Collection of ideas

[Dark Brightness]

Anyone who reads these ideas may freely use them in developing or modding Civ games.

After playing civ for a long time and trying out different mods I've come up with different implementations together with my friends. If you've ever come across any similar mod, feel free to post it in the thread.

To start off, combat has always been quite iffy in TBS. Many units have been added but especially naval combat still feels lacking. Embarking has been especially annoying, as units are really vulnerable to actual naval ships and can't defend themselves very well. This is understandable if you think of them hopping onto transportation ships with no defense, but that sounds highly unlikely. Rather, it might be better if ships were manned by a skilled force of marines, while the main invasion force would be sent by airplanes. Tanks and other equipment would still be sent by ship, which would go down if the ship was destroyed.
Early game: armies crossing seas were very uncommon, though it might've happened. Land combat was more likely, though triremes and the likes could still be used to transport units, who would die together with the ship if sunk.
Late game: as previously written, marines and aircraft carriers would be the main invasion force, with the larger army coming later if going for a full-scale war.

Continuing on units and armies, my friend and I thought about defensive structures and their use in-game. Forts and citadels have their uses, but my friend, who likes city building, liked the idea of having castles. Therefore it might be nice if the fort, as currently known, would advance with era and change shape, together with a defensive bonus given to units. It could only be built inside your own territory, while another structure would be constructed in no man's land or inside enemy territory. Trenches might be an improvement unlocked by a military tech, which one can build outside the homeland. Cities wouldn't be able to grow to the tile and if inside enemy territory, the underlying tile couldn't be worked by the city. When retaken repairing would take about 1 turn.

On the topic of territory, occupying enemy territory with an army might be a nice addition, instead of having to take a whole city. This way a city may be starved or weakened for a future attack, or left alone for a less aggressive expansion. (From own experience with having 2 cities very close to one another). The tile would after some turns become part of your territory, or through a treaty/diplomatic deal. Units inside city garrison should also take damage, while city ranged attack should do less damage without proper equipment and crew (archers). Buildings and equipment could be destroyed during a siege if the city doesn't have good defenses (less impact in civ vi with unpacked cities, but the buildings [library, university, barracks...] may be destroyed from further away).

I'd love if cities could have multiple things under construction during the same turn, instead of switching between military and buildings. Instead the individual training of units and construction of buildings could take longer, though this might complicate gameplay and game balance. Training units in a military complex instead of the city and naval units in the dockyard, while construction would be part of the city. It might still be wise to leave worker production and other units (settler, basic soldier) to the city centre. Multiple 1 turn buildings could be constructed on the same turn, instead of saving production to coming turns.

On topic of production, an idea I'm sure has been suggested, is letting the person with highest excess production get the wonder, instead of letting the first player in turn have it (or the host while playing on simultaneous). If the production is the same, maybe happiness or some other factor could play in (or random chance).

Something I miss in civ are dedicated servers for players, which would allow people with bad computers to still play together (maybe hotseat fixes this, I'm not certain).

I'm sure I forgot something and sidetracked a bit, but these are the main things I had on my mind. Thanks for reading, I hope you got something out of it

Edit: Moved my edit to a reply for clearer forum structure.

More ideas to be found in my replies.

 

[jsciv69]

Highways/Roads/Streets: In Civ VI I think an inner city/civ highway/road system should appear. Maybe have small people and horse drawn vehicles/automobiles traveling along. In the cities there can be streets and avenues.

Travel: Show commercial/passenger airliners flying to and from airports from city to city and Civ to Civ. Cruiseships sailing from port to port. Trains on the railroads.

Weather/Natural disasters: Show rain and snow. Volcanic eruptions(like in Civ III), earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons.

Fire/Crime: Have fires breakout in the cities at random times. This would require building fire stations to reduce severity and frequency. Random crime impacting the populations.

Immigration: This was experimented somewhat in Civ IV. This could bring the return of international incidents perhaps leading to wars. Maybe through cultural influence(Like in Civ III) causing peoples and whole cities to change Civs.

The little people: In Civ V when a city was attacked/bombed there were screams of panic. It would be fun to see little people running for shelter when war comes to town.

Wild animals: in Civ IV certain animals such as bears and wolves appeared as barbarians. Maybe have them reappear. Lions, tigers, sharks, crocodiles, cobras, wild dogs etc.

Just a few suggestions.

 

[Veggiestorm]

I agree with all these ideas I especially like the idea of cities becoming more alive like the cars on roads and trains on railway tracks. I also think it would be nice that when you build factories you can actually see them and they produce smoke creating a more life like image of the city. Really just a bunch of aesthetic stuff to create nicer looking empires.

 

[jsciv69]

I agree with all these ideas I especially like the idea of cities becoming more alive like the cars on roads and trains on railway tracks. I also think it would be nice that when you build factories you can actually see them and they produce smoke creating a more life like image of the city. Really just a bunch of aesthetic stuff to create nicer looking empires.

Some of the ideas come from previous Civ installments. Others come from the SimCity series and other games.
When it comes to city building and management SimCity makes it as realistic as possible. There is much that Civilization can adopt from SimCity. Especially since Civ VI is making an emphasis on housing. It would be fitting to include more everyday like aspecs of city life. it would be quite an experience to see how city life progresses though the eras. You mention factories and pollution. Well in Civ III Coal and Nuclear Plants caused pollution/radiation. It would be realistic to bring that back.

 

[Dark Brightness]

Edit: this addition was first edited as part of my first post for clearer reading but I decided against it when it doesn't add an "unread" marking.

I love the suggestions for added immersion and different emergencies in cities. Perhaps an option to turn them on and off could be added, though — for people who hate random chance. Wild animals from Civ IV could perhaps be part of that, ravaging farms early game. Pollution and climate change, among other things, could be expanded upon. Add options to lobby for reducing coal plants or reforestation could be added to the World Congress. Perhaps a contribution event where the player who replanted most forests gets some bonus for saving the planet, may it be gold or science.

To further advance realism trading envoys or carts should be sent to another civilization before being able to open a trade window, though getting quicker with different technologies. Once the internet has been researched trading would be instant as it has been in previous installments.

Hearing about Egypt's ability I started thinking about ways to generate food in an empire. In BNW this was somewhat fixed with internal trade routes, which allowed for larger cities in spots that otherwise had bad growth. Why not allow trading gold for food or materials between civilizations too, or in some way increasing food output of a city? A great farmer perhaps... or why not allow manufactories to produce more food instead of production on cows and other food-focused tiles.

While pondering about a great person for food, other ideas popped up. The addition of a Great Architect, who recreates a building in a new style and produces tourism and happiness perhaps. Or a Great Economist with an ability to increase income from trade routes for a limited time period, otherwise perhaps a buff to the currently weak Great Merchant. A secondary ability for the architect might accelerate great person generation.

While playing multiplayer we realised that allying doesn't really impact the game too much, unless playing with AI. Therefore it might be a good idea to give a reason for allying with other players, instead of backstabbing whenever the time is right. A possibility would be to increase income from trade routes over the time of a friendship and a small boost to science generation without research agreements.

Another point on trading is that units are passing through other civilizations' territories without any taxation. The routes might be taxed, bringing additional income to cities in between trade routes. Maybe when trading with civilisations far away, a trade route would be established for luxury and strategic resources as well. This way trades might be taxed by a middleman and plundered during times of war.

That's all for now, Thank you for your replies!

 

[jsciv69]

As far as trade is concerned why not use the railroads and airways for faster shipment of goods. It would certainly be an improvement over waiting for camels and trucks to reach their destiny. And maybe have a function where trading units can be attacked/shot down. It would cause declarations of war. Or maybe a mechanic where trading units can be captured and change sides.

 

[Dark Brightness]

Trains and cargo planes would be a welcome addition, perhaps caravans could be animated as trains and move faster on tiles with rails. To be able to send airplanes across the map civilizations would have to sign open airspace agreements. This way Great Musicians could be sent to civilizations far away quickly. Planes could be shot down, as you say, with repercussions. Hijacking trade units is an interesting idea, but having them switch sides might prove too powerful.

The combat on simultaneous in multiplayer is still quite annoying. A possible way to fix this would be to add a tactical play to the currently fastest-click-wins. If an enemy attacks a screen would pop-up, telling you to give orders to a unit under attack.
An example for clarification:
An archer fires on a swordsman, the player controlling the swordsman may move the unit backwards, taking less damage than standing still (Maybe fortified units would take less damage than retreating). If the player doesn't react, the archers would fire their salvo upon the swordsmen.
When retreating units would still take damage, but less than if they would stand their ground unfortified.

 

[jsciv69]

Barbarians: Form alliances with barbarians. Use them through bribary(similiar to city-states) to help subdue an enemy Civ. Just as colonial powers used pirates to raid treasure ships of rivals, barbarians can be bribed to attack trade units. Maybe capture barbarians and convert them into either citizens, settlers, or builders.

Here are some Civ suggestions for Expansion Packs and Scenerios. Some maybe too controversial(an Israeli Civ could cause some consternation among Arab players), or over the top. But i think they would make for very exciting and realistic games. And leaders with over the top charisma can be a good thing sometimes. We at least have to get Castro in the game and declare his beard as a special unit.

Mexico- Benito Juarez
Colombia- Simon Bolivar
Argentina- Eva Peron
Lebanon- Youssef Bey Karam
Israel- David Ben Gurion
Phillipines- Ferdinand Marcos
Cuba- Fidel Castro
Canada- John A McDonald
Australia- William Morris Hughes
Sioux- Sitting Bull
Italy- Francesco Crispi or Agostino Depretis
Ireland- Michael Collins
South Africa- Nelson Mandella