When Civ 3 introduced culture/nationality/borders and lux/resources concept, it tremendously increased the historical immersive experience of Civ by modelling major factors of historical flow and development of real life even if only done in a broad simplistic way.
Furthermore C3C made various tweaks as well in this regard. The best example of this is requiring Navigation for map/contact trading. This better modelled the slower lack of knowledge of the world and made exploring much more critical for much longer and adding to historical immersion.
Now we hear Civ 4 is adding "Religion" and "Civics" which I believe are major factors of historical flow and development and will further the immersive experience.
But what are some additional (but simple) ways of increasing the historical immersive experience without added complexity and tedium? What are the major historical factors that are missing but can be added simply?
Well here is my short list (based on combing through threads):
1. Rebellion/Civil War (Let unhappy foreigners create armed resistors)
Civ 1 & Civ 2 had the "capture capital" method to cause revolt and civil war of large powerful empires. It was removed in Civ 3 with no replacement. It is far too big of a historical factor to completely ignore for Civ 4.
Simple Idea: New Nationals of Conquered High Culture/High Pop Cities keep producing Foreigners. Unhappy foreigners have %chance of popping up armed resistors (perhaps many at a time) needing to be crushed or else they take over cities and try to start a new civ. Unhappy foreigners also resists working and thus making it less productive. Also Civs can fund/incite these foreigners (but this could be considered AOW). Of course must eliminate or make very difficult ethnic cleasing.
2. Immigration/Emigration (Use Nationality Flip instead of Culture Flip Model)
Instead of "Culture Flip", implement "nationality flip". So if city "Kosovo" of "Serbia" is near strong culture of "Albania", then there is some %chance that "Kosovo"'s new citizens as well as existing citizens flip from "Serbian" to "Albanian". Then using the same mechanics as in (1), these new "Albanians" inside your city of "Kosovo" can rebel to try to form new "Kosovan" Civ if unhappy.
3. Vassalage (Like an ally but can't refuse certain requests and can't make deals with other Civs on its own)
A major historical factor and concept of course. Instead of having to physically control and occupy all cities of a Civ and annex it directly, it can "surrender" and "subordinate" itself to you. This "vassal state" continues to operate on its own except all its economic/military policy is controlled by you. No new game mechanics are required. Just make it so that when you negotiate with a "vassal" rather than an independent "ally", it cannot refuse certain requests and cannot independently trade or carry on its own foreign policies. IOW it is a "puppet regime". There could be a "unhappiness" meter so that vassals if too oppressed might try to rebel.
I imagine that this concept would permit the big historical factor of proxy wars, if vassals are created but MPP is not negotiated with the vassal (thus having wars between vassals without embroiling the master nations in direct war).
4. ********/Fairly Empty Continents
For this concept to work you would need 32 Civs and a large map. Then there should be continents that are full of barbarians or maybe a couple (maybe 4) of late-starting civs so they are backwards and ready for discovering and plundering. Of course if the game mechanics are such that this would probably occur naturally most of the time then it may not be necessary to hard-code it.
5. Physical Sealanes (to model merchant shipping and importance of navy for overseas trade)
This is how to implement it in a very streamlined way:
- Allow Ships to "Create" sealanes. They are like roads except over the sea and only used by ships. Most likely I imagine they are created automatically city to city (could be within civ or between civs of course)
- Multiple ships can be assigned to the sealane.
- Then this sealane can then be disrupted. Enemy ships can occupy the sealane and thus it is blocked and you must intercept the enemy ship/fleet to unblock the sealane. If all ships assigned to the sealane are destroyed by the enemy the sealane is destroyed and must be rebuilt.
This will mean that just like you have to build lots of units to guard strategic roads you have to build lots of ships to guard sealanes. And sealanes can be disrupted/destroyed just like roads.
So there I have come up with very simple, very streamlined ways to implement some of the most important factors of historical development. If Civ 4 considers them and implements them, then the Civ 4 experience will be much more historically immersive.
Furthermore C3C made various tweaks as well in this regard. The best example of this is requiring Navigation for map/contact trading. This better modelled the slower lack of knowledge of the world and made exploring much more critical for much longer and adding to historical immersion.
Now we hear Civ 4 is adding "Religion" and "Civics" which I believe are major factors of historical flow and development and will further the immersive experience.
But what are some additional (but simple) ways of increasing the historical immersive experience without added complexity and tedium? What are the major historical factors that are missing but can be added simply?
Well here is my short list (based on combing through threads):
1. Rebellion/Civil War (Let unhappy foreigners create armed resistors)
Civ 1 & Civ 2 had the "capture capital" method to cause revolt and civil war of large powerful empires. It was removed in Civ 3 with no replacement. It is far too big of a historical factor to completely ignore for Civ 4.
Simple Idea: New Nationals of Conquered High Culture/High Pop Cities keep producing Foreigners. Unhappy foreigners have %chance of popping up armed resistors (perhaps many at a time) needing to be crushed or else they take over cities and try to start a new civ. Unhappy foreigners also resists working and thus making it less productive. Also Civs can fund/incite these foreigners (but this could be considered AOW). Of course must eliminate or make very difficult ethnic cleasing.
2. Immigration/Emigration (Use Nationality Flip instead of Culture Flip Model)
Instead of "Culture Flip", implement "nationality flip". So if city "Kosovo" of "Serbia" is near strong culture of "Albania", then there is some %chance that "Kosovo"'s new citizens as well as existing citizens flip from "Serbian" to "Albanian". Then using the same mechanics as in (1), these new "Albanians" inside your city of "Kosovo" can rebel to try to form new "Kosovan" Civ if unhappy.
3. Vassalage (Like an ally but can't refuse certain requests and can't make deals with other Civs on its own)
A major historical factor and concept of course. Instead of having to physically control and occupy all cities of a Civ and annex it directly, it can "surrender" and "subordinate" itself to you. This "vassal state" continues to operate on its own except all its economic/military policy is controlled by you. No new game mechanics are required. Just make it so that when you negotiate with a "vassal" rather than an independent "ally", it cannot refuse certain requests and cannot independently trade or carry on its own foreign policies. IOW it is a "puppet regime". There could be a "unhappiness" meter so that vassals if too oppressed might try to rebel.
I imagine that this concept would permit the big historical factor of proxy wars, if vassals are created but MPP is not negotiated with the vassal (thus having wars between vassals without embroiling the master nations in direct war).
4. ********/Fairly Empty Continents
For this concept to work you would need 32 Civs and a large map. Then there should be continents that are full of barbarians or maybe a couple (maybe 4) of late-starting civs so they are backwards and ready for discovering and plundering. Of course if the game mechanics are such that this would probably occur naturally most of the time then it may not be necessary to hard-code it.
5. Physical Sealanes (to model merchant shipping and importance of navy for overseas trade)
This is how to implement it in a very streamlined way:
- Allow Ships to "Create" sealanes. They are like roads except over the sea and only used by ships. Most likely I imagine they are created automatically city to city (could be within civ or between civs of course)
- Multiple ships can be assigned to the sealane.
- Then this sealane can then be disrupted. Enemy ships can occupy the sealane and thus it is blocked and you must intercept the enemy ship/fleet to unblock the sealane. If all ships assigned to the sealane are destroyed by the enemy the sealane is destroyed and must be rebuilt.
This will mean that just like you have to build lots of units to guard strategic roads you have to build lots of ships to guard sealanes. And sealanes can be disrupted/destroyed just like roads.
So there I have come up with very simple, very streamlined ways to implement some of the most important factors of historical development. If Civ 4 considers them and implements them, then the Civ 4 experience will be much more historically immersive.
