Describe your perfect civ7

[Krajzen]

It doesn't have to be 'realistically I know they wouldn't do this because of mass appeal or whatever'

Mine dream civ7 would be:
1) As revolutionary vs civ6 as was civ5 when compared to civ4 (unlike very soft evolution from civ5 to civ6).
2) Fundamentally designed to be as dynamic as possible (by dynamic I mean 'snowballing runaways can stagnate and collapse, underdogs can catch up and win after all, new major and minor facrions emerge during the game, old ones split or dramarically change etc')
3) Fundamentally designed so AI can actually use all its subsystems, especially military, to regularly threaten defending human player
4) Having other system than 1UPT, which is less tedious and frustrating, more strategic and much less crippling AI's offensive abilities
5) Having diplomatic system that doesn't have any kind of goddamn agendas and any kind of warmongering penalties; instead designed about realpolitik of sphetes of interests; logical, clear and somewhat predictable; containing vassalage, big alliances and world wars.
6) Having an actual happiness/stability on per city basis system that is very important and can shatter empires.
7) Economic system with more interaction with trade, taxes and population; more non - tile - micromanagement macro strategy in general. More buildings in the city center.
8) Religion system without physical units on the map, but instead with much more varied nature of religious strategy - such as the ability to play as tolerant state with many religions, benefitting from all of them, or secular state, or religion with or without priest caste etc.
9) Random immersive events (based on dilemmas having positives and negatives, not 'rocks fall you lose money bye')
10) Brought back social policy trees from civ5 and mixed with government system of civ6. Trees are tied to government types; you can switch between them only through painful revolutionary process. This way the system isn't so static as civ5 but also not as devoid of consequences as civ6.
11) Brought back ideological cold war of civ5 and greatly expanded, so now it is really defining late eras.
12) Less modern eras so half of tech tree isn't last 159 years. Less eras would also help the general pacing. Better endgame content. World congress that begins in industrial era and is realistic and sensible. Aforementioned world wars, cold war. Industrialization being very big deal. Economic victory reolacing religious.
13) .dll modding suport
14) Middle ground between way to tall meta of civ5 and way too wide of civ6

 

[Zaarin]

I agree with everything you said, and would add:

15) Systems that deeply interact with each other, not Civ6's "every system an island."
16) Make religions something that emerge from beyond the player's control and bring back state religions. Add schisms, heresies, reformations, etc. This should lead to the formation of religious blocs that have serious diplomatic consequences.
17) Ethnicity: make each population have an ethnic and religious identity. Immigration, conquest, and peaceful assimilation could all lead to ethnic minority populations. This could tie in nicely with #9 and #6.

 

[Jhappy77]

I also like most of the above points. Here's what I would add:

• More diverse options for interacting with AIs. Ex. ceding tiles without ceding cities, intelligence partnerships, free trade pacts, reparations, etc
• Building upon the previous point, you should be able to invest your time and resources into changing your relationship with AIs. Your relationships should be controllable (with enough investment), rather than completely up to the random whims of the AI. Perhaps there would be tangible gameplay incentives towards treating your neighbors in certain ways (ex. if you betray your longtime friend and engage in a destructive war with them, you get more war weariness) so that multiplayer games are also encouraged to play diplomatically.
• More representation of civilizations beyond the traditional "centrally controlled empire" notion. In the early game you should be able to play as a tribal confederacy, a league of city states, or nomadic horse empire.
• Accentuate the differences between governments/ideologies in the late-game (while also giving representation to civs which do not fit the false fascism/liberalism/socialism trichotomy)
• Custom events for every civilization (ex. as Russia, barbarian Keshiks from the "golden horde" appear outside your territory in the mid game)
• Tons of unique scenarios with unique win conditions - it would be fun to have a scenario for every civ, designed to encourage you to adopt a radically different playstyle than the beelining that standard civ games encourage

 

[Xandinho]

In addition to the things you said, I include:

• Better design of districts so they don't look like disjoint pieces of cities.
• Include something like "minor civilizations".
• Take away the atomic age and perhaps the future age as well.
• No fantastic things like Fountain of Youth and no scientific fiction things like GDR.
• Make buildings more versatile so that they don't only grant a single type of yeld (why doesn't Library grant culture in addition to science? Why don't Universities award great writers points in addition to great scientists points?)
• Make the naval game and naval trade really important.
• Tourism as a modifier to increase cultural influence, not as a weapon to beat CV.
• Add Great Statesman (or Great Diplomat) and Great Philosophers.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

My specific additions to @Krajzen 's excellent post would be:

1. More variety of Actors: Not just Civs, City States and Barbarians, but independent Settlements, City States, Minor Civs and Major Civs, with no one strait-jacketed into a single type: settlements could be Barbarically warlike, or friendly, or neutral - and there would be potential Diplomatic and Commercial (Trade) maneuvering with all of them to some degree.
2. More variety of Civ-Types. A decent representation of the peculiarities of Pastoral cultures like the Huns, Mongols, Comanche, etc, and of Civs with no central government like the Greek and Italian City States. Government types that show the major benefits and defects: the instability of Monarchies that rely on the fertility of the Royal family, of the Dictatorships that have no mechanic for legally choosing a new Dictator when the old one meets his untimely but well-deserved End, the inability of a Democracy to make consistent decisions - governments should be Really, really different and not just a different set of numerical additions and subtractions. And movement between the types even for the Player: your Civ could become a Minor Civ, your government devolve into City States, your Mighty Empire wind up dependent on a 60 year old king having a new son (Random Events specific to Government Type)
3. Military Units that represent the important military units in history and not some pop vision of warriors. Military units that can be technically upgraded with new technologies before you have to Bite the Bullet and replace them with completely new types. Units that can be professional - better factors, but constant, expensive Maintenance - or Amateurs, called up for the duration but sent home afterwards for 0 maintenance but Not As Good. Units that reflect the Social/Civics of the Civ, and units that you can only 'recruit' based on certain physical as well as social/civic aspects of your Civ - you want Slingers, you need a lot of pastures, because your slingers will come from peasants protecting their flocks and herds with the cheapest possible weapon, and so on.
4. A real Tech Tree with real Technologies, not made-up titles thrown in to justify units and infrastructure. And Technologies that you cannot research at all without physical. terrain factors present in your Civ: Civs in the middle of the continent will NOT Research Sailing no matter how much you want to sail a boat around the oasis! But lots of technologies will naturally spread from Civ to Civ by contact - whether you want them to or not, and some will bring social and civic consequences with them.
5. Resources will not be static, or have pre-defined static Uses. Copper can be Strategic, Luxury, or a Production resource. Gold makes Coins, bribes Diplomats, makes solid-state electronic connections. You can move live resources - like cattle or horses - to any tile with the proper terrain/climate and if you have the proper Technology. And mineral resources may deplete, and new ones will be found throughout the game - because the technology to find and exploit them keeps changing.

Heck, I've posted about most of this at interminable length for years, so this is just a summary . . .

 

[criZp]

-Try to have mechanisms that don't promote maximum tedious micromanagement
-Try to not make the AI act like a bunch of morons on purpose, constantly pestering the player in the diplo screen, which is worse than simply "bad AI"
-Make technological and civic development interconnected (again)
-Make cities look like cities (again), aka no city districts that are completely disconnected from the city and contain only 0-3 buildings with roofs in all kinds of rainbow colors
-Make naval trade matter (again)
-Trade, the one way different civs interact outside of warfare, should at least be one bit deeper than "click the button and the numbers go up"
-Not designed with the words "tall" or "wide" in mind
-Ideally don't be made by the civ 6 devs
-Essentially don't be anything like civ 6

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

1. Implement Barbarian Clans game mode into the base game but extend that to peaceful tribes as well that start out as the tribal villages. Easier to turn them into city-states than the hostile "barbarian" tribes.
2. Integrate Monopolies and Corporations game mode into the base game along with an Economic Victory. Each luxury resource will have it's own unique corporation bonus such as Ivory granting a War Elephant UU.
3. Integrate founding a Religion and converting cities to your religion as a condition for Culture Victory, along with current Tourism. Reformations can happen mid game and would not have been able to found a religion prior.
4. A "Prehistoric Era" where you wander around by obtaining various food and knowledge before you can settle your first city.
5. Implement a Civics web instead of a tree. Have Code of Laws in the middle but then you may branch out and choose your civics/policies and governments that way.
6. Most Districts and wonders being built in the city, but have their own separate tiles inside of the city. Outside of the city will mostly be improvements like it was before.
7. More choice of buildings such as a choice between a market, for gold, or a caravanserai, for more trade capacity, in a Commercial Hub.
8. Great Prophets having their own abilities, not just founding a religion. Great Entertainers can make an appearance as well.
9. Implement Diseases/Pandemic into World Congress along with natural disasters again. I could live without rising sea levels and coastal flooding especially if they come too early.
10. Each citizen be assigned an ethnicity. The dominant ethnic group in a city can determine it's dominant culture and whose citizens might be attracted to visit your empire.
11. Geographic labels for rivers, mountains, deserts etc. and timeline feature to return.

 

[BuchiTaton]

Make POP the base of the game. Your actions and choices would cause different reactions on POP adding dynamism and challenges.

1- Each pop would have Identity parameter like Culture, Religion and Profession.
Your decisions could be positive or negative to their group interests.
2- POPs should have some Necessities satisfied to growth and not emigrate: Food, Job, Security, Education, Health.
These are mainly from buildings and infrastructures for example jobs need ones related to their profession (peasants need farms) and implemented policies.
3- Amenities are now mainly a boost for your POPs, this include a list of luxuries both resources (wine, coffee, chocolate, tea, silk, etc.) and services (theater, stadium, resorts, etc.). Your cities with these amenities would attract inmigrants (included great people) keep them loyal and make them more efficient.
4- Ideologies, is a list of social ideals that your POP could want, like emancipation, represetation, enviromentalism, syndicalism, etc. Every one of them related to decress that could mean backlash from others POPs inside and outside of your nation.
So on early eras your POPs would be almost your slaves with very little to be angry, but on final eras they would be very picky.
Also ideologies spread faster between similar POPs.
5- Loyalty is a value (percentage?) that change based on the factors above. When you fail bad, the POPs not just stop growing, and emigrate, they can even revolt and change loyalty to other faction/player or even your great people?!

Note: Goverment is not a type of identity, here instead of strict kinds they are the more flexible Ideologies system. Also this allow to represent more specific changes like private property, secularism, suffrage for women, end segregation, sexual rights, etc.

Of course Goverments are still there for your nation, divided on three elements:
- POLITICS: Republic / Monarchy / Theocracy
Example chose theocracy and you get a bigger integration with the religion mechanics and allow Religion victory.
- SOURCE: Democracy / Oligarchy / Autocracy
Democracy give every POP representation, Oligarchy to some and Autocracy for the "I am God" players.
- STRUCTURE: Unitarianism / Federalism / Vassalage
Unitarianism is better for more homogeneous and small nations, Federalism for keep happy more cities and different POPs, and Vassalage to build a net of pupet states.

Some options are incompatible with specific ideologies.