If you were in charge of a new CIV IV patch...

[nfw]

I would like to see a feature where alphabet unlocks a "language"... any civ who researches alphabet starts their own language (similar to how you can found a religion).

I'm pretty sure you can have a language without an alphabet, in fact, writing comes before alphabet in civ4.

 

[ksa76]

Here are my ideas for a patch /game changes

Make colonies a more viable game mechanic:
Buff:
* add 2 extra trade routes pr colony (instead of 1)
* cut colonial maintenance by further 50%
* Allow possibility of granting/forcing independence to colonies (should also be possible for vassals)

Carracks that can transport military units and settlers (with 2 free slots) should be available to all civs with Optics.
For each end turn in deep sea there should however be a 10% risk of sinking for carracks.

Leaving forests should be better rewarded
Buff:
* double the forest spread mechanic (probability)

Trade Caravans/Merchant ships should be a long term alternative to say building wealth. This adds a new dimension of "strategic trading partners"
* each completed trade route mission between two civs should add an extra trade route to city of departure and destination city and add a +1 diplomatic bonus.
* These extra trade routes should however be cancelled permanently if civs go to war
* only 1 trade route mission can be carried out between two cities from different civs.


Sushi:
Remove culture bonus from Sushi corps. It is already powerful enough without the added culture bonus. And it is somewhat an announce if going for a high score domination victory where culture has to be minimized in certain cities.

New terrain:
Mangrove: map-generator could replace 50% of coastal jungles with mangroves (works like jungles but produce 2 food instead of 1). I think this would add a little extra flavour to the maps.

 

[plastiqe]

I'm glad people agree about Bronzeworking; chopping forests and whipping population are both overpowered in Civ IV. I think with the Lumbermill buff at least it helps the AI a lot because unlike the human, they don't know how to maximize the benefit of chopping forests. And yeah, when plains forest becomes a 1 3 tile early on, you actually have to decide whether it is worth clear cutting your empire.

Spoiler :

Nerfs:

1. no more peace vassal during a war unless the master is already at war with the same opponent.
2. cavalry. (withdrawing against my gunship? I'd like to see that)
3. In general ancient unit promotions should be less effective against modern ones

Buffs

1. modern units. Each era's unit should get at least 1 free first strike per era against older ones.
2. oil well
3. air/missiles against ships

The problem with buffing modern units against earlier units is what do you do when someone gets more advanced than you? Gunship vs Cavalry is enough of an advantage already. You have to leave some room for the game to be a game here.

I could see giving Oil a buff kinda like how resources work in Civ5. Add the rule that each Oil resource you control adds +10% production to Oil-based units (which scales with map size). Like a free corp that everyone has all the time, but that's kinda a big change.

Spoiler :

Here are my ideas for a patch /game changes

Make colonies a more viable game mechanic:
Buff:
* add 2 extra trade routes pr colony (instead of 1)
* cut colonial maintenance by further 50%
* Allow possibility of granting/forcing independence to colonies (should also be possible for vassals)

Carracks that can transport military units and settlers (with 2 free slots) should be available to all civs with Optics.
For each end turn in deep sea there should however be a 10% risk of sinking for carracks.

Leaving forests should be better rewarded
Buff:
* double the forest spread mechanic (probability)

Trade Caravans/Merchant ships should be a long term alternative to say building wealth. This adds a new dimension of "strategic trading partners"
* each completed trade route mission between two civs should add an extra trade route to city of departure and destination city and add a +1 diplomatic bonus.
* These extra trade routes should however be cancelled permanently if civs go to war
* only 1 trade route mission can be carried out between two cities from different civs.


Sushi:
Remove culture bonus from Sushi corps. It is already powerful enough without the added culture bonus. And it is somewhat an announce if going for a high score domination victory where culture has to be minimized in certain cities.

New terrain:
Mangrove: map-generator could replace 50% of coastal jungles with mangroves (works like jungles but produce 2 food instead of 1). I think this would add a little extra flavour to the maps.

I gotta say adding things like Revolutions & new Trade Caravan units seems more like an expansion than a patch. It would be nice if Firaxis was working on a new Civ IV expansion due out in 2014, but I doubt it.

Sushi and corp rebalancing in general is necessary. When I'm playing and considering corps, I check and see which will give me the most benefit and the answer is almost always Mining Inc and Sushi. In K-Mod there are a few changes but even still the best food corp and the best production corp can outperform the other corps by a large margin. I would say lower the food bonus on Sushi to 0.25 per resource at least.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Question for anyone: How would you nerf Nukes? (if you think they're OP)

 

[Macksideshow]

I like the oil resource gives production bonus. To stop that being too much of a gimping to Civs with no or little oil, perhaps workers could have a "drill for oil" action which gives them a small chance of discovering oil.

I know this is probably taking things too far but I just think it would be cool to see workers out in the desert drilling for oil and also give more incentive to claim/control desert tiles.

I really like the lumbercamps idea, seems simple and addresses the balance issue where chopping is (almost) always best.

EDIT: maybe the whole "drill for oil" concept could be extended to other resources; iron, gold, copper, etc. And to offset this have resources randomly extinguish too. I know the whole no random events crowds would hate this but I can see it making the game more dynamic and more realistic too imho. This ability could be unlocked by Physics (geophysics) but now I am just showing my bias.

LOL this sooo much more than a patch. I'm just having fun.

 

[fed1943]

I would like +1 option to cities governor: always ask.
When a new pop is born or the tile he was on is made unavailable, the player is asked what to do.

And I liked the lumbermill's idea.

 

[plastiqe]

I know this is probably taking things too far but I just think it would be cool to see workers out in the desert drilling for oil and also give more incentive to claim/control desert tiles.

That's a freaking awesome idea but yeah it's a little much. I abhor starting next to big deserts (or lots of tundra/ice) and usually spend a while regenerating maps looking for a decent start every time I play. For Civ IV it could be random (just like discovering metal resources with mines) rather then a worker mission so it would easily fit in the game. Although....

Spoiler Civ IV ideas :

A new worker mission of searching for Oil could be great as part of a new Civ game. Catch up mechanic for when you don't find the resource you need after they're revealed so you use worker turns to look for them. Or preemptively claim a lot of desert and you're possibly setting yourself up to be an Oil Sheik late game. Also in a multiple tile desert, finding one Oil could increase the chance of finding more Oil, or better Oil nearby if there is different quality of resources.

Resources running out/drying up and finding new resources would probably work a little better in a system where resource access isn't binary... as it is in Civ IV where if you have Copper it's enough for your entire empire till corps.

 

[pandamancer]

Chichen Itza will give:

• +25 defense in all cities and forts
• +1 additional draft per turn
• +2 exp to where it is built

*the catch is it still obsoletes with rifling!

 

[MilesBeyond]

1. There should be an advanced "Emphasize Great People" control panel where a player could prioritize specialists. For example:

1. Merchant
2. Engineer
3. Scientist
4. Priest
5. Spy

If there's a Market, Merchants would be assigned. Otherwise, assigning Engineers would be attempted. If there's no Forge, but a Library existed, Scientists would be assigned. So basically, the list of priorities would be parsed from top to bottom.

2. No emphasization should NEVER starve or stagnate a city if growth is possible.

3. Tile preferences while building Wealth/Research should behave according to the same logic that applies to a building or an unit.

This is such a fantastic idea. The fact that I constantly have to micro my cities to make sure that a new population hasn't resulted in some useless specialist is one of the most annoying things in the game, to me.

 

[nfw]

I'm glad people agree about Bronzeworking; chopping forests and whipping population are both overpowered in Civ IV. I think with the Lumbermill buff at least it helps the AI a lot because unlike the human, they don't know how to maximize the benefit of chopping forests. And yeah, when plains forest becomes a 1 3 tile early on, you actually have to decide whether it is worth clear cutting your empire.


The problem with buffing modern units against earlier units is what do you do when someone gets more advanced than you?

Take the loss and start a new game?

Gunship vs Cavalry is enough of an advantage already. You have to leave some room for the game to be a game here.

Gunship vs cav might be a mismatch, but cav vs gunship isn't. That's the problem

 

[Linux0s]

1. There should be an advanced "Emphasize Great People" control panel where a player could prioritize specialists. For example:

1. Merchant
2. Engineer
3. Scientist
4. Priest
5. Spy

If there's a Market, Merchants would be assigned. Otherwise, assigning Engineers would be attempted. If there's no Forge, but a Library existed, Scientists would be assigned. So basically, the list of priorities would be parsed from top to bottom.

2. No emphasization should NEVER starve or stagnate a city if growth is possible.

3. Tile preferences while building Wealth/Research should behave according to the same logic that applies to a building or an unit.

This is a great idea. Or at the very least, just don't arbitrarily change my Great Peeps with every population growth. For me this has to be the single most annoying and frustrating oversight in the entire game. As I mentioned in another thread, it's hard to believe this has never been addressed in any official or unofficial patch. There's enough support for it that you could probably take up a collection and pay someone for their time. Mark me down for $5!

 

[Koszmar]

Uranium.

I found a city that was built on top of uranium and took it from the ai. However I wasnt able to use it even though I had all the necessary techs.

If the city was sat on any other resource I could have it but not uranium.

 

[Lennier]

Was the city connected to your trade network? I've taken such cities from the AI and gotten access to the uranium under the city once it came ou of resistance.

 

[nfw]

You need fission to be able to use uranium.

 

[Koszmar]

I had fission and fusion.

Someone told me it was a bug that if a city was sat on it rather than a mine that it would not recognise it.

I had one game where I had a hill mined before I knew there was uranium underneath. It wouldnt let me use it until the ai destroyed the mine and I rebuilt it and suddenly it allowed me to use it. I didnt research fission during that short period.

 

[nfw]

Oh and another one that always bugged me, self propelled artillery and AA, they need to come along at the same time as tanks, we had them in WW2 for crying out loud.

 

[Robo-Star]

Each Civ now has an alternate team colour. When two Civs with similar team colours start nearby on a map, one switches to their alternate colour.

Spoiler example :

Celts and Spain, Spain switches to yellow like on their modern flag

Yes please! Also, specialists should evolve as the game progresses:

Craftsman -> Engineer (with Engineering)
Thinker -> Scientist (with Scientific Method)
Trader -> Merchant (with Currency)

Perhaps giving them increased yields would unbalance them, though...maybe just extra GPPs?

Oh, and a way to have the Apostolic Palace/United Nations in games without enabling the diplomatic victory condition.

Oh oh, and the option to play BTS with the pre-BTS espionage system.

 

[Quintillus]

+1 for the no spy specialists idea, or more generally, being able to set a global policy of not having any specialists of type X/prioritizing specialists of type Y. I am rarely happy to see that I have a Great Spy coming up soon, and after I've build all the shrines I can, it's not much better to see a Great Prophet on the docket. On the other hand, sometimes I'd really like a Great Merchant or Great Engineer and manually adjusting for that can be pretty slow.

 

[Robo-Star]

I am rarely happy to see that I have a Great Spy coming up soon, and after I've build all the shrines I can, it's not much better to see a Great Prophet on the docket.

Reminds me of another idea: add later techs to the list of techs Great Prophets can bulb, like Communism, Fascism, Ecology...ideologies, basically.

 

[Olson]

Altered gameplay? Hold me back! Seriously, don't let me get started! Take away my laptop... djust let me adsysa ...asy.a.. give it back. Heya. daont' dtake tahat.....

 

[alex15]

There is so much games that imo need to be changed, but as for Civ4 BTS imo i think evryone is fine and dont need to change anything.

Horever i find Ziggurat underpowered and Dike overpowered.