Civ5 Wishlist

[supersoulty]

I posted a bunch of ideas I had on another forum... figured I would list them here, who knows, I might get some attention:

A few things I would like to see:

1) Start out with some of the more practical mods made by the expansion packs, and in some of the amateur mods, for that matter. The addition of levees alone makes the game alot better. But they could also add on some new resources, popular in the mods, like tea, coffee, tin. They could also add in a fleet of manufactured resources; one mod has beer (great!), but you could also have steel as a manufactured resource... any number of other things.

2) Religions actually mean something, as opposed to them simply coming into existence willy-nilly and people saying "well, I am Jewish, and you are Christian. It makes no difference, but we aren't allowed to like each other." They should be founded in different ways (not just from discovering a tech). They should have bonuses. Different spread rates would be nice, and they should spread in different ways (note, Christianity and Islam never become factors, because they are founded so late on the tech tree).

Edit: Sadly, I see that religions likely won't be a part of this game... that's the wrong way to go. Absolutely opposed.

3) No tech trading, or if you do have it, make it very expensive... or maybe even have "research trading" instead. Techs should simply spread naturally, once first discovered, like they do in real life.

You could have certain technologies (like stealth) have slow spread rates... or maybe even have those have to be traded (call them "state secret techs) while other technologies (like mass media) spread very quickly.

The spread rate of techs could depend on your own scientific research as well... the more you invest in technology, the more likely it is that you can benefit (quickly) from the spread.

Also, your relationship with another civ that has a tech you don't could effect whether it spreads to you.

4) Make the game more dynamic. I like how they added "events" in BtS. That's cool. But there should be more events and they should have far greater effects.

Actual climate change should be a factor in the game. Instead of just having their stupid "Global Warming has stuck near..." and changing one tile, the entire map should shift with the effects of climate. This could have a massive effect on the fortunes of civilizations.

5) In one of the expansions, they added "break away" areas... parts of your civilization that might, for one reason or another, decide to become independent. Great idea, but it never seemed to happen. This was, in part, because the controlling civ had to approve the break away. They should make it avoidable, but also unstoppable if nothing happens to change the situation.

If only seemed to happen when you were on one continent and area in question was on another. Make it capable of happening in any number of circumstances. For instance, on boarder cities all people usually either identify with one culture, or the other. Typically, however, what happens in these situations is a "Third Way" culture, that takes aspects from both. This should be treated as something different, and lead to a potential independence movement. Religious differences could also be used.

You would have a warning ie they would petition of independence first, in which case you would get a relationship bump if you grant it. You would be able to reconquer them, if they try to break away... but if you don't do something, it will happen.

6) Un-Nerf the Navy and air force. I liked it when bombers and battleship could do alot of destruction to on-land, stationary targets.

7) My idea for an entirely overhauled resource system would go something like this:

For each "resource" to have, ie one tile of coal, you get 10 "shares" of that resource. If you have two coal, you get 20 shares, and so on. Each share gives your entire civ a slight bonus, in production, in food, in whatever... or alternatively, for "production" resources, each one gives you the ability to support one kind of a building (so 1 share of coal supports one factory). Of course, beyond a certain point, it would be more beneficial for you to trade off a resource, than hold it, either to get money, or to exchange for another resource... thus facilitating trade. All trade would be conducted in "shares" as opposed to just one tile worth of a resource. So, I would trade 5 shares of coal (to support five factories, coal electrical plants, or whatever) in exchange for, say, 5 shares of wheat... each share of wheat giving a +1 food boost to every city in my empire.

Thus, if I had 3 tiles of coal, I would have 30 shares of coal to use or trade. I think that would be better and more realistic than the current system. It would also allow for the possibility of some resources being scarcer than others... so because there is no limit to benefits of, say, wheat then you could have 30 tiles of wheat on the map, for only 15 civs, and it would make sense. Alternatively, you wouldn't need 15 tiles of coal, since the effects are proportional, as opposed to being "one tile, all the benefits". The have and the have not is not nearly as black and white in this case.

8) Limits on "stacking":

I have seen that in other places, and I think its a great idea. 20 unit stacks are ridiculous, and unrealistic (at least for ground forces). They take away from the military strategic elements of the game. It is useful for its own reasons, however, so what I would propose would be to have "logistics" technologies, which would gradually allow you to create larger and larger stacks... the idea being that the ability to move mass, concentrated forces, got better as the ability to supply them got better (blitzkrieg being the final culmination of this, in some ways), not to mention health concerns. In the end, you could have, say, 10 units per stack.

 

[supersoulty]

Some other, albeit minor, ideas I have come up with:

9) Allow civs to nuke their own territory again. One of my favorite things to do in Civ III was to draw in a large enemy invasion force and then just nuke them. It's been so long, I can't remember if is had a diplomatic penalty, but it really shouldn't have much of one, since they are in your territory, and you aren't targeting civilians.

10) Negative diplomatic effects should dissipate after a while. Positive ones always seemed to, even if it took a while, but civilizations in real life usually aren't even enemies for a century, let alone a millennium. I always found it somewhat unrealistic that I could repair a relationship with another civ because "You raised my city!" 2,000 years ago.

11) Change "Versailles" to "The Winter Palace". Versailles is a whole 15 miles outside Paris. Big deal. Makes no sense, given the effect it has.

 

[Auncien]

I may be repeating the wishes of others in the thread. If so, not trying to steal your thunder, but here is my list:

1) Very long MARATHON MODE.
2) Larger maps.
3) More units (more specialized units for each age, particularly the modern and future eras).
4) AI that thinks and acts like a person.
5) Equal complexity to Beyond the Sword or increased complexity. By this I don't mean make the game more difficult to play, but if you're removing religions and other game systems and mechanics then those need to be replaced with something bigger and better. I don't want to ever play another game again after Civ V because it's so massive and fantastic and complex
6) Globe.
7) More terrain / empire building features. I miss the radar towers from Civ III. I like making workers build lumbermills. I like building towns. I like micromanagement of the things happeneing inside my borders and feeling like I really do control a huge area of the world filled with things happening. I like forts. I like airfields. I like any kind of little doodad that I can build on the map that gives me customizability of the terrain.
8) Ability to plant forests / alter the landscape in the late game. I want to be able to combat all the global warming from my nuke happy neighbors!
9) UN and other victory condition dependant game systems present in core game, even if their corresponding conditions are disabled.
10) Overall more fun stuff like discovering the world is round or fighting animals or those random events that pop up. Make the world feel alive without making the game less complex.
11) Greater emphasis on economic and cultural paths to success. Civ IV made great strides in these areas. Don't give any ground here. Keep the military complexity. Guns are really fun but we need more butter too.
12) More technologies (the scenario tech trees are awesome... we want more of those specialized techs to choose from, maybe have each unlock a specific unit). In Civilization MORE IS BETTER.
13) More city improvements, wonders than Civ IV, more... more... MORE...

Thanks!

 

[kivanc]

i red some of the posts and not all in this thread. so i will comment on some and they list my wishes,

1) national wonder/world wonder seperation should be included. w/o national wonders, city specialization is nearly worthless.

2) good sceneries from earth. and please start all civs in their original regions! no chinese in america.

3) improve GP feature, make it even more flexible. let some civs have free GP points.

4) if u take religion out, then improve sth instead of it, for ex culture. let the culture be more important than just border pop and city defense. make it also a factor effecting diplomacies. but also remove cultural victory. it is nonsense.

5) please no more boosts about civics, don't force anyone for emancipation. make all "society policies" roughly equal in strength. religion civics were reasonable. each civic were strong in once case. pacifism for GP, theocracy for unit xp, free religion for happiness and beakers, org rel for buildings&wonders.

6) 18civs are less. so we want at least 30 "unique" leaders, don't we?

7) diversity of terrain improvements were fine in civ4.

8) ability to build unit & building at the same time

9) don't stop city growth while building settler, instead decrease pop when it is complete, the old civ way

10) remove workers and bring CTP style of terrain improvement

11) promotions in BTS were very fine. make it more important

12) decrease unit upgrade costs because when it is this much expensive, promotions become less important

and the most important

13) gameplay + fast running game >>>>>>>> gfx

 

[Gedemo]

Start in Stone Age with Mammoths and Caves....and finish in genetic era with cities under the sea?

 

[Gedemo]

Navigable rivers or canals?

 

[Kissamies]

Navigable rivers or canals?

That would require moving rivers back on tiles instead of tile edges, unless of course the naval units would be on different hexes that center on land hexes' edges somehow. In that case, how would they interact?

 

[Mathalamus]

That would require moving rivers back on tiles instead of tile edges, unless of course the naval units would be on different hexes that center on land hexes' edges somehow. In that case, how would they interact?

looks to me that the rivers are not on the edges of the hexagonal tiles.

 

[climat]

Navigable rivers or canals?

I'm skeptical about possibility of navigable rivers..
For realizing this idea fully, river should be a terrain like grassland/plain and that river tiles should be filled with water entirely because ships should be able to move along water of rivers. (I'm sure you won't wish to see ships on land in the game.) But it will make maps weird to see.
I just want to have a building like river port or harbor in riverside cities for compromise.

 

[Wodan]

Some scenarios do that... they just make the river a whole tile (up until the point way upstream where it's no longer deep enough to be navigable).

Other ways to do it would simply be to enable ships to occupy land tiles which border a coast or river.

 

[Davor]

Sorry havn't read all the threads, here so not shure if it was mentioned. I want the 4 Advisors back from Civ 2. Not like the ones that we got in Revolutions, but real video with humour in Civ 2. I just loved the Militrary advisor, and Elvis. That was just hilarious.

Also I would like the castle building aspect back as well when ever you advance. It just dosn't feel like a Civ game withot it.

 

[climat]

Other ways to do it would simply be to enable ships to occupy land tiles which border a coast or river.

That can be done. But some people will complain about that because of weirdness. (Not me )
For me, making river terrain is much better implement regarding this.

 

[GoSkins]

A lot of good suggestions that I wont rehash. Personally, I would like to see unit trading in diplomacy. That is, you can trade a backwards civ some advanced units to shift the balance of power for your allies. Also, enhanced air-to-air combat where fighters can provide air superiority for your bombers on bombing runs.

 

[Mattastic]

1) Make longer games more involved, not just the same as shorter games but with everything taking five times longer.

2) Less useless units. Good units should have specific functions, not be contemporary with better units, and able to last for pretty much an entire age before I have to replace my entire army. It needs to be streamlined and cut down.

3) Dynanic tech trees. Make research available based on the technology and resources I have available to me. Allow technological osmosis from my neighbours. And allow me to get by without researching key technologies for long amounts of time, like how the Chinese never really developed glass, or native Americans never had horseback riding, or the Egyptians never really needed the wheel. Imagine: finding new resources or trading with a new civilization might reveal whole new exciting avenues of technological research even in the late game.

4) More balanced civics and government options. In fact, my biggest problem with Civ4 civics is how they essentially encourage civilizations to aspire to "ascend" to American notioins of ideal liberty, forgetting that players should be able to form a civilization in any image they wish, and that many modern nations operate very differently. I live in a constitutional monarchy -- I notice how, from a civic-perspective, the UK is deemed less advanced than America.

5) Visual styles for civs or culture groups that persist even into the modern age. I always feel a hint of regret as soon as I enter the industrial age and everyone starts looking exactly the same.

6) Please stop leaders bugging me for tribute or help every five minutes. Sometimes I just want to run my civ, not theirs too.

 

[trevort]

That can be done. But some people will complain about that because of weirdness. (Not me )
For me, making river terrain is much better implement regarding this.

I think the weirdness factor would come from the scale of the ship on a river or lake. It's a cosmetic thing. That could be solved by the ship automatically changing size when it enters a river. Some ships could be limited to how far up river they can go. For instance, Viking long boats and Egyptian barges could go upriver quite far. Larger ships, like battle ships, couldn't go very far if at all. Now, how all that would be implemented is up to the programmers.

Now that I've thought about it a minute, some vessels, like Egyptian barges, should be limited to rivers only.

 

[climat]

I think the weirdness factor would come from the scale of the ship on a river or lake. It's a cosmetic thing. That could be solved by the ship automatically changing size when it enters a river. Some ships could be limited to how far up river they can go. For instance, Viking long boats and Egyptian barges could go upriver quite far. Larger ships, like battle ships, couldn't go very far if at all. Now, how all that would be implemented is up to the programmers.

Now that I've thought about it a minute, some vessels, like Egyptian barges, should be limited to rivers only.

Good idea for cosmetic issues and units.
I hope Firaxis implement this at any time. I don't expect navigable rivers will be in the CivV, though.

 

[Kissamies]

looks to me that the rivers are not on the edges of the hexagonal tiles.

I suggest you look more carefully at the river going directly east-west on the pictures with hexes shown. Looks like the edges to me. It's less obvious on NNW direction and especially on the bend because of rounding. If it was always exactly on edges, it would look wiggly and too regular.

Now a feature I forgot in my first list: Ability to put units on automated patrol. Not that necessary for land units, but I'd really like to make sea units patrol a certain route of waypoints. Either a circular route or back and forth. Likewise, I'd like to be able to make an air unit recon a certain tile automatically every round.

I remember being able to put ships on patrol in some version of Empire; or maybe it was Strategic Conquest. If those Civ precursors could do it, so shoud Civ.

 

[kivanc]

naval units in river is very reasonable. small rivers on earth are not suitable for ships but large ones have. we don't have short rivers in the game anyway. so it is ok. but for this, terrain should be changed a little bit. how they would implement the dynamics, I don't know.
In some sceneries as Wodan said, it may already be. I don't know but I assume, they should me small parts of Earth I think. So all rivers might be shown as sea tiles. I can't find any other solution. Making all rivers 1 tile-width seas would lose many tiles in the game. Then bridge building would also be more important.

 

[Wodan]

In some sceneries as Wodan said, it may already be.

I was specifically thinking of the China scenario that came with Warlords (I think).

 

[Outlaw77]

I'd like to see a more in depth UN. The UN plays a large role in our global society today and having it in the game as it is now is marginal at best. I'd love to see more options and more penalties for opposing these options.

Also refering to the AI concerning wars. I hate when other civs want me to declare war on a civ half a world away with no logically way for either of us to support such an endeavor.