How would you improve Civ 4?

[Redcoat Captain]

So, experienced and fanatical Civvers, how would you improve an already damn fine game? I would....

1. Bring back the Throne Room from Civ 2. Hardly important i know, and has no say in the game mechanics, but it was a fun little distraction, and gave a huge sense of accomplishment to see your humble little cave converted into a palace worthy of a King.

2. Improve the battle animations. It could use a touch-up. It gets pretty old seeing the same 3 vs 3 animation. 1 shoots then the other shoots then 2 fall down, you know how it goes. I'd like to see lots of little units and a more interesting battle animtaion. Maybe add-in the defending units on top of the castle walls, or an animation showing the catapaults blowing out sections of the walls. Perhaps show the terrain in the battle animation, such as Pikeman atop a hill fending off a cavalry charge. Something along those lines.

3. Unit's show experience and injuries. Instead of an injured unit showing 1 rifleman instead of 3 to indicate its wounded....How about showing all 3 soldiers, but perhaps some in bandages, or on crutches. Also, i'd like to see the soldiers uniform change accoring to rank, maybe adding chevrons or a change in uniform design indicating the units experience as a rank. Something visual to help you identify high experience units at a glance.

4. Bring back the animated Advisors from Civ 2. Again, has no say in game mechanics but was very entertaining to see thier rection to your leadership, especially when entering anarchy. I want to see that jolly old knight telling me to divide and conquer again, and the trade advisor frowning at him


What would you add/tweak if you had the oppoutunity?

(P.S. I dont know if any of these have been added in a Mod Pack i dont use mods, so if they have dont crucify me, i dont work here i just fly through occasionally )

 

[Shurdus]

I like the ideas of bringing the advisors and the throne room back. I like the throne room better though because although the advosors were a nice touch they were a bit corny...

I would very much like the interface to be better, in the sense that menu's that are very useful - like the diplomatic 'glance' screen - are present and not removed because the developers think it is ugly.

Also I want control of units to be better. When I want to select 3 axemen out of a stack of 9 I want to be able to select just those three without the rest of the stack suddenly waking up. I heard some tricks or something on how to do this efficiently, but it was not very intuitive. I just want the interface to be simple yet working perfectly.

Last, I want the game to run smoother. I have a solid PC yet it can bog down near the end of the game so that it requires a second or two in order to open a city. It would be perfect if they can make it so this works more smooth.

 

[Alsark]

I'd make the civilizations a little more balanced. For example, while several of the financial leaders are almost always top tier, there are other leaders who suffer from being almost always bottom tier. This could be changed via reworking the traits so that they're all balanced (in other words, Financial shouldn't be godly, and Protective shouldn't be horrendous) or reworking unique units/buildings.

 

[r_rolo1]

Financial isn't godly and protective isn't horrendous

On topic:

-Make BUG the default interface It would not be the first time that firaxis would pick a interface mod for the game ....
-Solve the bugs adressed in the unofficial patch
-Rewrite the events code and triggers in the way you can have all the events open in a particular game and in a way events are balanced to all speeds and all map sizes
-Rewrite the patrol function code
-Give the AI memory.... that would be probably the best thing we could do to make the game more interesting

 

[Phrossack]

Eliminate. Global. Warming.

 

[mrt144]

Nuclear Plants

 

[ruff_hi]

-Give the AI memory.... that would be probably the best thing we could do to make the game more interesting

WOW - that would be interesting. 20 games in, Mensa remembers that he tech traded like crazy with the human and then the human killed him with tanks. Now, no tech trading due to prior game back stabbing. Fun yet un-fun at the same time.

 

[r_rolo1]

Not that kind of memory ( but yeah, that kind of memory would be interesting too )

I was talking about long term planning in general, a area where the even the BtS AI is sorely lacking, except in the areas where it serves to nag the human ( like in diplomacy: " we remember that you razed our long forgotten holy city 3000 years ago and that you traded pottery with our worst enemy of the time ( now our best friend ), but we don't remember where we saw a enemy boat one month ago" )

P.S And PLEASE rewrite global warming. As it is today it simply doesn't make any sense both in RL matters and in gameplay.

 

[The_Dwarf]

For example, while several of the financial leaders are almost always top tier, there are other leaders who suffer from being almost always bottom tier. This could be changed via reworking the traits so that they're all balanced (in other words, Financial shouldn't be godly, and Protective shouldn't be horrendous) or reworking unique units/buildings.

This is just not true, Financial isnt even the best trait ...

 

[King Flevance]

1) Improve the economic model the game is based on and have commerce be based more on relations and trade moreso than the map. I personally would like to seen established foreign trade routes bring in more money than simply making a coastal city.

2)Definatley go with bug mod for the interface. I would also like to see static tiles. (I know that has nothing to do with bug mod but I don't wanna make an entirely different numbered thingy just for that. Instead, I would rather type out all this crap explaining myself it seems.)

3)Better nautical atmosphere. I would like to see sea tiles brought back and some new ships offered at Compass and on. Sea tiles could make some games play out so that you have a civ on 2 landmasses very early.

4) Yeah Global Warming is rediculous and nuclear plants are rediculously dangerous and in a sense worthless because of 1 event that happened 1 time IRL.

5) Address balance as Alsark mentioned. Not only on traits but on UBs and UUs as well. I forget the name but the Zulu UB is can almost add up to 3rd trait if you build one in every city for a very low amount of hammers at that. But Etheopia gets stuck with a steele. Or look at the dun.

This is just not true, Financial isnt even the best trait ...

But you do have one in mind the way you word that. It's pretty apparent that protective isn't on par with the others though. Same goes for Imperialistic or Expansive(Although, I personally like those two.) But anyone who stands up for Imperialistic, Protective, or Expansive as being "one of the most powerful traits in the game" is just defending a personal favorite and not really making the comparison in the name of balance.

6) Somehow not only incoorperate the throne room back in, but have it serve a role this time around of some kind. I don't have any idea what that role could be. But it would be cool if it somehow meant or did something for you or to your enemies. Perhaps war weariness or something, I dunno. Maybe just something really cool for vanity's sake outside of just clicking ont the button and going "There's my throne". (Said in a Forrest Gump voice - "There's my boat")

 

[ruff_hi]

oh - and I would really like to see the map move to a hex format - that would totally change a lot of the game play.

 

[Jaroth]

1. More efficient memory usage for better gaming performance

2. More intuitive interface that displays more information. (like B.U.G.)

3. Better A.I. opponents

 

[Jaroth]

oh - and I would really like to see the map move to a hex format - that would totally change a lot of the game play.

YES! I would also rather see hexes for more natural movement.

 

[r_rolo1]

*trying to think how to use Numpad in hex*

 

[Ekmek]

So, experienced and fanatical Civvers, how would you improve an already damn fine game? I would....

1. Bring back the Throne Room from Civ 2. Hardly important i know, and has no say in the game mechanics, but it was a fun little distraction, and gave a huge sense of accomplishment to see your humble little cave converted into a palace worthy of a King.

honestly the throne room and palace stuff took you "out" of the game. What would be cool is that if you got some bonus tileimprovements or buildings that you could beautify your empire right on the map. That I would find way cooler.

 

[guenzak]

The only real interface improvement i find myself wanting is a way to go from city to city in the city screen without cycling through all your cities. If, when in the city screen, there was a drop down menu of your cities instead of the arrows you can just click on the city you want to view. When your empire gets a bit large i hate having to cycle...and I usually end up cycling the wrong way and i end up going through almost all the cities to get the one i want

 

[Blaarg]

I think much of the combat could use a rework. I'd like to see things addressed:

1. Make the ancient units make sense. Spearmen were the dominate unit of the era, they shouldn't be relegated to anti-cavalry. There was no such thing as an axeman. etc.

2. Naval warfare needs an overhaul.

3. Air warfare needs a few tweaks.

Edit: Oh, and the AI leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Rusty Edge]

*trying to think how to use Numpad in hex*

Maybe you'd use some of the other keys instead

_W_ E
A_ S _D
_Z _X

Get the picture? For that matter, we could keep the squares and just offset them like the letter keys and serve the same purpose.

 

[King Flevance]

You could also just remove 2 and 8 from the number pad. Or 6 and 4 depending on which way the hexes are facing.

 

[Rusty Edge]

You could also just remove 2 and 8 from the number pad. Or 6 and 4 depending on which way the hexes are facing.

I think I'd make it ....

8 heal.
5 fortify
2 sentry

I like my hexes with horizontal tops and bottoms.