City-state overhaul

[Optimizer]

City-states add a lot to Civ 5. Do they add too much? Or too little?

How can we make city-states balanced, and still simple to manage? Should Maritime city-state be called Agrarian instead? Should the game feature Industrial, Scientific and Commercial city-states too?

I started a thread about a major overhaul of Social Policies, where I suggested to scrap the Patronage tree, since it seems overpowered: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=381895

 

[James009]

I think it'd be neat to test allowing City State to act more like normal Civs... I'm curious to see what they'd do. Albeit, keeping them somewhat limited and in check, of course.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

What I would like to see is (1) more city-state types; (2) more focus on missions & less focus on gold as a means of increasing your status with City-States (3) more missions connected to the type of City States; (4) Initial rewards from City-States should be in keeping with their nature (so culture from cultural city-States, XP from militaristic City-States etc) & these benefits should be *doubled* if the City-State is contacted by a Scout.

Aussie.

 

[Shiggs713]

Patronage does seem too powerful to me as well. Generally after I ally a few city states I have something like 20 iron, 20 horses, enough luxury resources to expand quite rapidly. And with patronage fully unlocked, they just keep feeding me science, GP's, and all the other bonuses for nearly the entirety of the game without me doing much more except sending small amounts of gold infrequently.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

So here's my thoughts in more detail, regarding City-State Types & their rewards/missions:

Cultural: If you meet this City-State first, they'll grant you +15 Culture-or +30 if you meet them with a Scout. They will almost always have dyes, silk or marble in their proximity. When you become friends with them, they'll boost culture from Monuments by +1 each, & +2 when you ally with them. They'll also grant culture to your trade routes when you ally with them. Their missions will usually involve the construction of high culture buildings & improvements, producing Great Artists & the provision of certain luxury resources.

Agricultural: If you meet this City-State first, they'll grant you +15 food (in your capital)-or +30 if you encounter them with a scout. They will almost always have spices, sugar or wine in their proximity. When you're friends with them, they'll grant you a food bonus of +1 to any city with a granary, +2 if you're allied. They'll also grant food to your trade routes. Their missions will usually involve you building food related buildings, Wonders & improvements or supplying them with any of the food related luxuries they don't already have.

Mercantile: If you meet this City-State first, they'll grant you +15 gold (or +30 if you meet them with a scout). They will almost always have Gold, Gems or Silver in their proximity. When you're friends with them, they'll grant bonus gold to your markets, & grant extra gold to your trade routes if you ally with them. Their missions will usually involve construction of Gold Boosting buildings & Improvements, as well as the creation of Great Merchants. They will also be the ones most likely to ask you to build roads to them.

I could go on, but I'm sure you can see from the examples I've provided how I'd like to see City-States altered. Not sure about what impacts patronage should have-but I do think there should be social policies that make it easier to maintain friendships with City-States, just not as easy as they've done it .

Aussie.