquire each individual city’s Suzerain bonus—for example Geneva would have its science bonus, Lausanne could have some Lake adjacency bonus, Lucerne could have a mountain adjacency bonus (or earlier ski resorts) etc. There could still be a unique improvement/unique building for the city-state federation, but there would not be a leader bonus, and the Civ’s bonus would be the individual Suzerain bonuses. However, if the city-state federation lost the city due to loyalty, it would become a free city-state rather than a free city. I personally would prefer a setup similar to this rather than what was done with Venice in Civ 5, as in Civ 6 there are more bonuses to settling different terrain types, and you really need to settle at least three cities. Also, I don’t think that just assimilating the city-states (as was Austria’s bonus in Civ 5) in Civ 6 is as desirable, as often the individual Suzerain bonuses are quite strong. Italy could also be represented as a city-state federation (with a few more cities, for example Venice, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Palermo, Bari), or there could be different city-state federations for Venice and Tuscany.

· While every player has his or her list of wonders that he or she would like to see added to the Civilization franchise, I do think that it would be interesting to see the Empire State Building added to Civ 6. I realize that there are already enough NYC wonders in the game, but it is one of the most iconic skyscrapers.

· Other wonders I would like to see added include the Ponte du Garde aqueduct, given the engineering emphasis of Civ 6, and the Dome of the Rock, to provide more Middle Eastern representation.

· I personally think that the Great People are one of the strongest additions to Civ 6—they are really very well done. However, I was a bit disappointed that expansions didn’t add any more great people, and only modified the bonuses of some. I think it would be nice to see some additional Great People, so that the exact Great People that you get in each game is less predictable. It would be nice to have some Great Engineers who could rush districts, rather than wonders; it would also be nice to see a few different bonuses for Great Admirals.

· Also, it would be very nice if the great artists would start in the Middle Ages. Although most Medieval sculptors are unknown, it would be great if at least one known sculptor could be added—as it stands, the Donatello and Michelangelo sculptures are very difficult to theme until the late game.

· I think the aerodrome district is very underpowered and I rarely build more than two. I think it would be nice to have an international airport as a third building in the district, which provides additional trade routes and increases tourism.

 

[sen803]

Game play changes if there is a future expansion


· With the de-stacking of cities in Civ 6, this lead to the late game playing out very differently from other versions of Civ. Since there are not as many tiles to work for production and food, these need to come from alternate sources. I think the production is at least partially improved by the implementation of the power plants and power system in gathering storm, although I think that could be further improved. However, there really is not a great substitute for the lack of using tiles to generate food The farming adjacency bonuses only provide so much food, and I rarely find myself with a city with a population above 27; I also very rarely have any specialists in my cities. I think that there need to be some ways to bring food into key cities other than domestic trade routes, which only provide a limited amount of food and take away from international routes. I think one potential way would be that if two cities were connected by a railroad or by airports, that you could dedicate a tile in one city to actually provide the food to a different city. Another way would be to have increased food bonuses for buildings like the food market and the seaport etc.

· I also think it would be interesting to have the ability to move portable/plantable resources around the map. Humans have moved resources around the world quite a bit, from to the introduction of horses by Europeans to the Americas to the global movement of coffee production etc. I think once you have certain resources that are improved, for example cattle, then you could have the option to produce or buy a rancher, which you could then use to transport cattle to another location and try to introduce cattle onto a tile elsewhere that doesn’t currently have a resource on it. The moving resources would have a certain failure rate, including if you try to move it onto a tile where there’s a currently unrevealed resource. Similar options could be there for wheat, horses, bananas, coffee, cotton, so that if one are of the map is empty but relatively resource scarce, you have the opportunity to try to buff that location up a bit with some bonus or luxury resources.

· It would be interesting to see disease and have it interface with the disaster system in gathering storm. For example, a flood could lead to an epidemic, which could be mitigated or travel with trade routes depending on the Civ’s policies/buildings etc. It would be nice to see a medical district with an apothecary, hospital, and medical research building, or some similar escalation, as well as have great healers. I would also like to see pollution as a result of city growth and burning carbon, which could be mitigated by medical buildings as well as mass transit systems and other city center buildings. Although the developers have been clearly most interested in creating buildings which can be visualized in the districts etc, I think some additional city center buildings could be created without the need for artistic representation—such as a mass transit system.

· The legal system has been conspicuously absent in Civ 6. I think it would be nice to at least have courthouses in Civ 6, which could interface with the governments. For example you could need to have a certain number of courthouses (or some legal currency) in order to get the major and minor bonuses of each government. I also think it would be nice if each government had an increase in the number of minor bonuses for each level (i.e. level 2 governments had two minor bonuses etc.).

 

[sen803]

Suggestions for balance changes to gathering storm features



· I have always thought that the pace of the science and culture trees in Civ 6 are not particularly well balanced; some eras are too short, and overall the pace of advancement is far ahead of the chronological clock. This seemed to improve somewhat with the Rise and Fall expansion, but is back to being very lopsided—I seem to breeze through the middle ages and the Renaissance eras in most games, particularly in the science tech tree, and I end up building factories by 500-600 AD and hydroelectric plants by 1000 AD. I think a solution to this would be to use the eras as a framework for the cost of technologies and civics and apply a modifier to increase the cost of researching techs/civics in future eras. This is similar to how great people in more advanced eras have a modifier whereby they cost more points than they do if recruited in the same era of the game. While this is somewhat complicated by the boosts (do they give you an absolute boost or just a percentage), it would be feasible to implement. Another possibility would be to decrease the science yields per citizen with progressive eras, which would force players to spend more time building campuses and campus buildings, rather than just having a large population.

· In gathering storm, the AI seems to have a very strong predilection for trade deals involving great works once a great work has been obtained, but it would be nice if the AI would make other trade deals as well. It makes it much harder to generate decent trade deals and subsequently alliances unless you want to trade your great works.

· I think the power system adds a nice dimension to the game and is a great addition. However, I think that factories should get a larger benefit from being powered (and probably a higher base production as well). I would say at least a base production of three and an additional five production if powered. Since factories and stock exchanges are the only industrial era buildings that require power, I am only building the two coal plants for the refining boost. I don’t think that the rather meager addition of 3 production to the factory is worth the cost of coal plants regarding carbon emissions, and I wait until oil or hydroelectric plants to power cities. If the benefit of coal was greater for factories, then I would be more likely to build them.

· I love the raging barbarians that I’ve had in gathering storm. However, when playing civs with relatively weak ancient/classical periods where you may not want to devote significant time to units to countering barbarians early in the game, I think it would be nice to bring back the barbarian slider into the advanced start mechanic.

· I really like the emergencies system from rise and fall, but I think it got a little underpowered when incorporated into the world congress. It would be nice if the emergencies could still be activated before the world congress if founded, similar to how they were in rise and fall, especially since the AI likes to attack city-states early in the game. I think one way to implement this would be to have a continental congress (for that continent of adjacent continents) active starting in the Classical era, and the World Congress start when somebody has met all players.

· The world congress is a very welcome addition. Also, I personally love the randomness of the proposals to the world congress, and I actually prefer this to the Civ 5 proposals. However, I still think it needs a little reworking.

o First, I have found that the AI will sometimes vote for polices that just hurt themselves. For example, in one game there were somehow only two religions when the world congress voted first, and the AI used all their diplomatic favor to vote against great prophets; the civs that voted the most for banning great prophets were those who were about to get one.​

o Also, I think there should be diplomatic consequences for voting for a proposal that significantly hurts a specific civ (for example voting against a military emergency when one of my allies capitals was captured should have negatively impacted my relationship with the ally).​

o I am not sure it makes a lot of sense for you to be able to vote about an emergency that is about you. I get that you can build up diplomatic favor and keep the emergency at bay, but I think it should proceed without your vote.​

o I think that the benefits of emergencies got significantly underpowered—I’ll go to war for a large sum of gold or another significant reward, but not for 100 diplomatic favor. This is particularly true in the late game when I am often generating that much in a few turns.​

o I also think that the World’s Fair and the Nobel Prize bonuses are a bit weak. I have little incentive to allocate the production of cities to thse projects the benefits are rather meager, and I just passively accrue the points from great people etc.​

· The grievance system is a great addition and an interesting concept. However, the grievances as they are currently implemented decay a bit too fast and are a bit unbalanced. For example, I think there should be greater grievances for converting a city, and those should last quite a while. If an enemy converts your city, you only have four turns before those grievances have decayed.

· It is nice to see railroads return to gathering storm, but I think they would benefit from a little adjustment. They are rather underpowered, and I only typically build a single railroad for the era score. Their carbon emissions are high, and their movement reduction and increase in gold for trade routes is comparatively low. I think one way this could be improved by creating different eras of railroads (industrial, modern etc.) that generate progressively less carbon. Another way would be to give railroads a greater movement reduction between cities and gold improvement.

· The rock bands are a neat addition. I would also like to see with a promotion where they would be able to perform at city-states, so that some of some of their other promotions (religious rock etc.) could be used on city-states.

· I am not sure why Machu Picchu is a late classical wonder when it really should be a late Medieval era wonder, similar to Cichen Itza.

· I think that there should be an era score for building the first ski resort. Also, I think that they need a little bit of rebalancing. I think similar to how the Cahokia mounds only provide bonuses based on the number you have in a given city, likewise you should only get an amenity from the first ski lodge in that city. As it stands, it is too easy to completely mitigate unhappiness in the atomic era by simply building ski resorts everywhere.

· The storms and droughts add an element of randomness into the game that is fantastic, and I have been playing on disaster setting 4 for all games. However, I have noticed that droughts tend to recur in the same location. Also I have found that on some map types (such as continents), that hurricanes end up only hitting land for one turn (if at all), and end up not having much of an effect. I wonder if hurricanes should last longer and move more slowly once they have hit land? Finally, I think that tornadoes are a bit overpowered—we can all think of major hurricanes and volcanoes that have impacted cities, but how many major tornadoes really devastate an entire city? Given how important Mountains and continental divides are to gathering storm, I think it would be interesting to include earthquakes as another natural disaster.

· I am not sure why oil is a requirement for infantry. It would be nice to bring back the rubber resource from Civ3 and make that a requirement for infantry, with some type of a non-resource based alternative if you are low on resources (such as the guerilla in Civ 3).

· While I love Matthias and I played him in my first Gathering Storm game, I do think that the Raven King is a bit overpowered with the black army unit and the movement bonuses, the additional envoys, and the free upgrades for levied units. This might be best to be somehow reduced (perhaps only getting the movement benefit and envoys if the city state follows the same religion as Hungary, since so much of the Hungarian empire and later Austro-Hungarian Empire was based on fighting Islam and later bringing back Catholicism into Protestant/Orthodox regions).

· I think the pillaging scaling makes a lot of sense, but the currently implementation scales too quickly.

· The Dam district is really a great addition to the game, and the hydroelectric plant is a much more realistic version than in prior versions of Civ. However, I think that the hydroelectric plant should provide some of the similar benefits as plants in the industrial zone (some small amount of additional production as well as Great Engineer points).

The Golden Gate Bridge is a great wonder and one I never expected to see implemented into the game. However, the current requirements for its construction are a bit steep, and there are some maps where there is only one spot on the entire glob where it can be built. I think either the maps should be redesigned a bit to have more bays or the requirement that both tiles be 180 degrees across from each other be removed.

 

[sen803]

Suggestions for other balance changes


· I would like to see a mechanism where players could choose in the advanced state menu a key city-state to be included in the map. Certain city-states are vital to certain maps/civilizations (i.e. Auckland for an archipelago map, Nazca if playing as Mali etc.). It might be nice to even be able to pick one city-state that would be included per type.

· I think it would be nice if natural wonders would scale by era. Personally, I only settle by natural wonders in the ancient and classical eras, since most natural wonders only have mediocre yields compared to some other tile improvements in later eras.

· I think that the industrial zones are a bit underpowered. I think it would be nice if one of the buildings provided housing (probably factories realistically although from a game-play perspective workshops would be nice). I think it would also be nice to have a major adjacency bonus for oil refineries and a minor adjacency bonus for lumbar mills (one production for every two adjacent lumbar mills), as well as green power plants (solar, wind, geothermal).

· While a bit unconventional, I think there area few cases where a civ’s special district should provide points towards a different type of great person, given that civ’s strengths but a lack of relative representation of that strength in the game. For example, I think that the royal navy dockyard could provide a great writer point per turn given England’s history of producing so many great writers, and a great admiral point, rather than two great admiral points.

· I think that the cost of recruiting great people one era ahead of your present era is appropriate, but the subsequent increase to those two eras ahead of where you currently are is a bit steep, or should decrease when the era changes. I’ve found that it’s easy to get all the great scientists of an era, but then if you end up two ears ahead on scientists, sometimes it takes an entire era to catch up.

· I think St. Basil’s Cathedral should have some type of tundra requirement—it should either be required to be on a tundra tile or be built adjacent to a tundra tile, or be required to have tundra in the city’s borders (probably most realistic given that Moscow isn’t really on Tundra).

· There are a couple of concrete ways that the AI could be improved. First, the AI has a tendency to settle as close to the closest city as possible, presumably so that loyalty is optimized. However, this means that sometimes the AI settles in locations where there is no adjacent fresh water, when there would be a greatly preferable spot re fresh water etc one or two tiles away.

· Another way that the AI could be improved is if they actually used the great people that they collect. I’ve often found that great people who aren’t expended in the corresponding district (i.e. Colaeus), the AI puts them on explore but do not actually use them.

· I think it would be nice if forts could be built earlier. I would put them as an improvement that comes in the late middle-ages (probably with Castles), but then scale their defensive bonus with certain advances (i.e. Siege tactics, steel).

· I think it would be nice if military engineers had a bit easier time building roads—maybe a road could only be half of a charge? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that a road on a flat tile is the same cost as a mountain tunnel.

· I think it would be nice if the start biases of each Civ were listed in Civilopedia.

· It would be nice to be able to build great wonders on luxury resources, even if that meant that you lost the resource from that tile. I can think of one game where there was a perfect location for the Panama Canal to link my city on the lake with the ocean, but I couldn’t build it because of Jade on one of the tiles, even though I had plenty of Jade elsewhere.

· I think that reefs should provide an adjacency bonus to a campus.

· It would be nice if a spy could steal a great work from the Palace, in addition to the art museums etc. I think units should also be able to steal great works (both relics and works of art) when pillaging a tile.

· It would be nice when culture bombing an adjacent civilization to get the option of using the culture bomb or not. Sometimes there are great locations for a specific district, but you don’t necessarily want the diplomatic ramifications of culture bombing an adjacent civilization (which seem to last for many turns).

· I think that the technologies that are boosted by barbarian establishments should be limited to the Ancient, Classical, and Middle Ages. I received a boost to nuclear fusion from clearing an encampment as Assyria, but even as other players I have received boosts to industrial and modern technologies from finding a random unclaimed goody hut on an island.

 

[Renato Neco]

I would like a DLC or Expansion themed on post apocalyptical world like MAD MAX or something.

We could research new technologies and use different resources, search for ancient civilizations ruins, and fight for scarce resources, including fresh water and food but lots of scrap metal to trade or to harvest

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Lots of interesting points here, many of which have been discussed or mentioned in other Threads, but it's nice to see them all in one place.
Some scattered comments:

· I have always thought that the pace of the science and culture trees in Civ 6 are not particularly well balanced; some eras are too short, and overall the pace of advancement is far ahead of the chronological clock. This seemed to improve somewhat with the Rise and Fall expansion, but is back to being very lopsided—I seem to breeze through the middle ages and the Renaissance eras in most games, particularly in the science tech tree, and I end up building factories by 500-600 AD and hydroelectric plants by 1000 AD. I think a solution to this would be to use the eras as a framework for the cost of technologies and civics and apply a modifier to increase the cost of researching techs/civics in future eras. This is similar to how great people in more advanced eras have a modifier whereby they cost more points than they do if recruited in the same era of the game. While this is somewhat complicated by the boosts (do they give you an absolute boost or just a percentage), it would be feasible to implement. Another possibility would be to decrease the science yields per citizen with progressive eras, which would force players to spend more time building campuses and campus buildings, rather than just having a large population.

The disconnect between the game's time scale and the Tech/Civics progression has been a problem since the game first came out, and it is almost criminal that it still hasn't been fixed. Some of the many possible solutions:
1. Increase the requirements for each Tech/Civic, so that progression is simply slowed by about 33 - 50%.
2. Change the Bonus System - the Eurekas - from a single 40% or more boost to a Progression. My suggestion was that there would be up to 3 Eurekas for each Tech. The first one you achieved would give a 20% boost, the second a 15%, the third 10%. Total possible would be 45%, but you would have to really concentrate to get all three. Change the individual Eurekas so that they more precisely relate to what you are getting, and you could still progress rapidly in what you were concentrating on, but non-emphasis Techs would take much longer.
3. Change the entire Tech Tree to add more Techs. This is the least likely to happen, I think, because the 'truncated Tech Tree' was a major change in Civ VI, and I doubt that they are going to admit that it was a ghastly mistake and change back.

· I think the power system adds a nice dimension to the game and is a great addition. However, I think that factories should get a larger benefit from being powered (and probably a higher base production as well). I would say at least a base production of three and an additional five production if powered. Since factories and stock exchanges are the only industrial era buildings that require power, I am only building the two coal plants for the refining boost. I don’t think that the rather meager addition of 3 production to the factory is worth the cost of coal plants regarding carbon emissions, and I wait until oil or hydroelectric plants to power cities. If the benefit of coal was greater for factories, then I would be more likely to build them.

The fact that yo can get the Techs to build something so fast, and then not have the Production to build them before they become obsolete, is another major Disconnect in the game. One possible 'boost' would be to include early water power in the game - after all, the first factories in England, USA, Germany, France and Russia were all powered by water wheels, sometimes installed on special 'power canals' to channel a good current through them. So, possibly Factories in a city with a Water Mill could get a Power-type boost. That would also tend to 'channel' early factory construction to river towns, which mirrors what actually happened.

· It is nice to see railroads return to gathering storm, but I think they would benefit from a little adjustment. They are rather underpowered, and I only typically build a single railroad for the era score. Their carbon emissions are high, and their movement reduction and increase in gold for trade routes is comparatively low. I think one way this could be improved by creating different eras of railroads (industrial, modern etc.) that generate progressively less carbon. Another way would be to give railroads a greater movement reduction between cities and gold improvement.

We got into quite a discussion of this in another Thread, so let me just summarize some points:
1. Trade along Railroads should get all the 'bonuses' that Sea Trade gets, and Food can only be traded along Sea or Railroad routes until the Atomic Era, when the multi-lane 'interstate' highway and fleets of tractor-trailer trucks make such Trade universal.
2. Railroads should provide a "Cree-like' extension of city radius along their route. Further, railroads allow a city to work tiles along the railroad beyond the normal city work radius.
3. Railroads should 'scale' by Era: Industrial Era is high pollution steam (coal and wood burning), Modern Era starts using Oil (diesel-electric and pure Electric engines) and Atomic Era uses high-efficiency diesel and electric motors, 'cleaner' and much higher speeds. Each Era would increase the railroad effect on Production, Trade, and Tourism.
4. Unit movement would be station to station: if the unit starts in a city with a railroad to the city center, it can move without expending movement points to any other city center railroad station. Getting on or leaving the railroad at any other point would cost a Movement Point. Railroad movement could not be traced through an enemy Zone of Control, Ground Unit, or Pillaged railroad tile. Railroads can be Pillaged by aerial bombing, but that form of Pillage is automatically repaired the following turn (it was incredibly difficult to block rail lines by bombing in WWII and took continuous major effort by 100s of aircraft)

· I am not sure why oil is a requirement for infantry. It would be nice to bring back the rubber resource from Civ3 and make that a requirement for infantry, with some type of a non-resource based alternative if you are low on resources (such as the guerilla in Civ 3).

Except for two nations (USA, Britain) infantry up to the early Atomic Era walked, carrying their heavy weapons on horse-drawn carts or a few light vehicles. Oil should be a continuing Maintenance Requirement for Mechanized Infantry, all Armor, aircraft, ships other than Nuclear Submarines, and Modern Era and later Railroads (See comments above). Infantry should be Resource Free as your Lowest Common Denominator Unit in the later game. The words "Cannon Fodder" spring to mind. The entire Resource system was a great idea badly bungled: building and maintenance Resource requirements make no sense at all, and simply add to the already-dire problem of being able to Research faster than you can build, I have yet, in almost 2000 hours of playing, to build ANY Information Era Unit - the game is already so far along or already over by then, that they aren't needed.

Rubber would be an interesting addition to the Resources, except that Rubber is pretty much limited to Tropical regions to grow the plant, which would put a number of civilizations in a bad way in the late game (looking at you, Russia and Canada with Tundra start biases!). Also, artificial rubber can be manufactured starting in the Modern Era (German 'Buna' production in WWII) from Oil, just as petroleum substitutes can be manufactured from Coal - the current Resources of all kinds almost all have 'artificial' or manufactured substitutes that the game doesn't show, and without which the game gets skewed as it goes along.

· The Dam district is really a great addition to the game, and the hydroelectric plant is a much more realistic version than in prior versions of Civ. However, I think that the hydroelectric plant should provide some of the similar benefits as plants in the industrial zone (some small amount of additional production as well as Great Engineer points)..

Hydroelectric Power should be a requirement for using Aluminum, since it was required to refine/process bauxite aluminum ores in the Modern and Atomic Eras. Also, Hydroelectric should be in the same basket with Coal and other power plants for Industry.
More importantly, the Dam district comes much, much too late. Dams were built in the Ancient Era (Mar'ib Dam, for example, in 1750 BCE) for both irrigation and flood control. IrrigationTech should be changed to reflect its effect in Special Circumstances on food production and its direct connection to Dam building: it made many settlements/cities in arid conditions practical and lucrative, was almost completely irrelevant in more temperate areas. Ancient/Classical Egypt, Nabatea and Afghanistan are good examples.[/QUOTE]