Minor Enhancements That Firaxis Ought To Add/Fix

[Pembroke]

Let's here about all those very small things in the game rules, user interfaces, etc. that constantly annoy you and which would at least seem to be a very small thing for Firaxis to fix.

There already are other threads listing such things like more eras, event scripting, etc, but this is not the thread for those.

Instead, what I am searching is a list of all those minor issues that could be fixed in the next patch if only they would be pointed out and someone in Firaxis would spend a few days looking at them.

Please, add your favourites. Here are mine:

Open the years per turn variable to scenario makers in the editor. Please. I mean, it can't be hard coded, can it?!?

In the editor you can set the "max number of turns needed to research an advance". What's the point of a *max setting* having an upper limit of 100 turns? If you want it low then you can simply set it low. But if you want to play real slow tech advancement then why not?

Make the AI check whether a location can support a city before it builds one there. Sure, in the standard game with the city tile producing 2 food which is enough for 1 citizen every tile can support at least a size 1 city. But in mods where 2 food is not enough for 1 citizen this doesn't work. It can't be that difficult to simply calculate the food output of the initial 9 tiles and comparing this to the "1 citizen eats X food" variable before the AI decides to build a city.

In the trade advisor window it lists all the luxuries/resources that I am importing/exporting. When I move the cursor on top of one item it pops up a tooltip text showing the import/export civilization. So, how about adding in that tooltip text the number of turns left in that particular trade deal? It would help a lot in planning your strategy.

Also in the trade advisor screen there is the list of potential trading partners that also shows any luxuries/resources those civs have to offer. However, I am not always looking to buy new luxuries. Sometimes I simply want to sell what I have. So, how about adding a demand side to the list also? I.e. show those luxuries/resources that *I* have but the other civ does not. Currently I have to open the trade screen with a particular civ just to check if he would like to have something I could offer.

Could the scientific advisor show me (a report, a list, a tooltip text over an advance box, or whatever is easiest) what technologies the other civs I have contact with have discovered? This information is already available in the trade window under the section tech as it shows those advances one civ has but the other doesn't. It really is cumbersome to open trade negotiations just to check whether the other civ has discovered something. Especially if you want to do that with 16 civs and every turn...

In Civ2 there were popup questions whenever I was going to do something that would hurt my international reputation. How about adding them in Civ3, too? The following has happened to me too many times: I am on war with civ A. I ally with civ B against civ A. Then after 14-18 turns of warfare I have reduced civ A to one city and they start licking my boots and whining to save their sorry umm... backsides. I mercifully grant them peace after extorting from them everything I can get. Now, what happens? Yes, you guessed it, civ B is now "furious to us" because I broke the alliance against civ A by making peace. It could be argued that I should have remembered the ancient alliance but why didn't my foreign advisor say something? What am I paying him for, anyways?

Or, if this "ok/cancel if reputation hit" is a too big thing for a "minor enhancement" then how about just a simple popup indicating that my reputation just went down the sewers and most especially the reason why it did. Did I break some obscure trade agreement that I had completely forgotten? Or did I have a worker in some remote culture flipped enemy tile when I declared war, or what?

Speaking of reputation could the foreign advisor show what *my* reputation is? In most games played long enough I have no freaking idea whether the other civs are "furious to us" because I am not to be trusted or because I am too weak/strong. Oh, well, perhaps there is no difference between the two in the diplomatic circles...

 

[LittleDragon]

Good points. I have pined for such features myself. I think the game could greatly benefit from an increase in the available information.

 

[rg3333]

There was some good ones there, but i would like to add one or two more like if you are winning a war you can force the civ you are at war with to sign a peace treaty. Then if you are a democracy and suffering at the hands of war weariness you can force a treaty.
Also make it easier for the AI to upgrade their units, otherwise when you go to war, you get loads of spearmen sent at you when you are in the industrial era or modern.
Lastly GET RID OF UPSET BATTLES, i hate having my tanks beaten by spearmen or any other ancient unit.

 

[GeneralTacticus]

Lastly GET RID OF UPSET BATTLES, i hate having my tanks beaten by spearmen or any other ancient unit.

There are some ways you can mostly avoid this:

1) bomb the crap out of the spearman before running him over with a tank,

2) Use the Editor to add HP bonuses to more advanced units.

Pembroke: I agree with all the suggestions you made there, I can't think of any new ones to add.

 

[Isak]

Great idea for a thread - someone should make this Sticky IMHO, just to ensure that the Firaxians notice it

Generally all very good suggestions Pembroke. One comment though.

Originally posted by Pembroke
Could the scientific advisor show me (a report, a list, a tooltip text over an advance box, or whatever is easiest) what technologies the other civs I have contact with have discovered? This information is already available in the trade window under the section tech as it shows those advances one civ has but the other doesn't.

I think the Trade window only lists the 4-5 techs you have that the AI is most eager to get it's hands on. If you give it one of the techs, it will most likely be replaced by another one if you open the trade window again. So to find out all techs you would have to continue giving it techs until no new ones appear on the list. So I guess from Firaxis point of view it is part of the challenge, not just a flaw in the interface.

Two editor suggestions (the only ones I can remember now )

1. Let us select the amount of food the center tile in a city gives. I know I asked Firaxis this at the chat too, and they were not dismissive of the possibility, but I'd rather repeat it, than risk they forget

2. The combo-boxes in the editor perform checks to see if your choice is valid, which is a very nice thing indeed - however it is a drag that if you select an invalid item (for example, try to set a Modern Age tech as a requirement for an Ancient Age tech) the list subsequently resets itself to the first item in the list. This means that jumping through the list using letter keys ('A' if you're searching for Advanced Warfare, for example) is virtually impossible, as every time you hit an illegal choice you will be right back where you started.
The list should not reset itself when it hits an illegal choice, but rather move one item down the list.

Yes, It's a minor nuisance, but that's what the thread was about, right ?

 

[royfurr]

Originally posted by Pembroke


In the trade advisor window it lists all the luxuries/resources that I am importing/exporting. When I move the cursor on top of one item it pops up a tooltip text showing the import/export civilization. So, how about adding in that tooltip text the number of turns left in that particular trade deal? It would help a lot in planning your strategy.

This would be most useful but add a little to it: give the YEAR that the trade expires as well. E.G., say "Sire, the trade of Wine with the Babylonians ends in 14 turns (200 BC)".

Some trades will strech between times where the lengths of turns vary, so knowing the number of turns can still yield a tricky conversion to a date- and sometimes the date of ending is easier to remember. I suppose if this is updated EVERY turn, you don't need to know the year of ending (just look for it to be "1 turn" or "next turn"), but I'd like to see the year of ending and simply jot it down- then I don't have to go to that screen every turn to check it. In fact, maybe give the year of ending at the very start ie at the time the trade is initially done- and likely that would be easier to progrqam then doing the each turn update.

I don't mind keeping a scratch pad to note things down during the course of the game or to keep notes of "things to do" in a particular city or region.

One other little thing: sometimes it is very hard to count the number of shields in a row (where it shows the number accumulated for a project)- they can get very small and very overlapped. Just like it shows the NUMERICAL number of foods or beakers or gold, give a "total accumulated" and "shields needed to finsh". This is sometimes more useful then the turns to go number. Also, the city screen shows both total, corrupted and net trade/beakers/gold. But it shows only the Total food production and the Total shield production, but not the net left after feeding the citizens or after waste- you have to multiply the number of citizens time two and subtact from the total to get the amount of food accumulated per turn, and total - waste to get net shieds per turn. BAH! thats the computers job. Yes, you can simply count the icons, but again, when their is a large number of them overlapping, that can be problematic. And you shouldn't have to- the computer should provide you that info.

I've found myself frequently irritated about having to count the little icons in the city screen and then do the arithimetic. THIS little change would do more to make my civ experiece pleasant then many other items.

BTW, a question. I am still in a BIG game on 1.16 and have not installed 1.21 yet. Will soon, I finally conqured the Iroquois- they had over 100 cities and it took basically forever. (With the tech rate issues, I will skip 1.17 for sure!). Question (1) is, does the order of selection of the next unit to move, do any better? I just HATE!!!! moving the first unit in a "stack" and have the "cursor" (selected unit) jump every time to another unit half-way around the world, and have to go back to the stack, select the next unit to move again. (This gets a string of curses and is the absolutley most irritating thing to me about the game). Yes, if I iniitally select every unit in the stack that I want to move before I start, the cursor will stay in the stack, but this basically means that I have to click on every unit twice and with the huge numer of units, my fingers are wearing out!!! Is this any better with 1.21?

and (2)- Does the "j" command (stack movement) now work properly? I understand there were some bugs with this in 1.17??

Thanks all, can someone let me know about those two questions?

AND Firaxis, please, can you give us just a tad more info on the city screens!!!!

Civ on.

 

[Graeme the mad]

4 things -

Give bombers an advantage against cities. Shouldn't be difficult. In civ3 at the minutee bombers have a disadvantage v cities and advangtage against units in the field - very innacurate. Add a modifier to a bombers attack when against a city.

Give the commercial civs a decent commercial bonus - basically up the amount of extra commerce they get

Give the industrial civs more production bonus. Possible 1 extra shield in town. 2 in cities 4 in metroplis. Current one is worthless

Give civ specific flag to buildings (i imagine its quite easy but I could be wrong)

 

[Zachriel]

When waking units in a stack, you can normally hold the shift key and select all that you want -- except when the list is so long that it extends off the screen. Then when you select a unit from the bottom of the list, it resets the list to the top, so you have to click-click-click to the bottom of the list again. To select 100 units from below the screen, you have to click a hundred times a hundred. That's 10,000 clicks just for one stack.

 

[Talar]

What about having a little trade symbol (or treaty symbol) showing somewhere on the main screen if a deal is about to expire in the next turn. Maybe next to the year.

Even better if clicking or just holding the mouse pointer over the symbol would show what trade/treaty it was.

 

[rangers85]

Originally posted by Isak

I think the Trade window only lists the 4-5 techs you have that the AI is most eager to get it's hands on. If you give it one of the techs, it will most likely be replaced by another one if you open the trade window again. So to find out all techs you would have to continue giving it techs until no new ones appear on the list. So I guess from Firaxis point of view it is part of the challenge, not just a flaw in the interface.

Actually Isak, it lists all the techs you can trade that the other civ can use. For example, if you have both Bronze Working and Iron Working and the other civ doesn't have Bronze Working yet, you can't trade it Iron Working yet because it doesn't have it's pre-requisite. However, when you trade them Bronze Working and go back into the trade window, Iron Working will be available to trade to them.

 

[Isak]

oh - I never noticed that before - makes sense, and I thought there would have to be a "system" as to what techs were chosen, but I never figured it was that obvious...

Well, in that case there is absolutely nothing wrong with your point Pembroke (as if you were ever in doubt)

 

[Pembroke]

Actually that "can trade only those techs that could be researched" is one of the nicer things in civ3. Gives the "older" techs some value in the bargaining table. Makes sense, too. At least to me...

One other minor thing:

The Shift-A worker automation is about adequate meaning that I will choose it over having to micromanage 20 workers especially when pollution starts. However, one minor thing: could they have enough sense not to go outside my borders? If they run out of things they can do without crossing over to my neighbour then simply wake them up.

Yesterday my overenthusiastic workers caused an international incident:

The coastal line and the border between me and the Greece were such that there was no domestic land connection to one of my cities. When my labour gang had constructed the railroad network on the mainland off they went towards that border town crossing over to Greece.

Naturally Alexander wasn't happy about this and I had to promise to move them as soon as possible. Then I made a mistake and forgot about the workers and tried implanting a spy in Athens. Which naturally failed. Being already annoyed with my "worker invasion" Greece declared war.

In response I quickly mobilized my forces, and then made the second mistake: the workers were still on automation and after I moved my last military unit I realized what I had done as the turn ended automatically with that "please wait..." message. My heroic and loyal workers traveled deeper into Greece determined to build that railroad network around my outpost town. All 18 were captured by the Greece.

Naturally I was then pi***d off and made an exercise in diplomacy with other means.

 

[Tassadar5000]

We need a screen that shows what treaties we have with other civs and how much longer they last. It's very tedious to have to go to each civilization and see if you MPP will expire when, or how much they payed for your whines....

We should also we able to do such things as check our science, tax rates and search around the map while negotiating. Although I can't recall any right now, sometimes I just want to check something without risking the AI Civ rejecting my offer later.

 

[Scientia]

I really like the suggestions for expanding the information available from the advisors, especially trade.

Other things I would like to see:

--"wake all" / activate all / etc. Probably best accessed through the military advisor screen. It would be useful to be able to "scramble" all fighters to a particular location (or any unit for that matter)

--when multiple transports are garrisoned in a city, and you load units into one of them, it would be nice if that transport activated

--more automated worker options - particularly with regard to mining. Ctrl-N will link all your cities with roads and pick up any resources not linked by a road network, why not somethign similar for mining?

--ability for cities to have destination points to automatically send units to when finished

--ability to set a unit to patrol between two points

--automated group bombarding, and "stack attack" (all units in a stack attack specified target

That should do for now

 

[Zouave]

Yes. STACK COMBAT; GROUP BOMBARDING; "WAKE ALL"; et al.

All obviously needed functions that should have been in the game last November whern it came out. We still wait for them.

 

[GFandango]

My humble suggestions:

i) Stack commands. Similar to stack movement where a movement command is issued to the entire stack of similar units, this concept would extend so that ANY command can be issued to all units in the stack of the same type. Stack bombard and stack attack have been mentioned, but I was thinking more of stack fortify or even stack clean pollution for your stack of workers. A stack wake up would also be nice (could be implemented by say, right clicking to bring up the list, then ctrl+shift clicking a unit to wake all of the same type).

ii) To be able to select multiple cities in the City Advisor (F1) screen and setting the production queue for ALL cities you have selected at once. Hotkeys for selecting all cities or to invert your selection would be nice as well. You could even get fancy and have hotkeys to select all your coastal cities or all cities with fresh water.

A typical scenario is this: you have 50 cities producing wealth and you finish discovering ecology. You now want all these cities to produce Mass Transit then go back to producing wealth. This normally takes a zillion clicks, but if you could select multiple cities, it would only take a few clicks to carry out this action.

iii) I realize the above would take serious work to implement and probably not possible in just a patch or even in an expansion. My more realistic suggestion that could be implemented in a patch would be: Hotkeys to change the current production in the city screen. Right now the only hotkey is 'q' to load a queue and 'g' for city govenor (and left and right arrows to change cities). How about:

'o': build strongest offensive unit
'd': build strongest defensive unit
'w': build wealth
'shift-w': build worker
'a': build strongest artillery unit
'r': build temple (or cathedral if you have temple)
'l': build library (university/research lab)
's': build settler
't': build strongest transport
'n': build strongest naval unit
'b': build barracks
'm': build marketplace (bank)

The list could go on for anything. The ultimate wish would be to be able to customize these hotkeys in say a hotkeys.cfg file.