Ideas for possible next expansion
- Thread starter Einshev
- Start date
ahab_in_rehab
Chieftain
Aussie Lurker:
Good point about the religion, it could do with fleshing out a little as it stands , I like your idea of religious expression but would'nt limit the choice of the expresssion to the founder. I envision a system whereby when you convert to (or found) a particular religion you have 5 or 6 options as to how you express your religion each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Off the top of my head examples of religious expression could be militant, pluralist, orthodox, reforming, evangelical etc. These expressions would modify diplomatic relations in a similar way to how religions work at the moment so even if two powerrs have the same religion if they express that religion in opposing forms (say orthodox and pluralist) then there will be a hefty negative modifier. Similarly two pluralist leaders with different religions should not have much of a negative modifier even though they are of a different religion. This should hopefully simulate sectarian conflicts and rivalries in a way that civ does not do at the moment.
You'd probably want to get rid of the religion catagory of civics if you did this and replace it with something else or there'd be a bit too much overlap.
What do you think, could it work, would it add to the game?
Good point about the religion, it could do with fleshing out a little as it stands , I like your idea of religious expression but would'nt limit the choice of the expresssion to the founder. I envision a system whereby when you convert to (or found) a particular religion you have 5 or 6 options as to how you express your religion each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Off the top of my head examples of religious expression could be militant, pluralist, orthodox, reforming, evangelical etc. These expressions would modify diplomatic relations in a similar way to how religions work at the moment so even if two powerrs have the same religion if they express that religion in opposing forms (say orthodox and pluralist) then there will be a hefty negative modifier. Similarly two pluralist leaders with different religions should not have much of a negative modifier even though they are of a different religion. This should hopefully simulate sectarian conflicts and rivalries in a way that civ does not do at the moment.
You'd probably want to get rid of the religion catagory of civics if you did this and replace it with something else or there'd be a bit too much overlap.
What do you think, could it work, would it add to the game?
Aussie_Lurker
Deity
Actually, I confess that this was also the direction my own mind was heading. That a civ which adopts an existing religion initially inherits the FOUNDERS expression of the religion but-over time-the adopting civ can change to their own expression. After a sufficient period of anarchy, the player can then spread the new version to their other cities and/or use inquisitors to purge the 'Heretic' sect from their cities (at a steep happiness cost in the city AND a big diplo hit). Relations between two sects should also initially be quite strained-possibly more so than if they had completely seperate faiths (it is my experience that sects of the same faith fight each other more often than differing faiths!)
Oh and instead of replacing the religious civics, perhaps it just needs to be broadened to include what that civs primary view of their faith is-be it Ascetic, Militant, Fundamentalist, Orthodox, Ritualistic, Reformist-etc etc.
Aussie_Lurker.
Oh and instead of replacing the religious civics, perhaps it just needs to be broadened to include what that civs primary view of their faith is-be it Ascetic, Militant, Fundamentalist, Orthodox, Ritualistic, Reformist-etc etc.
Aussie_Lurker.
El Koeno
Emperor
- Joined
- May 22, 2006
- Messages
- 1,926
Don't the religious civics relate to the expression of the religion your civ chooses? A militant expression is symbolized by a theocracy for example. For me that's enough and I wouldn't need really any additions to that part of gameplay personally.
I really like the idea of the Civ 4: Explorers and expansion of trade, exploration and diplomacy options. Maybe colonies could function a bit like vassal states?
I really like the idea of the Civ 4: Explorers and expansion of trade, exploration and diplomacy options. Maybe colonies could function a bit like vassal states?
ahab_in_rehab
Chieftain
El Koeno:
I can see what you're saying some of the expressions that I suggested sound fairly similar to exisiting religious civics. What I was suggesting though was essentially changing the way the religious civics work to make them religion a richer more vivid (and more influential) element within the game. As it stands you would get the same diplo modifiers for a different religion from a pacifistic civ as you would from a theocratic civ. If you share the same religion but again are running diametrically opposite religious civics again you will get the same (positive) modifier. Using expressions you could have a much fuller (perhaps more realistic) experience. An orthodox buddhist and a reformist buddhist civ would be at each others throats.
Aussie:
I prefer the idea of having the religious traits handled through a different system than the civics, you can tailor how you want them to work without being hamstrung by the civics system. It would also free up space for another catagory of secular civics, and hell its always better to have a division between church and state.
Agree with you totally about inquistor type units that will remove religions from a city. I was thinking that perhaps a civ with an orthodox religion should suffer some sort of penalty for the presence of other religions in its cities
I can see what you're saying some of the expressions that I suggested sound fairly similar to exisiting religious civics. What I was suggesting though was essentially changing the way the religious civics work to make them religion a richer more vivid (and more influential) element within the game. As it stands you would get the same diplo modifiers for a different religion from a pacifistic civ as you would from a theocratic civ. If you share the same religion but again are running diametrically opposite religious civics again you will get the same (positive) modifier. Using expressions you could have a much fuller (perhaps more realistic) experience. An orthodox buddhist and a reformist buddhist civ would be at each others throats.
Aussie:
I prefer the idea of having the religious traits handled through a different system than the civics, you can tailor how you want them to work without being hamstrung by the civics system. It would also free up space for another catagory of secular civics, and hell its always better to have a division between church and state.
Agree with you totally about inquistor type units that will remove religions from a city. I was thinking that perhaps a civ with an orthodox religion should suffer some sort of penalty for the presence of other religions in its cities
Martinus
Emperor
Yeah. Another option is to essentially make them terrain improvements that can be built (possibly with the use of a settler or a worker - by consuming a worker) on resources located outside of your cultural borders, in order to claim such resources.El Koeno said:
They would not be able to build troops or buildings (i.e. they would not count as cities), they would get destroyed if caught withing cultural borders of any country, and they would increase your maintenance cost (but by a fraction of a full city cost). They would however allow you to access resources located on poor small islands and in far-off areas (such as tundra) without having to build cities there.
El Koeno
Emperor
- Joined
- May 22, 2006
- Messages
- 1,926
@ ahab in rehab: Maybe a more general civic-related diplo-modifier would be a sollution? So theocratic Civs wouldn't like pacifist (or free religion) civs, state property civs would have a natural disliking for free market civs etc. It wouldn't require any complicated new mechanics, but still add a nice layer of gameplay I think.
@martinus: That's how they did in Civ 3 wasn't it? I wonder why they abandoned that idea.. Anybody who knows?
@martinus: That's how they did in Civ 3 wasn't it? I wonder why they abandoned that idea.. Anybody who knows?
John Corbin
Chieftain
- Joined
- May 13, 2006
- Messages
- 7
I would like to see natural disasters brought back..
CIV 3 had volcanoes...
Why not have earthquakes, Tidal waves, flooding etc
CIV 3 had volcanoes...
Why not have earthquakes, Tidal waves, flooding etc
Junglecutter
Honorable Delegate
They should put in a WW2 Pacific scenario that starts with pearl harbour....
Martinus
Emperor
Probably it was not balanced enough for Civ 4.El Koeno said:
But in Civ 3 we also had great generals, and they made a come-back (albeit tweaked) in Warlords, so I hope they will give us back colonies (albeit tweaked, again).
ahab_in_rehab
Chieftain
@ El Koeno
I doubt it would be very hard to implement religious expressions, if it were to be done by a modder in the community then just changing the religious civics would be enough but if Firaxis were to implement this sort of idea then I'd prefer a slightly different system accessed through the religious advisor. Theres nothing wrong with the civic system but theres more potential for interesting ways of modelling changing expressions than anarchy.
Totally agree about having modifiers for the other civics state property/ free market etc.
An age if discovery themed expansion seems a very good idea, theres a lack of ships from the age of sail, the inclusion of portugal, holland and native north american civs would fit perfectly. Not sure how they would be able to fit the Babylonians (who surely must be in the next xp) and some of the missing modern age units/promotions within that theme though
I doubt it would be very hard to implement religious expressions, if it were to be done by a modder in the community then just changing the religious civics would be enough but if Firaxis were to implement this sort of idea then I'd prefer a slightly different system accessed through the religious advisor. Theres nothing wrong with the civic system but theres more potential for interesting ways of modelling changing expressions than anarchy.
Totally agree about having modifiers for the other civics state property/ free market etc.
An age if discovery themed expansion seems a very good idea, theres a lack of ships from the age of sail, the inclusion of portugal, holland and native north american civs would fit perfectly. Not sure how they would be able to fit the Babylonians (who surely must be in the next xp) and some of the missing modern age units/promotions within that theme though
ahab_in_rehab
Chieftain
oh and colonies would be in harmony with the discovery/exploration theme. I can't think why they wern't incorperated in Civ IV I don't remember them being unablanced in III and can't see why they would be in IV if they used the same system. Hell if they were coded properly they would hopefully stop the AI in its manic drive to settle the arctic wastes for the sake of a few beavers. Oh and surely there should be a naval equivalent, I can;t think of a single game where iv'e been able to access whales until the industrial era as they're so far away from land (and they seem to be rarer than other marine resources too).
I know ive posted this on another thread but im quite interested in hearing as many opinions ideas about the tech tree as possible as I feel that this is the real archilies heel in the series
One thing i would also like to see tweaked is the tech tree, currently it seems to almost be click and forget, the same repetitive race. I find that the tech tree does not relate in any way to each unique game experienced it exists almost as an aloof entity which is very disappointing.
I would like to see entire branches along the tech tree cut off (blanked out even) until the root techs' required resource or experience or contact with the requirements from other friendly civs are discovered.
For example the animal husbandary tech and any techs connected to this should be blind from the player until you find wild animals within your borders or you have made friendly contact with a civ who does (maybe there could be a tech idea transfer delay of say 5 turns before you have access to research of that appropriate tech).
With military type techs perhaps you could only get access to researching them once you have encountered a particular type of enemy, for example if you are attacked by a certain minimum number of melee units (inc from barbarians) then a defensive tech appears giving you the option to research it to gain new units. Or if you defeat a unit from a more advanced nation (or capture option?) you may get to see the entire branch in the tech tree that led up to that unti and you could access each of the techs with a reduced time penalty
Now the clever bit, obviously over time you would get to know how the tech tree was formed and so even though tech branches would be blinded from view you would know what resource/experience etc to hunt down to get to that tech branch making the fog of knowledge a bit pointless. I propose to randomise the tech tree, not very easy as it has to remain logical but Im sure it can be done to really put the icing on the cake.
One thing i would also like to see tweaked is the tech tree, currently it seems to almost be click and forget, the same repetitive race. I find that the tech tree does not relate in any way to each unique game experienced it exists almost as an aloof entity which is very disappointing.
I would like to see entire branches along the tech tree cut off (blanked out even) until the root techs' required resource or experience or contact with the requirements from other friendly civs are discovered.
For example the animal husbandary tech and any techs connected to this should be blind from the player until you find wild animals within your borders or you have made friendly contact with a civ who does (maybe there could be a tech idea transfer delay of say 5 turns before you have access to research of that appropriate tech).
With military type techs perhaps you could only get access to researching them once you have encountered a particular type of enemy, for example if you are attacked by a certain minimum number of melee units (inc from barbarians) then a defensive tech appears giving you the option to research it to gain new units. Or if you defeat a unit from a more advanced nation (or capture option?) you may get to see the entire branch in the tech tree that led up to that unti and you could access each of the techs with a reduced time penalty
Now the clever bit, obviously over time you would get to know how the tech tree was formed and so even though tech branches would be blinded from view you would know what resource/experience etc to hunt down to get to that tech branch making the fog of knowledge a bit pointless. I propose to randomise the tech tree, not very easy as it has to remain logical but Im sure it can be done to really put the icing on the cake.
I would love to see one additional slider, a "production/health" or "energy" slider, available somewhere in the Industrial Age, where you can convert some amount of coins into hammers. Resources and Energy are important enough I believe to be more then a have/have-not factor in this game. Now, you can create science, culture and money empire-wise with the sliders, and build science, culture and money city-wise by converting based on a 50% rate. But creating production -- apart from the Universal Suffrage civic rush method -- is not in the game. Production bonuses would work just as the other bonuses.
I know it's an extra slider, but with the "energy" slider I would love to see the Industrial Age coming to life more.
Jaca
Edit: and, for the warmongers amongst you, you could switch to a "war economy" too, by setting the slider high and produce military on top of the drafting.
Edit 2: thinking about some more, the Universal Suffrage may open up the use of the slider, replacing the +1hammer from Towns. Thoughts anyone?
I know it's an extra slider, but with the "energy" slider I would love to see the Industrial Age coming to life more.
Jaca
Edit: and, for the warmongers amongst you, you could switch to a "war economy" too, by setting the slider high and produce military on top of the drafting.
Edit 2: thinking about some more, the Universal Suffrage may open up the use of the slider, replacing the +1hammer from Towns. Thoughts anyone?
elpollodiablos
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2006
- Messages
- 4
I have many ideas to be included in a second expansion. Before I begin 3 things should be noted: 1) I've never played a mod so many ideas could already be done better in something that exists. 2) These are not all my ideas, many are culled from other threads. 3) This is a second expansion, not Civilization V, so the ideas are (hopefully) relatively easy to implement.
1) Civilizations
i) My personal choices
Mesopatmia (Sumeria, Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Phoenecia, Hittites, etc... have far too much common territory to warrant
seperate civilizations. The Arabs are already an amalgamation and so would the Mesopatmians) UU is Slinger, upgraded archer with 25% bonus vs archer. UB is Ziggurat, upgraded temple that gives extra culture.
Khumer: UU is Viet Cong, infantry with woodsman 1 and 2.
Dutch: UU is Swiss Pikeman, stronger pikeman. UB is Dutch Bank.
Portuguese: UU is Cacador, rifleman with woodsman 1 and guerilla 1. UB is shipyard, upgraded harbour, that gives naval units experience.
Poland: UU is Winged Hussars, faster knights.
Hungary: UU is Magyars, stronger horse archers.
Austria: UU is Great Swordsman, stronger Men-At-Arms (see 4) Army)
Mayans: UU is Adzeman, axeman with woodsman 1 and 2. UB is Obsidian Workshop, a forge that has no pollution.
Ethiopia: UU is Ethiopian Rifleman (poor name. It should be whatever the soldiers were called that won at Adawa against the Italians).
ii) Others' choices that I liked, particularly when I noticed that my list is Europe-heavy,
Thailand, Iroquois, Toltecs, Ashanti, Songhai, and Congo.
iii) Civilizations that are not major enough powers to deserve to be included but probably will be anyway for scenarios.
Canada: (For the record I'm Canadian) UU is CEF = Canadian Expeditionary Force, stronger infantry (Canadian Infantry was feared in WW1 and 2). UB is RCMP barracks, upgraded jail that gives 2 happiness (In American West there were people then laws. In Canadian West there were laws then the people came).
Israel: UU is Merkava, stronger Modern Armour.
2) Navy
i) Make all sea and oceans squares improvable. Food (fishing boats), commerce (shipping lane), and hammer (whaling boats) improvements. Lower square base production or improvements harm other yields to balance. Land squares can have the canal improvement to allow ships to travel though land.
ii)Add Galleasse, Ship-of-the-Line, Dreadnaught, Missile Cruiser, and Nuclear Submarine. If civilizations are to be given multiple UUs then give many civilizations Naval UUs. Give England back its Man O' War from Civilization 3. German U boats, American aircraft carriers, Viking longboats, Roman Corvus Triremes, the naval equivalent of fast worker (Portugese or Dutch), Greek Fire for the Greeks, and even Korean turtle ships (out of Age of Emipires 2).
iii) Navy only promotions are a must and to be interesting should include gaining gold (plundering) through killing transports and % chance of capturing the vessel.
iv) Ships should be able to fight in port but give the defender the defensive culture bonus that land units get. Let naval units bombard cities to both damage culture defense and harm units. Resurrect an old improvement, coastal battery, to allow the city to damage the ship back.
v)Add naval leader traits: Explorer and Admiral. Explorer makes scouts, explorers, and ships +1 line of sight or movement; also trade route income increased. Admiral gives 4 experience to all naval units.
3) Airforce
Divide the current bombers into 2 seperate units: Strategic and Tactical Bombers. Strategic Bombmers can pillage, kill population in cities, try to destroy existing buildings, and destroy hammers for a unit being built in a city. Tactical Bombers can dogfight better than Strategic and can pillage, damage land units, including a chance to strike first at anti-air land units. Fighters get an additional ability to escort. When a friendly plane on a bombing run is about to be attacked by an enemy fighter a friendly fighter on escort fights with the attacker first. This uses the fighter's movement so it can not intercept the same turn. All planes should be allowed on carriers.
4) Army
Add Men-At-Arms, Self Propelled Artillery, Attack Helicopters, and Cruise Missiles. Have a paratrooper promotion. Have cannon appear much earlier in the tech tree. Historically cannon were adopted into the military before hand guns. There's something about musketeers grouped with catapults that makes the history buff in me cringe.
5) Wonders
Louvre, Area 51, Circus Maximus, CERN, Easter Island Heads, Maginot Line, Space Station, Sphinx, and Krak des Chevaliers.
6) Civil War and Resurrecting Civilizations
First free up the civilization from its colour. So Japan could be yellow and France gray. Also give each civilization at least 2 leaders. Allow multiple players to be the same civilization, just not the same leader. Single player games couldn't start with 2 of the same civilization. Do away with the 18 civilization cap.
I'm a peaceful player. I've never played to conquer the world until I run out of things to build around the rifleman era. Most threads indicate that the war game is essentially over by the industrial era. To keep large empires (most likely the player's) from winning that early I suggest reintroducing civil wars. Large empires also cause unhappiness with the citizenry (wasteful central government). If too many cities have at least one unhappy citizen then some of those cities succeed and form their own nation, which is the same civilization as the former owner with a different leader.
That would lead to city razing as a way to get around your empire having a civil war. To that I propose resurrecting civilizations that were wiped out (or introducing new ones) at a later date in territory that has no owner. Giving them several settlers, workers, and soldiers should give them a chance of rebuilding. This is like what happened in Alpha Centauri.
7) Spies and Diplomacy
i) Allow alliances, open borders, and defensive pacts from the start of the game.
ii) Allow spies to be built much earlier. Give them the ability to bribe units and nuke cities.
8) New Eras
Go into the future with the Information and Nano eras. This will require disabling the space victory and turning the Apollo Program and Space Race into wonders. A Science Victory would be created similar to that in Alpha Centauri. It would be a huge wonder at the end of the new tech tree.
Currently, the game has melee infantry is obselete and upgrades into ranged infantry, and cavalry upgrades into helicopters. If current trends prevail, the battleship will become obsolete as air power dominates more naval conflict. In the future, my guess is, tanks will become obsolete for mechs.
i) Units
mechanized infantry -> laser infantry -> augmented infantry -> robotic infantry
marine -> commando -> genetic warrior aks genies (name from Buck Rogers) -> hybrid soldiers
artillery -> self propelled artillery -> missile battery -> fusion battery
modern armour -> grav tank
modern armour -> mech suit -> goliath
sam soldier -> F.O.E. battery -> ion battery
gunship -> attack helicopter -> hover plane -> repulsor ship
attack helicopter -> airbase (airborne version of an aircraft carrier)
jet fighter -> plasma fighter -> orbital fighter
stealth bomber -> solar bomber -> orbital bomber
submarine -> nuclear submarine -> Leviathan -> Poisidon
destroyer -> tempest -> avatar
transport -> cryogenic transport
ii) World Wonders, those taken from popular science fiction and Alpha Centauri
Martial Colony, Cloning Vats, Fusion Reactor, Biosphere, Clinical Immortality, Magma Tap, 0-point Reactor, Dinosaur Park, World Archives, Cryrogenic Repository, Controlled Evolution
World Wonders, aritist based, so not from popular science fiction, completely made up
Celestial Palace, Selkirk Memorial, Hermaz's Fractals, Artificial Borealis, Saints' Gallery
iii) City Improvements
Cloning Facility (instant population 10, cheap), Airbase, Commercial Teleporters, Weather Control, Life Recycler, Archology, Mass Transit, Digital Library, Genetic Sculpter, Automated Sentry System, Nano Assembler, Treatment Plant, Theme Park, Commercial Hub, Orbital Launchpoint, Orbital Hydroponics, Orbital Solar Arrays, Asteroid Mining Facility, Solar Power Plant
iv) Technology
Use most of Alpha Centauri's tech tree. A few techs to link the existing tree and Alpha's:
Space Habitation, Virtual Reality, Hydrogen Fuel, Quantum Computers, Solar Power
9) Religion Ideologies
i) Give each religion different benefits. Yes, I realize this is a politically correct landmine. I just don't like each religion being exactly the same.
ii) Religion becomes a moot point in the late game. With the advent of Free Religion every computer and most human players
will switch to it. I like the idea of reusing the religious system in the form of Ideologies. Ideologies function like religion, each civilization has an official one and it spreads to different cities like religions. A new unit, Philosophers, spread it like Missionaries. Civilizations of different ideologies hate each other while those of the same like each other.
The ideologies are
Harmony +health, +forest and jungle yields, founded with Environmentalism
Dominance +unit exp, founded with Fascism
Order +happiness, founded with Communism
Freedom +culture, founded with Liberalism
Wealth +money, founded with Corporation
Knowledge +science, founded with Scientific Knowledge
Nihilism +production, founded with Fission
This does have the disadvantage that there is a lot of overlap with existing civics.
10) Miscellaneous
i) Have region (eg: Middle East, Asian, Classical, ect...) specific look to buildings and improvements. Group civilizations
by region at the start of the game.
ii) Bring back colonies.
iii) Being able to plant forests.
1) Civilizations
i) My personal choices
Mesopatmia (Sumeria, Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Phoenecia, Hittites, etc... have far too much common territory to warrant
seperate civilizations. The Arabs are already an amalgamation and so would the Mesopatmians) UU is Slinger, upgraded archer with 25% bonus vs archer. UB is Ziggurat, upgraded temple that gives extra culture.
Khumer: UU is Viet Cong, infantry with woodsman 1 and 2.
Dutch: UU is Swiss Pikeman, stronger pikeman. UB is Dutch Bank.
Portuguese: UU is Cacador, rifleman with woodsman 1 and guerilla 1. UB is shipyard, upgraded harbour, that gives naval units experience.
Poland: UU is Winged Hussars, faster knights.
Hungary: UU is Magyars, stronger horse archers.
Austria: UU is Great Swordsman, stronger Men-At-Arms (see 4) Army)
Mayans: UU is Adzeman, axeman with woodsman 1 and 2. UB is Obsidian Workshop, a forge that has no pollution.
Ethiopia: UU is Ethiopian Rifleman (poor name. It should be whatever the soldiers were called that won at Adawa against the Italians).
ii) Others' choices that I liked, particularly when I noticed that my list is Europe-heavy,
Thailand, Iroquois, Toltecs, Ashanti, Songhai, and Congo.
iii) Civilizations that are not major enough powers to deserve to be included but probably will be anyway for scenarios.
Canada: (For the record I'm Canadian) UU is CEF = Canadian Expeditionary Force, stronger infantry (Canadian Infantry was feared in WW1 and 2). UB is RCMP barracks, upgraded jail that gives 2 happiness (In American West there were people then laws. In Canadian West there were laws then the people came).
Israel: UU is Merkava, stronger Modern Armour.
2) Navy
i) Make all sea and oceans squares improvable. Food (fishing boats), commerce (shipping lane), and hammer (whaling boats) improvements. Lower square base production or improvements harm other yields to balance. Land squares can have the canal improvement to allow ships to travel though land.
ii)Add Galleasse, Ship-of-the-Line, Dreadnaught, Missile Cruiser, and Nuclear Submarine. If civilizations are to be given multiple UUs then give many civilizations Naval UUs. Give England back its Man O' War from Civilization 3. German U boats, American aircraft carriers, Viking longboats, Roman Corvus Triremes, the naval equivalent of fast worker (Portugese or Dutch), Greek Fire for the Greeks, and even Korean turtle ships (out of Age of Emipires 2).
iii) Navy only promotions are a must and to be interesting should include gaining gold (plundering) through killing transports and % chance of capturing the vessel.
iv) Ships should be able to fight in port but give the defender the defensive culture bonus that land units get. Let naval units bombard cities to both damage culture defense and harm units. Resurrect an old improvement, coastal battery, to allow the city to damage the ship back.
v)Add naval leader traits: Explorer and Admiral. Explorer makes scouts, explorers, and ships +1 line of sight or movement; also trade route income increased. Admiral gives 4 experience to all naval units.
3) Airforce
Divide the current bombers into 2 seperate units: Strategic and Tactical Bombers. Strategic Bombmers can pillage, kill population in cities, try to destroy existing buildings, and destroy hammers for a unit being built in a city. Tactical Bombers can dogfight better than Strategic and can pillage, damage land units, including a chance to strike first at anti-air land units. Fighters get an additional ability to escort. When a friendly plane on a bombing run is about to be attacked by an enemy fighter a friendly fighter on escort fights with the attacker first. This uses the fighter's movement so it can not intercept the same turn. All planes should be allowed on carriers.
4) Army
Add Men-At-Arms, Self Propelled Artillery, Attack Helicopters, and Cruise Missiles. Have a paratrooper promotion. Have cannon appear much earlier in the tech tree. Historically cannon were adopted into the military before hand guns. There's something about musketeers grouped with catapults that makes the history buff in me cringe.
5) Wonders
Louvre, Area 51, Circus Maximus, CERN, Easter Island Heads, Maginot Line, Space Station, Sphinx, and Krak des Chevaliers.
6) Civil War and Resurrecting Civilizations
First free up the civilization from its colour. So Japan could be yellow and France gray. Also give each civilization at least 2 leaders. Allow multiple players to be the same civilization, just not the same leader. Single player games couldn't start with 2 of the same civilization. Do away with the 18 civilization cap.
I'm a peaceful player. I've never played to conquer the world until I run out of things to build around the rifleman era. Most threads indicate that the war game is essentially over by the industrial era. To keep large empires (most likely the player's) from winning that early I suggest reintroducing civil wars. Large empires also cause unhappiness with the citizenry (wasteful central government). If too many cities have at least one unhappy citizen then some of those cities succeed and form their own nation, which is the same civilization as the former owner with a different leader.
That would lead to city razing as a way to get around your empire having a civil war. To that I propose resurrecting civilizations that were wiped out (or introducing new ones) at a later date in territory that has no owner. Giving them several settlers, workers, and soldiers should give them a chance of rebuilding. This is like what happened in Alpha Centauri.
7) Spies and Diplomacy
i) Allow alliances, open borders, and defensive pacts from the start of the game.
ii) Allow spies to be built much earlier. Give them the ability to bribe units and nuke cities.
8) New Eras
Go into the future with the Information and Nano eras. This will require disabling the space victory and turning the Apollo Program and Space Race into wonders. A Science Victory would be created similar to that in Alpha Centauri. It would be a huge wonder at the end of the new tech tree.
Currently, the game has melee infantry is obselete and upgrades into ranged infantry, and cavalry upgrades into helicopters. If current trends prevail, the battleship will become obsolete as air power dominates more naval conflict. In the future, my guess is, tanks will become obsolete for mechs.
i) Units
mechanized infantry -> laser infantry -> augmented infantry -> robotic infantry
marine -> commando -> genetic warrior aks genies (name from Buck Rogers) -> hybrid soldiers
artillery -> self propelled artillery -> missile battery -> fusion battery
modern armour -> grav tank
modern armour -> mech suit -> goliath
sam soldier -> F.O.E. battery -> ion battery
gunship -> attack helicopter -> hover plane -> repulsor ship
attack helicopter -> airbase (airborne version of an aircraft carrier)
jet fighter -> plasma fighter -> orbital fighter
stealth bomber -> solar bomber -> orbital bomber
submarine -> nuclear submarine -> Leviathan -> Poisidon
destroyer -> tempest -> avatar
transport -> cryogenic transport
ii) World Wonders, those taken from popular science fiction and Alpha Centauri
Martial Colony, Cloning Vats, Fusion Reactor, Biosphere, Clinical Immortality, Magma Tap, 0-point Reactor, Dinosaur Park, World Archives, Cryrogenic Repository, Controlled Evolution
World Wonders, aritist based, so not from popular science fiction, completely made up
Celestial Palace, Selkirk Memorial, Hermaz's Fractals, Artificial Borealis, Saints' Gallery
iii) City Improvements
Cloning Facility (instant population 10, cheap), Airbase, Commercial Teleporters, Weather Control, Life Recycler, Archology, Mass Transit, Digital Library, Genetic Sculpter, Automated Sentry System, Nano Assembler, Treatment Plant, Theme Park, Commercial Hub, Orbital Launchpoint, Orbital Hydroponics, Orbital Solar Arrays, Asteroid Mining Facility, Solar Power Plant
iv) Technology
Use most of Alpha Centauri's tech tree. A few techs to link the existing tree and Alpha's:
Space Habitation, Virtual Reality, Hydrogen Fuel, Quantum Computers, Solar Power
9) Religion Ideologies
i) Give each religion different benefits. Yes, I realize this is a politically correct landmine. I just don't like each religion being exactly the same.
ii) Religion becomes a moot point in the late game. With the advent of Free Religion every computer and most human players
will switch to it. I like the idea of reusing the religious system in the form of Ideologies. Ideologies function like religion, each civilization has an official one and it spreads to different cities like religions. A new unit, Philosophers, spread it like Missionaries. Civilizations of different ideologies hate each other while those of the same like each other.
The ideologies are
Harmony +health, +forest and jungle yields, founded with Environmentalism
Dominance +unit exp, founded with Fascism
Order +happiness, founded with Communism
Freedom +culture, founded with Liberalism
Wealth +money, founded with Corporation
Knowledge +science, founded with Scientific Knowledge
Nihilism +production, founded with Fission
This does have the disadvantage that there is a lot of overlap with existing civics.
10) Miscellaneous
i) Have region (eg: Middle East, Asian, Classical, ect...) specific look to buildings and improvements. Group civilizations
by region at the start of the game.
ii) Bring back colonies.
iii) Being able to plant forests.
