More Civs...

[FrenchElvisl]

...And no figureheads. They are stupid anyways. I'm a democracy but my ruler is still Julius Caesar? If there were no figureheads Firaxis could make like 100 civs, think about it. That would rock.

 

[dojoboy]

No, I don't want that many choices. It'd drive me crazy. Plus, people can make their own civs and leaderheads and implement them w/ the editor.

 

[Evie]

Using flags or insignia instead of the figurehead would also make it more interesting to rename the leaders - it still make sense even if you rename the leaders, and creating a flag and animating it to wave in the wind is theoretically a lot easier (and therefore a lot more moddable) than creating a face that can then go through fifty separate emotions and so forth.

Edit : Dojoboy, yes, having 100 civs in the basic game would be too much. However the basic idea of scrapping leaderheads for something simpler makes a lot of sense in regard to the entire "ease of modding" aspect - it's a lot easier to work with flags which have no emotions than with leaderheads,

 

[Cuivienen]

Nor do flags look at all ugly -- peer at the Sengoku, Napoleonic Era and WWII Pacific Conquests to see what flags look like as the leaderhead. More appealing, IMO, though finding flags for Babylon or Hatti might be difficult.

 

[RedAlert]

I would trade in tons of civs for the ability to mod knew ones with ease. There are only so many civs you can put into the game without it getting confusing or controversial. But, if there were some way the average civver could make new civilizations without slaving over it for hours or ripping out their hair in frustration (as you can guess, I am both tired and bald), whether it be a simplified system or graphics and such already provided, there would be no need for 100 civs -- Heck, there'd be no need for 30 of them.

Oh, and:

Flags as leaderheads = Cool & fun

 

[ainwood]

The resources needed to add more civs to the game has very little to do with generating leaderheads -> the city names, the great leader names, the Unique units (including graphics) are at least as time-consuming, not to mention the issues with the way civs are stored in the save file & in-game memory (in 32-bit chunks).

The game engine is being re-written, so the 32-bit chunks could be done away with, but I don't think that the leaderheads are a stumbling block.

Perhaps an option to use either flags or leaderheads? I think the leaderheads are better actually (in the GOTM some tribes were represented by flags for some scenarios, and I always felt that the flags were missing something)

 

[Ribannah]

The most work would probably be making them different enough while maintaining sufficient balance. City and leader lists are best left to the fan community anyway.

I agree with Ainwood on the leaderheads. They add to the game's atmosphere. Besides, national flags date from the 17th century AD so many of the older civs don't have one.

 

[happy_Alex]

I dont think flags would be good. They often have religious significance, eg crosses or crescent moons. And whos to say that for example, Turkey, might not have remained a christian country?

 

[Spatula]

Flags = good. I don't know how to mod or anything, but sometimes I would like to change the name of my leader to the opposite sex. The leader pictures are a block to that. Of course they could just bring back the male/female option of Civ2.

 

[happy_Alex]

I think they should do away with leaders altogether. Who lives for 2000 years anyway?

 

[Spatula]

Maybe you could have a line of succession or something - but it would be hard to find the names of all the rulers, and many of the civs in the game are now dead anyway.

 

[Greek Stud]

How about instead of "leaderheads" to have leader units (on the map) as a standard. That way they can fight wars with you or have diplomatic purposes, and if they are killed another leader unit can be made. Or you can multiple leader units, that can fight each other.

I know there is the regicide form, but use these units automated, there for when you think twice before naming particuler units your leader over others.

 

[Jon Shafer]

Civ, by nature, is a god-game, not a leader-game.

The leaderheads are included to give a sense of playing a role, rather than some amorphous figure or symbol that's harder for players to associate with. It's easier to hate that scowling Bismarck than it is to hate a flag.

 

[Spatula]

Bad example. More people would hate the swastika, which is only a symbol, than Bismarck.

I get the point though.

 

[Jon Shafer]

I'm talking about from an in-game perspective. They wouldn't use the Swastika, and even if they did it would only incite feelings because of its out-of-game connotations.

 

[AA-battery]

I think they should do away with leaders altogether. Who lives for 2000 years anyway?

I, AA-BATTERY, AM IMORTAL! FEAR ME, FOR I AM THE GREATEST ENTITY THAT HAS EVER EXISTED! I AM AN AA ENERGIZER BATTERY! I WAS THE ONE WHO POWERED THE ENERGIZER BUNNY IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND I CONTINUE TO DO SO TODAY! I KEEP ON GOING AND GOING AND GOING.........

 

[douche_bag]

I'd prefer faces to flags or maybe faces with flags in the back round.It's easier to tell who's annoyed with you or polite towards you with the faces.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Well, personally I preferred the 'envoys' you spoke to in civ2-though it would be good if they were more realistic. This would allow you to still have a 'fixed' person whom you can love or hate, whilst still allowing for easy modding and addition of new civs (after all, there is nothing to stop you from using a mid-east style envoy for middle-eastern civs, a Western European for Western European civs etc etc)
Also, though I would LOVE to see more civs in the game, I would prefer them to be as 'minor nations'. Nations which grow at a much slower pace than major civs, but which help to fill out the space a lot better than goody huts and barbarians.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[happy_Alex]

What this all boils down to is making Civ more realistic. There was a good thread about this somewhere...

 

[crimson238]

I like the leader heads but I'd like to see, in the editor, included tools to make new things. I know THE SIMS 4 has some kind of face generator built into it; something like that where you can make the generic face, the computer has algorithms to animate it the way it would (some kind f major points to manipulate) and you then save it and it has an option of setting ot civ "x" Sorry if tha'ts a disjointed idea, i'm stuck at work and all reflicted in thought.