Civ V Ideas & Suggestions Summary

[Camikaze]

Civ V Ideas & Suggestions Summary​

This is a thread designed to be a depository for any Ideas & Suggestions you may have about what you would like to see in future Civ games. At the bottom of this post you will see a download for a large summary compiled by MtB, outlining numerous suggestions for the game. These are just some of the many ideas that are possible for Civ V.

So, what ideas do you have? Please feel free to contribute whatever crosses your mind with regards to Civ V. The more ideas the merrier. However, it would be much appreciated if this was done in a clear and succinct manner, for ease of reading, and therefore for ease of commenting on and developing as an idea.

This community has multifarious ideas already proposed. The chances are the the idea you have has already been thought of. But don't let this discourage you. If you can't find a thread applicable to your idea, or a thread with your idea, post it here. For a list of past threads of note, see the Civ Ideas & Suggestions Index (but, as per forum rules, make sure you only bring a thread back from the dead if you have something valuable to contribute).

As well as a centre for people to share their thoughts, this thread is designed to act as a centre for people to comment on the thoughts of others. Try and be constructive in your criticism of ideas, so as to create a well-functioning discussion for the many and varied ideas presented.

 

[Camikaze]

Civ V Ideas & Suggestions Summary​

By MtB​

This posts below are designed to showcase the fantastic summary made by MtB (available to download at the bottom of the OP).

 

[Camikaze]

CFC Civ V Ideas & Suggestions Summary Document​

Foreword by MtB:
Civilization V - BEYOND THE DOCUMENT

A collection of my and other player proposed changes to be hopefully considered by Firaxis and 2k on their muchly awaited development of Civilization V. Together we can make an awesome game - awesomer.

It is hoped that this collection of ideas could bring an additional layer of enjoyable game play to Civ V without too much additional complication or complexity for no real gain in entertainment.


Compiled by MtB
2009
____________________________

1. Bridges and Tunnels
It would be good that two land masses, separated by not more than one or two tiles, could be linked with a bridge or tunnel. Just think Goldengate bridge or the Eurotunnel. Of course, such projects could only be accomplished when a suitable level of technological prowess is achieved. Perhaps a new skill such as Structural Engineering would allow this. A specialised unit would create this structure, and once created, the unit would be consumed - or you just right click the tile and choose the build bridge/tunnel option. Also, it would take many years for such a structure to be built and they could be destroyed by terrorists.

Mountains should not be impassable for all eternity. Hannibal, after all, seemed to do quite well with elephants and a little bit of scientific know how. As with the method described above a tunnel is bored through the mountain to allow movement from one land mass to another that was previously inaccessible.


2. Paratrooper
Paratroopers with a drop range of five tiles seems silly. They should at least have a drop range equal to that of a bomber.


3. Forts
Unless you pillage the ground forts seem to be everlasting. Even an artillery barrage doesn't seem to make a dent in them. I would suggest that a fort's defence rating be equal to that of any city fortification. That way they start at +100% and then they can be pummelled into ruins with barrage after barrage from artillery units. In order to repair a fort the player would be required to right-click the tile and spend money rather than have a worker unit automatically do it. Also, it would cost money to upgrade ancient forts into modern bunkers or forward bases to counter modern explosive rounds.

In addition to forts, I don't think air units should be able to be stationed in them. Some kind of aerodrome or airfield should be specifically built by worker units. And, naval units should not be able to dock inside forts or use them to cut through terrain. And, worker units should not automatically build forts.


4. Bombardment
Catapults, cannons, and modern artillery (including naval bombardments) should not exist for the sole function of reducing the fortifications of a city before the air assault and then ground attack. This is not realistic. These units should also have the ability of a ranged attack to soften up enemy units.

Collateral damage should be incorporated in to the main bombardment attack rather than having to send the catapults into, what seems to me, a hand to hand attack. It should be assumed that the promotion "collateral damage" grants the catapult (and later units) additional damage by utilising new forms of ammunition such as lobbing flaming bales of hay or pots of Greek fire or rotting cow carcasses in to cities. Later units would just naturally have larger explosive rounds. Collateral damage would damage combat units, possibly destroy a building or even reduce the population by one.


5. Zones of Control and Overwatch
This should be reintroduced. In warfare a unit should be able to control the tile it is in and those surrounding it. This way when you fortify a unit they automatically go on to overwatch mode, so when an enemy unit tries to move past, your fortified units can harass and interdict it (get a free shot in).


6. Nuclear Proliferation
I am not in favour of when the Manhattan Project is built by one nation all civilizations are able to build nuclear weapons. If a nation wants nuclear weapons then that nation should complete their own Manhattan Project, or at least be given the secret of nuclear weaponry, or be sold them.

Also, in order to manufacture nuclear weapons the nation should be required to build a nuclear materials processing plant.


7. Terrain & Movement
Woodlands and jungles should be impassable to certain units until a road is constructed. Swamps and mires should be impassable to certain units until they can be drained or modified.


8. Satellite Imagery
Every now and then you may want an update of the world's border situation and so for a nominal fee (say 1000 gold x map size) your satellites can do this. Also, your spy satellites could photograph individual cities (500 gold) so that you know what they look like as well as what fortifications they have, with regards to fortified positions containing SAM Missile sites, Air units, Ground troops, missile silos, and whatever.


9. Attacking Cities
The amount of units (and types of) within a city should remain unknown until some kind of intelligence gathering mission is conducted either through a spy mission or through satellite surveillance.


10. Precision Bombing
Just sometimes you might feel the need to take out that rogue nation's nuclear processing facility or school for performing mimes. If this is done in a city then there should be the chance of collateral damage to other buildings or even civilian casualties. Bombing a nuclear processing plant may not necessarily lead to instant war. The Israelis did this many times.


11. Modder's Interface
I wanted to modify Civ IV and one look at those XML files blew my mind. The inclusion of an easy to use modders interface would be great - not only for modding units or terrains, but also for the creation of random events.


12. Diplomacy Options
There is no real way for a player to really engage in proper diplomatic relations in Civ IV. I think it could be greatly enhanced if a player could alter diplomatic stances by a huge range of options some of which could include:

a. Attempt to increase diplomatic ties through consular actions. (Depending on current and past events this may enhance ties between nations - or it may fail).
b. Reduce diplomatic ties through consular actions.
c. Offer to attack a nation on behalf of the nation you are talking to.
d. Try and convince the nation you are talking to attack somebody else.
e. Join me to attack a nation.
f. Set up trade deals of strategic resources, goods, technologies, and military units.
g. Try to convince who you are talking to adopt a certain religious faith or civic.
h. Try to negotiate a ceasefire or peace treaty between two warring nations.
i. Break off all diplomatic ties and deport embassy officials.
j. Declare War!
k. Reduce/strengthen diplomatic ties because a nation attacked another nation you were friendly/hostile towards.
l. Issue a direct order for a country to stop attacking another.
m. Issue a direct order for a country to stop attacking another or I may be forced to intervene.
n. Give me money/resource/technology or I attack.
o. Issue a general statement of protest if a spy is caught operating within your border. (This causes no real problems. The spy may be interrogated.)
p. Issue a strong declaration of condemnation if a spy is caught operating within your border. (The player may reduce diplomatic ties by a point or two, or even declare war. The spy may be interrogated.)
q. We will publicly denounce your actions, but secretly we will support you.
r. Issue a general statement of support/protest towards another nation's actions.
s. Give/repeal/reduce foreign aid or subsidy.
t. Engage in a cultural exchange programme.
u. Try to get a nation to stop trading or associating with another nation.
v. Share intelligence.
w. Issue a general statement of protest/strong declaration of condemnation for a nation to stop funding rebel/terrorist actions.
x. Stop your military build up, it is threatening regional peace and stability.
y. Disband x amounts of your military (general or specific units).
z. You didn't deal with us fairly in our last trade.

And more.


13. Rights of Passage
As the game stands at the moment, you can either freely move units through a foreign national's terrain - or you cannot. This should be reverted back to a previous edition of civilization when you could move units into another nation's terrain and if you were lucky you could sneak forces through to cut off cities. At least then you could issue a demand of something like "Remove your armies or declare war!" I would like the reversion to the previous way, only this time the nation's leader could issue one of several commands, they being:

a. Say and do nothing. Let the units continue.
b. Issue a general statement of protest. (This causes no real problems.)
c. Issue a strong declaration of condemnation, such as: "Remove your armies or declare war!" or "The positioning of your forces is putting a strain on our diplomatic status." (The player may reduce diplomatic ties by a point or two.)
d. Dispatch military units to arrest the offending units. (Offending unts that are captured can be released later after interrogation and being paraded on tv for propaganda purposes. Or the units can be escorted to the nearest border. Or the units may resist arrest and fight without a major war erupting).
e. We cannot tolerate your forces on our sovereign soil. Prepare for war!

Also just because you sign an open borders deal with another nation should not mean that nation is free to trample across your land with military units. If a nation wants to move military units through your borders or even station troops there then it should ask if it may do so. Rights of passage should enable non-military units free passage.


14. Espionage and Covert Missions
Spies, Sleeper Agents, and Insurgents should be called upon to undertake the following range of missions:

Reveal Nation's Best Military Unit, Investigate Nation's Current Global Military Deployment and troop amount, Investigate City's Current Military Deployment, Investigate Nation's Current Technological Level, Reveal Nation's Current Research Project, Steal Funds, Steal Specific Technology, Steal Random Technology, Plant Bomb (Destroy Specific Building or Buildings), Plant Bomb (Destroy Random Building or Buildings), Spread Disease or Plant Viral Bomb / Poison Water Supply (Kill Civilians), Deploy Suitcase Nuke, Destroy Tile Improvement, Poison/Burn Livestock/Plant Resource in Tile, Sabotage Current Building Project, Sabotage Current Research Project, Forment Unhappiness, Support Rebel Faction to engage in city-wide unrest / dissention (buildings are destroyed and limited anarchy), Support Rebel Faction to engage in city-wide revolt (perform a coup), Influence Civics, Perform Counterespionage, Bribe units, Spread False Propaganda against a foreign nation, Incite Civil War (very hard to do), Destabilisation of the Government (only in capital city), Assassination attempts, Determine military footing (no major military build-up / engaged in massive military build-up), Reveal resources held, Uncover current peace deals/mutual protection pacts/alliances, Uncover current trade deals, Sabotage spaceship / Destroy Spaceship.

Of course, if a nation discovers that you are supporting insurgent cells within their borders, then they will take appropriate action. There should, of course, be an upkeep cost for fielding units of insurgency and these can move through enemy terrain and attack units and pillage tiles without a full-scale war erupting. If insurgent units are used and they are able to capture a city, then they can perhaps be used to establish a new governor of a vassal or independent state.

If a foreign nation conducts an espionage mission against the player and is successful, then there should not be a message informing the player that such a mission occurred. On the other hand, perhaps the mission is still a success and the nation gets what it wanted, but the spy was careless enough to be detected. In this event, the nationality of the spy may be revealed depending of how sloppy he/she was. "An Zulu spy stole the secrets to a new flavour of ice-cream. / We believe the secrets to a new flavour of ice-cream were stolen." Should the spy be detected and still get away while keeping his/her nationality a secret it should be possible (but not inevitable) to investigate and discover who was behind mission. There is of course always the chance of the spy being caught.


15. Helicopters
Helicopters should have the ability to cross limited expanses of water of say one or two tiles.

Unless defending ground units have SAMs, attack helicopters should be pretty much invulnerable considering the range they can stand off and fire their missiles and cannons.


16. Saber Rattling
Foreign leaders should become alarmed and concerned when military units are stockpiled right on his border. This military build up might signify an invasion force. Perhaps tensions could be eased by plausibly explaining "We, uh, are only conducting military manoeuvres. Yeah that's it". Perhaps other foreign governments could get to internationally protest over the perceived threat.


17. Approval Ratings
This could tie into the end of game "leader greatness level"; also I read somewhere about domestic uprisings based upon your approval rating and how the lower it gets, the higher the risk of it happening. Occasionally the populace could be polled about what they think of their leader and this would a percentage rating (with margin of error). If you keep your approval rating high the people will not be much of a problem you and you should not have much to fear, but if you make decisions they don't like your approval rating will suffer and the lower it goes the greater risk you will have of internal strife. From this we could see a mighty democratic nation slowly slide into a police state where the player tries to maintain control. If it gets bad enough you may be targeted for assassination, political coup, or at best a civil war on your hands.

Along with approval ratings, the game could incorporate some kind of election system, but it is up to the player if they actually have elections (whether they be fair, or <cough> massaged. No elections may make the people unhappy as will the thought of vote rigging. In conjunction with this, players could tamper with foreign elections, so that a more suitable candidate wins.

The game effectively ends if the player is assassinated or a coup takes place. By this I mean all scoring stops and the player cannot win by any method. A pop up box says,"You have been assassinated (removed from office by a successful coup). Your administration/regime is at an end. You may continue playing but you will not be scored. Yes, let the game on / No, I'm outta here."

This way the game is also a fight to remain in office.


18. Terraforming and Land Reclamation
With the achievement of a certain technological level, specialised workers or agricultural units, or engineering units could develop arid deserts into irrigated fields, or could transform one land type into another (with the exception of mountains). Perhaps even some of the local coast line could be built up for more land. Maybe plantations could be constructed that would give you a tradable resource such a bananas, pineapples, tobacco, cotton, or whatever. Once the specialised unit has constructed the feature it is consumed. Also, it could take many years (10 x game length) for such structures to be built and become commercially viable.


19. Military Unit Bonus
Military units should be exponentially more effective against units of other eras. For example in Zappara's mod "Rise of Mankind" infantry units have +100% against Archery units, +25% against Melee units and +25% against gunpowder units.

As well as these bonuses, terrain could play a part where units would suffer a penalty. Mounted units would suffer greatly in wooded areas, and catapults would be useless for example.


20. The Technology Tree
An option should be available for players to let the computer randomly choose their technological path. Also, the amount of turns it takes before a technology is learnt could be kept hidden.


Continued...

 

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21. City Cleansing
An option to persecute or even kick out certain undesirable religious or national types could be available for those who like to keep their cities pure. It also serves to protect against uprisings and "culture flip". These ethnic cleansings would be sure to draw the protests (or support) of foreign nations. Maybe to facilitate in keeping things neat, clean and orderly concentration camps could be set up on selected tiles.


22. Stockpiling, The World Market, and The World Bank
Sometimes money, or the lack of it, becomes an issue, and so I think the inclusion of The World Bank (or International Monetary Fund) would be a good addition as this would allow those who are short of funds to borrow (at moderate interest) sums of money. The amount of money available to a nation would be dependent on what strategic sources that nation has and its overall worth. Failure to keep up with payments may lead to that nation becoming bankrupt.

A player could stockpile up to three (or more) times their income of goods (rice, cotton, oil, whatever). Thus, if you control three rice paddies, you could stockpile nine rice. These reserves could be used to sell on the world market or trade with other nations.

The World Market is a simple utility to sell goods for instant cash. Naturally, the global prices of goods should randomly fluctuate, and sometimes market prices should crash. Perhaps the reverse of this could also work, wherein if you are short of a resource and nobody is trading it you could buy it - unless an embargo is in effect.


23. National Resources
Resources like oil, stone, coal, and so on should have a random chance of vanishing as the resource is mined for all it's worth, just as other new deposits may be discovered. Those units that require oil to function should only remain usable for as many turns as the player has oil stockpiled. The player must then try to gain a new income of oil either through trade or war.


24. Flyovers & Interception Missions
If an air unit is sent into a foreign national's airspace (for a mapping or spying mission) there should be an option to intercept the aircraft and at least warn it off or shoot it down should that nation have such a capability. Specialised spy planes may be required for peacetime flyovers.

I'm not sure about this one, but instead of aircraft scrambling when enemy aircraft are only one tile away from the city, they should be able to intercept at the fighter's operational range. Although, if you don't have radar stations, you might not be able to react in time.


25. Trading, Deal/No Deal/Scam
In Civ IV, when you trade with somebody the game colours everything that nation is unwilling to trade red. This should not happen. Either whatever that nation is not willing to share should not be visible or everything should be available (providing your nation knows the other has it). Only then should you find out if that nation is unwilling to trade or not. And even if the nation is not willing to trade it you could force them to trade it by bullying them into it.

Also, just for fun, it might be an option to be able less than honest in your deals. When making deals with nations there could be an option to decide on what kind of deal to give. In Civ IV you just have trade deals like Silk for Clams, and this isn't really exciting. Perhaps when trading you could have the option to choose what kind of deal goes through, for example, you could trade your best quality item / good quality item / average quality item / poor quality item / worst stinker item. Of course when trade deals are made any kind of deception may be detected, and if you are not a fair trader then your trading reputation will be hit with its associated consequences. Just imagine the looks on their faces when they discover that shipment of iron you gave them is full of impurities. Of course, what goes around comes around, and you might find yourself being given a shipment of pox-ridden blankets or diseased cows for that iron.

Also, the AI should wise up and make reasonable trade offers. Under no circumstances will I ever trade my oil or uranium for clams.

Military units should also be available to be bought/sold and traded - including unique units.


26. Canals
A civilization with an appropriate level of technical expertise could build a canal across two or three (or more) tiles which would serve to shorten voyages at sea. As the worlds' trade ships use it, the nation who controls the canal would gain some monetary gain.


27. Surrender of Cities
During war, the attacking force could be given an option to contact the military commander of the city he is about to attack to offer him terms of surrender without a fight. War weariness might increase the chance of surrender.


28. More, More, More
Civ V should include more useful buildings, more varied units, more technological advances, the inclusion of future technologies and future units. The mod "Rise of Mankind" by Zappara should be sourced for ideas. In my opinion it should be used as the basis upon which to model Civ V.


29. New Unit or option - Fire Ship
A nice touch to the game would be the inclusion of a fire ship where the player packs as much explosive as they can in to a ship then lights a fuse. The ship is then sent into a foreign nation's port. Kablammo or damp squib?


30. Spaceships
When you launch a spaceship you shouldn't just wait a few turns to secure the space race victory. Alpha Centauri is very far away and it takes a long time to get there. Would it not be fun for you to invest all that time and energy in constructing a spaceship, launching it, and then waiting... and waiting... and waiting only to come to the inevitable conclusion that the ship didn't get there. Perhaps you just lose all communication; perhaps there is a final garbled transmission of the ship being attacked by a giant space slug, or enemy war vessels; perhaps the ship's computer "malfunctions" and kills the crew; perhaps the crew respond to a distress call and board an alien vessel only to be hunted down and killed by the dreaded Hrgigersaur. Time to train another crew and build another ship then. Perhaps through a navigational error the ship arrives 15 years later than expected.

Also, to get to Alpha Centauri Civ V should include such technological advances that enables near (or full) light-speed engines and cryogenics.


31. First contact with new civs
When you first meet new civilizations the player gets to make the choice whether they make peace or go to war. Why can't that other civilization also decide on their own whether peace or war is best for them?


32. Life on the ocean waves and Piracy
When you send your new caravel (or any suitable wind powered vessel) on its way to circumnavigate the globe there really should be more excitement to it than just moving a boat. There should be some kind of random event aspect included wherein the ship is simply lost in heavy seas; or there is a collision of some sort and the ship is lost; perhaps the crew begin to grumble if they are at sea too long with no sight of land which might lead to mutiny; perhaps scurvy sweeps the ship; carelessness (or sabotage) causes a fire which may sink the ship; perhaps the ship encounters favourable winds and receives a bonus of 1 or 2 moves; perhaps the ship encounters difficult weather and suffers a penalty of 1 or 2 moves; being caught in the doldrums results in that ship missing a turn.

Perhaps in coastal waters your vessel could come across flotsam and jetsam which could net some kind of treasure or it could help out a stricken vessel.

Privateers could randomly come across trading vessels or treasure laden galleons. These ships could be attacked and plundered for the gold or whatever they are carrying. The opposing vessel could be seized to be added to your own fleet or returned to port as a prize vessel for which you would be handsomely rewarded.


33. Tax, Culture, Espionage
Rather than being changed at 10% increments, this should be reduced to 5% increments - or even 1% increments.


34. Outpost Worker Settlements
Back in Civ 2 or 3 worker units could settle on top of a resource that was outside a city's border and so long as it was connected to a road your civilization would gain that resource. This should be re-established.


35. Stock Market Crash
With financial institutions mismanaging funds, it would be fun to either see the turn-based income dramatically slashed for several turns as well as whatever gold you have.


36. Vassal States
If a civilization agrees to become a vassal then the controlling civilization should have more control over its internal and external affairs. The vassal state could be allowed an autonomous state wherein it decides who to trade with, decide upon its own civics and religions. Or the vassal state could be forced to permanently change its civics and religion to that of the controlling civilization. Also the controlling civ dictates who the vassal can trade with and with what it can trade. As a bonus the controlling civ could demand that his vassal supply him with military units at a time of war so that he/she has command and control over the units and not the vassal.

During play you sometimes see one nation breaking away from is vassalage to another nation, and yet for some reason once the player accepts a vassalage he/she is stuck with it for the rest of the game. It would be nice if the vassal nation could ask you to let it go free again. Failure to do so may result in rebel factions rising up or a full on civil war for independence. Also the player should have the option to dissolve the vassal status of a nation at any time.


37. Sacking cities
When attacking cities the player could have the option to sack it for all its worth after which the city remains in the possession of its original owner.


38. Building World Wonders
It's nice to build these things and gain whatever bonuses they give. It would also be nice if a further bonus be granted if the nation that builds it has historical links with it. Thus, any nation can build the Great Wall of China and get the basic bonus but only the Chinese can get an extra bonus. The English would gain an extra bonus for the Stonehenge, and the Greeks for the Oracle, and so on.

Players should be alerted when world wonders become obsolete, and they should be marked as such in the city view window.


39. Reinstate establishing embassies
International diplomacy should only be conducted through embassies which must be established in the nation's capital. If you have no embassy established then no diplomacy can take place, or it is severely limited. Rather than simply right clicking the capital city and choosing "Establish Embassy", the player could build an emissary/diplomat and then send him/her to establish the embassy. Establishing embassies should also be only available when the two nations have good relations with each other. Of course, the attempt to establish an embassy may be refused.


40. Roads
As the game progresses roads gradually fill pretty much every tile and then they become railroads. Perhaps there could be an option to modify stretches of road that directly connect cities and this would offer superior movement rates over other road types. Thus a track becomes a paved road which becomes a highway/railway. A track would grant x2 move rate, a paved road x3, highway/railway x4.

Also, the whole concept of laying roads could be redone. You eventually end up with a spider web on your screen and this offers unrestricted movement so units can move anywhere with ease. It would be nice if road layouts were changed so that you could drop paratroopers behind enemy lines, and they would then blow up a road/railway. This way enemy reinforcements could be delayed a couple of turns.

Since railroads criss-cross the landscape, it might be an idea to include a railway terminus to build in cities.


Continued...

 

[Camikaze]

41. The United Nations
Peace keeping missions should be a part of the U.N. wherein as a conflict gives way to a cease fire (or to curtail hostilities), the U.N. can deploy troops in the battle zone. As a result of this it may call on your nation to donate funding or units (probably both). These units would then be unusable until such a time (peace treaty) when they are retuned to active duty (player control). The player may refuse to fund or assign units for U.N. missions.


42. The need for power plants (incorporating strategic bombing)
Certain buildings (like most, if not all, in the modern world) cannot be built until a power plant generates electricity. Types of plant are coal, oil, gas, nuclear and their green counterparts such as wind farm, solar collection and wave power.

Also, maybe not every city has to build a power station. Maybe a continent could be supplied with electricity from just a couple of power stations. For example, maybe a single power station could supply enough electricity for every city within a 15 tile radius. Or they could provide enough electricity for just three cities. To incorporate those fiddly areas an electrical sub-station would suffice that has a radius of two tiles.

This would add a little strategy or realism to warfare where in the invader would want to destroy electrical plants, and munitions factories, docks, and such in the initial stages of an invasion in order to slow down or stop the production of new military units.


43. Ship building
Perhaps cities that are not built directly on the coast (one tile distant) can build small coastal vessels and then transport them to the coast for launch. Around 600BC a 4.6 mile road was built across the isthmus of Corinth to transport ships across land on wheels. Should a city grow to incorporate that coastal tile, then it should be able to build a port or dry dock for producing larger vessels.


44. New unit - Torpedo plane
In Civ IV aircraft are not able to sink warships. Japanese torpedo planes did effective damage in Pearl Harbor.


45. Attacking Cities 2
Whenever a city is attacked the civilian population could disperse to the surrounding countryside and to neighbouring cities (maybe even across borders) in the form of refugees. The burgeoning population in these cities may cause starvation to take effect.


46. Fun Factoids
In a display there could be the inclusion of actual civilization factoids. This could be toggled on and off. These fun and educational facts just point out assorted facts in the fields of history, politics, literature, theatre, religion, philosophy, learning, science & technology, medicine, warfare, and daily life. For example:

>>Fun Fact: Science, 1071AD, Constantine the African brings Greek medicine to the Western world.

>>Fun Fact: Health, 600BC, The Chinese begin to practice house fumigating to rid them of pests.

>>Fun Fact: Literature, 2500BC, Libraries built in Egypt.

>>Fun Fact: Technology, 700BC, Glaucus of Chios invents soldering with an alloy that melts easily.


47. City tensions
With so many different national and religious types living together in one city it is only natural that the melting pot will sometimes boil over into trouble of a kind.


48. Cancel City Build / Abandon City
When building a city the player might change his/her mind and so the option should be given to continue building the city or to cancel it. Also, the player might decide that it wasn't a good idea to build the city where it is and should be allowed to abandon it providing there is a concensus within a small population to do so. Basically, the longer a city is placed at a location the less likely anyone will want to up sticks and move.


49. Global Warming
Currently global warming affects certain tiles in the game. While this is fine there should be the chance of the sea level rising if the warming is allowed to go unchecked. The sea encroaches upon all land tiles by one. All coastal cities are destroyed. Neighbouring cities gain an influx of refugees. As the globe warms up there could be intermittent warnings made by scientists. Perhaps an occasional polar ice tile melts and is transformed into an ocean tile.

With global warming, there could be an allowance for global cooling also. With the advent of future techs the player could devise some kind of orbital reflector or some kind of earth-based HAARP project to be constructed that would fire an intense beam of energy into the ionosphere that would enable global cooling.


50. Visual trade representations
It would be nice to see a visual representation of established trade routes. Perhaps a camel/freight truck/aircraft/ship is seen travelling between cities as it transports goods. This option could be toggled on and off.


51. City Stats and Migration
In addition to the City Nationality Bar which states (6% Maya, 87% Korean, 5% Indian) there should be one for religion (40% Judaism, 20% Christian, 20% Buddhist, 3% Jedi). This could further be advanced to show particularly how many Mayans are Jews or Korean Christians. These numbers should periodically fluctuate to simulate the comings and goings of the residents. Maybe a census (costing 15 gold per population) would reveal these numbers.


52. Plagues and diseases
In addition to the current disease random event there could be a more virulent strain. This black death could sweep through the continent (or globe) and half the populations in each and every city simply die. Military units similarly would be slashed in number. Or, over the course of a few rounds each city loses one or two populations. Cities with few populations could vanish altogether (destroyed) or populations could never go below one. Maybe the black death could stalk and spread over lands for ten or twenty years limiting population to three or four...


53. Graphical representations of disasters stuff
Hurricanes, volcanoes, dust bowls, telegraph wires, electricity pylons, oil pipes and such could be graphically shown. This option could be toggled on and off.


54. Capturing Techs
When conquering a rival civilization, or even just one city, there could be a chance to capture scientists so that you can gain a bonus towards a specific (or random) technology or they can be added to one of your cities.


55. River travel
Perhaps galleys (and maybe an ironclad) could travel along rivers.


56. Metropolis' and Mega-cities
Instead of cities being contained in one tile, perhaps when it grows it begins to spill over into neighbouring tiles to a maximum of nine tiles (three by three square). And all city parts must be captured before the city falls.


57. Event
Just as swarms of locusts and fire ants lay waste to tiles, diseases that wipe out crops (potato blight) and animals (foot and mouth) could also occur.


58. Random unit death
In a previous edition of civilization units that were forever fortified in jungles or swamps would simply die through disease. This could be brought back.


59. Vikings
Vikings are cool, but the civilization itself could be renamed to Norse, or even Scandinavian unless Norway or Sweden is made into a civilization.


60. Tax, Culture, Espionage 2
Splitting your income into research, culture, and spying with whatever is left from the 100% whole going in to taxes is too simplistic. This could be upgraded to include other budgetary areas such as: the defence budget, police/fire services, social security, health, education and whatnot. Each of these brings their own kind of bonus - or penalty if they are set to 0%. So instead of the 100% whole being allocated in four main areas it would be increased to seven or eight. Go on and pump 80% into your defence budget. You won't have much left to spend on anything else and the people will be sure to grumble. To be honest I always have my research slider as high as it can go while allowing an income. The espionage slider never ever gets used, and the culture only gets used when the city has nothing else to build and I have enough gold. You can argue that this is just another excercise in pointless micromanaging, but it is no more different that allocating your workers in the city screen.


61. More Victory Options
In addition to the current methods of winning the game, new ways could be incorporated such as: Economic Victory, Industrial Victory, Environmental Victory, Religious Victory, and Technological Victory. Perhaps even a mix of victory conditions could be set up.

In addition to victory conditions, loss conditions may be had, such as: assassination, coup, national bankrupcy...


62. Future Techs
Rather than the last tech being further numerical advances of future tech, there could be multiple techs to choose from, each giving a different bonus. Health Tech, Weapons Tech, Construction Tech, Research Tech, Materials Tech, Agriculture Tech, and so on...


63. Unhappiness
If a city has unhappy citizens the player could mouse-over an unhappy citizen to find out why he/she is unhappy. I think this might happen already.


64. New Unit - Mid-air Refuelling Plane
A mid-air refuelling plane. This would double the range of jets and bombers. With mid-air refuelling American bombers bombed Baghdad (Iraq) from the continental USA.


65. Productivity
A city that can produce enough hammers to make two units in one turn should be able to make them both in the single turn.



Continued...

 

[Camikaze]

66. Nuclear damage
Cities up to a certain size could be utterly destroyed and removed from the map while larger ones may survive albeit be totally devastated. Tiles remain irradiated for decades if not centuries - even if you do send in clean up squads. Irradiated tiles are rendered unusable.

Perhaps weather could play a part after a nuclear weapon is deployed. It seems a little odd that after a bomb is detonated only a three by three grid is made radioactive. Perhaps rivers could carry radiation poisoning downstream. Wind could disperse the radioactive cloud over a wider area - even into your own borders.

In the gaming world of civilization, does anyone know what the nominal yield for a nuclear missile is? Let's start the bidding at 1 megaton - air detonation.


67. Natural Wonders
Perhaps as units explore the world they can come across a different type of 'goody hut' that reveals a natural world wonder such as Serengeti plains, Ngorongoro Crater/Crater Valley, Mount Kilimanjaro/Everest, Great Barrier Reef , Ayres Rock/Uluru, Grand Canyon, Lake Baikal, Yosemite Valley, Niagara Falls, Bay of Whales, Giant's Causeway, etc.. Each would be represented by their own unique graphic and would have specific bonuses attributed to them.


68. Graphics
Along with a new version of Civilization will probably be new higher-end graphics, but there should be an option to use lower-end resolutions for people who have sub-par computers.


69. Attack/Defense ratings
Perhaps a return to military units having separate attack and defense ratings instead of a single rating.


70. Martial Law
If cities descend into anarchy perhaps military units could be called in to quell the situation until proper law and order can resume.


71. Multiple leaders
It has been suggested that civilizations not be headed by one leader throughout the game but may instead change. For example, an opposing civilization starts with Boudica, who later changes to William the Conqueror, who turns into Elizabeth I, who turns into Winston Churchill, who turns in to Anthony Blair. Not only will there be a change of face on the screen, but there will be a change in style of play.


72. City Governors
The roll of city governors could be expanded. Each governor would have a few randomly selected traits that may help that city, or may even hamper it through some kind of resource/financial mismanagement or corruption. Perhaps occasionally elections may be had in cities to determine a new governor - and through this elections could be 'massaged' or whatever, or even political opponents removed. Other events may be had.


73. Negotiations and Double-crosses
Wouldn't it be fun when you ask nation 'a' to attack nation 'b' in return for gold (or whatever), that nation 'a' takes the gold (or whatever) then decides to not attack, or even tells nation 'b' of your treachery?


74. Era Specific Games
An option to choose which era to play in would be a nice feature. Thus you could play a normal full game entirely in the medieval era. Also, the player could limit the game so that it would could span a couple of eras and not progress beyond a certain era or technology level.


75. NBC Damage to units
Units that are not equipped to survive Nuclear, Biological or Chemical weapons should take damage each turn they remain in such a zone. Modern Infantry, Mechanised Infantry, and Modern Tanks and such should be ok. Worker units also, you always need some poor sap to go in and clean the mess up.


76. Barbarian AI
Barbarians could be better than they are. If left alone they could perhaps develop into a new civilization.


77. Airships
Gas-filled airships should not really be able to upgrade to fighter units. This also applies to the upgrading of wooden galleys into modern destroyers and the like.


78. Spy missions
After a successful spy mission the spy should not return home to the capital.


79. World resources
When creating the world there could be an option to choose the amount of resources that world has. Such as: Bountiful, Balanced, Rare, Extremely Rare.


80. Differing unit packs based on game speed
If a player just wants to play a quick game then a simple bog standard model pack can be used in which you have basic units such as fighter or bomber. In long marathon games an enhanced model pack can be used, so fighters would start off as World War I Biplanes and then develop into the Fighters of World War II, and then into the Jet Fighters of the cold war, and then finally into Modern Jet Fighters. The same would apply to the advancement of bombers, tanks, ships, and the like.

This idea could also be used for the technology tree wherein a short game would have a shortened tree rather than an extended one for longer games.


81. New Unit - 4077th M*A*S*H Unit
This Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is a specialised non-combat unit that can heal all troops in the same tile, and all those surrounding it.


82. Varying resource bonus
Rather than a standardised bonus for tiles, they could maybe give a range of bonuses from +1 to +3 as this would reflect the natural richness variance of tile resources.


83. Reinstate the Hawks of old
Rather than the player unilaterally declaring war on another nation, those hawkish elements in the Senate or Parliament could prevent the action. In civ II or III you would need to just be lucky to be allowed to attack or you could temporarily become communist and get your way. Only this time the player could sway dissenters by bribing them or by blackmail. "Pardon me Senator. We found this picture of you and a chicken." Another way would be to fabricate evidence by claiming, "They [the proposed enemy] has nuclear, biological, and/or chemical weapons that can primed and fired in around 45 minutes!"


84. Space-based weapons?
These weapons don't really offer much else other than just being orbital platforms capable of launching boring old nuclear missiles - or can they? Here's a few ideas...

a. It's a weapon so naturally it must be able to devastate cities and destroy all improvements on a 3x3 (or larger) patch of ground. Whether this is nuclear, thermobaric, vacuum-based or through an ultrasonic heat beam is up for debate. Unless it is nuclear, the weapon unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear blast. It leaves the ground scorched and resembling the lunar landscape, but without all that nasty radiation. A military spokesman commented to this reporter, "In essence, all that is alive when this weapon hits merely evaporates - everything else crumbles into dust."
b. This weapon blankets a city with an ultra low frequency (or something) that reacts with the central brain functions. This reprogrammes the inhabitants through subliminal messages to revolt and go on a murderous rampage. That city goes into anarchy for a number of turns, after which buildings are destroyed and the cvilian and military presence total is reduced by a few of points.
c. This weapon blankets a city with an ultra low frequency (or something) that reacts with the central brain functions. This reprogrammes the inhabitants through subliminal messages to revolt and culture flips that city into the player's/computer's control.
d. Perhaps when your own populace gets involved in a little free-willed anarchy the weapon (like c above) can be used on them. "Your leader is your friend. Buy fish. Be happy." Anarchy, what anarchy?
e. Other uses.


85. Unit selection
For purposes of upgrading units, a method of selecting all units of the same type across the planet should be available. The player should also be able to select all units across the globe.


86. World creation screen
When choosing a type of planet to play on, the player should be told what the different land masses mean through a simple pop up. What exactly is a fractal planet? What is a hub or tectonic planet?


87. Military unit creation
Instead of simply knowing a certain skill (and having the required material) for unit creation, such as knowing iron working and having iron deposits for swordsmen, it could be restructured so that in order to create military units certain buildings would also be required. For swordsmen, you'd also need a forge. For knights you'd need a forge, an armourer, and stables. Also, you should not be able to station aircraft within a city without an airport/aerodrome.


88. Oceanic cities?
As technology advances and civilization eats up the remaining land, it may be necessary to build cities on oceanic tiles. Whether these float on the surface of the waves or are built on the sea bed is yet to be decided.


89. Mobilization for War
Perhaps with the advent of nationalism the nation, at the declaration of war, could mobilize its national resources. This would result in a greater production rate (+50%) of military units per turn. During this time if a city is able to manufature two units, then two units should be manufactured. This however could be open to abuse, where you could declare war on somebody on the other side of the planet and then not attack them - and then just sit back and create a massive military force which would then be used to roll over border nations.


90. Capturing ships
When you successfully capture a city that has ships in port you should be able to seize them and add them to your own fleet. Winston Churchill controversially decided to open fire and sink the French fleet in World War II because he feared the Germans would capture them and use them.


91. Upgradable city improvements
Perhaps certain city improvements could be upgraded to reflect the changing times. Such as a market could be upgraded to a shopping district; a colosseum becomes a cinema; an aquaduct becomes indoor plumbing/sewer system.

__________________________


Okay, that's it as it stands now. I'll take some liberty and swap a few things round to categorise them, but other than that, it's up to everyone to find anything they think needs changing or adding, and post it, so that we get a nice summary of all of the ideas on this site.

 

[Camikaze]

Reserved.

 

[Camikaze]

And this one too.

 

[Camikaze]

And why not a few more for good measure?

 

[Camikaze]

Second last reserve. This document really could be quite long indeed. I apologise for the sever double posting, but the character limit on a post is such that it is necessary, in order to have the whole thing in one chunk, if we are to get many many more contributions.

 

[Camikaze]

Last reserve!

 

[Yared]

89. Mobilization for War
Perhaps with the advent of nationalism the nation, at the declaration of war, could mobilize its national resources. This would result in a greater production rate (+50%) of military units per turn. During this time if a city is able to manufature two units, then two units should be manufactured. This however could be open to abuse, where you could declare war on somebody on the other side of the planet and then not attack them - and then just sit back and create a massive military force which would then be used to roll over border nations.



Meh, how about this only working for bordering nations?

 

[Yared]

Have you thought about being able to plant false evidence? As in you plant false evidence against some person you wanna war against but you're afraid of the backlash/war weariness that's bound to ensue? You could also make it so that if your pop ever find out about it they'll go into a huge revolt "We are disgusted by your deceitful nature!".

 

[yamo912002]

I wouldn't mind seeing landmines or submersive mines off the coasts. They would only be visible to the owner (as to avoid them) and only within your own borders. I tried creating them for civIII but never completed it.
The paratroopers would be welcomed back, so would the ability to create a resource colony outside a civ's borders linked by a trade route (road, rail, coast or river).

 

[Scilly_guy]

85. Unit selection
For purposes of upgrading units, a method of selecting all units of the same type across the planet should be available. The player should also be able to select all units across the globe.

Alt click on upgrade does all units of the same type, I think ctrl click does all units that can upgrade to that option. I also seem to recall that alt+selection of a unit selects all of that type of unit on the continent and ctrl+a unit selects all of that type on the world.

Also the section about airships upgrading to fighters and galleys upgrading to battleships, I part agree that it doesn't make sense, as with cavalry upgrading to helicopters, and macemen to mech infantry, instead of thinking about the actual units being adapted/upgraded, its the men/experience that get upgraded. So an airship pilot becomes a fighter pilot, galley captain becomes battleship captain. Look up Blackwatch on wiki, not the same as battleships from galleys though, no.

 

[frekk]

Forts.

I generally like the way forts are in BTS now, except for one thing that would make them alot more useful. They aren't used enough (and weren't in any previous incarnation of the game) and the new features in BTS help, but really aren't enough to make forts an integral part of every game.

The way I imagine forts working ideally is like this: you could build a fort anywhere, including inside enemy territory. The first person to put a military unit in the fort takes control of the tile - it becomes their territory (it would be a good idea to put a military unit on the site before the fort was completed, for this reason). If the tile was already your territory, it could not be taken in this manner by any other civ with right-of-passage. There would, however, be a diplomatic option to allow you to build and occupy forts inside the territory of foreign powers you are on extremely good terms with (or vassals).

Forts would have a defensive rating like cities, and siege equipment could be used to reduce (but never entirely eliminate) it.

Captured forts would become ruins. They could be rebuilt much faster than building a fort from scratch, but in the meantime, they would not offer any of the advantages of forts.

To keep players from covering the map in forts, forts would also carry a maintenance cost. It would not be as great as a city but it would work along similar lines (the greater the distance, the more the cost).

Finally, if a city happened to be built over the same tile as an existing fort, it would start with some defense bonus instead of having to wait for cultural expansion (though one could not increase the bonus this way - it would just appear earlier, as soon as the city is founded).

What would this do? I expect forts would be used much more, and in many different ways. They'd be used to extend borders, to acquire that one resource that's just out of reach or just to guard against your neighbour's border expansion over a key tile. Borders would often be dotted with a few forts. They'd be used in an aggressive fashion, as bases inside enemy territory - just like Crusader castles or Edward I's "Iron Ring" in Wales. Troops could heal and be protected there, and await reinforcements for the next big push. They'd act as minor colonies far beyond the border, over a key resource. They would be used to block passage (or the founding of a city) on a key tile, such as a mountain pass or isthmus or other chokepoint. They could also be used to anchor territory along the borders, and prevent tiles from flipping due to cultural expansion of your neighbour.

It would resolve the problems with forts in civ. The key problem with forts in civ - why they are under-relevant as compared to history - is because historically, fortresses in the countryside were used to control territory and they don't do that in civ.

 

[frekk]

Religion.

Religion mostly works out pretty good in BTS, however, I have a few gripes that a new edition of the game could resolve.

The problem I have basically stems from things like having the Aztecs or the English found Judaism or Buddhism. It's a jarring effect that just requires too much suspension of disbelief.

So, what I propose, is just one religious template with an unlimited number of thematic variations, instead of every religion using different templates (that all happen to be more or less the same). All religions would work the same way - there would be no difference in mechanics between them. I think originally, they didn't do it this way because they thought modders would want to feature alot of mechanical differences between religions, but few mods have actually done this. So I think it can be dispensed with.

So, any religion founded would work off this one single template in terms of mechanics. There would be no mechanical difference between the religions, but, each would have its own style. When you found a religion, a screen would come up asking for a name (like when you found a city), defaulting to something appropriate for your particular civilization. It would probably have to have two boxes (Christian and Christianity, Hindu and Hinduism) kind of like how the popup to rename your civ has three. A second popup would follow the first, showing a box full of icons from which you could pick the icon for your civ (it, too, would default to something appropriate). The vanilla game would feature alot of icons to choose from, and modders would easily be able to expand the variety.

The AI would follow the default choices, and these could be easily edited. Differences between the religions being purely cosmetic, the number of religions would be limited only by the imagination. The English could have Anglicanism, or it could just be Christianity, for instance.

Whoever founded the religion would define the artstyles for religious buildings. Each artstyle - european, middle eastern and so on - would have a particular set of religious buildings. The religion would use the artstyle of its founder to determine the look of its religious buildings, regardless if they happened to spread to other cultures. For instance, if the Germans found "Lutheranism", it gets European temples and monasteries. When it spreads to the Aztecs, it keeps the European-style temples and monasteries. Likewise if the Aztecs found "Cult of Quetzalcoatl" or whatever, that religion gets Mesoamerican style temples and monasteries, and if it spreads to Germany, you get flat-topped pyramids in Berlin.

 

[Aspe4]

If I were designing Civ 5 I would add journalism/media to the game. What I would like to see is something similar to the random events that already occur. Except, there would be a dedicated screen for it that you would access by clicking a button or tab. Then the world event would be displayed on the new screen in the format of a newspaper perhaps called "Civilization Times" for example. To me more historically accurate, the option should not be available until the Industrial era. Example headlines could be: "America Constructs United Nations in New York" or "Mali Constructs Three Gorges Dam in Djene" Such a newspaper could also give a narrative to world events, just as our media does today. The newspaper option could give the human player a heads-up as to whether the AI country may declare war. If a player repeatedly denies giving a free tech to the AI, this headling may occur: "England Continues to Deny Japan Technology Assistance, War Imminent." Or if the human player refuses to declare war on a country at the request of another, the headline could read: "Germany Denies Military Assistance to Russia, Tensions Increase."

On the diplomacy side, I wish there were more ways to engage in diplomacy and thus create diplomatic crises similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis. I also would like for a country to be able to ignore UN resolutions. So if I were playing as Korea and the UN banned nukes but I then am able, and do, build a nuke, a notice could be sent out to all players via the above described newspaper. You caould then be prompted to contact Korea and ask them stop building nukes and to delete existing nuke units. Also, it would be cool if the owner of the UN world wonder could build weapons inspectors. That player would be prompted to build some to send to Korea, meaning such inspector could travel through each Korean city and see all the units in them to ensure there are no nukes. The inspector would have the ability to travel to all cites on one continent within in one turn. If Korea is clean of nukes, then the newspaper would report as such to all players. I may not have thought this out as thoroughly as possible but you understand.

 

[forlorn.hopes]

Exploration

what about an explorer type unit that can claim new land? claimed land could be something like striped borders:. it means that this land is reserved for this civilisation only...however, if another civ builds a city there first, it doesnt lead to war, but it increases tensions between the 2 civs. this is similar to the way the Pope divided the wolrd between spain and portugal (treaty of tordillas or watevr)

 

[johny smith]

I can not read everything. But whatever is done religion stinks in the current setup. What is the purpose of it? Make people happy and change diplomacy. Oh ya they added the Apostolic Palace. All I can say dumb.

The issue was left so to avoid controversy, but national stereotypes are ok.

Something can be done that does not involve a particular religion but to give religion a more generic dynamic where it effects your ability to manage your civilization. For example a equivalent to a pope should hold sway or your followers beliefs may be a problem for your leadership. Anything besides just happy faces and we hate you because you have a different religion.

It is like how they handle slavery in colonization just leave it out.