Civ6: Tectonic Tensions / Evolution (Expansion ideas)

[AvianBritish]

I'm sure if you are reading this post then you've had ideas yourself at what could go into a new expansion (or two) for Civ6. Here are my takes on what I think can be included, what should be included or what I would like to see included.

So I've broken down my ideas into two major groups:

1. Changes to the world through tectonic activity and natural disasters.
2. Changes to the world through scientific and cultural influences and controversies.

Both of these can be linked to a "world stage" through a World Congress or United Nations.

I've dubbed the first expansion "Tectonic Tensions" because of the introduction of tectonic activity and the World Congress / United Nations. (I also played with the idea of "Forces of Nature" but it seemed to loose the idea of Diplomacy)
Tectonic activity can happen in the form of Volcanic eruptions and Earthquakes. and happen along the edges of "continents" as described in Civ6 but now also include coast and ocean tiles. Each "Continent" is given a direction to simulate (1 of the 6 directions of a Hex) and then a tectonic event occurs depending on the combination of each direction of each continent:

• A continent that is moving towards another continent which is not moving in the same direction can create Earthquakes.
• If two continents are moving towards each other, this can cause an earthquake either twice as regular or twice as powerful.
• If two continents are moving away from each other, this can cause a volcanic eruption.
• If two continents side by side are moving in the same direction as each other, this can cause an earthquake half as regular or half as powerful.
• If two continents side by side are moving in opposite directions, this can cause an earthquake twice as regular or twice as powerful.
• If a continent a is moving towards another continent that is not moving the same direction, and the boarder of one continent is coast and the other is is land, then this can cause a volcanic eruption.
• The centre of each continent can cause a volcanic eruption if mountains and/or islands are present.
• Eye of the Sahara, Eyjafjallajökull and Mount Kilimanjaro can cause volcanic eruptions.

All of the above rules are to try and simulate real world tectonic activity with Civ6's current mechanics.

Only the tiles adjacent to the edge of a continents that have collided are effected by an earthquake. This can pillage improvements, buildings and districts depending on severity. This can increase to 2 or 3 tiles away from the edge of the continent(s) depending on severity. If a city centre is effected, total population could be effected.

Tile improvements, buildings and districts adjacent to a volcanic eruption become pillaged. Tile improvements may be removed completely. Empty tiles effected may become hills or may relieve a bonus resource Basalt (if the eruption involved a coastal tectonic plate. +1 food +1 production) or Granite (if the eruption did not involve a coastal tectonic plate. +2 production). City centres effected by volcanic eruption could have their total population reduced or the city could be razed all together depending on severity. (This could have a chance to create the "Pompeii" world wonder. -note, I believe world wonders should not disappear from the map if they city is razed).

Because of the inclusion of Earthquakes, there is a 3rd natural disaster that can be included, in conjunction to Earthquakes, Tsunamis can form and can cause further damage. Tsunamis are caused by Earthquakes but can effect other areas adjacent to coast near by that were not effected by the initial earthquake. Tsunamis pillage tile improvements, buildings and districts depending on severity and can potentially remove tile improvements. The can also place marsh onto grassland, turn plains into grassland and place floodplains on desert.

Repairing buildings, districts and the city centre can be sped up by other players who will be alerted to the disaster to that player and will be provided with a city project to "send aid to [effected city]". As well as speeding up the recovery of the affected city, the Civs that do send aid through the project receive bonus era points and diplomacy points. These diplomacy points can be used later on in the World Congress / United nations to propose policies and vote

Once the World Congress has been triggered all Civs can decide to opt in or opt out of the World Congress / United Nations. Opting into the WC/UN improves relations with other WC/UN members but deceases relations with those that are with those that are not in the WC/UN and vice-versa. Polices only effect Civs in the WC/UN and do not effect those outside it. These can include:

• Standing Army Tax (+1 gold for each unit not garrisoned in a city centre or encampment. The gold generated from this can go to the World Bank (described bellow))
• Ban Luxury (Select a luxury resource. This resource cannot be traded. Removing a tile improvement from a banned luxury resource will provide +1 culture, +1 science and +1 tourism to that tile. Players who do this will also generate bonus diplomatic points per turn per tile of banned luxury unimproved.)
• Nuclear Proliferation (Bans WC/UN members from building Nuclear Devices and Thermonuclear Devices. It does not stop members from completing the Manhattan project or Operation Ivy).
• World Bank (Members can provide an amount of gold per turn of their choosing to a World Bank for additional diplomatic points. This total can be voted on to provide aid to Civs subject to disasters in order to speed up or even remove time taken to repair and recover.)
• Free movement (All WC/UN members provide open boarders to each other.)
• International media (All WC/UN members provide shared vision with each other.)

If a policy is active, each member of the WC/UN can spend diplomatic points per turn to not be effected by the policy whilst still being a member of the WC/UN.

For this Expansion I can see the following Civs introduced:

• Canada - With bonuses to providing relief aid, diplomatic points and the the World Congress / Untied Nations, Canada can be a forerunner of the expansion displaying bonuses to the new mechanics. I also invasion the Civ to be the forerunner in Airforce as Canada is known for having some of the best pliots in the world and making use of seaplanes - for this reason I would give Canada a unique "Royal Airforce base" district or tile improvement that can be built on land or on water to house aircraft as well as bonuses to building the Aerodrome quicker or earlier (if the Royal Airforce base is not a unique district) and building air units quicker and gain experience quicker. There is also potential to have two leaders for this Civ to represent Modern/British Canada and to represent French Canada, of which my knowledge isn't the best of French Canada but a Leader that will give bonuses to joint wars would be pretty cool. (Simulating the French colonists allying with the natives to attack the British).
• Maya - The Mayan Calendar ability can return but this time notifying the Civ of pending natural disasters before they happen, this Civ will be the expansion's forerunner showcasing the natural disaster mechanics.
• Sweden - Another nation known for diplomacy as disaster relief, not to mention the Nobel Peace Prize; this Civ can also showcase new diplomacy points and WC/UN mechanics.
• Polynesia - Hawaii specifically being subject to Volcanoes and presumably Tsunamis, this island/naval Civ could also prove to have faith/religious bonuses to the sea and volcanoes, providing ways to avert disaster too.

Across both expansions I would like to see the following natural wonders too; of which I've seen most of these ideas posted by other people but would love to champion the ideas of rivers and Fuji:

• Mt Fuji - 1 tile natural wonder that appears as a mountain. All adjacent districts receive a major adjacency bonus from Mt Fuji and +1 great person of their type.
• Blood Falls - 2 tile natural wonder that spawns adjacent to snow and coast.+2 Culture and +2 science. +3 additional science in the Atomic era.
• River Nile - +1 food to all adjacent tiles. +1 faith to all adjacent desert tiles. Spawns mostly in desert.
• Amazon River - +1 food to all adjacent tiles. +1 science to all adjacent rainforset tiles. Spawns mostly in rainforest.
• Indus River Valley - +1 food to all adjacent tiles. +1 production to all adjacent hill tiles. Spawns mostly in hills.
• Danube River - +1 food to all adjacent tiles. +1 culture to all adjacent districts. All tiles adjacent are always breathtaking appeal.

World Wonders:

• Pompeii - +100% production towards building Archaeologists. Tourism from Artefacts and Ancient and Classical wonders are doubled. Spawns when the first city centre is razed by a volcanic eruption.
• Titanic - +50% production towards naval units. +25% tourism to civilizations you have trade routes with. Spawns when a Trader is embarked over ocean adjacent to Ice. The trader is pillaged.
• Palm Jumeirah - Must be built on coast adjacent to Desert without hills. +6 Housing. +1 production and +1 culture for each coast tile in this city.

Buildings:

To make Aerodromes more appealing; I think they should have more bonuses rather then being purely militaristic. Just like the harbour, there can be some economic benefits too. For instance providing a adjacency bonus to City Centre, Industrial Zone, Commercial Hub, Encampment, Entertainment Complex, Waterpark and Resort tile improvement. It would also be better if, later in the tech tree, you can build Aerodrome districts on Coastal tiles adjacent to land.
There should also be two interchangeable third buildings (whether it is before or after "Airport" building I am not sure):

• Cargo Terminal: Traders can travel between aerodrome districts with cargo terminals instantly owned by you or other players. All trade routes to and from this city provide an additional +2 food, +2 production and +4 gold to the trade route owner. Cannot be built in a Aerodrome with a Hotel.
• Hotel: 50% tourism generated by the city. +2 gold to resort tile improvements. Cannot be built in a Aerodrome with a Cargo Terminal.

My idea for a second expansion is about Scientific and Cultural advancement, so I've dubbed it "Evolution". The ideas are not fully developed yet but I can see many decisions that you would have to weigh up risks and benefit. These can include reclamation (Dredging and Landfill terminating) which can give you an extra land tile to build on, but could ruin the coast around it making the water murky and full of sediment, reducing the food in those adjacent tiles by 1. Canals can be included too; allowing you to turn hills into flat land, and then flat land into coast and vice-versa. But like the former when you dredge the coast to create flat land, you will need to get or place the sediment somewhere.
I am unsure how you would include aspects like GM Crops, Selective Breeding, Hunting and Slavery into the mix but I would image that they would have benefits to them such as more food, wealth or production but then less amenities, extinction and loyalty as repercussions.

In this expansion you will also be able to have state companies/corporations that can hold monopolies on resources receiving bonuses and such; I believe there was a similar mechanic in Civ4 or something for this? But this will allow you to get bonus gold and production from all your oils (oil, olives and mercury), bonus gold and culture from your textiles (cotton, silk and furs), jewellery (silver, jade, diamonds and amber) ect. As industry and companies were some of the first to use railways, it is possible that the cities that these companies get resources from, manufacture and export to are all connected together with railways sporting special locomotive trader units.

Like most I would love for there to be a "Future Era" after the Information Era, to add a bit more length to the game. The Information era in the science tree is purely military units and space race projects; but it would be cool if there was an actual information era with modern day stuff... but now I say it, other then terraforming I don't know what could go there.

The Civs which I can see in this expansion, displaying use of the mechanics would be:

• Venice - building up a industry of shipbuilding and selling them off to crusaders - I am sure this could be implemented in some way.
• Assyria - rumoured to be the builders of the Hanging Gardens, and possibly being the first civilization ever to build a canal system and aqueduct to feed water to the gardens all of the way across it's empire.

My other outlandish ideas include Moon Colonies and Mars Colonies; but I bet Firaxis will leave those for another game. Similar to Civilization Beyond Earth; using Civ5's engine and bridging the gap between Civ5 and Civ6, I think we might see a Civilization Martian Colonization when they are done with Civ6 and ready to start on Civ7. (They hint to an untold story about humans colonising Mars unsuccessfully in CivBE which intrigues me.)

 

[God of Kings]

Volcanoes on water should be able to create land.

After volcanic eruptions, the surrounding land becomes more fertile.

I can see the addition of Singapore as a city-state.