Since I've been getting lots of questions and requests about civs to be added I thought I should post what I am thinking of in terms of civs to be added. Firstly, my rough criteria for adding a civ:
- Must be able to have a city list that is mostly different from other civs
- Ideally have continuity across several eras
- Must have existed for sizeable period of time
- Must have interesting leader choices and art (minimum 2, maximum 4)
- Must have enough unit art available
- Preferably had significant influence beyond their own borders
I'm biased towards Ancient and Medieval civilizations because that's my area of interest and study. I don't mind adding later civilizations so long as they have some link back to Medieval times. I'm not at all interested in recreating the world as it is today though; I also won't add any leaders that are still alive or died recently.
I have no set limit for number of civilization but I do have a limit on number of leaders: 136, including Firaxis leaders. This is because that's how many trait combinations there are with all the traits I've added. Leader art is the main culprit for the slow down of loading time so it's important to have a maximum. Also I'd like to add more content to the civilizations and this gets harder when the number of them keeps increasing!
So anyway, here are the civs that I'm definitely planning for future versions:
- Assyria
- Hatti (Hittites)
- Phoenicia
- Swahili
These are civs that really interest me and I think I have enough leader and unit art to cobble together to make them possible. I could add Poland to that list, there is certainly enough art available. However I want to mull a bit on how to best represent the Slavic and/or Baltic peoples before making a final decision here. Eastern Europe deserves another civ though.
After those 4 or 5 are in there is possibly still room for a small number of other civs. Here's my thoughts, broken down by region:
EUROPE:
While there are many nationalities and ethnicities not represented in Europe yet (Finns, Bulgars, Basques, Minoans, Illyrians, etc) the same can be said for every other region of the world too and Europe already has more civs in game than anywhere else. Room for aforementioned Eastern European civ only.
AFRICA:
With the additions of Nubia, Berbers in 0.3 and Swahili eventually I think I've covered Africa really well; a continent that always seems to get a raw deal in history books and games. Mali will be extended to include Ghana and Songhai, becoming the Mande. Remaining possibilities are the Kongo, some sort of Benin/Yoruba civ and at a stretch, Zimbabwe. Not high priorities though.
WEST ASIA:
With the additions I've listed above I think the Middle East will be right up with Europe in terms of representation, so probably best to stop at that point. Urartu/Armenia would be neat though, as would Aramea/Syria. One civ I am strongly considering is something representing Saba/Himyar/Yemen/Southern Arabia. This is a fascinating region with a rich history, and quite distinct from Arabia as represented in Civ already.
CENTRAL ASIA:
Discussed this in my previous posts, there is a gap that would be good to fill around Pakistan/Afghanistan. It would also be great to have a civ representing all the great Silk Road cities like Turfan, Kashgar, Kokand, etc. Maybe the Uighur? Finally some sort of Scythian/Sarmatian civilization would be neat but I don't like adding purely nomadic civs, simply because the game revolves around cities. Overall this is an region that needs more representation, it's just so hard to do because of its tumultuous history.
SOUTH ASIA:
I've added all the major Southeast Asian civs already, except Burma/Mon, Arakan, Champa, Malay/Indonesia/Srivijaya and the Filipinos. I'd consider one of these if the art became available. India could certainly use a Tamil/Dravidian/Chola civ, as mentioned previously. Maybe even Sinhala/Sri Lanka.
EAST ASIA:
Probably my weakest area of knowledge. I can't think of anything to add here; Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan seem to cover the region very well already.
PACIFIC:
I think a Maori civ would be awesome (biased of course) but I'm happy to leave them incorporated into Polynesia. I'm determined to find or even make a Maori leaderhead though. The Koori (Australian Aboriginals) are a civ that would be fantastic to have. They didn't have cities but like the Native Americans they are the first people of the region so its fair enough in my opinion to overlook this. Unfortunately the only leader art available for them is, to be blunt, pretty terrible.
AMERICAS:
The main problem here is that the Aztec and the Inca are both the last empires of their respective regions. I may expand these civs to include more of the peoples that came before them, sort of like I'm going to do with Mali. There's definitely a lot of scope for more civs here but I haven't given it much in depth thought yet. I'm not that interested in adding civs like Chile, Brazil, etc, for reasons I've discussed before.
Anyway, that's lots of rambling from me ><
