Civ VI - Late game exploration + adding a 'legend' aspect

[tobacco merchant]

Would just like to know your honest thoughts on my ideas, I'm not a dev so I don't know how feasible these are. I am sure you can build, improve or dismiss my ideas with good reason.

Late game exploration

I've always felt the early game to be the most interesting because you're exploring and finding out what your continent looks like, finding natural wonders and great settling spots etc.

The excitement is lost in the mid-to-late game after you've discovered Cartography and navigated the oceans, and unless you're England or Spain, going for domination, or playing the Terra map, the incentive to explore and settle other continents is often very low.

Potential ideas to keep the exploration excitement going after circumnavigation:

• Land north of the ice that you can't access until the ice is melted/you smash through with a late game icebreaker ship; settling or discovering first gives you a boost, maybe an abundance of strategic resources, maybe a genuine national inspiration like the USA landing on the moon (+5% production or science?), maybe something unique. Would draw the ire of Kupe.
• A medium/large island is a black spot on the map that cannot be explored without a dedicated unit; it's surrounded by impassable cliffs too difficult without late game technology - a Swordsman with the Commando promotion won't do. Again, settling or discovering first gives you a boost.
• Quite an outlandish one. A 'hidden' area (maybe external to the 'real world' map?) that you need to meet some cult-like conditions in order to find. I'm thinking a second - much harder to get - Great Prophet or other religious unit interacting with a specific natural wonder to unlock the area e.g. Bermuda Triangle, Paititi.

A national legend

Inspired by the real world, every empire can develop its own legend/mythology. Think King Arthur reconquering Britain for the Celts, or the Jewish return to their homeland. Your empire can go through a number of steps to develop its mythology and fulfil the eventual 'destiny'. The idea is that you can't develop it fully until later, so no pre-empting the 'destiny'. Fulfilling it will confer benefits e.g. your religion becomes more influential (if you can fulfil your prophecy, your religion is more convincing), or or could even be a Victory in its own right.

The steps you take can influence your eventual final legend, but there are no certainties until the final step, and each step is influenced by previous steps. Ideas for steps you can take (please see this as thinking out loud, I haven't thought these through at all deeply):

1. Confirm the origin story of your empire, like creating the National Epic in Civ V. You need to research Writing first, and the story (or aspects of it) could be either chosen, randomised, or depend on your surroundings/early events in the game. Examples could be: your people are descended from God; you escaped a natural disaster; you fled a civil war; your people are the 'first people'.
2. Committing Great People to develop your mythology instead of getting their standard benefit, the type of Great People will influence your mythology. For example, a Great Scientist might 'prove' that your people were the first people; or a Great Writer popularises the myth that Mongolia was the empire you fled. This could even give a renewed purpose for Great Prophets who learn from meditation, for instance, that a particular Natural Wonder is especially holy.
   • Depending on your origin story, the type of Great Person influences how influential they are. For example, if your origin story is a civil war, a Great General develops it more; if your origin is descent from God, a Great Prophet develops it more etc.
3. Building World Wonders. Any World Wonder can help develop your mythology, but not every one of them will; whether it does or not is random. These might be
   • Depending on previous steps, you're encouraged to build a certain type of World Wonder (e.g. has an inherent science or financial benefit) which either increases or guarantees the chance to help develop your mythology.
4. Once your civilization reaches the modern, atomic or information era, you will learn that your people have taken a particular aspect of your overall mythology as their ultimate destiny, and you will then have to meet the final condition. This could be settling/conquering a particular area of the map (i.e. your homeland), destroying a specific civ (i.e. the evil empire you fled), reach a certain level of wealth/population to prove your status over other civs etc.
   • The amount you develop your legend does not have an upper or lower limit, but the more you do, the easier and earlier your final condition is.
   • All these steps do not necessarily have to overlap, since I think that might be too much webbing to unentangle from a development perspective e.g. your origin story might be religious, but a Great Person creates a militaristic myth, and your eventual one is scientific.

Please let me know what you think! I am sure you guys would have more and better ideas.

Many thanks