danaphanous
religious fanatic
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2013
- Messages
- 1,501
There are a ton of small changes that would make this game feel more polished/fun to me.
As I've thought of them for years, why not make a list! Tell me what you guys think!
You can suggest your own small changes here! Requirements are that they aren't huge changes to the game or wild suggestions. This list is focusing on polishing existing gameplay and addressing abuses/bugs.
As I've thought of them for years, why not make a list! Tell me what you guys think!
- Retaking your own city should not halve the population Spoiler :(why would you kill your own pop like any other invader?) This is the main thing that makes losing a city so horrible as it gets halved twice--there should be some collateral but less then this.
- After city defenses are reduced to zero, garrisoned units that aren't planes should need to be defeated before the city can be taken. Spoiler :(Vanishing units? seriously?) For balance the healing of the defenses can stop on the wall/castle/etc. till they are repaired.
- Great people should be in a different subclass from workers/settlers/missionaries so they can stack. Spoiler :It's annoying and pointless that my great people can't move past workers and other peaceful units.
- Roads outside your territory should not cost you money. Spoiler :I understand why they did this to prevent players avoiding their territory for routes, but it makes for some strange things when cities start trading in war and that already has major downsides in build and travel time. It'd be simpler and easier for the player to calculate if it was just roads currently in their territory.
- AI on King & Emperor should not start with pottery--give them another free tech. Spoiler :This is the first free tech given for some reason. Due to how fun religion is and how big an early difference it can make to terrain I think the games would be more varied and fun if they only got this advantage on clearly high levels: immortal+ and it would mean you could have a chance for first pick even without a religious civ or faith natural wonder. it wouldn't make the AI play much worse imho just add more variety and choices to mid-level games. Animal Husbandry, mining, and archery are all advantageous starting techs too.
- You should be able to say whatever the AI can say to you. Spoiler :Besides fairness there are actually some good reasons for this. Ones I'm thinking of: "I see troops near my border, declare war or move away" - appears if they have at least 10 units right on the border (obviously are setting up to attack)
- National wonder costs should not go up with number of cities Spoiler :This one never made sense to me. The national wonder only benefits the city it is built in and it is not any better with more cities and it is already harder just to get all the buildings in a larger empire. Why also make it more expensive to make?
- AI should not buy cities from you that have a terrain score below a certain amount Spoiler :Single island, or ice cities for instance. Instead of buying them and burning them like an idiot.
Either that or consider it in what they offer and offer very little for such cities.
- You should not be able to make money repillaging tiles you repaired in enemy territory. Spoiler :would make sense AND fix the horrible pillage/repair abuse that players use to rake in money/hp during war.
- City States should be unwilling to make peace for at least 1 turn after DOW. Spoiler :This would be at least a minor penalty for stealing their workers as it gives the AI time to request you make peace with their friend and gives them time to respond so you can't just steal with a scout. I would also be in favor of this CS being wary to be your friend. Right now the downsides are pretty much nonexistent and they are often your friend later anyway after a short time.
- Trades where a friend paid lump-gold are not simply canceled. If you lose the resource/luxury and reconnect later the trade resumes. Spoiler :Think of it as a debt. They gave you something of permanent, immediate value, you should not be able to break it and get the money for free. War or denouncing the friend to break the friendship should break the debt as it has downsides giving you freedom to choose this route, but not without consequences. You can currently do this abuse on purpose by starting to build a fort, then reconnecting the lux/resource to get free money every 2 turns or so.
- ideological unhappiness should only happen if your influence on them is a certain percentage below their influence on you. Spoiler :Right now it is a threshold system so you can get tanked with -15 unhappiness if they get 10% (exotic) over you even if you are right behind at 9.9% (unknown) over them. Having the unhappiness be a function of how much spread there is in influence would be fairer and make your actions to recover take more immediate effect. I had the idea of: 15%, 30%, 60% spread as the 3 levels of influence.
- Once someone is wiped out, the memory of their culture should still remain on the list. Spoiler :You need to overcome it too if you want to win cultural. You can still stop a cultural win by war but couldn't win one that way making it a purely peaceful VC and more unique. War to bomb musicians can still remain as it actually requires you to be near winning over them. Conquering them still helps as it stops their culture going up but I don't think their influence should disappear. The huns didn't look like great artists just because they conquered Rome. It takes time to impress the people you subjugate so this system would make that heritage and memory effect more realistic.
- Cash-buying or faith-buying from a city leaves the thing on 1 turn like a GE. Spoiler :This used to be a thing in previous civ versions where buying a building left it on 1 turn. What it does is prevent the player from insta-buying a huge army or buying walls-->castle-->arsenal all in one turn for a city under attack. Not only is it realistic and makes even purchases take a small, realistic time, it makes you plan ahead and pay attention more as you can't instantly fix problems in a single turn with the money. Best play smartly and prepare ahead of time! You can still buy each turn or buy in different cities but it makes the response less OP.
- AI should consider skip a units turn rather than embarking when trying to get to a city in some war situations Spoiler :Right now the AI is unable to think of the future much and just tries to get all units to a city via default pathfinding. It results in embarking and crowding during army motion. I think the AI should only consider embarking in enemy territory if the water is not near a city or if the city is already surrounded. It would make their attacks more competitive. Also, if they can reach a city in the same number of turns anyway they should skip a unit outside city range.
- AI ranged should evaluate to attack with every hex move rather then only before moving. Spoiler :It would only require a sub-loop that considers stopping on the planned route to bombard and would fix the AI can't move and then bombard bug.
- AI should request Research agreements with ppl higher on tech then them be even. Spoiler :AI appears to be coded backwards on this to me. RA's benefit the person behind on tech most as it is a part of both civs science output over the next 30 turns. So their behavior of charging YOU if you are ahead makes no sense since they get a great deal more benefit then you do. If AI is an age behind that RA may mean 10 turns progress for them and only 2 for you. If anything they should be paying you to give them all that futuristic research.
You can suggest your own small changes here! Requirements are that they aren't huge changes to the game or wild suggestions. This list is focusing on polishing existing gameplay and addressing abuses/bugs.