Aussie_Lurker
Deity
Something which keeps coming up-again and again-is how boring the modern age is (a sentiment I agree with, BTW). Now several modders here (I am especially looking at you TheLopez, Dale and jDog 
) have individually come up with many ways to alleviate the worst of the boredom, but I thought I might raise all of them again here, along with some of my own, and propose a means of consolidating these ideas into a grand compilation for improving the later ages of the game. So where to begin:
1) Problem #1 starts waaaay back in the Ancient Age. Aside from mountains, no terrain really acts to truly hamper Land Movement. This often means that the entire map is exposed before the end of the renaissance-which gives you little to do in that regard in the Industrial and Modern Ages. However, when we look at the Terra Map, we notice that the latter ages in these games are MUCH more exciting. Why? Because you have a WHOLE new set of lands to discover-and tame-post 'Optics'. So what I am thinking is 'why not adapt this same philosophy to ALL movement in the pre-renaissance age?' This would be, by far, the easiest change to make-as it largely involves boosting the movement costs of deserts and tundras to 2, and making these and jungles impassable to all foot units except scouts, explorers, workers and settlers. Even though it won't massively slow down expansion and exploration, it will do so enough-I believe-to allow for the formation of some interesting 'Minor Nations' in the gaps left by each major Civ. This, in turn, would have a beneficial impact on the latter game, as it would keep barbs as a viable force in the game for much longer-especially if jDogs mod was incorporated.
2) OK, this one comes down to victory conditions. Even if we overlook the 'be all and end all nature' of the victory conditions, the major problem is that there are simply too few strings to the victory bow. This, in turn, makes the modern age effectively a 'fait-a-complis.' This problem is fairly difficult, but not impossible, to solve. Step 1 would be to add a couple of new victory conditions-namely Religious, Economic and Ideological-this adds a couple of new strings straight away. Step 2 would be to overhaul the entire nature of existing victory conditions, to make them more 'progressional'. For instance, instead of having the Diplomatic victory hinge entirely on being Elected World Leader, perhaps this can be just one of many achievements you can get along the path. Each successful UN motion you get, and every time you get elected SG, could give you points towards a diplo victory. Step 3 would be to alter the AI's behaviour so that it values ALL victory conditions equally (or, at the least, values them according to the leader's traits-such that an aggressive, Expansive or Imperialist leader will heavily pursue domination or conquest, wheras a Spiritual Civ will pursue a Religious or Cultural victory).
3) The next problem starts towards the end of the renaissance, when you get Liberalism. At this point one of the key definers of inter-civ relations, namely religion, has been blunted by the arrival of the 'Free Religion' civic. So how do we deal with this? First we start by adding religion as a victory condition, as stated above, so that 'Free Religion' isn't always the immediate and best choice for players. Second, and most important, is to add something NEW to spice up relations: IDEOLOGY. This could work in both an identical and parallel fashion to Religions. Namely, when you discovered certain techs first-like Divine Right, Communism and Corporation-you found the respective ideology, such as Absolutism, Socialism or Capitalism. Each Ideology could be adopted and spread in an identical fashion to religion, with each ideology having buildings which serve a similar function to temples, cathedrals, shrines and even monastaries in cities whose ideologies match those of the state. So, for instance, if a civ had Liberalism as its State Ideology, then Liberal cities might get a happiness/culture bonus from theatres, and a culture/research bonus from Universities. Fascist Civs might get similar benefits from jails and courthouses respectively. Just with religion in earlier ages, Ideologies would effect diplomatic relations, but they could also be more specialised than religions-with each Ideology having a preferred and banned civic, a special bonus and a special penalty. On its own Ideologies could add a huge amount of spice to the late-game, particularly in combination with other mods.
4) The next issue deals with the problem of a lack of internal dynamics. All threats to a civ are pretty much external, never internal. Now jDog has solved this problem through his Revolutions mod, but imagine if it were also combined with my Ideology suggestion above, or if Spies could be used to provoke a revolution within rival civs. Suddenly the outcome of the game is no longer a 'fait acomplis' as it currently is.
5) Lastly, what truly defines the modern age in the real world is Global economics and diplomacy. Something greatly lacking in Civ in ALL its incarnations. The solution to this problem is more general-and vague-but largely involves increasing the number of ways you can interact with other civs. As I said above, ideologies and internal struggles help, as does jDogs mod which allows barbs to become proper civs. Another thing which would help, though, is an ability to undermine-or boost-other civs culturally and economically. What would also help, though, is if we were able to move the resource system beyond its '1-size fits all' approach. If more of a resource was better than one, and if larger nations had greater resource demands, then suddenly international trade (and monopolies on certain resources) would be more important. Whether resource scarcity/abundance impacted food/hammer and gold production, or merely the cost of cities, having a demand for more than 1 deposit of a resource would open up trade in a HUGE way.
Well, those are the most obvious things which come to my mind, and their possible solutions. Anyone else have any suggestions, or criticisms, please feel free to air them here
.
Aussie_Lurker.
) have individually come up with many ways to alleviate the worst of the boredom, but I thought I might raise all of them again here, along with some of my own, and propose a means of consolidating these ideas into a grand compilation for improving the later ages of the game. So where to begin:1) Problem #1 starts waaaay back in the Ancient Age. Aside from mountains, no terrain really acts to truly hamper Land Movement. This often means that the entire map is exposed before the end of the renaissance-which gives you little to do in that regard in the Industrial and Modern Ages. However, when we look at the Terra Map, we notice that the latter ages in these games are MUCH more exciting. Why? Because you have a WHOLE new set of lands to discover-and tame-post 'Optics'. So what I am thinking is 'why not adapt this same philosophy to ALL movement in the pre-renaissance age?' This would be, by far, the easiest change to make-as it largely involves boosting the movement costs of deserts and tundras to 2, and making these and jungles impassable to all foot units except scouts, explorers, workers and settlers. Even though it won't massively slow down expansion and exploration, it will do so enough-I believe-to allow for the formation of some interesting 'Minor Nations' in the gaps left by each major Civ. This, in turn, would have a beneficial impact on the latter game, as it would keep barbs as a viable force in the game for much longer-especially if jDogs mod was incorporated.
2) OK, this one comes down to victory conditions. Even if we overlook the 'be all and end all nature' of the victory conditions, the major problem is that there are simply too few strings to the victory bow. This, in turn, makes the modern age effectively a 'fait-a-complis.' This problem is fairly difficult, but not impossible, to solve. Step 1 would be to add a couple of new victory conditions-namely Religious, Economic and Ideological-this adds a couple of new strings straight away. Step 2 would be to overhaul the entire nature of existing victory conditions, to make them more 'progressional'. For instance, instead of having the Diplomatic victory hinge entirely on being Elected World Leader, perhaps this can be just one of many achievements you can get along the path. Each successful UN motion you get, and every time you get elected SG, could give you points towards a diplo victory. Step 3 would be to alter the AI's behaviour so that it values ALL victory conditions equally (or, at the least, values them according to the leader's traits-such that an aggressive, Expansive or Imperialist leader will heavily pursue domination or conquest, wheras a Spiritual Civ will pursue a Religious or Cultural victory).
3) The next problem starts towards the end of the renaissance, when you get Liberalism. At this point one of the key definers of inter-civ relations, namely religion, has been blunted by the arrival of the 'Free Religion' civic. So how do we deal with this? First we start by adding religion as a victory condition, as stated above, so that 'Free Religion' isn't always the immediate and best choice for players. Second, and most important, is to add something NEW to spice up relations: IDEOLOGY. This could work in both an identical and parallel fashion to Religions. Namely, when you discovered certain techs first-like Divine Right, Communism and Corporation-you found the respective ideology, such as Absolutism, Socialism or Capitalism. Each Ideology could be adopted and spread in an identical fashion to religion, with each ideology having buildings which serve a similar function to temples, cathedrals, shrines and even monastaries in cities whose ideologies match those of the state. So, for instance, if a civ had Liberalism as its State Ideology, then Liberal cities might get a happiness/culture bonus from theatres, and a culture/research bonus from Universities. Fascist Civs might get similar benefits from jails and courthouses respectively. Just with religion in earlier ages, Ideologies would effect diplomatic relations, but they could also be more specialised than religions-with each Ideology having a preferred and banned civic, a special bonus and a special penalty. On its own Ideologies could add a huge amount of spice to the late-game, particularly in combination with other mods.
4) The next issue deals with the problem of a lack of internal dynamics. All threats to a civ are pretty much external, never internal. Now jDog has solved this problem through his Revolutions mod, but imagine if it were also combined with my Ideology suggestion above, or if Spies could be used to provoke a revolution within rival civs. Suddenly the outcome of the game is no longer a 'fait acomplis' as it currently is.
5) Lastly, what truly defines the modern age in the real world is Global economics and diplomacy. Something greatly lacking in Civ in ALL its incarnations. The solution to this problem is more general-and vague-but largely involves increasing the number of ways you can interact with other civs. As I said above, ideologies and internal struggles help, as does jDogs mod which allows barbs to become proper civs. Another thing which would help, though, is an ability to undermine-or boost-other civs culturally and economically. What would also help, though, is if we were able to move the resource system beyond its '1-size fits all' approach. If more of a resource was better than one, and if larger nations had greater resource demands, then suddenly international trade (and monopolies on certain resources) would be more important. Whether resource scarcity/abundance impacted food/hammer and gold production, or merely the cost of cities, having a demand for more than 1 deposit of a resource would open up trade in a HUGE way.
Well, those are the most obvious things which come to my mind, and their possible solutions. Anyone else have any suggestions, or criticisms, please feel free to air them here
.Aussie_Lurker.
![Impaler[WrG]](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/73/73222.jpg?1475248346){kind=avatar}
You can then hide all technologies of other ages (its long work but possible) which I did in Civ 1918 and giong to do in Modern Combat.
