First -- I like Civ4 and love things like the addition of religions. And I LOVE the theme songs. However, when I play this game I am always feeling like something is missing. I hope that whatever happens with Civ5, that that feeling is abated.
- I'd like to be able to split my empire up into provinces/states. Not sure how this would be implemented... but could be something where you could create a number of province profiles which would have auto-assigned hotkeys corresponding to each province. You then could click on one of these cities and hit the hotkey, making that city part of the corresponding province. Things you could assign to each province 'profile' could be things like taxes, production focus (ie. culture, religion (i think it should be separate from while still linked to culture), cash, manufacturing, etc.), and any other neat things you could think of.
- I'd like to see the city population figures in the city window again (ie. 360,000). I'd actually prefer them on the main map city summary but that's not probably too much.
- I'll destroy my city whenever I darned well want, thank-you. One mis-key when taking over a city and I never have the option to abandon my city again? Bring back the option!
- I want the council from Civ2 back too, they were fun.
- I miss being able to build my castle as in Civ1.
- I want to legitimately be able to terraform squares, either through the use of a special worker (like the engineer in Civ2) or as an added function for the existing worker. The land tiles/squares in Civ4 are far too limiting
- While well done, the wonder videos lack the "I'm there" feeling that you had when viewing the vids in Civ2. I'd love to see them again.
- Way better help files that cross-link each other and perhaps can be updated through an Internet connection to a central resource operated by Firaxis or whomever for as long as the game and its expansions are sold. A Civ5 wikipedia, if you will.
- The return of highways, but as an addition to tiles (not a city improvement like civ2), with different move costs, etc. then rail.
- Some method for highways and railways to be able to cross each other but not necessarily be on the same tile.
- I can't help but feel like there aren't enough city improvements available. I have this feeling every time I play the game, but can't pinpoint the source. If you think you know what it is... please point it out.
- The UN. Either embrace it fully or make it less annoying. I'd prefer an expansion of it, just so long as I am not prompted every couple of turns to choose and then vote on a resolution: For example, if you hare voted in as head of the UN, and you don't want anything to change worldwide, you should be able to click on something that says "don't prompt me for the duration of my term" and let the AI deal with telling everybody you have no legislation to pass, that you're busy building your empire. A link in the menu or on screen somewhere should be available though in the event you should change your mind any time mid-term. I'd also like to see a graphical representation of the votes by the various governments both before and after votes. Adding other options like population control, poverty, world health, genetic conventions, war conventions beyond nuclear, etc. might also be neat. I'd recommend UN task forces but I think that could get too complicated. The ability to sway other players to vote along with them might be fun too.
- expanded diplomacy -- M002 and GalCiv2 style... or even Civ4 style, but for all players.... I am tired of being asked to agree to an open borders agreement, convert to a religion, or something similar while not being able to do so in return. I don't care if they don't say 'yes'... I should still be able to ask.
- I'd like the reporting and empire control screens to be a bit more comfortable both in the way they look and in their capability, as well as ease of use.