Custom empire names

[Teutonic_Tirade]

I don't know what is stopping them from going the full route of having a Civ customizer like for empires in Stellaris. They could have all the standard ones and then the custom ones too, you would probably want to have a "ban custom Civs" button for multiplayer though. Renaming a your Civ was also something I suggested, I think it would help us keep the personality of the Civ we initially wanted but also allow us to evolve and grow our Civs.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I don't know what is stopping them from going the full route of having a Civ customizer like for empires in Stellaris. They could have all the standard ones and then the custom ones too, you would probably want to have a "ban custom Civs" button for multiplayer though. Renaming a your Civ was also something I suggested, I think it would help us keep the personality of the Civ we initially wanted but also allow us to evolve and grow our Civs.

What's stopping them is the fact that they wouldn't be able to sell DLC for additional civs. Additional abilities, sure, but they won't sell the way new civs would.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Because each civ has unique abilities, units, buildings, districts, wonders, and the like. How would you be able to choose a new set of unique traits from a drop down menu of existing civs? I can't play as a custom Macedonia with sarissa phalangites, hetairoi cavalry, and Alexander's Tomb, unless those exist (as both art assets and rules) actually exist in the game. The fun of new civs is that they come with new stuff, if it was simply a combination of uniques from already existing civilizations it would be kind of dull.

Modifying and adding new Units and other Civ-specific elements doesn't change: that was always necessary when a DLC added a new Civ. The difference is that now they must also be made available to all the existing Civs by (presumably) modifying the existing UI menus and selection processes. This complicates the process, but doesn't prohibit it.

The question is, does it complicate the process so much that it becomes prohibitive, and that determination probably can't be made until someone outside of the closed Firaxis shop sees what the Mod and modification processes are in the code.

 

[AriochIV]

I don't know what is stopping them from going the full route of having a Civ customizer like for empires in Stellaris. They could have all the standard ones and then the custom ones too, you would probably want to have a "ban custom Civs" button for multiplayer though. Renaming a your Civ was also something I suggested, I think it would help us keep the personality of the Civ we initially wanted but also allow us to evolve and grow our Civs.

Civilization has never had a custom civ builder, and I assume that's for design reasons rather than technical reasons. I can understand the desire to be creating a game rather than a game construction set; for people to be excited about that new civilization you're adding, rather than those new traits in the new civ that they can use to build such and such. Modding is rarely ever high on a developer's priority list (modders are essentially saying, "Hey, nice game design, but let me pull it apart and do it right, you loser"), but at least it doesn't take away much in the way of developer resources. Building it into the game itself does.