[GS] Future Update?

[Dotsworthy]

Power generation should be it's own district.

Power should be mandatory for civilizations at a certain point (maybe either Modern era or when half of all cities have power) with an amenities penalty for cities that don't have it.

 

[Duuk]

So no rep from Africa?

I deliberately left off the 8th slot (which, I agree, is Africa) because I don't think it will be Ethiopia. That part of the map is a bit crowded right now with Nubia and Egypt starting there and TSL Arabia starting nearby.

I don't know enough about African history to pick a slightly-obscure-but-not African civ from Southern/Western Africa.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I deliberately left off the 8th slot (which, I agree, is Africa) because I don't think it will be Ethiopia. That part of the map is a bit crowded right now with Nubia and Egypt starting there and TSL Arabia starting nearby.

I wasn't sure if you left a spot open or not because you did have two alt leaders.
I would still bet that Ethiopia is the front runner. It has a lot of fans and a long history to draw from and it's probably in the devs minds because it's been in the past two games.
Then again, they could always rename it Axum to make it "new" like they did with Phoenicia and Carthage.

 

[679x]

In a hypothetical third expansion, I'd expect something more in the alt leader department than just a single alt. In the first expansion, we got one alt leader, but in Gathering Storm, we got one that was leader for two different civs. They one-upped the first expansion with that one, and I predict they'd want to one-up the second one here. How they would do that is certainly up for debate, but it's possible we'll simply get two alternate leaders for different civs instead of just one. One for Egypt, say, Hatshepsut, and one for someone else, ideally another civ that people want an alternate leader for. Maybe they'd try something a little more innovative, but I don't know what else you can do other than someone that can rule multiple civs or just having more alts.

I used to think plagues in Civ would just be an annoying thing that you'd have to worry about without any solid way of protecting yourself from it. But someone here (I can't remember who ) suggested that perhaps plagues could be linked to housing. If you're short on housing, you'd increase the risk of disease in that city. I'd suggest that pillaged tiles could increase the risk as well, but you'd probably still be losing housing when improvements are pillaged so I dunno, maybe that would be overkill. Really, all I care about with mechanics like plagues is that there should be some way for a player to mitigate the damage as much as possible, so it's not like their civilization suddenly implodes and there's nothing they can do about it. That's why I was a bit apprehensive about natural disasters being introduced, especially earthquakes. How do you predict where earthquakes will show up? How do you protect yourself against earthquakes?

Ideally, new mechanics would also tie into other existing mechanics, so that everything feels connected and the game doesn't feel bloated with features. Maybe most people don't mind if the game is bloated with features, but connecting mechanics to one another can be used as a way to help improve existing mechanics, like how emergencies in R&F were added to World Congress in GS.

 

[darkace77450]

That's why I was a bit apprehensive about natural disasters being introduced, especially earthquakes. How do you predict where earthquakes will show up? How do you protect yourself against earthquakes?

If they add fault lines to one of the lenses then you can predict where they'll occur. They could also add engineering-related policy cards that mitigate damage from earthquakes (not that such a card would be worth running, but it is a viable means of counterplay), and Liang has the Reinforced Materials promotion. The question is what rewards can be offered to counter the risks of settling along fault lines?

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

If they add fault lines to one of the lenses then you can predict where they'll occur. They could also add engineering-related policy cards that mitigate damage from earthquakes (not that such a card would be worth running, but it is a viable means of counterplay), and Liang has the Reinforced Materials promotion. The question is what rewards can be offered to counter the risks of settling along fault lines?

The suggestion I made was that it could-like flooding-add to the "Fertility" of a tile......in this case increasing the Production on a tile. In some rarer cases an Earthquake event could yield additional Bonus (Stone, Copper), Luxury (Jade, Diamonds, Marble, Gypsum etc) or Strategic (Iron, Coal, Oil, Uranium, Nitre) resources on one or more effected tiles. Maybe: the stronger the Magnitude of the Earthquake, the more tiles are impacted, the more production it can add to each tile & the more likely each tile is to unearth a new resource.

 

[Elhoim]

They could also add engineering-related policy cards that mitigate damage from earthquakes (not that such a card would be worth running, but it is a viable means of counterplay)

Make it damage from all disasters and it could be interesting.

 

[acluewithout]

There's a bunch of things I'd love the game to add aesthetically. None of them need unique mechanics, really.

• Earthquakes. These don't need any massive mechanics. They could be more likely at the borders of continents. Maybe effect 3 to 5 tiles. Maybe they give tiles faith. I really don't care. But if we're going to have freaking Volcanos everywhere, can we please have some earthquakes?
  
  
• More Rock Band Skins. I really dislike how we have this long haired early nineties, maybe even late 70s, long haired white guys sausage fest for the Rock Band unit. Can we have, like, maybe just two more skins? Maybe a Girl Band and a Rap Band. I mean, that's hardly a cross-section of humanity even then, but it would be a stab at something more diverse, and a bit more interesting.
  
  
• Longbowmen. I hate building Cross-Bows as England. Please, can I have Longbowmen? They can work the same. They don't even need to have Era Score. Just something to mix it up, please?
  
  
• Walls. Can we have Walls, Castle, Fortress instead of Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Walls. I mean, I'd love Castles and Fortress to have maybe some additional mechanics. But whatever. I just want to build Castles. (Yes, I know, JFD has a mod. That's why I suggested it.)
  
  
• Entertainment Complex. Can we call it a Fairground or something other than "Entertainment Complex"? (Yeah, JFD has a mod for that one too, I know...)

 

[Duuk]

Portugal, Italy, Byzantines, Alt-China, Maya, and Apache by the way... all support plague mechanics and a trade overhaul. Just throwing that in there.

Since my core belief is that XP3 is going to be Renaissance and Colonization focused, expanding the 1400-1880 gameplay.

Oh: And gold moves to the main map and out of the Australian Outback.

 

[pokiehl]

I hope if if Babylon returns that they don't get a walls replacement - the Georgia experience has demonstrated how boring that is. But what would be really cool and beautiful is if the Walls of Babylon were a unique improvement like the Great Wall!

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I hope if if Babylon returns that they don't get a walls replacement - the Georgia experience has demonstrated how boring that is. But what would be really cool and beautiful is if the Walls of Babylon were a unique improvement like the Great Wall!

I mean it will be a stele with the Code of Hammurabi written on it, right? Can't be more unique than that.

 

[The Kingmaker]

Ishtar Gate, a unique castle or gov’t plaza district?

Personally, I want the kudurru boundary stele as a UI.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I know it keeps coming up, but for the love of god please no castle district. There are enough marginally useful hex-sucking districts as it is.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

There are a plethora of African civilizations they can chose from. Honestly, Ethiopia makes the LEAST sense for me from a geographic perspective. Northeastern Africa is full to the brim right now between Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia. That's not the say they can't bring in another nation there but I think filling out the map a bit more makes more sense.

Northwest, West, or South/Coastal Africa make more sense to me.

I think people are too quick to rule civilizations out based on their perceived niches being filled already. For North Africa, I think they should/could do Morocco again. There's no reason they can't focus on a different element or even a different twist to an economic civ. They could also go with Almoravids and do a different spin on the religious/military element (yes, I know Spain has this but again I don't believe that should be a disqualifying factor).

For West Africa, the possibilities are practically endless especially if you expand the time period. As someone who is a specialist in West African history I think Mali and Mansa Musa being so hyper focused on gold is an absolute travesty and ignores the complexities and achievements of Muslim intellectuals in the area and also the lasting influence of the Mali Empire. They could bring Askia Muhammad back and the Songhai and this time instead focus on the fact that he was a usurper and perhaps make him a domination civ but based on religion-based loyalty shenanigans or again could focus on some fusion of religious-cultural play to represent the intellectual centers in West Africa and the correspondences with Muslim intellectuals both in North Africa and the Middle East. Sonni Ali could be a straight domination civ as well. Let us not forget that Queen Elizabeth was so aware of the wealth and intellectual developments in the fabled Timbuktu that she armed the Moroccan force that was sent to dismantle the Songhai.

They could also go more contemporary and go with something like Uthman Dan Fodio and the Sokoto Caliphate. This could fit a religious or cultural civ and could also have loyalty shenanigans based upon religion or just a stricter emphasis on some innovative religious play. Both Dan fodio and his son Bello were prolific writers authoring over one hundred works each on religion, law, philosophy, and science. The Caliphate was one of the last remaining indigenous polities and Dan Fodio's personal influence caused a wave of revolution across all of West Africa beginning in 1804 and rippling all the way until the Caliphate's "dismantling" by Lugard in the early 1900s. Of the top of my head, increased negative loyalty penalties for cities that border Sokoto that share their religion. This would fit well with the fact that his revolt was aimed at oppressive leaders and was mostly expressed through intense repression of the Muslim community.

You could also go with a coastal West African civ such as Dahomey or Asante. Both could have some focus on trade or in the case of Dahomey militant emphasis.

As for Southern/coastal Africa they could look at the Swahili coast/Zanzibar/Great Zimbabwe (I know its a wonder but they are ruins of a major trading civilization).

There is also of course the possibility of contemporary anti-colonial and pan-Arab and pan-Africanist leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah or Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Outside of Africa I think we sorely need another NA Indigenous nation from the Western US or Western Canada. Could also be interesting to see something like the Inuit or even Iroquois though.

As for Europe, Byzantium and Portugal are the only two glaring omissions and if we stick with the argument of Niche's being filled Byzantium's religious/lasting military impact is filled in some ways by Georgia and between England, Spain, and the Dutch the overseas exploration/trade niche of Portugal is also filled.

As for features, I'd like to see more diplomatic options such as vassalage and perhaps the ability to refuse a civ's traders on a civ by civ basis without the need of a worldwide embargo from the world congress. I also want culture to affect loyalty.

Plague or rather disease/health are a solid concept as well that could make housing more important/deeper.

Personally, I think we are pretty full on districts and I don't understand the appeal of castles. If anything a castle could be an early building in the encampment district.

For any of the religious-domination civs I mentioned I think a bonus to unit production or even lower faith cost when holy war is declared could be a useful niche.

 

[Elhoim]

I know it keeps coming up, but for the love of god please no castle district. There are enough marginally useful hex-sucking districts as it is.

Yeah, the 3 tile distance can't hold much more. Personally, I'd like some extra districts, but the city working range increase to 4.

 

[pokiehl]

Ishtar Gate, a unique castle or gov’t plaza district?

Personally, I want the kudurru boundary stele as a UI.

A stele would be very cool too. I'd rather see Ishtar Gate as a Wonder though.

 

[The Kingmaker]

I know it keeps coming up, but for the love of god please no castle district. There are enough marginally useful hex-sucking districts as it is.

Fundamentally disagree. We don’t need castles in every city, just the strategically important ones that need extra protection.

Other districts that are only “marginally” useful should be buffed. I’m all for expanding the city range too.

 

[Duuk]

Castle District: Can be built in the 3rd or 4th Tile Distance from City Center ONLY. Creates ZOC and must be reduced as if occupied by a unit. +2 +2 if worked. Has a slot for a Great Work. Adds +2 :housing:

 

[SammyKhalifa]

While marginally different, they're approximated closely enough in game scale by your choice of encampment/city walls/fortress/GP.

 

[The Kingmaker]

Castles are fun. Plus they add to the feel of fortifying your territory in the Middle Ages.

Not a dinky fort, not an encampment with a measly palisade for defense. A proper castle.

When your enemies see you’ve built castles, they better bring up a multiplicity of siege weapons or else they better give up. A fully upgraded castle should require at least trebuchets or bombards to breach.