Civ Ideas & Suggestions Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread

[headcase]

1. Kinda disagree as MA is powerful as it is, and GDR is so late in that just getting to it deserves the big reward.
2. Agreed, NiGHTS has improved both somewhat.
3. Haha yeah. I'd like if the civopedia had a built-in browser that could pull from Wikipedia for more info. Lots of other possibilities too.
4. Definitely. By the modern era, most countries should be able to know most of the other country's info if they invested enough spies.
5. Sounds cool.
6. Like a tile improvement? That would add to the strategy.
7/13/14. Don't really care either way about these ones.
8. Anything post-endgame is good by me.
9. Yeah in some way. My ideas for religion are to have every civ invent their own, but get trading bonuses for having the same as another civ, starting disputes over who should switch.
10. Or even if you're getting too far ahead. Any civil war is annoying for serious players, but I'd like it.
11\12. Agreed, but some opponent graphs should be only available through spies.

 

[nokmirt]

What do you guys think?

I agree wholeheartedly here and couldn't have said it any better myself. I love the stats about military kills and units I've lost. I have been writing them down on paper during wars. Add vassals and/or colonies. Add a dreadnought and a biplane, with techs etc. Expand the tech tree a bit, to fill a few historical tech holes here and there. Make 18th century navies be able to build frigates and ships of the line. Give the Brits Manowar(their improved SOTL) and redcoats.

Allow two unit stacking for one turn. I grew up playing Avalon Hill games, mostly about battles during the Napoleonic Wars. Say you have a rifleman, you should be able to stack a cannon with it, which supports the rifles, giving the unit better defense. In the same case you can have the rifle and cannon stack for offensive purposes, giving the rifle some close artillery fire support. In game this should be simply some extra combat strength for the attacking or defending rifle unit. Of course this is only one case where this rule could be applicable. In another example you have an injured rifle unit, which needs support before it is destroyed, so you send a healthy rifle from the rear to stack with it, to protect your line from breaking (or a cavalry, artillery could be used for the same purpose). If cavalry is offensive support, they would have a charge value as well as added combat strength applied to the main unit in the hex, be it infantry or another calvary. In this case the healthy unit takes over as the main unit in the hex, while the injured unit is relegated to a emergency support role adding a slight combat strength advantage to the healthy reserve unit just sent in to the hex. So these stacked units are just there for support purposes, a unit used in a support role does not get its own attack, it is there simply to fortify on defense and add some advantage on offense to the main unit in the hex. These rules would add some depth to strategy within the game. They could be used in earlier eras as well. A hurt spearman could be supported by another spear, horse, or archer etc.

These rules would help unit congestion with 1UPT (you would be able to move an army with less hexes used, because any two units can be stacked together for only one turn unless... The units remained in the same hex, which means in this case, the units would have to switch roles. Say you had a main unit, which was a phalanx with 2 hp left, and a half strength companion cavalry in support. On the second turn if these units remained in the same hex their roles within the hex would be reversed. The companion cavalry would be the main unit, and the injured phalanx the support. If you do not want stacked units to switch roles, then they must be moved. This is just one idea to break the congestion of hexes in CiV. The question is could the AI be programmed to understand this better than it does with 1UPT? It seemed to understand stacking quite well, even though this is two units for one turn, I believe it is a step in the right direction. The rule could be simplified to two units per hex as well. I believe two unit stacking would help the game become better and more interesting militarily.

 

[KungCheops]

I would like a Casus Belli system where under certain circumstances it was more legitimate to declare war on someone.

Most clear situation is when one of your City State allies gets attacked. You should be able to defend your ally, or at least suffer much less of a diplo hit when you did.

You could also think of making a distinction between attacking this aggressor on friendly territory - the territory of the CS - and attacking him on his own ground. Obviously attacking a civ on his own ground is much more aggressive, so that could still result in a diplo hit if you want to curb the human player from warmongering in this kind of way.
But protecting your CS ally should be made easier in my opinion. It would also make the CS quest of killing X units from the aggressor's army a more interesting quest.

This ^^^ and also stability, I don't know if they would implement this in the game though... But it's a great idea for a mod.

 

[MARDUK80]

Finally had a chance to return to play CiV. I see there isn't any patches or DLC's in last three months. Hopefully something new soon. Even though the game plays great now there is still some elements I would really like to see being added. Here are the ones that sprung to my mind (in random order):

A) Remove instant heal promotion. Give Honor social policy a new branch; Battlefield Medicine which enables insta heal and gives more power to the medic promotions.
B) Forests/Jungles spread.
C) Ability to destroy capital and city state cities.
D) Add "missing" elements back to the game; Natural Wonders: Mount Everest and Lake Titica. World Wonders: Panama Canal, Three Gorges Dam and the units and the buildings. Advisors graphics change with eras. See -> http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=445541
E) Buff England UA; Free Great Merchant at the discovery of Currency and gains them double the usual rare (in addition to the +2 Naval movement) or perhaps naval units give also +1 Culture or something like that.
F) Terraforming; workers gain ability to lever hills to flat terrain and turn flatland to hill tiles. Turn grassland to plains - plains to desert and snow to tundra. Perhaps even turn lake/coastal water tiles to land tile. Thus making possible to make "bridges" over continents/islands.
G) Forts gain ability to work like canals; naval units can move over them.
H) Some mountains tiles are(or turn to) Volcanoes; spreading lava every now and then, destroying units, improvements and even cities in nearby tiles. New tile; lava.
I) New strategic resource: Saltpeter. All early gunpowder units require it. Also add new renaissance era ranged gunpowder unit Grenadier.
J) More variety to the City State quests and some new quests.
K) Victory movies: a stylish oil painting slideshow.
L) More power to ranged bombardment; ability to destroy improvements with land, naval and air units.
M) Regenerate the map option.

 

[Camikaze]

Moderator Action: Merged sparkyal's thread with the existing idea compilation thread.

 

[sparkyal]

Hey, i just noticed it got moved...cool

Ok, yeah, i remember a bug in CIV I that allowed you to build bridges over oceans....but I think it would be great. but perhaps it should have a high maintenance?

I still want airports.

some type of canal system i think is one of the great things missing from CIV (all of them). if you have a city with a major river next to it and close to the sea/ocean but off by one tile, you should be able to create a canal.

Random storms and stuff should come back too.

Ok, i am sure Fireaxis and 2K developers read these threads (i actually don't know who actually wrote the game...one of them did). Or at least they should be. So guys,....would it be possible to say that you are reading these things without actually breaking any rules????

 

[Optional]

B) Forests/Jungles spread.

If you want it, there is a mod: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=386104.
But only forests grow, not jungles. And I personally found the growth to rapid, I turned it down drastically.

 

[Asderfut]

1) Historically, rivers could be used for shipping, so i think maybe an improved river dynamic than just a border between tiles would be interesting.
2) Urban sprawl is an actual phenomenon, so it would be interesting if when cities hit a certain size, they might expand into another tile next to them, with suburbs or just a continuation of the city, removing it's improvements and adding a maintenance free road. and maybe multiple citizens could be employed in these tiles.

 

[MARDUK80]

If you want it, there is a mod: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=386104.
But only forests grow, not jungles. And I personally found the growth to rapid, I turned it down drastically.

Thanks. I was going to check out that mod some time ago, but forgot it. Would be great if it could be updated to include the jungle growth.


I also forgot to include this important "fix" in my list.
N) AI should _always_ pillage tile improvements whenever has opportunity to do so. Now I hardly ever see them to do that, even barbarians do not pillage. Especially on harder difficulty levels pillaging should be mandatory. I usually play on emperor.

 

[ViterboKnight]

- in the diplomacy screen, before having to accept or reject requests, I should be able to look at the foreign advisor (do I have any friendship agreement or denouncement? whom enemy is he friend or enemy with?)
- Recon missions for airplanes (to see hidden land)

 

[qutsemnie]

According to steam I have played 94 hours now. Started by playing 3 on Prince won all 3. Played 7 on King quit the first 2 (I thought lost at the time) and then won 5. My style is to build not warmonger. That is my experience I feel it is enough to start to forming an opinion, and also I think that unlike a lot of games all of Civilizations game rules should be directed at the best possible single player experience.

Here is what I would have done different at release. It starts with something simple and then pulls it back to something more important.

1) No unit should have range 3.

The AI is dreadfully bad at combat. In my ten games I have never lost a single city. Not 1. The last king game I won I never lost a single unit. I can't say, "I would have released the game with a better combat AI." Because I am sure they would have if they could have, but I can say they should have tweaked the units for the AI to play them better.

The AI cannot handle a 3 range unit. The transition from cannon to arty is death to any AI that you beat to that time. Longbows are almost as devastating to the AI. When coupled with a horse unit you can wipe out entire civilizations with barely any resistance. Usually after the initial mop up the AI will sit one cannon per a city that never gets to shoot back at you. In most PvE game standing and plucking off a helpless foe at a distance is considered an exploit, and it basically manifest that way in civilization too.

Now ask yourself the question, "why do we need a 3 range unit in the game?" You really don't. I will save that conversation for a threaded digression though, and having pointed out my motivation, simply state: the game will play better if every unit besides planes and missiles has a max range of 2. Range 3 units already have a numbers advantage. They don't need the range advantage that the AI doesn't know how to play against.


But, having thought about that I asked the question, "why is it so routine that you are able to exploit an arty tech advantage in King?" And my analysis led me to the unlikely place of: no tech trading. Leading to:

2) The AI should have a profound advantage that keeps it from falling behind at tech without guaranteeing it will lead on tech.


We all know the AI has to cheat. If you disagree then I have nothing for you, but all the ways the AI might cheat are not all equally as good just because they are all cheating. Some lead to a nicer narrative for the player then the others.


Having reflected on the arty situation, I thought to myself, "man I don't recall having as many wars decided by tech in civ 4 cept on Chieftain difficulty." I might have like a killer unit, but at the prince+ difficulties only the tiniest civilizations were so backwards on tech. It was tech trading. As you increased difficulties in civ 4 the AI got deep discounts and advantaged for AI to AI tech trading. The emergent property was that it was very hard for the AI to fall horribly behind on tech.


While I agree with removing tech trading, I think the property that it is hard for an AI to totally be backward on tech needs to be preserved for a good narration and game play experience.

The way I would have accomplished this at release is to make two known tech curves. One discount curve for the human and one discount curve for the AI with steeper known tech discounts for the AI as difficulty goes up. I am referring to the equation that says if X of Y known civilizations have a tech then the cost of researching it changes. It caps at something like a 25% discount. I think it should range all the way down to like 80% discount for AIs. This instead of other forms of bonuses.

This would basically preserve the same advantage AIs had with tech trading in Civ 4.

Anyway, those are the two things I would have done different at release.


tl;dr
1) All ranged units besides missles and planes have range 2.
2) As difficultly goes up AI should get steep discounts on "known techs" in place of other advantages.

 

[CYZ]

1) Historically, rivers could be used for shipping, so i think maybe an improved river dynamic than just a border between tiles would be interesting.
2) Urban sprawl is an actual phenomenon, so it would be interesting if when cities hit a certain size, they might expand into another tile next to them, with suburbs or just a continuation of the city, removing it's improvements and adding a maintenance free road. and maybe multiple citizens could be employed in these tiles.

1) Agreed, we really need rivers to do something on a logistic level, it's so strongly underrepresented right now.
2) I've thought about this, it could certainly work. I've been thinking about an idea that might be good for Civ 6

First off, it would mean there'd be more tiles than there are now, or tiles are smaller (same thing).

Every time a city reaches ten citizens (size ten, twenty, thirty etc.) a tile adjacent to the main city tile will become a suburb. It can nog longer be worked. However the workable area of the city will increase by one tile. This way you can really choose between small settlements working small areas or large settlements working large areas.

Also, every suburb recieves defensive bonusses and needs to be conquered before a city is taken. So it makes the 1upt system work better with city conquest as well.

 

[Optional]

- in the diplomacy screen, before having to accept or reject requests, I should be able to look at the foreign advisor (do I have any friendship agreement or denouncement? whom enemy is he friend or enemy with?)

Yes, hard to disagree.

Different subject, suggestion of mine:

I just got the Explorers map pack, played a Pangaea plus. What I noticed was all the City States got placed on the islands. The Pangea plus map script has a whole section that makes sure of that. I didn't like it that way and cut out that whole section. I'm probably not the only one who appreciates some extra islands, but doesn't necessarily want all the City States placed there.

My suggestion is, instead of having players having to edit the map scipt to get a more traditional CS placement, make this a user option available at setup. CS's on Islands or traditional CS placement?

 

[Bechhold]

I am sick and tired of ships being able to stack with land units inside a city, if blockaded Naval Units should be forced out after a number of turns.

 

[insaneweasel]

2) The AI should have a profound advantage that keeps it from falling behind at tech without guaranteeing it will lead on tech.

I disagree...its really fun to play well and get a tech advantage (not easy on the higher levels) and then steamroll the AI with rifles/cannons vs longswords/trebs.

 

[Camikaze]

Moderator Action: Merged qutsemnie's thread, as it contains multiple ideas, which is what this thread is for.

 

[joncnunn]

With the lag time it takes to develop any new game and Civ V having been out for a bit more than a year, here's my idea of what Civ VI should look like. (In the style of what's new to Civ VI if you've played previous Civ games before)

1. Map: Hex pattern such as Civ VI

2. UPT: The 1UPT rule was relaxed: One RANGED unit and one NON-RANGED combat unit can occupy a given hex at the same time. In addition a Great Person can occupy the same hex as a worker/settler.

3. Bombardment (Archery types): Archers & Crossbows retain bombardment, however range is reduced to 1 hex. The English Longbow UU would have the ability to bombard at 2 hexes as opposed to the normal one. You will probably want to escort your Archers & Crossbows with melee units. Siege weapons would retain their Civ V range.

4. Bombardment (Sea): Only Destroyers/Battleships/Missle Cruisers/Nuclear Subs retain 2 hex bombardment. The other ships such as Caravels, Frigates, Ship of the Lines, Subs have their range cut to 1 hex. Note that the Trireme is no longer a naval bombardment unit but is instead now a naval melee unit.

5. Bombardment (City): Cities retain bombard from Civ V. However, newly built cities will have a range of only one hex. To reach a range of 2, a Castle must first be constructed.

6. Trireme: This is now a naval melee unit. As such it may be stacked with a naval bombardment unit. Also note that Caravels are very vulnerable to melee attack from Triremes.

7. Combat in stacked tiles. Attacks against stacked units go against the defender with the highest melee value (which unless the melee unit is red lined will normally be the melee unit). Siege weapons firing into a stack have a chance of causing collateral damage to the other unit. (The more tech advanced the unit, the higher the chance) There are now promotions for siege weapons that increase collateral damage.

8. Happiness. Happiness is now returned to the classic per city model, specifically Civ IV. Should a city have net negative happiness, they will get angry citizen(s) that do not work, nor generate science, nor get any specialist bonuses, but do consume food. This also means there's no longer a happiness induced Golden Age.

9. Specialists. The unemployed citizen will not get specialist bonuses from wonders like Civ V but will only produce one hammer. The artist will now produce 1 happiness in addition to culture.

10. City maintenance. Buildings will no longer cost maintenance like in Civ V. Instead each new city you found will cost maintenance which will grow with number of cities like Civ IV. Build too many cities too fast and watch your income go negative.

11. Court House. Court Houses can now be built in any city. Its effect in Civ VI is exactly like Civ IV, it reduces city maintenance in half.

12. Great Scientist: The max amount of beakers a GS can produce towards the next tech will be based on the population of the largest city in your empire. Early on it can fully research a tech, but later on, it will only be able to partially research.

13. City States: City states introduced in Civ V are revamped in Civ VI. They are now full civs in their own right, with the following limitations:
A. They start the game in 2000 BC instead of 4000 BC in ancient era. (In other eras, they will start the game 20 turns after beginning of the game on normal speed). They'll spawn in Fog of War in areas near both luxuries & strategic resources.
B. They are not allowed to build settlers or wonders
C. They will accept being turned into vassals unlike the major AIs.
D. If at war and they conquer a city, they are much more likely to keep the city than in Civ V.

14. Barbarians: Should a barb camp last 20 turns on normal speed, it will be upgraded to a full scale size 1 Barbarian city and build units on its own like Civ IV. (The advanced ragging Barbs option will result in 10 turns). Also note that it is now illegal to cash buy a tile containing a barb camp and that natural cultural expansion will route around them. Barb camps will form in fog of war, but never within 3 hexes of a city or another barb encampment.

15. Trade deals: per turn items may not be mixed with one time gold. Map trading is now restored (with Astronomy) but note that the AI will value any map showing only previously revealed tiles at zero.

16. Vassalage: Starting with Feudalism, you will have the vassalage option of city states. This will last for 30 turns under normal speed. They'll accept a tech they don't have yet in addition to gold. Note that the further the city is away from your empire, the more gold & techs they'll want. Your vassals will be willing to trade their only copy of a luxury resource unlike other civs.

17. Trade Network: Rivers are now part of the trade network (with Sailing). Cities within the trade network of your empire will have less maintenance cost than those outside it.

18. Open Borders: Open Borders will allow trade routes between your cities and the civ that the treaty is with, provided they are within the trade network. Open Borders are also a prereq for luxury & strategic resource trades as those require your capitals to be within the trade networks.

19. Rails: Rail tiles will no longer cost additional tile maintenance compared to a road. However it will no longer provide increased hammers to cities.

20. City placement: No city may be founded within the max city radius of another city [even if on another landmass]. In addition, no city may be founded within city radius of a barb encampment. (Clear the barbs out first if you want to found a city near their encampment)

---
The guide probably wouldn't state this but there would also be an improved AI. So much so that the AI would actually play on Prince level in all regards instead of having Chieftain level bonuses in such a major aspect of the game such as happiness.

 

[Ruler]

I see something like really really big maps with slightly smaller hexes but more in numbers.

 

[Optimizer]

Take a look at the review of Civ 6!

 

[black213]

Some small ideas of my own:

• Rivers connect Cities when Sailing is discovered, but rivers still don't grant extra movement.
• Each civilization has 1 unique unit and 1 unique building or improvement.
• Map trading enabled when Astronomy is discovered (or Cartography if you want to add it as a tech).
• If you have mutual open borders with a civ, you may build a trade route in to their network which will bring 30% less gold than normal trade routes. Can also be done with Harbors (only if the other civ has a Harbor in a city that's connected to it's network).
• Related to above: open borders last forever until either side breaks the agreement. It can be done in fashions like by simply saying "no open borders anymore", denouncing or declaring war.
• Research Agreements are removed.
• Minor Tradition tree buffs.
• Minor Commerce tree buffs (more focus on gold itself than naval).
• Minor Rationalism tree nerfs.
• Freedom and Order are no longer mutually exclusive.
• Removed relationship modifiers "your friends found reason to denounce you", "you declared war/denounced on a leader you had a DOF with (except for the one being declared/denounced)" and "they think we are trying to win the same way".
• Related to above: Negative relationship modifiers fade in time, based on the leader's "forgiveness" level. Positive relationship modifiers may also fade in time more quickly if the leader has a high "meanness" level.

Another one:
• A civ that has given tribute in a peace offer will continue to do so in next wars if necessary but it will be reduced by 30% per peace offer tribute, and the reducing stops after fourth peace offer, where the civ will only give 10% of normal tribute.