Hi everyone,
I'm real new to this website - I've been a avid civ player since it first came out, I don't know if this has already been mentioned - but the threads that I have read I have not come across anything similiar.
1- CUT-Of-YEAR.
Let me begin - that from the begining I have disliked the cut-of-year situation. I"m all for the victory goals and having differnet ones added is also a good idea. However, one should have the option of not having a cut-of-year. Because once you reach that year - all fun is lost. I don't know if anyone agrees with me on this - but when the comp tells you that you have to retire - it ruins everything. I'm not saying get rid of it - all I'm saying is give the option to a player to remove it if they wish.
2-Units and Terrain.
Secondly - it would be nice if Civ4 could be more realistic in its Terrain and how it effects units. For example - a legion coming to a major river just can't cross, in history the Romans used Terrain as natural bounderis - natural borders. So to should it reflect this in the game. When coming to a natural obstacle like a river the Romans would either have to build rafts or build a bridge as they did through there history. Also, another point is that a legion unit wouldn't easily make it through a mountain or swamp, maybe they'd get lost, or ill and die in the process. Many a times it has been when military units have gone into an enviroment ill prepared and failed to make it out the other side. However - some units would naturally be at home in certain extrem enviorments like deserts and such.
Therefore- I think it would make things alot more interesting if we could maybe added Bridge Building to the funtion of certain units and also have the possiblity of some units 1-not been able to cross of go over certain territory, which to an extent already exists - and for other units not in their natural habitat to run the risk of not making through like the ships that disappear if they leave the coastline without the LightHouse Wonder, or if not losing the unit completly - maybe getting damaged in its journey through a desert, jungle or mountain - Through History it has been the weather and the enviroment which has caused the downfall of many military campaigns - like the Nazi's and their struggle against the Russian Winter.
3-Natural Disasters and Disease
Another topic is - why can't we have natural disastors - what kinda rules that govern when they happen can be dealt with in detail later - but a world without natural disasters or natural bonus is just not genuin. Look at pompay - sorry about all the spelling mistakes. But why not there be a risk of losing a city to the eruption of a volcano or an earthquake or a flooding or a hurricane. Not everytime you have to lose a city, but it may destory improvments, buildings - loss of population. Also things done by a player could also make more probably an occurance of natural disaster if not acutally trigger it. There could also be the possiblity of epidemics that could ravage a nation or plagues which bring civilization to their knees - as has happened to many throughout history.
4-Diplomacy
Diplomacy really has to be improved - there's no real interest in chatting with the leaders - you should be able to have some real meaningful agreements and decision making with the other world leaders. You should be able to do alot more in the political spectrum. For example bribe other nations into war with some else without you actually having to decalre war on them yourselves, as has been the case many a times in history. why fight a battle when you get some else to do it? Also, when you are allies with another race, then they should be more pre-disposed to helping you out in certain things - for example in trading tech - or even giving you techs and money, or units if you need them. They may not neccesarly declare war themselves agaisnt your enemy but there are many ways that they could help you out - and vice versa. Also the differing postions of peace, at war or ally are just to simple - how about a non-aggression treaty, trade treaty, friendly treaty, alliance, sanction, Conflict/Limited War, War. There are many possible different stances an A1 or even human player can take politcially towards antoher civ. What I mean by Conflit or Limited War is that you can have a limited war over a certain city, resource, or bit of land with out going towards an all out war. For example, the French say we want this city, and you refuse to give it to them - Unless War is declared, only units within the city parameters are allowed to attack each other.That way you can limit the risks of an all out war but also achieve what it is you desire. As is the case in history, nations will fight over a certain island, or oil field, or whatever - but not go on a full out war. As was the case in the Falkland Islands between Britain and Argentenia There are so many versatile ways of the usuage of diplomacy and I really hope Civ 4 has a better grasp of the subtleties and importance of it.
5-Spying.
I hope in Civ 4 they make Spying - Spying, where you can actually do things with spies and it can be alot more fun. I personally think that you should be able to control spy units and move them around and then tell them to do certain actions if they make it safely to their target - whether they achieve their goal or not depends on many factors - the difficulty of the task, the government of the enemy, the building present in the city maybe, the level of discont or happyness, the skill of the spy. It should be fun like it use to be - before. Also, spy units should be given certain abilities - like cloaking, so that they appear invisable to other civs - each ability they have can be contered like having the possiblity of spotting a cloaked spy by having your own spy in the vicinity. Also fortify a spy in your city and setting him counter-inteligance makes it more diffcult for enemy spies to infiltrate.
A spy could bribe a unit, and you can have the option of waiting until your time of choosing to decide when to make it apparent that the unit turns to your cause - eg, you could wait until it is placed in a city before revolting to your flag and there by gaining control of a city of important defensive square. The only problem i see is if there is multipul units on the same square - what would happen then?
These are just some thoughts I have. You probably won't agree with alot of these things and you might agree with a few of them. I'm sure there's loads of other ideas you may have that have not been mentioned here - look forward to hearing your views and thoughts.
I'm real new to this website - I've been a avid civ player since it first came out, I don't know if this has already been mentioned - but the threads that I have read I have not come across anything similiar.
1- CUT-Of-YEAR.
Let me begin - that from the begining I have disliked the cut-of-year situation. I"m all for the victory goals and having differnet ones added is also a good idea. However, one should have the option of not having a cut-of-year. Because once you reach that year - all fun is lost. I don't know if anyone agrees with me on this - but when the comp tells you that you have to retire - it ruins everything. I'm not saying get rid of it - all I'm saying is give the option to a player to remove it if they wish.
2-Units and Terrain.
Secondly - it would be nice if Civ4 could be more realistic in its Terrain and how it effects units. For example - a legion coming to a major river just can't cross, in history the Romans used Terrain as natural bounderis - natural borders. So to should it reflect this in the game. When coming to a natural obstacle like a river the Romans would either have to build rafts or build a bridge as they did through there history. Also, another point is that a legion unit wouldn't easily make it through a mountain or swamp, maybe they'd get lost, or ill and die in the process. Many a times it has been when military units have gone into an enviroment ill prepared and failed to make it out the other side. However - some units would naturally be at home in certain extrem enviorments like deserts and such.
Therefore- I think it would make things alot more interesting if we could maybe added Bridge Building to the funtion of certain units and also have the possiblity of some units 1-not been able to cross of go over certain territory, which to an extent already exists - and for other units not in their natural habitat to run the risk of not making through like the ships that disappear if they leave the coastline without the LightHouse Wonder, or if not losing the unit completly - maybe getting damaged in its journey through a desert, jungle or mountain - Through History it has been the weather and the enviroment which has caused the downfall of many military campaigns - like the Nazi's and their struggle against the Russian Winter.
3-Natural Disasters and Disease
Another topic is - why can't we have natural disastors - what kinda rules that govern when they happen can be dealt with in detail later - but a world without natural disasters or natural bonus is just not genuin. Look at pompay - sorry about all the spelling mistakes. But why not there be a risk of losing a city to the eruption of a volcano or an earthquake or a flooding or a hurricane. Not everytime you have to lose a city, but it may destory improvments, buildings - loss of population. Also things done by a player could also make more probably an occurance of natural disaster if not acutally trigger it. There could also be the possiblity of epidemics that could ravage a nation or plagues which bring civilization to their knees - as has happened to many throughout history.
4-Diplomacy
Diplomacy really has to be improved - there's no real interest in chatting with the leaders - you should be able to have some real meaningful agreements and decision making with the other world leaders. You should be able to do alot more in the political spectrum. For example bribe other nations into war with some else without you actually having to decalre war on them yourselves, as has been the case many a times in history. why fight a battle when you get some else to do it? Also, when you are allies with another race, then they should be more pre-disposed to helping you out in certain things - for example in trading tech - or even giving you techs and money, or units if you need them. They may not neccesarly declare war themselves agaisnt your enemy but there are many ways that they could help you out - and vice versa. Also the differing postions of peace, at war or ally are just to simple - how about a non-aggression treaty, trade treaty, friendly treaty, alliance, sanction, Conflict/Limited War, War. There are many possible different stances an A1 or even human player can take politcially towards antoher civ. What I mean by Conflit or Limited War is that you can have a limited war over a certain city, resource, or bit of land with out going towards an all out war. For example, the French say we want this city, and you refuse to give it to them - Unless War is declared, only units within the city parameters are allowed to attack each other.That way you can limit the risks of an all out war but also achieve what it is you desire. As is the case in history, nations will fight over a certain island, or oil field, or whatever - but not go on a full out war. As was the case in the Falkland Islands between Britain and Argentenia There are so many versatile ways of the usuage of diplomacy and I really hope Civ 4 has a better grasp of the subtleties and importance of it.
5-Spying.
I hope in Civ 4 they make Spying - Spying, where you can actually do things with spies and it can be alot more fun. I personally think that you should be able to control spy units and move them around and then tell them to do certain actions if they make it safely to their target - whether they achieve their goal or not depends on many factors - the difficulty of the task, the government of the enemy, the building present in the city maybe, the level of discont or happyness, the skill of the spy. It should be fun like it use to be - before. Also, spy units should be given certain abilities - like cloaking, so that they appear invisable to other civs - each ability they have can be contered like having the possiblity of spotting a cloaked spy by having your own spy in the vicinity. Also fortify a spy in your city and setting him counter-inteligance makes it more diffcult for enemy spies to infiltrate.
A spy could bribe a unit, and you can have the option of waiting until your time of choosing to decide when to make it apparent that the unit turns to your cause - eg, you could wait until it is placed in a city before revolting to your flag and there by gaining control of a city of important defensive square. The only problem i see is if there is multipul units on the same square - what would happen then?
These are just some thoughts I have. You probably won't agree with alot of these things and you might agree with a few of them. I'm sure there's loads of other ideas you may have that have not been mentioned here - look forward to hearing your views and thoughts.
What more could a guy ask for? You don't have to answer that one . . . I got a few ideas already on that myself. . . 
