Ideas and Suggestions

[Jimmyh]

This thread is for general ideas and suggestions towards a civ style game.

I will start going through http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=421582 and organizing the ideas into the first few posts of this thread.

I'll be doing it slowly over time, so if you want to add any thing that isn't in that thread then just add it here.

GRAPHICS

• Higher resolution Leader Heads
• Multi Units

MAPS

• Terrain Layers/Overlays etc
• Visible trade routes
• Hex tiles.
• Multiple Maps ( Test of Time )
• Random maps
• At a deeper level it would be nice to give more parameters to the random map generator, like the vastness of resources, certain formations, average elevation level etc. A sensible parameterizing which terrain goes which longitude is also necessary so new terrain types won't be a problem.

OVERLAY TYPES

• Rivers: Wide rivers (navigable by river units), creeks.
• Roads: Paths, dirt roads, stone roads, paved roads, modern roads, freeways.
• Railroads: Train units only. Assignable movement rates.
• Canyons: a variation of Flood Plains.
• Variable appearance overlays that come and go: flowers, leaves (on grassland), parched ground (desert), floods.
• Weeds - grassland that hasn't been worked in a while, must be cleared.
• Scrub - appears on Plains that haven't been worked. Must be near water.
• Coastline counts as water.
• Bridges at road/river, road/railroad railroad/river railroad/mountain-mountain crossings. Era specific.
• Extra Large terrain: for landmarks like Mt. Everest, Sequoias.
• Buildable Fisheries (irrigation), Oil Rigs (mines) on coastal & sea tiles.
• "Oil Spill" Pollution

TECHNOLOGY

• Blind research

TRADE

• Able to pirate trade routes

SOCIAL

• SMAC Civics

EVENTS / SCRIPTING

• Civ2 style events
• Ability to add Python/Lua scripting
• Timed Graphics Events - In-game, timed graphics switches could be done with 'nested' folders.
  
  • Seasons
  • Day/Night
  • City Screen and other interface changes.
• If at all possible, allow these kinds of things (and other stuff like radar towers and the like) to be scripted similarly, based on variables such as turn number, controling civ*, x tech researched by such civ, y improvement/wonder built**
  
  • *(And maybe a previous/original controler civ could also be useful. For example, Greece is taken by Rome, the cities which were Greek could be specified to have a different city style to the Rome-founded ones, these cities are then taken by the Ottomans, and have a different artstyle for them compared to the Ottomans other cities. The Ottomans take Rome itself, though, and because there's no such scripting for it, it perhaps just becomes a "typical" Ottoman city).
    
  • **e.g. Evil Giant Shield to block out the sun!

UNIT

• Require city improvements to be built
• Land and Sea units
• Worker Boats
• Fix the 'AI won't use land units' bug. Big problem.
• Add a "can't be stacked" flag for units.
• Amphibious units. Definitely.
• Change the 'enslave' dynamic, so that the defending unit decides what it will become if captured: slave, pelt, worker, etc.
• Add Charisma, or a flag that allows a unit to "flip" another. For Spies.
• Allow spy units to enter enemy cities to sabotage production.
• More 'Barbarian' variety, including 'random appearance' Flag, for units like tornadoes...
• "No Raze" Option, "Barbarians can capture cities" option.
• A "slows other units down" or "reduces other units visibility" flag could be used for fog, clouds.
• Perhaps a pop-up in the offensive unit's tab, which allows the enslave to be based on a unit v. unit basis? E.g. Celtic Swordsman defeats Thracian Peltast, gains Slave. Roman Legion defeats Thracian Peltast, gains Gladiator. Roman Legion or Celtic Swordsman defeat each other, both would gain Slave.
• Allow a unit to suffer health damage if is in such a tile. Could make, say, Russian Winters pretty scary (limited mobility in all allocated winter Russian tiles with blizards dishing out damage to unfortunate units within !)
• customizable visibility/movability/combat modifier settings for certain terrains

WORKER ABILITIES

• Sea tiles

AI

• parametrizing of AI usage of worker jobs/tile improvements

OTHER

• "Add Culture" option
• "Add city type" option

 

[Jimmyh]

reserved

 

[Jimmyh]

reserved2

 

[Jimmyh]

reserved3

 

[Jimmyh]

reserved4

 

[Takhisis]

You forgot terrain: adding a z axis, enabling 'shelves', tunnels, bridges, empty space (pits/space) and such. Also I have a weird idea for spherical worldmaps that will incubate for a few more days.

 

[Jimmyh]

You forgot terrain: adding a z axis, enabling 'shelves', tunnels, bridges, empty space (pits/space) and such. Also I have a weird idea for spherical worldmaps that will incubate for a few more days.

That was only from the first page of the thread! Not finished yet

 

[Takhisis]

There'll never be such a thing as 'finished', you know. EVER!

 

[ShiroKobbure]

You said multi-units, does that mean multi-units will be like in civ 4 and 5 where "swordsmen" are made up of a few identical swordsman units? And will this system simply use the existing single unit graphics and make them multi in the engine?

A few things I'd really like to see:
More complex barbarians, able to hold cities, wage war on each other, or ally. But also with the ability for them to be peacefully annexed through really good relations. Waging war on barbarians would not have negative effects on diplomacy. Barbarians could have the ability to become full-fledged civs if they reach a certain point or take enough cities. And like-wise rebel cities could become "barbarian" if the rebellion is not quelled.

Ability for parts of an empire to break off.

Mechanic to place races in specific eras of the map. So, if you are the Greeks and you build a city in North Africa, the city's pop wont be 100% Greek. There would need to be something that helps or hurts assimilation. So that in 50 turns, the population would either be totally Greek, or would feel cultural tension and want to split off.

Numerical limits on certain types of units, like a Pope, Praetorian or the Musashi and Yamato where civ should only be able to make one or a few of these units.

The ability for a civ's leader and name to change in each era or with each government, and with new abilities and temperaments for the leaders, instead of having them being limited to the civ.
Explanation here

 

[Takhisis]

Mechanic to place races in specific eras of the map. So, if you are the Greeks and you build a city in North Africa, the city's pop wont be 100% Greek. There would need to be something that helps or hurts assimilation. So that in 50 turns, the population would either be totally Greek, or would feel cultural tension and want to split off.

I'd like to accompany this with the ability to force or suggest names based on locations (tile coordinates).

 

[MPK]

Throw in the persuasion and influence of religious and/or cultural beliefs.

 

[Takhisis]

Both, really. People being of one race might pull them towards one faction but if they follow a different religion (for example, Islamised Mongols) they might feel for their fellow believers. What about religious syncretism?

 

[ShiroKobbure]

Two more things the editor needs regardless of the direction the game ends up going.

1. The ability in the editor to set starting relations, friendly, indifferent, hostile, etc and in alliance, at war with, tributary of,

2. This is the best thing about Victoria 2, the ability to open a saved game and choose what country to play as.
You are playing as Japan, then save your game, open it again, and the world is saved and you can then choose Britain.
This way, you can set things up just right. And you could also post a save file and people could play in that world, but as any civ they want.

 

[Civinator]

Wow! Most of what I read in the first post sounds to me like a dream!

A Civ 3-style game combined with Civ 2 ToT events was part of a Civ game I always did wísh. The same for working land-transports. Some other features of Civ 2, that should be considered to be reintroduced:

- helicopters, that work as they did in Civ 2
- the "ignore-walls"-flag for artillery and assault guns
- an easy zoom-function as it was provided with Civ 2

I agree, that an option in the editor for setting diplomatic relationship would be very helpful.

Nice would also be the following things:

- a working Merchant Navy (as it was demonstrated per example in SSI´s game "Imperialism")

- some working "special units" from CTP (clerik, ecoranger, corporate branch, lawyer)

- a different "soft"- and "hard"-attack combined with a flag if a unit is a soft or hard target (p.e a machine gun causes big damage to footinfantry (softtarget), but not to tanks (hard target)

It still would be a progress if some existing bugs or "bottlenecks" of Civ 3 could be fixed:

- the submarine bug (fixed in vanilla Civ 3 but appeared again in later versions of civ 3
- a proper window in the city screen that can hold more than 16 strat./lux. resources
- landartillery that works as it should in Civ 3 (if possible)
- stealth attack (may be better named "precision attack") that works even if there is only one set target-unit in the stack (C3C needs a minimum of two of these units in a stack)

It would also be very handsome to have the following "little" changes compared to C3C :

- Small wonders can provide other improvements to cities like Great wonders
- City improvements can have more than one existing improvement as a perequisite
- working sea-cities (still possible in Civ 3 but at present with very strange behaviour in gameplay)

- A simple "bigger sized" graphical overlay possibility to introduce special customized graphics (not only landmarks, but also individual cities or other features)

[I don´t list here a battlescreen as it is used with brilliance in AOW2 and AOW SM -and with minor quality in SSI´s Imperialism- as this could be too complicated to be programmed properly, but a battlescreen with the graphical brilliance and the tactical possibilities that can be done in that game would be my ultimate Civ-game. Think of ships that can have different movement values for the normal map (symbolizing range) and the battlescreen (symbolizing speed) and landunits that need a line of sight to fire at the target.]

 

[Takhisis]

Different speeds for land and water travel sounds good.

 

[dragonprobably]

Revolutions=When a new Civ declares itself independent from another Civ. War may or may not happen, that is the revolutionaries' idea.

The new Civs could have different leaders, different traits, different governments, etc. than the Civ it broke off from while having some similarties like Race (Ex: Asian, European), Flavors, and some similar traits (last one optional)

The new Civ could have a similar name to the Civ it broke off from (ex: The People's Democratic Republic of England) and could have unused leaderheads and units as it leader and special unit, respectively.

Maybe some of the Revolutionary Civs could be pre-made and you can play as them after they have appear in one of your games. Some of these RevCivs didn't have to have been formed by revolution, historically.

Ideas:

*Soviet Union (Led by Vladimir Lenin. Special Unit: T-34 which replaces Tank. Favorite Gov: Communism)
*Lakota (Led by Sitting Bull. Special Unit: Indian Outlaw which replaces Rifleman. Favorite Gov: Tribal Council)
*Nazi Germany (Led by Adolf Hitler. Special Unit: SS. Favorite Gov: Facism)
*Texas Republic (Led by Sam Houston. Special Unit: Ranger. Favorite Gov: Republic)
*Boer Republics (Led by Paul Kruger. Special Unit: ???. Favorite Gov: Republic)
*Mexico (Led by Pancho Villa. Special Unit: Villista. Favorite Gov: Republic)

Edit: WOOT! 200th Post!

 

[MPK]

I found an interesting unit. The "Wall" (aaglo)- There is actually 18 seperate individual Wall units. Using mostly the compass directions as their names. eg: "SouthEast"; "NorthWest" etc. Also there are 'Corner Walls' ;eg; "WallNorthBend" etc.
[ thread ]
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=103993 ].
I think it is used as a type of pre-placed 'Landmark Terrain'. As a functioning unit I guess the AI wouldn't be able to use them properly, (yet, with the current editor).

This got got me thinking if this could be used as a built and moveable unit. Then why stop there. All sorts of stationary static units could be built. Like Military Gun Emplacements etc. Maybe Workers could build these just by having them added to the "Workers Jobs" in the editor,,,but built units also could work. We have some of these units already made.

Units could move just once up to a limited number of tiles...or anywhere with in the cities boundaries. Then they are 'Entrenched' (not fortified), entrenched as in they cannot move again. Certain entrenched units like AA batteries could have a zone of control with attacking aircraft. Others like Pillboxes could have 'Trans Capacity' added to them, so more than one unit could be placed on the same map tile, or it could carry or have added to it a certain amount of normal troop units;eg: machine Gun Crews to a Pillbox:. So we could possibly have several Machine Guns in 1 Pillbox. Even Walls could have a 'Trans Capacity' limit. 1 military unit per Wall section, 2-3 per tower[?]. Walls and/or Barricades would stop neighbours just wondering through ones territory.

= Units that could be built and used as static entrenched Units:

= Walls;
--- Earth Walls; Wooden Barricades; Mud Brick Walls; Stone Walls; ? :
= Forts; (we already have now with settlers)- Earth; Wood; Stone; etc:
= Pillboxs/Bunkers;
--- Jungle Pillboxs/Bunkers; MC Pillboxs/Bunkers; Artillery Gun Emplacement/Pillboxes/Bunkers; ?
= Coastal Cannon/Artillery Defences;
= AA Battery;
= Beach Defences;
---eg: D-Day-"Czech Hedgehogs"–static anti-tank obstacle defenses.
= Mines;
--- Land Mines (Mine Field);
--- Naval Mines (Sea Mines);

= Trenches - [ could WW1 trenches be built like this ?? ]

 

[Kyriakos]

A very useful in my view idea would be to include code to allow for set smallest distances between cities. I am thinking of my own sets being used, or other large work, which would look bad if it overlaps when all cities go metro and they are in 2 squares from each other. Being able to set it to 3 squares (or 2, or more) would solve this issue

 

[Takhisis]

As said here, unit upgrades requiring extra manpower would be a welcome addition.

The same could be done with elephants, camels, etc. that you can 'buy' from another country and then man by yourself.

 

[Bengal Tiger]

More complex barbarians, able to hold cities, wage war on each other, or ally. But also with the ability for them to be peacefully annexed through really good relations. Waging war on barbarians would not have negative effects on diplomacy. Barbarians could have the ability to become full-fledged civs if they reach a certain point or take enough cities. And like-wise rebel cities could become "barbarian" if the rebellion is not quelled.

Going further on this, I think specializing Barbarian tribes(ex. one might be aggressive while another generally passive unless provoked), and especially to be able to give each tribe a unique set of units.

Ex. Vikings could have warrior as a base unit, berserk as an advanced unit, and longship as a naval unit, while accross the globe you could have a Native American tribe with a scout as a base unit, a mounted warrior as an advanced unit, and a canoe as a naval unit.

Although I do like the idea of blurring the line between barbarian and nation, and revolutions are definitely something I'd like to see implemented. Being able to set the odds of it happening based on factors such as distance from capital( x2 for sea squares) and size of the empire would really change the way one plays the game, as simply warmongering from one civ to the next would be a recipe for a large scale revolt.

Another idea might be having 'vassal states' so that whenever you win a war, the nation isn't necessarily blinked out of existence. Automatic RoP and MPP, as well as the ability to levy taxes and raise troops, but if pushed the nation might end up revolting again. Units built from that country would have (X Nation) listed next to their name, and in the event of a revolt, those units would change sides to support their homeland.