Custom Civ Option

[Aurelesk]

Warcraft 3's world editor was such a source of joy when I was a child. I wouldn't say I understood what I was doing, but it gave me the ability to create a lot of things freely, teaching myself along the way. The strength of it mostly came from being able to test it on the fly almost instantly (less than a minute loading).

I can see the idea at least in 3 forms:

Patchwork (weak)
Basically, you pick an UI, UU, UA and a Leader's ability, and rolls with it. It can be a Game Mode by itself.

Composition (medium)
You are allowed to build your Civilization with a set of pre-existing bonus and trait. Like you would build a Governement. For example, a card system where you can pick "Allows you to build Farms on Tundra" and another being "+1 Food to Farms". But the tuning is poor: to prevent an almost infinite amount of cards, there are only basic cards with basic effects. So no "+1 Food on Tundra Farms".
For each cards are given a Strength score. You can compose a unique Civilization, with only those under a set score could be played as or online (with an option to allows custom civilization or not).
They can go further by making those cards unlockable.

World Editor (hard)
Basically the Civilization version of the Warcraft 3's one. A lot of freedom in a casual friendly environment. Those world editors created new genres of games such as MOBA, and lead such a legacy to the world. I picture it not only as a Civ editor, but a Map editor, able to reach a lot more like gameplay, design, and more.
Sure, it would also lead to bad taste mod being easy to access to anyone too. But isn't that part of the charm?

 

[Arent11]

Yes, naming your own leader & civ would be the absolute basics.

 

[Arent11]

I don't see the point in this. both Humankind and MIllenia did it and it's not a good feature, I think playing as a historical civ from 4000BC is just a staple, I can't imagine the game without it. Sure, in some cases, customizating and pick and mixing would be fun but... I just don't think Civ is the place for that.

In Master of Orion 2 you had both pre-designed and custom races. Both options don't contradict each other?

It could just be done as DLC or additional option when creating a game. Whoever wants to play with only historical factions just chooses to remove the tick mark for allowing custom factions.

 

[Arent11]

Warcraft 3's world editor was such a source of joy when I was a child. I wouldn't say I understood what I was doing, but it gave me the ability to create a lot of things freely, teaching myself along the way. The strength of it mostly came from being able to test it on the fly almost instantly (less than a minute loading).

I can see the idea at least in 3 forms:

Patchwork (weak)
Basically, you pick an UI, UU, UA and a Leader's ability, and rolls with it. It can be a Game Mode by itself.

Composition (medium)
You are allowed to build your Civilization with a set of pre-existing bonus and trait. Like you would build a Governement. For example, a card system where you can pick "Allows you to build Farms on Tundra" and another being "+1 Food to Farms". But the tuning is poor: to prevent an almost infinite amount of cards, there are only basic cards with basic effects. So no "+1 Food on Tundra Farms".
For each cards are given a Strength score. You can compose a unique Civilization, with only those under a set score could be played as or online (with an option to allows custom civilization or not).
They can go further by making those cards unlockable.

World Editor (hard)
Basically the Civilization version of the Warcraft 3's one. A lot of freedom in a casual friendly environment. Those world editors created new genres of games such as MOBA, and lead such a legacy to the world. I picture it not only as a Civ editor, but a Map editor, able to reach a lot more like gameplay, design, and more.
Sure, it would also lead to bad taste mod being easy to access to anyone too. But isn't that part of the charm?

In fact all three are fine by me. As long as I can easily import the world editor settings to the main game.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

In Master of Orion 2 you had both pre-designed and custom races. Both options don't contradict each other?

It could just be done as DLC or additional option when creating a game. Whoever wants to play with only historical factions just chooses to remove the tick mark for allowing custom factions.

.. Master of Orion .. is fiction though.. That's my point...

 

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

Does the AI get to customize it's civs too, and how ofter would people not min/max abilities?

 

[SeelingCat]

Allow me to rename, for the purpose of the game I'm playing, my Civ and/or Leader.

Slightly adjacent (and possibly neither here nor there), but from a modding perspective, in Civ 6 it was relatively easy to change a leader's name, but changing a civ's name required essentially overwriting/circumventing a good chunk of UI code (shoutout to Gedemon here, because I would have never figured it out on my own for my Nomina mod!).

I hope that Civ7 opens that function up like they did for leader names - even if they don't go for a renaming feature, at least it would then be potentially feasible to do as a mod

 

[Arent11]

.. Master of Orion .. is fiction though.. That's my point...

Ah, so you're saying you only want to play with historical civs?

Fair enough. But then you're certainly also switching off vampires & zombie game modes/DLCs?

Which is my point. I just want a game mode that allows custom factions & can be switched off. And I don't mind people that switch it off because they want to play historically (mostly) accurate civs.

 

[Arent11]

Does the AI get to customize it's civs too, and how ofter would people not min/max abilities?

I personally would prefer AI civs to be historical for flavor. But in Master of Orion on higher difficulties the AI got additional traits, making their faction stronger.

 

[DannyMustardpants]

I'd actually really like the option to play with no bonuses/traits as well. I can't explain why though... maybe because I want to play to what the map gives me.

 

[Arent11]

I'd actually really like the option to play with no bonuses/traits as well. I can't explain why though... maybe because I want to play to what the map gives me.

It's just more flexibility, you are not "forced" to play a certain way.

 

[Leyrann]

You know, something I'd like to see (at least for a more casual mode) is the ability to choose your civ after seeing your starting situation. Or perhaps to switch civs after seeing it. For all those god starts... for a civ you aren't playing.

 

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

You know, something I'd like to see (at least for a more casual mode) is the ability to choose your civ after seeing your starting situation. Or perhaps to switch civs after seeing it. For all those god starts... for a civ you aren't playing.

I hope they make map generation take the civs into account when creating the map. Including the map type, pangea, conteninets, etc.

 

[Leyrann]

I hope they make map generation take the civs into account when creating the map. Including the map type, pangea, conteninets, etc.

It already kinda does in reverse - most civs have a certain bias towards spawning near specific terrain or even resources.

But a bias like that can't really understand what makes a start a god start.