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Civilization 7
- Thread starter Brianstorm
- Start date
Sirsquier
Warlord
I'll share my ideas for Civ VII as soon as I have them in one place. I might make them a document
Morningcalm
Keeper of Records
What if Civ VII was a spin-off, like a mythology themed game that had fewer civs and more leader choices for each Civ, with roleplaying or event-based play like Paradox games/Old World? I think with the glut of historical strategy games coming up to compete with Civ VI, Firaxis might achieve something of a coup if they brought back a mythology-themed game with gravitas and seriousness.
Maybe something like this:
-Chinese leaders: Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), Yu the Great
-Cretan leaders: Minos, Tectamus
-Egyptian leaders: Osiris, Isis, Set, Rameses II (pharaoh in several myths involving Setna), Sesostris
-English leaders (Arthurian): King Arthur, King Ban, Mordred, Morgan le Fay, Uther Pendragon
-Greek leaders: Cadmus, Circe, Gyges, Midas, Theseus, Perseus (Atlas could be a separate Atlantean leader)
-Scythian leaders (from Greek mythology): Aeetes, Hippolyta, Medea
-Norse leaders: Beowulf, Dag the Wise, Hrothgar, Ragnar Lodbrok (there are scores of other legendary rulers though)
-Polynesian leaders: Hina, Kupe, Maui
-Roman leaders: Erulus, Evander of Pallantium, Romulus, Titus Tatius
-Sumerian leaders: Alulim, Dumuzid, Gilgamesh, Lugalbanda
Maybe something like this:
-Chinese leaders: Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), Yu the Great
-Cretan leaders: Minos, Tectamus
-Egyptian leaders: Osiris, Isis, Set, Rameses II (pharaoh in several myths involving Setna), Sesostris
-English leaders (Arthurian): King Arthur, King Ban, Mordred, Morgan le Fay, Uther Pendragon
-Greek leaders: Cadmus, Circe, Gyges, Midas, Theseus, Perseus (Atlas could be a separate Atlantean leader)
-Scythian leaders (from Greek mythology): Aeetes, Hippolyta, Medea
-Norse leaders: Beowulf, Dag the Wise, Hrothgar, Ragnar Lodbrok (there are scores of other legendary rulers though)
-Polynesian leaders: Hina, Kupe, Maui
-Roman leaders: Erulus, Evander of Pallantium, Romulus, Titus Tatius
-Sumerian leaders: Alulim, Dumuzid, Gilgamesh, Lugalbanda
That could be interesting, but I rather doubt they would call a spin-off Civ VII.
Morningcalm
Keeper of Records
Fair enough; it wouldn’t be a direct sequel but still part of the series (ala Age of Mythology or Civilization: Colonization).
Sostratus
Deity
It seems like humankind sort of took the idea that civ6 had with districts and ran with it for more flexible city structure.
I think in the same vein, there are a number of ways a civ7 could run with a few of the concepts of civ6; although, I imagine they have a particular direction for the series that would prefer somewhat elegant systems over more complex and intricate ones.
I think you could come at a few of the systems, like "districts," trade, governments, units + armies etc, and make some really flexible structures that could be numerically tuned to achieve almost anything. Plus they may be dreaming up the next "districts" level big change already.
I like the idea of districts but I do agree that on the map they look kind of disjointed and don't flow with the city center, even the ones around it.
I think that it would be interesting if when you go into the city it had it's own ring or 2 where districts and wonders could be put and the other tiles 3 rings out are used for improvements like farms and mines like now and what it was like in Civ 5.
Naokaukodem
Millenary King
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2003
- Messages
- 4,290
I would do that : https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civilization-vii-later-or-other-project.649104/
Especially to stand out from competition dramatically and reaffirm the Sid Meier's Civilization brand as an innovative one.
Some things about that idea are still vague though, particularly pop points stacking : I mean, pop points should sure be able to stack at a point, but I don't really know "when" nor "how". As to production pools, there's still some inconsitencies, especially regarding which prod units to affect to which prod pool.
That's why i'm throwing a call here : i'm sure you peeps can have helpful ideas. I threw the basis, and I would like to finish the job but this is simply too big for me alone. Thx.
Especially to stand out from competition dramatically and reaffirm the Sid Meier's Civilization brand as an innovative one.
Some things about that idea are still vague though, particularly pop points stacking : I mean, pop points should sure be able to stack at a point, but I don't really know "when" nor "how". As to production pools, there's still some inconsitencies, especially regarding which prod units to affect to which prod pool.
That's why i'm throwing a call here : i'm sure you peeps can have helpful ideas. I threw the basis, and I would like to finish the job but this is simply too big for me alone. Thx.
ColdClimate
Prince
A couple thoughts...
1. Making the terrain a bit more 'multilevel'. If wonders and districts are going to stay outside the city center, is it possible to stack more than one element per tile? Can Stonehenge co-exist with a farm? Can an industrial zone be on top of a mine? Can some wonders stay in the city center?
2. Corps/ Armies, except with units of different types. Put an archer, swordsman and a spearman together to get the best of each, but lose one and you lose them all. Feels like it could be a compromise between 1UPT and the SoD.
3. Major techs in the tree that are only attainable via a great scientist (or stealing from another civ). Once unlocked you can research lots of minor techs in the 'normal' way, but the great leaps forward are a little more random. In this way it becomes less of a tech tree and more of a web with major tech nodes.
4. The return of specialists! Ok, well just making them a more viable option. The marxist in me wants class to play a bigger role in the next civ, and have your policy choices be influenced by the structure of your civilization. The same policy options shouldn't work if youve got a mostly agrarian society versus an urbanized middle class, but if you have both types of cities you have some hard choices to make.
5. The return of the cottage system, but for most kinds of improvements. Work a farm for 30 turns and it upgrades to become more productive. Work a mine for 50 turns and it get adjacency bonuses. Work a grape plantation for long enough and it doesn't just produce wine, but a higher tier luxury resource (champagne).
No idea if these are workable, they just seemed like interesting ideas..
1. Making the terrain a bit more 'multilevel'. If wonders and districts are going to stay outside the city center, is it possible to stack more than one element per tile? Can Stonehenge co-exist with a farm? Can an industrial zone be on top of a mine? Can some wonders stay in the city center?
2. Corps/ Armies, except with units of different types. Put an archer, swordsman and a spearman together to get the best of each, but lose one and you lose them all. Feels like it could be a compromise between 1UPT and the SoD.
3. Major techs in the tree that are only attainable via a great scientist (or stealing from another civ). Once unlocked you can research lots of minor techs in the 'normal' way, but the great leaps forward are a little more random. In this way it becomes less of a tech tree and more of a web with major tech nodes.
4. The return of specialists! Ok, well just making them a more viable option. The marxist in me wants class to play a bigger role in the next civ, and have your policy choices be influenced by the structure of your civilization. The same policy options shouldn't work if youve got a mostly agrarian society versus an urbanized middle class, but if you have both types of cities you have some hard choices to make.
5. The return of the cottage system, but for most kinds of improvements. Work a farm for 30 turns and it upgrades to become more productive. Work a mine for 50 turns and it get adjacency bonuses. Work a grape plantation for long enough and it doesn't just produce wine, but a higher tier luxury resource (champagne).
No idea if these are workable, they just seemed like interesting ideas..
altayrneto
Prince
One way to portray science that I would like to see (but would be unpopular to many players) is making research something not dictated by the player.
On the first turns, research would be almost random, but it won’t be focused on one tech by time, but will slowly reasearching all the basic technologies at the same time, with some of them being researched faster by something like the Eureka system, but cumulative (each coastal tile and each sea resource on your territory will make you research sailing faster, for example), and also by trade routes with civilizations who already concluded any research.
But this blind progression will finish when you build the first Science Building/District. At this time, you will be able to patronize scientists to research specific areas of interest (warfare, architecture, economic, seafare...), and when some tech reached 50% of research complete, or some civ (which you do have contact) already researched it, you will be able to know that technology and focus on it.
After the Renaissance Era, you will be able to have more control on your scientific development, and in atomic era, the system will be similar to the current tech tree, as late technologies do require a more focused research, even in real life.
I know there are many players who do like to play on the most efficient or most calculist way, and make strategies of research centuries ahead. But I think this system can make the growth of all civs ingame being more natural and organic, giving even more incentive to explore, and also showing how isolated nations stay far behind on technology.
Last edited:
ColdClimate
Prince
I like this idea as a kind of "mother of invention' approach to research. I'd actually like to see something similar with unit promotions: instead of picking whichever one you want, you get one based on the kind of battles you've experienced. Fight on hills enough and you unlock the alpine promotion, defend against enough cavalry and you get the echelon, etc. Once you unlock it, all new units can level up to it in the current way, but not until you 'learn' how.
Maybe that would just make combat that much more tedious, but I like the idea of units learning from the conditions of their combat instead of just general experience.
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Most of what I'd like to see I don't expect to see in any Civ: VII, IX, XXXXIII, whatever. That's why I started a "Perfect Historical 4X" Thread to explore different ways of doing the 4X Historical Dance without regard to the probabilty of anybody in Firaxis paying any attention.
But, that said, there are some 'progressions' from the current Civ VI that I think could be implemented and give a better game.
1. Units. The hoary old concept that units take X turns to produce based on the Production of the city is obsolete and ridiculous: in Civ VI on standard speed, what possible rationalization is there for it to take 300 years to 'build' a Slinger in the Ancient Era? One possible alternative is to 'tie' each unit to a certain type of manufactured Resource or Weapon which can be 'stockpiled' in the Palace, Barracks, Stable, or other structure and then pop out a unit in a single turn using the stockpiled equipment. Limiting factors to avoid Infinite Unit Spam would be Population Without Jobs (bring back Specialists, every unit would 'cost' one or more Specialists and, of course, every Specialist that gets conscripted into the Army/Navy would be one less producing Food, Resources, etc.) and Maintenance: most units would cost resources and Gold to keep them 'in uniform'.
2. Districts/City. Building on the current practically Unrestricted District Placement, make the distance from city center available for placement dependent on Transportation Technology: the old 'city radius' would now be as many tiles as you can transport stuff back to the city, which would be much greater along coasts or rivers than overland and very restricted indeed at Start of Game, but by the time you've got Railroads, automobiles, Interstate Highways, could be practically Map-Wide.
Along with this, instead of Adjacencies being dependent on Districts, apply them to the structures/building within the Districts. Taking a brick from Humankind, which appears to have much more 'generic' Districts and multiple Districts of the same type, ALL Districts start out as Generic except for the City Center, which has to have an Administrative Building to run everything (Palace, Governor's Palace, Mayor's Mansion, Rathaus, etc). All other Districts would be 'specialized' by the buildings in them. That opens up a huge variety of potential 'adjacency' bonuses among the individual buildings, whether the buildings are in neighboring Districts or the same District.
3. Resources. Make them ALL more flexible and dynamic. No more fixed Strategic, Bonus and Amenity/Luxury Resources - the type would depend on the use, which would depend on a combination of Technology, Social, Civic status of your Civ. And many Resources could be spread: there's no reason to have one - two tiles of Wheat/Maize/Rice if one of those grains is your Basic Food Group - you'll plant them on every tile they will grow, and the types and spread of those tiles will change with Irrigation, Botanical Science, and Agricultural Technology available. In fact, most 'Food' resources should only appear on the map if you are not exploiting them: once you start planting them, they become part of the basic Resource Points for every tile with a 'Farm' on it in your Civ where appropriate (like, Rice can originally only grow on marsh, floodplain, or heavily Irrigated flat tiles, not on Un-Terraced Hills or 'dry' Plains).
Mineral Resources should not all appear magically at once. You should have to keep looking throughout the game for new 'deposits' of Iron, Copper, Aluminum, Oil, etc. Let's have Gold and Silver Rushes in the game for the First Time!
4. Combat. One Tile. One Turn Battles. Right now Civ has 'battles' that take centuries and cover counties. It is utterly impossible in a normal Civ VI game to even refight World War Two: the 6 turns the war lasted wouldn't be enough to fight more than a single battle! You stack units, the maximum subject to severe limits based on terrain, supply, and technology, and they spread out in some kind of on-map tactical array to fight, and the battle is finished, largely, in a single Turn.
This would also allow the game to show the difference between Strategic (game map) characteristics of armies and units and Tactical (battle map) characteristics, which the game has never shown before. It's not only bad that Mongol Horse Archers or German Panzer Divisions were deadly combat forces (tactical), it's even worse that they can show up where you least want them and are least prepared to counter them (strategic)
5. Leaders. Do away with the individually-animated Civ Leaders, because they simply suck resources out of the rest of the game. Civ V and VI have been limited in the numbers of Civs in the game and the number they could add because each one requires a relatively huge investment in graphic talent and resources for a Leader that you never see if you are playing that Civ and that you click past after the first few times you play against that Civ. Great Marketing, Lousy In-Game Feature. I've suggested before, have Diplomats, animated all you want, with costumes and/or background that change with the Dynasty/Leader/Civ/Tech/Era/all of the above - that's what you interact with, and all the graphics resources can go into wild animals in the forest tiles, farmers on the farms, trains on the railroad tracks, better terrain and vegetation and unit animations and graphics and all the things you actually see and play with/against throughout the game. Look at the terrain shown so far in Humankind to see what can be done if most of your graphics people aren't tied up animating Leaders.
6. Goodies. Civ needs so much more, and many are simply additions to what they've started with:
- Allow the gamer to rename rivers, mountains, lakes.
- Allow all units to be named, and change the names as desired. The Russian Musketman unit I named the Moskovskii Grenadiers I should be able to rename the 13th Guards Rifle Division when I upgrade it to Infantry.
- Allow demolition of anything in the Civ to build something new. Philistines can even dynamite Great Churches/Wonders if there's a 'modern structure they think is more valuable.
- More ability to 'terraform' the landscape. Dams are Classical Technology, if not earlier. Canals same, but get better as lock and earth-moving technology improves. Modern mining rips whole mountains apart to get at deposits. We bridge or tunnel under estuaries, coastal tiles, have tunneled through mountains since the late 18th century, build arificial islands and estend land into shallow water - let the AI or gamer do all those things.
There's more, but that's a start.
But, that said, there are some 'progressions' from the current Civ VI that I think could be implemented and give a better game.
1. Units. The hoary old concept that units take X turns to produce based on the Production of the city is obsolete and ridiculous: in Civ VI on standard speed, what possible rationalization is there for it to take 300 years to 'build' a Slinger in the Ancient Era? One possible alternative is to 'tie' each unit to a certain type of manufactured Resource or Weapon which can be 'stockpiled' in the Palace, Barracks, Stable, or other structure and then pop out a unit in a single turn using the stockpiled equipment. Limiting factors to avoid Infinite Unit Spam would be Population Without Jobs (bring back Specialists, every unit would 'cost' one or more Specialists and, of course, every Specialist that gets conscripted into the Army/Navy would be one less producing Food, Resources, etc.) and Maintenance: most units would cost resources and Gold to keep them 'in uniform'.
2. Districts/City. Building on the current practically Unrestricted District Placement, make the distance from city center available for placement dependent on Transportation Technology: the old 'city radius' would now be as many tiles as you can transport stuff back to the city, which would be much greater along coasts or rivers than overland and very restricted indeed at Start of Game, but by the time you've got Railroads, automobiles, Interstate Highways, could be practically Map-Wide.
Along with this, instead of Adjacencies being dependent on Districts, apply them to the structures/building within the Districts. Taking a brick from Humankind, which appears to have much more 'generic' Districts and multiple Districts of the same type, ALL Districts start out as Generic except for the City Center, which has to have an Administrative Building to run everything (Palace, Governor's Palace, Mayor's Mansion, Rathaus, etc). All other Districts would be 'specialized' by the buildings in them. That opens up a huge variety of potential 'adjacency' bonuses among the individual buildings, whether the buildings are in neighboring Districts or the same District.
3. Resources. Make them ALL more flexible and dynamic. No more fixed Strategic, Bonus and Amenity/Luxury Resources - the type would depend on the use, which would depend on a combination of Technology, Social, Civic status of your Civ. And many Resources could be spread: there's no reason to have one - two tiles of Wheat/Maize/Rice if one of those grains is your Basic Food Group - you'll plant them on every tile they will grow, and the types and spread of those tiles will change with Irrigation, Botanical Science, and Agricultural Technology available. In fact, most 'Food' resources should only appear on the map if you are not exploiting them: once you start planting them, they become part of the basic Resource Points for every tile with a 'Farm' on it in your Civ where appropriate (like, Rice can originally only grow on marsh, floodplain, or heavily Irrigated flat tiles, not on Un-Terraced Hills or 'dry' Plains).
Mineral Resources should not all appear magically at once. You should have to keep looking throughout the game for new 'deposits' of Iron, Copper, Aluminum, Oil, etc. Let's have Gold and Silver Rushes in the game for the First Time!
4. Combat. One Tile. One Turn Battles. Right now Civ has 'battles' that take centuries and cover counties. It is utterly impossible in a normal Civ VI game to even refight World War Two: the 6 turns the war lasted wouldn't be enough to fight more than a single battle! You stack units, the maximum subject to severe limits based on terrain, supply, and technology, and they spread out in some kind of on-map tactical array to fight, and the battle is finished, largely, in a single Turn.
This would also allow the game to show the difference between Strategic (game map) characteristics of armies and units and Tactical (battle map) characteristics, which the game has never shown before. It's not only bad that Mongol Horse Archers or German Panzer Divisions were deadly combat forces (tactical), it's even worse that they can show up where you least want them and are least prepared to counter them (strategic)
5. Leaders. Do away with the individually-animated Civ Leaders, because they simply suck resources out of the rest of the game. Civ V and VI have been limited in the numbers of Civs in the game and the number they could add because each one requires a relatively huge investment in graphic talent and resources for a Leader that you never see if you are playing that Civ and that you click past after the first few times you play against that Civ. Great Marketing, Lousy In-Game Feature. I've suggested before, have Diplomats, animated all you want, with costumes and/or background that change with the Dynasty/Leader/Civ/Tech/Era/all of the above - that's what you interact with, and all the graphics resources can go into wild animals in the forest tiles, farmers on the farms, trains on the railroad tracks, better terrain and vegetation and unit animations and graphics and all the things you actually see and play with/against throughout the game. Look at the terrain shown so far in Humankind to see what can be done if most of your graphics people aren't tied up animating Leaders.
6. Goodies. Civ needs so much more, and many are simply additions to what they've started with:
- Allow the gamer to rename rivers, mountains, lakes.
- Allow all units to be named, and change the names as desired. The Russian Musketman unit I named the Moskovskii Grenadiers I should be able to rename the 13th Guards Rifle Division when I upgrade it to Infantry.
- Allow demolition of anything in the Civ to build something new. Philistines can even dynamite Great Churches/Wonders if there's a 'modern structure they think is more valuable.
- More ability to 'terraform' the landscape. Dams are Classical Technology, if not earlier. Canals same, but get better as lock and earth-moving technology improves. Modern mining rips whole mountains apart to get at deposits. We bridge or tunnel under estuaries, coastal tiles, have tunneled through mountains since the late 18th century, build arificial islands and estend land into shallow water - let the AI or gamer do all those things.
There's more, but that's a start.
This is my concept for Civilization VII. It could even work as a DLC for Civilization VI, but I think the changes are a bit too drastic for that.
Prehistoric Era
Start with four units: 2 Hunters and 2 Gatherers. These units could create an outpost (similarly to Barbarian outposts in Civ6), where they could produce more units. Both units could lose a percentage of their health in each turn (to symbolise the difficulty of survival without agriculture), which they could earn back by hunting and gathering, respectively. There could be animal units around the map, similarly to barbarians in earlier Civ installments. Some of them could be peaceful, some of them not (they attack player units).
Hunters could kill these animals, which increases the health of all units by a specific amount (could be optional to micromanage or do automatically). If Hunters are able to completely surround an animal unit, they can domesticate them and place them as tile improvements.
Gatherers could increase health by collecting fruits from forests. They can domesticate plants by performing a domestication action (if I remember correctly, similarly to Workers in Civ5), taking some turns.
After domesticating at least one kind of grain, the ability to train a settler is unlocked in the outpost, and the game transitions into the Ancient Era. (Optionally, it could be the first settlement that determines which civilisation you are playing.)
This concept would also mean that Barbarians leave the game, and each tribe is essentially a potential civ.
Changes to Geography, Climate and Disasters
The current climate and geography model, while not bad, definitely needs some improvement. We need a much larger scale of geographic situations, as currently, the consequences of climate change are limited.
I would recommend having a global temperature scale, which ranges from “completely covered in ice and snow” via “all ice melted” to “completely dried out”. This would allow for basically limitless climate change, as well as putting civs to test in different environments. This model would also need biomes to shift with climate change (keeping the Snow - Tundra - Grassland - Plains - Desert categories would be fine). These could shift with a more realistic climate model. (I recommend checking out this channel, it explains how climate could be quite well: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeh-pJYRZTBJDXMNZeWSUVA) Also, it would be great if each civ would have a “home climate” in which their units and cities are effective, and others in which they would be less effective, maybe by more movement, more combat strength, more production in the home climate and less in foreign climates. (Think of it as the “Russian winter effect”.) If combined with the above suggestion of the Prehistoric Era and the appearance of wild animals, climate change could also involve plant and animal migration, evolution or even extinction. Also, let’s have ice ages as well, not just global warming.
With a wide temperature scale, it would also be important that all tiles have an altitude value, which determines when they are submerged and when they are not. It is a bit strange that it is impossible to have sea level rise change more than three meters. It literally changed more ca. 12,000 years ago.
The current disaster system is fine (I don't have Apocalypse Mode yet), meteor strikes are OK if their size and probability distribution matches real-life probabilities. One disaster that is really missing, though, are earthquakes, which can have dramatic effects on history (see Portugal), much more than meteor strikes or tornadoes. Volcanic eruptions could also have a much larger effect, like some of them causing a volcanic winter (like in real life in 1816), and thus famine. EDIT: Allow volcanic eruptions to completely wipe cities off the map like meteor strikes (leaving behind some archaeological sites on the map).
Pandemics could also be a disaster which decreases population significantly. The probability of pandemics could increase with the number of animal farms in the country's territory. Trade routes as well as other units could spread the disease to other parts of the world. It could also spread on its own to neighbouring cities.
Of course, nukes are the most visible WMDs, but biological and chemical weapons could be added as well. EDIT: Nukes should also be able to completely wipe off cities, and not just do some wall damage and a few turns of radiation pollution.
Changes to Loyalty, Free Cities and City States
I recommend basing loyalty on amenities, language, and proximity (and maybe government form, religion, geographic features, as well as other factors). The most important component of these would be amenities in the early game, and shift to language in the later game.
Language could work in a way that it spreads via trade routes, but could also be artificially increased by migration (i.e. sending Settlers into a foreign city would increase its immigrant population). Languages could also develop, split or go extinct, this could also be affected by the kinds media the civ has already researched (books, newspapers, radio, TV, internet) It could even be something that replaces religion, but I think that would mean that we lose out on an important factor of world history.
I would also like the free cities and city-state concepts changed up a bit. Instead of free cities, we could have new civs emerging from rebellion.
An option would be that each civ has some “rebel civs” attached to it, which could form by seceding from that civ. (For example, when playing as Britain, revolting cities could turn into the United States, Canada or Australia, or join another civ.) This, however, could probably seen negatively in some markets (let’s say that you are China, and you see Taiwan or Tibet seceding from you).
Another solution could be to make some fictional leaders maybe going as far as creating constructed languages of just the few sentences they speak. Not that it would be harder than finding someone speaking ancient Egyptian fluently.
City-states make sense a little-bit (given that they usually don’t form as gaining independence from someone). But they (with a few exceptions) weren’t influential enough to change world history drastically. Thus, I think it would be best to leave them out.
Prehistoric Era
Start with four units: 2 Hunters and 2 Gatherers. These units could create an outpost (similarly to Barbarian outposts in Civ6), where they could produce more units. Both units could lose a percentage of their health in each turn (to symbolise the difficulty of survival without agriculture), which they could earn back by hunting and gathering, respectively. There could be animal units around the map, similarly to barbarians in earlier Civ installments. Some of them could be peaceful, some of them not (they attack player units).
Hunters could kill these animals, which increases the health of all units by a specific amount (could be optional to micromanage or do automatically). If Hunters are able to completely surround an animal unit, they can domesticate them and place them as tile improvements.
Gatherers could increase health by collecting fruits from forests. They can domesticate plants by performing a domestication action (if I remember correctly, similarly to Workers in Civ5), taking some turns.
After domesticating at least one kind of grain, the ability to train a settler is unlocked in the outpost, and the game transitions into the Ancient Era. (Optionally, it could be the first settlement that determines which civilisation you are playing.)
This concept would also mean that Barbarians leave the game, and each tribe is essentially a potential civ.
Changes to Geography, Climate and Disasters
The current climate and geography model, while not bad, definitely needs some improvement. We need a much larger scale of geographic situations, as currently, the consequences of climate change are limited.
I would recommend having a global temperature scale, which ranges from “completely covered in ice and snow” via “all ice melted” to “completely dried out”. This would allow for basically limitless climate change, as well as putting civs to test in different environments. This model would also need biomes to shift with climate change (keeping the Snow - Tundra - Grassland - Plains - Desert categories would be fine). These could shift with a more realistic climate model. (I recommend checking out this channel, it explains how climate could be quite well: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeh-pJYRZTBJDXMNZeWSUVA) Also, it would be great if each civ would have a “home climate” in which their units and cities are effective, and others in which they would be less effective, maybe by more movement, more combat strength, more production in the home climate and less in foreign climates. (Think of it as the “Russian winter effect”.) If combined with the above suggestion of the Prehistoric Era and the appearance of wild animals, climate change could also involve plant and animal migration, evolution or even extinction. Also, let’s have ice ages as well, not just global warming.
With a wide temperature scale, it would also be important that all tiles have an altitude value, which determines when they are submerged and when they are not. It is a bit strange that it is impossible to have sea level rise change more than three meters. It literally changed more ca. 12,000 years ago.
The current disaster system is fine (I don't have Apocalypse Mode yet), meteor strikes are OK if their size and probability distribution matches real-life probabilities. One disaster that is really missing, though, are earthquakes, which can have dramatic effects on history (see Portugal), much more than meteor strikes or tornadoes. Volcanic eruptions could also have a much larger effect, like some of them causing a volcanic winter (like in real life in 1816), and thus famine. EDIT: Allow volcanic eruptions to completely wipe cities off the map like meteor strikes (leaving behind some archaeological sites on the map).
Pandemics could also be a disaster which decreases population significantly. The probability of pandemics could increase with the number of animal farms in the country's territory. Trade routes as well as other units could spread the disease to other parts of the world. It could also spread on its own to neighbouring cities.
Of course, nukes are the most visible WMDs, but biological and chemical weapons could be added as well. EDIT: Nukes should also be able to completely wipe off cities, and not just do some wall damage and a few turns of radiation pollution.
Changes to Loyalty, Free Cities and City States
I recommend basing loyalty on amenities, language, and proximity (and maybe government form, religion, geographic features, as well as other factors). The most important component of these would be amenities in the early game, and shift to language in the later game.
Language could work in a way that it spreads via trade routes, but could also be artificially increased by migration (i.e. sending Settlers into a foreign city would increase its immigrant population). Languages could also develop, split or go extinct, this could also be affected by the kinds media the civ has already researched (books, newspapers, radio, TV, internet) It could even be something that replaces religion, but I think that would mean that we lose out on an important factor of world history.
I would also like the free cities and city-state concepts changed up a bit. Instead of free cities, we could have new civs emerging from rebellion.
An option would be that each civ has some “rebel civs” attached to it, which could form by seceding from that civ. (For example, when playing as Britain, revolting cities could turn into the United States, Canada or Australia, or join another civ.) This, however, could probably seen negatively in some markets (let’s say that you are China, and you see Taiwan or Tibet seceding from you).
Another solution could be to make some fictional leaders maybe going as far as creating constructed languages of just the few sentences they speak. Not that it would be harder than finding someone speaking ancient Egyptian fluently.
City-states make sense a little-bit (given that they usually don’t form as gaining independence from someone). But they (with a few exceptions) weren’t influential enough to change world history drastically. Thus, I think it would be best to leave them out.
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I can't stand the congestion - even with huge maps and reducing the amount of players it still seems too "closed in". I don't like having to rush for every space so fast.
Sostratus
Deity
Well one obvious thing I would LIKE (which they did a pretty decent job with for Civ6) is releasing modding tools right away.
Drilling into that, a cleaner way to handle art assets would be amazing for people who aren’t super involved in the art side.
For example, perhaps I want my new unit, the “SuperTank” to simply inherit the model and sounds of the Tank.
Instead of the MASSIVE rigamarole of artdef, just let me say something like
Icon = icon_tank
model = model_tank
Sounds = sounds_tank
The complicated process can be used to define what model_X is, but let me reference and assign it in one line.
Likewise, the current way buildings in districts are graphically composed is a nightmare that grows factorially in complexity as the number of displayed buildings increases. BAD.
Suppose I have an IZ and I want to add a new workshop (“Forge”) variant that all civs can use.
The IZ currently needs to define:
IZ (no buildings)
IZ + workshop
IZ + workshop + factory
IZ+ workshop + factory + coal plant
IZ+ workshop + factory + oil plant
IZ+ workshop + factory + nuke plant
And then the last 4 entires have copies for the electronics factory.
I would need to add 10 new entries to add my Forge. Instead, come up with a way to simply use the location the building goes in as part of its graphical definition.
Everything I just said 10x for recycling an existing leader for a custom Civ.
Drilling into that, a cleaner way to handle art assets would be amazing for people who aren’t super involved in the art side.
For example, perhaps I want my new unit, the “SuperTank” to simply inherit the model and sounds of the Tank.
Instead of the MASSIVE rigamarole of artdef, just let me say something like
Icon = icon_tank
model = model_tank
Sounds = sounds_tank
The complicated process can be used to define what model_X is, but let me reference and assign it in one line.
Likewise, the current way buildings in districts are graphically composed is a nightmare that grows factorially in complexity as the number of displayed buildings increases. BAD.
Suppose I have an IZ and I want to add a new workshop (“Forge”) variant that all civs can use.
The IZ currently needs to define:
IZ (no buildings)
IZ + workshop
IZ + workshop + factory
IZ+ workshop + factory + coal plant
IZ+ workshop + factory + oil plant
IZ+ workshop + factory + nuke plant
And then the last 4 entires have copies for the electronics factory.
I would need to add 10 new entries to add my Forge. Instead, come up with a way to simply use the location the building goes in as part of its graphical definition.
Everything I just said 10x for recycling an existing leader for a custom Civ.
dagriggstar
King
I don't know what the cool new feature for civ 7 will be (6 districts, 5 1UPT), but I hope it isn't anything too complex. For that reason I doubt we get a tactical and strategic map, the AI I think would struggle with that. I am pro stacking, just with counter measures that make stacking generally a bad idea (Why are you stacking 6 units on one tile when I have a catapult that will deal 30 damage to every unit on an individual tile, you should spread those units out).
Going through the civ 6 features according to the wiki
Districts - Cool fun feature. Keep and possibly expand on adjacencys.
Housing - Makes city settlement more interesting in a way that feels organic. But there might be a better system out there too.
Amenities - I don't think this feature adds anything fun to the game. Remove.
Builders - Remove. Tile improvements appear when a tile has been worked by a citizen for x turns.
Civic tree - Remove. Feels like science 2.0. I would like a return to civ 4 tile/city flipping culture
Boosts - Cool fun feature. Keep.
Governments/Policy cards - Remove. Too much micro. Too hard to get the AI to use properly.
Espionage - I like that it is used as a catch up mechanic. Keep but I'm not that bothered about it.
Great Works - Cool fun feature. Keep, but make themeing easier.
Religion - I like religion as a way to adapt your civ to the surrounding terrain. I dislike the existence of religious units. Active conversions I think should be a function of diplomacy.
Combat - I think there should generally be less military units on the map. So stuff like military units needing food, higher gold per turn costs etc. I think that would help the AI immensely. I also think that would make the game quicker.
Trade routes - Cool fun feature.
Great People - Cool fun feature.
Agendas - I generally like this feature...
Barbarians - Nice improvement on previous versions.
City-states - Cool fun feature, but I preferred the civ 5 way of gaining influence.
Leaders Bonuses - Dislike, on the basis of it making civilisation design becoming more messy. I would prefer each civ have one ability bonus (either strong but situational or weak and general).
Golden Ages - Cool fun feature. I would prefer ages be determined by the era score on every turn of the game. For example (Obviously in this example era score is much easier to achieve)
Governors - Dislike, increases micromanagement and is hard for the AI to make use of
Environmental effects - Cool fun feature. Should deal more initial damage however (Like, I usually see a volcano and am like "hey nice city location")
Power and consumable resources - Eh.....Don't think I find the system fun.....can do without it.
Engineering - I like that canals, dams etc exist. So keep.
World Congress - Needs better implementation (I don't have any ideas here though)
21st century tech and civics - No thanks. Game should aim to end with the moon landing (or at a stretch, mars). End game you should be choosing between developing nukes (military win), developing the internet (culture wins) or going to the moon (science wins).
Other
I am pro civ 5 ideologies and think that should form the basis of culture wins. I like that system much more than the civ 6 policy system, since policies encourage switching often, which disadvantages the AI.
I would like to see specialist economies be a thing again.
Graphical representation of civs should be diplomats, not leaders.
Finally diplomacy - the game should strongly encourage you to co-operate with your neighbours as a way to avoid having runaway civs (which in turn leads to games being over early).
Going through the civ 6 features according to the wiki
Districts - Cool fun feature. Keep and possibly expand on adjacencys.
Housing - Makes city settlement more interesting in a way that feels organic. But there might be a better system out there too.
Amenities - I don't think this feature adds anything fun to the game. Remove.
Builders - Remove. Tile improvements appear when a tile has been worked by a citizen for x turns.
Civic tree - Remove. Feels like science 2.0. I would like a return to civ 4 tile/city flipping culture
Boosts - Cool fun feature. Keep.
Governments/Policy cards - Remove. Too much micro. Too hard to get the AI to use properly.
Espionage - I like that it is used as a catch up mechanic. Keep but I'm not that bothered about it.
Great Works - Cool fun feature. Keep, but make themeing easier.
Religion - I like religion as a way to adapt your civ to the surrounding terrain. I dislike the existence of religious units. Active conversions I think should be a function of diplomacy.
Combat - I think there should generally be less military units on the map. So stuff like military units needing food, higher gold per turn costs etc. I think that would help the AI immensely. I also think that would make the game quicker.
Trade routes - Cool fun feature.
Great People - Cool fun feature.
Agendas - I generally like this feature...
Barbarians - Nice improvement on previous versions.
City-states - Cool fun feature, but I preferred the civ 5 way of gaining influence.
Leaders Bonuses - Dislike, on the basis of it making civilisation design becoming more messy. I would prefer each civ have one ability bonus (either strong but situational or weak and general).
Golden Ages - Cool fun feature. I would prefer ages be determined by the era score on every turn of the game. For example (Obviously in this example era score is much easier to achieve)
Turn 30 - Golden age threshold is 20 - Your score is 30 - You are in a golden age !
Turn 31 - Golden age threshold is 22 - Your score is 30 - You are in a golden age ! (During golden ages the threshold increases by 2)
Turn 35 - Golden age threshold is 30 - Your score is 30 - You are in a normal age
Turn 36 - Golden age threshold is 31 - Your score is 30 - You are in a normal age (During normal ages the threshold increases by 1)
Loyalty - I would like a return to civ 4 tile/city flipping culture, which would make this loyalty system redundant.Turn 31 - Golden age threshold is 22 - Your score is 30 - You are in a golden age ! (During golden ages the threshold increases by 2)
Turn 35 - Golden age threshold is 30 - Your score is 30 - You are in a normal age
Turn 36 - Golden age threshold is 31 - Your score is 30 - You are in a normal age (During normal ages the threshold increases by 1)
Governors - Dislike, increases micromanagement and is hard for the AI to make use of
Environmental effects - Cool fun feature. Should deal more initial damage however (Like, I usually see a volcano and am like "hey nice city location")
Power and consumable resources - Eh.....Don't think I find the system fun.....can do without it.
Engineering - I like that canals, dams etc exist. So keep.
World Congress - Needs better implementation (I don't have any ideas here though)
21st century tech and civics - No thanks. Game should aim to end with the moon landing (or at a stretch, mars). End game you should be choosing between developing nukes (military win), developing the internet (culture wins) or going to the moon (science wins).
Other
I am pro civ 5 ideologies and think that should form the basis of culture wins. I like that system much more than the civ 6 policy system, since policies encourage switching often, which disadvantages the AI.
I would like to see specialist economies be a thing again.
Graphical representation of civs should be diplomats, not leaders.
Finally diplomacy - the game should strongly encourage you to co-operate with your neighbours as a way to avoid having runaway civs (which in turn leads to games being over early).
Economic resources - do you control 1/2/3 copies of tobacco ? You get 1/3/6 gold per turn ! What, your neighbour has a 4th copy ? why not trade them your only copy of Incense (giving them 4 Incense) for their copy of tobacco ? Yay ! Now you have 4 copies of tobacco for 10 gold per turn (And they have 4 Incense so they get 10 gold per turn).
Each level of diplomatic visibility with a neighbour should add science per turn to your civ.
Build a campus within 6 tiles of a foreign city - Get foreign students who contribute extra science !
The boosts need to be big enough to make trade embargoes an effective way of dealing with a runaway civ.Each level of diplomatic visibility with a neighbour should add science per turn to your civ.
Build a campus within 6 tiles of a foreign city - Get foreign students who contribute extra science !
Prester John 2
Warlord
For civ7 I would like to get rid of the 1 unit per tile rule and reintroduce stacking, but make it less exploitable. 1 unit per tile has so many bad consequences, from bad handling by the AI, to restrictions on unit costs, to traffic jams, etc. I agree stacking was not ideally implemented in vanilla Civ4 but Realism Invictus did a great job of alleviating those shortcomings.
I didn't have Civ4, could you please explain what you mean by that?
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Civ IV had virtually unlimited unit stacking, so it produced the notorious "Stack of Doom" (SOD) in which you or the AI simply piled up units and steamrollered everything in your path. The (over) reaction to that, I suspect, is what brought about the 1 UPT of Civ V and now Civ VI.
Unfortunately, it sometimes leads people to assume there are only two options: the extremes of SOD or 1UPT, both of which are extremely problematic, but in different ways.
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