Civ5 should have taken Civ Unique Ability idea from.. CivRev!

[Haig]

So Civilization 5 decided to use Unique Abilities for civilizations instead of leader traits like in Civ 4.

That's okay, but I don't understand why the designers didn't do it like in CivRev.
I don't like CivRev but I think that it's the one Civilization game that has more varied civilizations..!

For those who haven't played CivRev, in the game the nation gains new ability when a new era is entered (though there are fewer eras than in Civ 4 and 5). Also each Civ has a starting bonus or ability, for example Americans start a game with a great person, and Mongols have '+ 50% trade from captured cities' right from the start.

And actually, most of the abilities make sense historically too,
here's the abilities for England for example:

Starting: Begin with knowledge of Monarchy
Ancient: +1 Longbow Archer defense
Medieval: +1 Naval combat
Industrial: +1 hammer on hills
Modern: Naval support doubled

Okay, the English are famous for their royalty, so starting with Monarchy makes sense.
The longbow and naval bonuses have the spirit of longbowmen and Royal Navy in them, the Industrial era hills bonus gives me the impression of the industrial/victorian era of coalworkers and mineworkers, and when in the modern era naval support doubles, it mirrors well the power of Royal Navy circa WWI and WWII (and actually this day and age too).


Jon Shafer (along with ol' Sid ) was designer of CivRev, so I wish he would have included these abilities in the Civ 5 design.

At least I really really hope they implement them in future expansions, probably never happens, but in the current form I find Civ 5 quite dull, so this stuff would bring more variety to strategies at least.

 

[Brawndo]

That's not a bad idea. I mean, Civs are not static - what they were known for changes over time. Just look how much Rome, China, or Egypt have changed between their ancient and modern forms. Egypt is hardly a nation of great monument builders in 2010, lol. The only difficult thing would be coming up with appropriate bonuses for civs that perished before the later eras. For example, what would Songhai have in the Modern era?

 

[Ikael]

I really loved that aspect of Civ Revolutions, I think that it was one of its few good ideas, and one worth of being copied at that. It makes civilizations way more unique, and it also gives the game a great deal of momentuum.

 

[LegioCorvus]

Never played CivRev, as I own neither a console or iPhone, but that is a good idea.

 

[BobDole]

It's an interesting way to do UA. That being said, I do enjoy the ones we have in V a lot more than the generic leader traits in IV and don't really think they need changing. It would be an interesting way to give everyone relevant bonuses throughout the game however.

 

[ecki2k]

Never played Rev, too, but sounds good. Nice idea.

 

[Morningcalm]

I agree with the OP completely. Currently, England's +2 Movement and line of sight for naval units is VERY meh.

Having a lot of smaller traits that fit together would work for civs. Songhai is all right in this respect, but each of the civs could start with smaller bonuses which would be nice. Having different starting techs is something I miss, and there'll be more appeal in rushing ages with smaller bonuses throughout the ages.

 

[Ikael]

Also, it really makes each civilization specialize way more, since you can contrast early bonuses with latter ones.

For example, the USA's starting bonus wasn't that great (starts with a great person), while Egypt was awesome (starts with wonder, +1 food on desert tiles) while on the latter game things got upside down: USA's bonus got awesome (doubles effectivity of factories) while egypt was really meh (+1 movement to rifleman).

 

[Haig]

The only difficult thing would be coming up with appropriate bonuses for civs that perished before the later eras. For example, what would Songhai have in the Modern era?

I think the modern bonuses for extinct civilizations should maybe mirror the nations that currently inhabit their old lands geographically.

Bonuses for Greece in industrial/modern times could be something like bonuses in trade for coastal cities or bonuses for fish tiles, reflecting the rich ship builders for modern Greece, and the ancient could be more suited for the times of the militaristic Greeks.

 

[Morningcalm]

That's a good idea. Though the names of nations or peoples may change (Hebrews/Jews, Songhai/Nigerians), the ancestry and history remains. Having new abilities in different ages is a good idea.

I also really, really want unique leader traits back. It means that when you pick the English you might be surprised/have more interesting options because you got Victoria rather than Elizabeth in the random pick, for example, and this is something I really enjoyed from Civ IV. That said, it would increase the need for new art assets/music and voice work, so I doubt it'll happen. One can dream though...