One problem that I always had with civ, was that the empires always felt too empty, as in it felt like there were no actual people in them. I think that if they could inject some more personality into the game, it would go a long way to making it a better experience.
-Bring back high council!
-Bring back Throne Room or palace (or both if you want)
-Include the "city view"
These didn't really have any effect on the game, but I think that they made it more interesting. They should have the game affect them more, say, during anarchy there would be rioters in front of the palace, there'd be secret police if you are a dictator, and tourists/protestors in democracy.
-have leaders and ministers with some kind of personality.
They don't nescessarily need some fancy AI for this. For instance in Medieval:Total War, they would assign various traits to each leader which were affected by their actions, ex: they retreat too much, they get "coward" or "good runner". This could carry on to national leaders, who get traits based on their internal politics. Perhaps the leaderheads could change, ex: become dark and sinister, add a military uniform if you are some kind of brutal dictator.
-Include demographics (like in civ2) and have them actually affect the game.
There used to be a screen that would give you things like GDP/capita, manufactured goods in Mtons, etc... One example that I just thought up of how it could affect the game, would be a low relative level of wealth would result in emmigration and unhappiness, say. Uneven wealth could cause your people to demand a communist government. I'm sure there are literally millions of other ways these stats could affect things.
-Give your population a personality.
People don't always follow the government. For instance you you might have a population of hippies that would protest if you attacked other countries, or if you had overly polluting industries. Alternatively they might demand a war against some enemy There would be ways to counteract this such as propaganda, and moving into a police state. You could also use propaganda to influince movements like this in other countries. This could be connected with the demographics bit, where the people will react differently due to different stats.
-Name terrain features
I think it would be nice if whoever discovered them was able to name mountain ranges, oceans, rivers, etc. This could also be used to say, come up with a list of the largest battles and give them names, ex: Battle of X sea, 1435AD; It makes it seem like you are in a real world, creating real history.
-Make the events seem more real
I think it is kind of lame how you can level a city, and all you get is the city vanishing, or enact some kind of revolutionary new civic, and wind up with +1 gold/X citiczens. Make some message appear for each thing for example: International community outraged at massacre by Egyptians, 500000+dead, and they could include a nice graphic to go with it.
-Include a news ticker or paper of some sort to let you know what people are thinking about
Obvously this doesn't include full stories, but just headlines. It could show what important events have occured in your nation and in the other countries
Also editorials (ie things like Why we should pull out of X country) would help summarize what your population is thinking.
-Bring back high council!
-Bring back Throne Room or palace (or both if you want)
-Include the "city view"
These didn't really have any effect on the game, but I think that they made it more interesting. They should have the game affect them more, say, during anarchy there would be rioters in front of the palace, there'd be secret police if you are a dictator, and tourists/protestors in democracy.
-have leaders and ministers with some kind of personality.
They don't nescessarily need some fancy AI for this. For instance in Medieval:Total War, they would assign various traits to each leader which were affected by their actions, ex: they retreat too much, they get "coward" or "good runner". This could carry on to national leaders, who get traits based on their internal politics. Perhaps the leaderheads could change, ex: become dark and sinister, add a military uniform if you are some kind of brutal dictator.
-Include demographics (like in civ2) and have them actually affect the game.
There used to be a screen that would give you things like GDP/capita, manufactured goods in Mtons, etc... One example that I just thought up of how it could affect the game, would be a low relative level of wealth would result in emmigration and unhappiness, say. Uneven wealth could cause your people to demand a communist government. I'm sure there are literally millions of other ways these stats could affect things.
-Give your population a personality.
People don't always follow the government. For instance you you might have a population of hippies that would protest if you attacked other countries, or if you had overly polluting industries. Alternatively they might demand a war against some enemy There would be ways to counteract this such as propaganda, and moving into a police state. You could also use propaganda to influince movements like this in other countries. This could be connected with the demographics bit, where the people will react differently due to different stats.
-Name terrain features
I think it would be nice if whoever discovered them was able to name mountain ranges, oceans, rivers, etc. This could also be used to say, come up with a list of the largest battles and give them names, ex: Battle of X sea, 1435AD; It makes it seem like you are in a real world, creating real history.
-Make the events seem more real
I think it is kind of lame how you can level a city, and all you get is the city vanishing, or enact some kind of revolutionary new civic, and wind up with +1 gold/X citiczens. Make some message appear for each thing for example: International community outraged at massacre by Egyptians, 500000+dead, and they could include a nice graphic to go with it.
-Include a news ticker or paper of some sort to let you know what people are thinking about
Obvously this doesn't include full stories, but just headlines. It could show what important events have occured in your nation and in the other countries
Also editorials (ie things like Why we should pull out of X country) would help summarize what your population is thinking.
