How about some TW and EU influence?

[Loppan Torkel]

Just an idea on how to make the civexperience a bit more dynamic and historical...

Get rid of the civ leader and the traits tied to him and tie the traits to an actual king (like in regicide(?)) unit instead. This king/queen/leader lives for like 20 turns if not killed before and is then succeded from the civs capital. The traits the leadersunits have could be based on their historical counterparts, like Charles XII having a nice combat skills, a strategic bonus but lack organisation skills for example, which would affect both the 'kingunit' and the civ as a whole.
If the capital is lost and the king dies, you lose.

Sounds fun, right?! I think it would fit Civ just as good as it does the Total War and Europa Universalis series, and make the game both more dynamic and give it a more historical feeling.

 

[Steenreem]

Actually having a unit in the game that is 'you' sounds fun, though it would be strange if you are moving him through the jungle and you can still control your country...

Maybe I should see it as that the player is some sort of 'god' that decides the fate of the a civilization's actions, and that the king is just the leader of the civ but he has nothing directly to do with the player?

Still seems pretty funny to have a leader unit, but the trait changing thing seems sucky for the gameplay.
You start the game, you make a choice, you're stuck with it.
Being able to choose traits in the game seems a bit lame. Something like 'you can never do it really wrong, just repick'.

Maybe we can have a general unit instead of a leader unit. He would be like a superspecialist, only he is for war. He is born just like the other superspecialists and you get more % for him if you do a lot of war. He's a unit which you can include in your biggest stack, where he gives some bonusses.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Still seems pretty funny to have a leader unit, but the trait changing thing seems sucky for the gameplay.
You start the game, you make a choice, you're stuck with it.
Being able to choose traits in the game seems a bit lame. Something like 'you can never do it really wrong, just repick'.

No, you shouldn't be able to choose traits, they just come with the present leader. You're kind of like god for your civ or "zeitgeist" I think the proper term is, the kings/queens/leaders would just come continually as their respective predecessor dies. This "leader" would be the actual historical leader for the civ - Charlemagne becomes the leader of France in the 9th(?) century, with great traits, boosting France in a military golden age, which the player should try to take advantage of. Later the player would have to deal with some bad traits of Charles VIII, if playing France.

You'd be stuck with all the traits of the civs', they'd just change along the way, with the leaders, and one would just have to adopt to a changing situation. Of course if some leader sucks too bad, it would be nice to, at some risk, be able to assassinate him with a spy.

 

[abbamouse]

I like this idea, but perhaps 20 turns is too short for players to get a feel for the new traits each leader brings to the civ. I have no idea how to implement this mod, however. An epic game is 600 turns, which would require 30 leader units!

 

[Loppan Torkel]

I like this idea, but perhaps 20 turns is too short for players to get a feel for the new traits each leader brings to the civ. I have no idea how to implement this mod, however. An epic game is 600 turns, which would require 30 leader units!

True, 20 turns might be a too short period for each leader...

I just thought it might be a fun way of playing civ. I have no intention of making a mod like this, or any other for the matter, so none of these ideas are set in any ways.

I'm not sure but is there anything that would hinder altering the traits of civs during the game?

Other than that balancing the civs and traits shouldn't be as important, as when the civs are stuck with the same traits throughout the game. It almost sounds too easy to mod...