Citizens in Civilization VII

[Naokaukodem]

I meant in relation to a citizen changing their religion in game by conversion. You can't change what ethnicity a citizen would be born with.

Well, since population is not to take litterally like other aspects of the game (6050 years spanning), it would not be very realistic. Civ3 did that though, however I think that with assimilation it could change slowly.

 

[MistroPain]

Both are interesting, I'm reconsidering citizen units continously because I agree that it has too much micro-management. But, I think that there needs to be a better way to show what tiles are worked if the current system still goes.
Old World has a system here that involves unused citizens building specialised improvements as a one-off action.

Perhaps, each citizen is a unit with one build charge and can't ever destroy improvements. These citizen units are created like how population is grown right now. Their one build charge is used to build an improvement which they work for the rest of the game, unless it's destroyed in some way, and only improvements can be worked in a city. This way, we can show what tiles are being worked just by seeing what tiles are developed. Citizens might be reinvested into existing improvements to improve their yields or create new districts where they can then be used to build buildings.

I've got work to do, but if anyone else can follow on or give some other ideas, please do

I actually like this idea a lot more, on the condition that the citizens can be moved to other cities (otherwise why make the unit at all, why not just convert the 'pop' into some kind of settled space/infrastructure immediately without the hassle of extra clicks). If production and food are to remain similar in Civ 7 to how they are in previous titles this could really make those agricultural cities on flat hammerless land significantly more useful.

Also with regards to Old World, do you mean upgrading existing improvements with citizens so they host a specialist? I love Old World, a lot! But that citizen system actually kind of goes against what you seem to be trying to implement unless I've misunderstood what you want. I say this because baseline improvements (unworked improvements built by a worker) have a function. That means new cities can be built and workers dumped in to quickly amp up its output, and that city might literally have one pop producing a crap ton. You can not look at a city in a game like Old World and say you understand the composition of its population which also seems to go against the idea of having cities reflect the citizenry. The other part of how Old World utilizes citizens is that they are actually a detriment UNLESS you actively upgrade improvements or you get some upgraded specialists who give yields to non-specialist citizens, again it can feel like that might go against this idea (although the idea of unused citizens being a detriment is very interesting, I think Stellaris had something similar in the past where citizens could spawn slums, having played that game in ages though). Old World does have some interesting things, but I feel like city specialisation in that game is more a 'choosing the right family' thing than it is to do with citizens.

 

[bene_legionary]

I meant only a small part of their system where citizens can be turned into improvments, which was in that link (although because it's a designer diary from before the game's release, it might be out of date). I haven't played Old World yet, because I'm waiting for it to come out on Steam, but when that happens I'm definitely going to try it. My impression so far was built on the article I linked.

I had moving citizens to other cities in mind with that system, although if people want less micromanagement then it could be set to the AI. But then again, it's taking the job of the Builder, so it's probably unnecessary.

 

[MistroPain]

Oh, then yeah they've changed it, you can use something called civics (a yield in Old World) to upgrade unused citizens into Specialists, and certain types of families and techs can be used to allow you to rush Specialist production with other yields. When it does come out on Steam you are in for a treat, that game is wonderful, really pieced together well, not sure how else to describe it.