Ideas for Civilization 4

[pawpaw]

ivory, it wasn't meant as a put down, you were adding something more to what others said but went no farther on, but you did. thats the idea here is it not, to take an idea and build on it.

 

[Ultraworld]

I want to tell the map generator how much % of the land is covered by forrests/jungle.
I find it quite annoying when there is so much open grassland. There should be much more forrest/jungle.

 

[Ultraworld]

As the opposite of dissapearance prob we need appearance probabilities.

Thinks about it as "a new iron resource has been discoverd".

 

[Ultraworld]

Originally posted by Ultraworld
As the opposite of dissapearance prob we need appearance probabilities.

Thinks about it as "a new iron resource has been discoverd".

hmm . . . it already works that way
but why not for lux res.??????????????

 

[Ultraworld]

A real tax slider for how much money I'll get from my population.

 

[ivory]

I believe the science slider does something similar.
Speaking of which, I would like to see some larger - and + buttons there. Having to find the exact two pixels where they 'll activate gets annoying when it needs to be checked every other turn. Even better would be some way to control the sliders with the keyboard.
On the Trade Advisor, the list of local resources can get quite crowded, and mousing over five iron icons to bubble up the name of a city where there is only coal?, makes one wonder why there is no scrollbar.
The government types of my rivals belong with the Foreign Advisor, not the Military.
Clicking a table header in the screen of the Cultural Advisor could sort the table by that header, just like in the Domestic Advisor.
It would also be nice to be able to type a letter to jump to the first unit starting with that letter in the City Screen Production Queue, similar to ordinary select lists in Windows.
And Cut/copy/paste support in the Name This Town box.
And ...

 

[Ultraworld]

I believe the science slider does something similar.

Yeah: something similar. But the income from taxes is always the same. You can only set the distribution (science, entertainment, treasury) of it. So a real tax-slider. For colonies too

 

[Tarwoch]

I think the barbarian units should be more advanced than a mere warrior, horseman or galley (they should look like CivII barbs).

 

[ivory]

You can change what units the barbarians use in the editor. But I 'm not sure your military advisor will be pleased when your warrior meets a barbarian MA.

 

[Ultraworld]

If you cut jungle it changes to grassland. That should be dessert or plains.

 

[ivory]

Ultraworld, I believ you want this only because it would be more "realistic" (correct me if I'm wrong). Do you think they would be cutting jungle at present in the Amazon rainforest if they knew they would only create desert? No, those are pretty rich grounds they get, how else could the jungle have grown there in the first place?
(Funnily enough, they are creating desert, but that desert appears somewhere, through global warming, and it 's well mirrored in the game.)


The jungle cutting industry is providing jobs in many parts of the world. The environmentalist charity business is thriving in many other parts. So, similar to the ten shields of a cleared forest, a cleared jungle tile could send ten gold to the treasury.

 

[warpstorm]

Originally posted by Ultraworld
A real tax slider for how much money I'll get from my population.

Think of the luxury rate as the income that the people earn that you are not taxing but rather letting them keep for their own uses (making them happier). This means that Warpstormland has roughly a 90% income tax (ouch! )

 

[trumpeteer]

Originally posted by ivory
Do you think they would be cutting jungle at present in the Amazon rainforest if they knew they would only create desert? No, those are pretty rich grounds they get, how else could the jungle have grown there in the first place?

Actually, the soil is very poor in the rainforests. Forgot exactly how it works, but if you cut down the plants, the soil becomes practically useless.

 

[trumpeteer]

This has probably been mentioned a hundred times, but the U.N. should be used as a kind of global insurance company. All members could choose to donate gold per turn to be distributed to countries with negative income or the victims of disasters.

 

[rickyson1]

Originally posted by Ayatollah So


I think Zouave's idea has merit. Unfortunately, they aren't likely to release their hold on the Civ series. That leaves two obvious alternatives for dissatisfied grand-strategy-game fanatics: either talk another game-maker into making a whole new game, or try to scrape together a team and make it yourselves.

I think we've seen enough good ideas in this and similar threads to prove that an alternative IS possible. I recommend starting with this point by another Fanatic:

Algernon Pondlife wrote in another thread ("PTW: the downfall of Civilization"):


To implement this, a game maker could include a whole array of technology trees, to randomly select from. Moreover, the different possible histories could be "crossed off" until all have been used at least once. At which point, fans may well have created enough new possibilities so that the internet-connected could keep enjoying new surprises.


good idea
So keep 'em coming, folks.

 

[rickyson1]

Originally posted by Suki


it didn't happen as badly in civ 2, even though it was easier with the settlers only costing 1 population, was the difference just that the maps were bigger? what was the maximum for civ 2

on the subject of maps, I want a round world like in X-com2, that's still the only game I've ever seen with one.

actually civ 2 had that option.

 

[rickyson1]

Originally posted by wtiberon
One complaint I've picked up on these threads concerns military units. I think that one good change would be to change the concept of military units. What I mean is instead of building units you would draft soldiers or create a professional army. Then you could buy horses, weapons, artillary or whatever to arm these soldiers with. Then when you wanted to launch an army from the city you would decide how many would be horseman or swordsman or archers by how many weapons you'd have. The army would appear as an icon across the map as it does now, however when two army icons collide then a second map appears showing the soldiers of each army. Then you could have a proper military battle with that thing what is it called...oh yeah strategy. Instead of just raming together two units until one green bar is empty. It would not be nearly as complicated as it might appear I have seen it done on a couple of Games. Empire Galactica would be a good game for Firaxis to look at for some good ideas.

that would be too much like an rpg

 

[rickyson1]

Originally posted by Brewno


Excellent idea.

In CIV4 should have volcanos, some sort of sea storm (to eventually but not frequently destroy or damage small boats), lakes (different from sea/ocean/coast), cannyons, etc.

Another idea is: in the future, by year 2050, develop a technology that allows to build submarine cities (more likely Star Wars I style); that could be attacked by submarines; defended by coast guard or something.

In the future, with robotics, all workers should be upgraded to robots;

I guess it's all for now. I'll write some more when I remember something else


Brewno.

how about some kind of sea infantry??

and maybe a rockslide in canyon.
or a avalance in tundra or better yet in some kind of new snow terrain.

 

[rickyson1]

Originally posted by wtiberon
I think if Disasasters were added it should be game option or it would just be one more thing for people to complain about. As for Quokka's idea it has merit. I think that civ's traits do change with time and should change with age. Although I think a Civ could be more binded by its trait. For example if a civ is expansionist it would find it harder to keep citizens happy unless it is becoming larger or if Militaristic the people could demand you invade a neighboring country via the Advisor or when you click on an unhappy face.

that would add a new bonus to militaristic civs cause they would have less war weariness.

 

[rickyson1]

Originally posted by CenturionV
i'm just sick fo there being no infantry in the modern age!!! come on there like millions of people in the army in the US and most of them are NOT driving tanks or mech. inf and make paratroopers/marines more useful i usually get them just about 5 turns before tanks make them obsolete. also i would like to see realistic exhaustible resources like as in Rome might have 5000 oil but use it up on tanks and need more in 60 turns, it would make economics way more realistic. oh and one more thing FIX THE AI AND MAKE THEM HALF DECENT i dotn care if they spend 2 years on the ai alone as long as its realstic and doesent attack me for no reason trample all over me and then make me whip them when they wont leave only to ally with me against there old ally 10 truns later.

how about a future age? and then there could be infantry with phasors.