Aussie_Lurker
Deity
OK, I know there is already a thread for this, but I'd like to just post my thoughts in one single place. If you have any thoughts on my list, please feel free to share them 
.
Expanded Diplomatic Options: Most Especially 3rd Party Diplomacy. Options like asking a Civ to change governments and/or policies & the ability to extract pre-emptive promises from other Civs, would be great.
Expanded City-State Mechanics: More ways to gain and-more importantly-lose City-State Envoys (pledging protection, bullying, declaring war, extra spy missions, competitive quests, sharing a preferred Religion/Government/Ideology). Also, allow City-States to build more Districts, Buildings & even Wonders.....so they focus less on Units (only Militaristic City-States should focus so heavily on units). Also, don't be afraid to have City-States declare war on other City-States and/or major Civilisations.
Expanded Independent City rules: Don't have loyalty be the only way for Independent cities to form. Have Barbarian and/or City-State take-over be another way to create independent cities. Give us the ability to have limited Diplomatic Contact with these Cities, & have the ability for multiple, neighbouring Independent Cities be able to form into new Civilisations.
Expanded Barbarians: At the moment they're kind of “one-note”. It would be great if we could have even limited diplomatic options when it comes to barbarians-like bribing them to leave you alone for X turns & an ability to levy units from them. They should also be a genuine threat by being able to take your cities from you (see above).
State Religions/State Ideologies: Enough said, I don't think I need to go into any more detail on this one.
Expanded Culture/Tourism Mechanics: As with Civilisation V (BNW), have Ideology/Tourism impact on the loyalty/Happiness of cities-especially close to the border. Also, have these elements be a part of a new “Migration” mechanic (both domestic & international). Also, have border tiles be able to be “Contested” between multiple Civs-& allow the ability to either buy contested tiles outright (at a very high cost of gold & grievances) or bargain for all contested tiles in the Diplomacy Screen (either asking for them, or giving up your claim to them).
Expanded Great People Mechanics: We need Great Theologians as a replacement for Great Prophets after all the religions are founded (see “Rule with Faith”), we also need more ways to generate Great People from the Ancient Age onwards-especially the Cultural (Writers/Artists/Musicians) & Engineer category. Cultural Great People also need abilities outside of their Great Works-like the ability to create Musical Groups for touring (Musicians), the ability to create a Political Treatise-that will help you complete the Civic you're currently working on (kind of like an Inspiration) (Writers) & the ability to act like a “Golden Age” bomb (Great Artist). Also, just more Great People in each era & across each class.
A Better Balance of Tall vs Wide: Primarily by making Specialists more valuable to a city, & by applying maintenance modifiers for cities in Wide Empires (to counter-balance the Housing & Amenities costs of Tall Cities), modifiers that can be counteracted via City-Center Buildings & Social Policies. More Social Policies aimed at benefiting either Wide Empires or Tall Empires would be good to see too.
Expanded Governments & Policies: I don't know if its just me, but I want a choice of government right out of the gate, even if its just a choice between two potential Governments. Tier 1 Government could at least consist of a choice of either Chiefdom or a Tribal Council (analogous to Autocracy or Oligarchy, respectively). A 3rd option may be a Tribal Collective (Classical Democracy analogue) or a Shamanistic?!?! Government (analogous to Theocracy). Although not as important, it might be nice to see more government variety at the other tiers too-like a separation of Monarchy into Absolute & Constitutional; Socialist as well as Communist, & more than 1 type of Democracy/Fascist government type (though State Ideology might well help to remove that need). It would also be nice to see 1 or 2 more Policy Slot types for governments-a Labour Policy slot, and a Religious/Legal Slot. This could allow for an even greater differentiation between each government type, & reduce reliance on the Wildcard slot.
Expanded Resource Mechanics: The Gathering Storm Strategic Resource system sounds great, but it could go even further IMHO. Non-fuel based Strategic Resource stockpiles could be a requirement for either the construction of certain buildings, and/or for improving the construction time of said buildings and/or could improve the yield output of the buildings in question. This could force choices for the player between furnishing their domestic economy and furnishing their war machine. I would also like to see a return of “deposit sizes” like we had back in Civ5.
In a similar vein, it might be nice to see Luxuries & Bonus Resources move more towards the system we will have in Gathering Storm for Strategic Resources, so that having multiple copies of the same resource could potentially benefit your empire (as X units of <Luxury Y> might be able to sustain the happiness of Z Citizens, whereas X*2 units of that luxury could sustain nearly double that number of citizens)-though perhaps the level of benefit provided by a specific luxury type could decline over each era making new luxury types consistently important for maintaining happiness. Bonus resources should also be able to provide empire wide benefits, based on what the luxury is.
Lastly, more resource types-of each category-would be great too-most especially food resources.
Expanded Pollution Mechanics: Although the Climate Change stuff being brought into Gathering Storm looks great, I'd like to see them expand pollution to much further back in the time-line of the game. My view is that too many factories, mines and/or oil wells, within X tiles of a city and/or neighbourhood, should start to impact on the Housing, Amenities & even loyalty of that City, as well as having the potential to reduce the Appeal & even yields of adjacent tiles. Certain policies & Projects could significantly reduce these effects, and certain builder/engineer actions could help to remove the negative effects after they occur. Hopefully that could form a part of a broader Health/Disease mechanic.
Expanded Spy Mechanics: Mostly this is just additional missions they can pull off-like Election Rigging & Coups in City-States (more powerful versions of Fabricate a Scandal), gaining intrigue regarding a 3rd party civ, Sabotaging Districts besides Industrial Districts, leaving behind evidence to implicate another Civ in your Spying & permanently converting your Spy into Diplomats, for use in City-State & Major Civ diplomacy. More promotions to tie into these extra mission types would be great too.
Expanded Era Mechanics: One thing I want to see is a more dynamic system for determining if you enter a Normal or Golden Age, aside from what Age type you had in the previous era. Negative Events, in particular, should increase the number of points you need for a Normal/Golden Age. By contrast, a particularly positive event-like winning an Emergency-could slightly reduce the number of points you need. Likewise, I'd like to see Dark Ages have their own set of Dedications to choose from (either instead of or as well as Normal Age Dedications) & a set of Golden Age Policy Cards you can use to further boost your empire during the current age.
Miscellaneous: Just a few other little things I'd like to see. More units to bridge the gap between Classical & Renaissance, in particular. Unique Governors gained during an actual game-perhaps as a Suzerain bonus?
I admit, not absolutely everything on this list needs to be in a final X-Pack to make me content, but it would be nice to see the vast bulk of this implemented.
.Expanded Diplomatic Options: Most Especially 3rd Party Diplomacy. Options like asking a Civ to change governments and/or policies & the ability to extract pre-emptive promises from other Civs, would be great.
Expanded City-State Mechanics: More ways to gain and-more importantly-lose City-State Envoys (pledging protection, bullying, declaring war, extra spy missions, competitive quests, sharing a preferred Religion/Government/Ideology). Also, allow City-States to build more Districts, Buildings & even Wonders.....so they focus less on Units (only Militaristic City-States should focus so heavily on units). Also, don't be afraid to have City-States declare war on other City-States and/or major Civilisations.
Expanded Independent City rules: Don't have loyalty be the only way for Independent cities to form. Have Barbarian and/or City-State take-over be another way to create independent cities. Give us the ability to have limited Diplomatic Contact with these Cities, & have the ability for multiple, neighbouring Independent Cities be able to form into new Civilisations.
Expanded Barbarians: At the moment they're kind of “one-note”. It would be great if we could have even limited diplomatic options when it comes to barbarians-like bribing them to leave you alone for X turns & an ability to levy units from them. They should also be a genuine threat by being able to take your cities from you (see above).
State Religions/State Ideologies: Enough said, I don't think I need to go into any more detail on this one.
Expanded Culture/Tourism Mechanics: As with Civilisation V (BNW), have Ideology/Tourism impact on the loyalty/Happiness of cities-especially close to the border. Also, have these elements be a part of a new “Migration” mechanic (both domestic & international). Also, have border tiles be able to be “Contested” between multiple Civs-& allow the ability to either buy contested tiles outright (at a very high cost of gold & grievances) or bargain for all contested tiles in the Diplomacy Screen (either asking for them, or giving up your claim to them).
Expanded Great People Mechanics: We need Great Theologians as a replacement for Great Prophets after all the religions are founded (see “Rule with Faith”), we also need more ways to generate Great People from the Ancient Age onwards-especially the Cultural (Writers/Artists/Musicians) & Engineer category. Cultural Great People also need abilities outside of their Great Works-like the ability to create Musical Groups for touring (Musicians), the ability to create a Political Treatise-that will help you complete the Civic you're currently working on (kind of like an Inspiration) (Writers) & the ability to act like a “Golden Age” bomb (Great Artist). Also, just more Great People in each era & across each class.
A Better Balance of Tall vs Wide: Primarily by making Specialists more valuable to a city, & by applying maintenance modifiers for cities in Wide Empires (to counter-balance the Housing & Amenities costs of Tall Cities), modifiers that can be counteracted via City-Center Buildings & Social Policies. More Social Policies aimed at benefiting either Wide Empires or Tall Empires would be good to see too.
Expanded Governments & Policies: I don't know if its just me, but I want a choice of government right out of the gate, even if its just a choice between two potential Governments. Tier 1 Government could at least consist of a choice of either Chiefdom or a Tribal Council (analogous to Autocracy or Oligarchy, respectively). A 3rd option may be a Tribal Collective (Classical Democracy analogue) or a Shamanistic?!?! Government (analogous to Theocracy). Although not as important, it might be nice to see more government variety at the other tiers too-like a separation of Monarchy into Absolute & Constitutional; Socialist as well as Communist, & more than 1 type of Democracy/Fascist government type (though State Ideology might well help to remove that need). It would also be nice to see 1 or 2 more Policy Slot types for governments-a Labour Policy slot, and a Religious/Legal Slot. This could allow for an even greater differentiation between each government type, & reduce reliance on the Wildcard slot.
Expanded Resource Mechanics: The Gathering Storm Strategic Resource system sounds great, but it could go even further IMHO. Non-fuel based Strategic Resource stockpiles could be a requirement for either the construction of certain buildings, and/or for improving the construction time of said buildings and/or could improve the yield output of the buildings in question. This could force choices for the player between furnishing their domestic economy and furnishing their war machine. I would also like to see a return of “deposit sizes” like we had back in Civ5.
In a similar vein, it might be nice to see Luxuries & Bonus Resources move more towards the system we will have in Gathering Storm for Strategic Resources, so that having multiple copies of the same resource could potentially benefit your empire (as X units of <Luxury Y> might be able to sustain the happiness of Z Citizens, whereas X*2 units of that luxury could sustain nearly double that number of citizens)-though perhaps the level of benefit provided by a specific luxury type could decline over each era making new luxury types consistently important for maintaining happiness. Bonus resources should also be able to provide empire wide benefits, based on what the luxury is.
Lastly, more resource types-of each category-would be great too-most especially food resources.
Expanded Pollution Mechanics: Although the Climate Change stuff being brought into Gathering Storm looks great, I'd like to see them expand pollution to much further back in the time-line of the game. My view is that too many factories, mines and/or oil wells, within X tiles of a city and/or neighbourhood, should start to impact on the Housing, Amenities & even loyalty of that City, as well as having the potential to reduce the Appeal & even yields of adjacent tiles. Certain policies & Projects could significantly reduce these effects, and certain builder/engineer actions could help to remove the negative effects after they occur. Hopefully that could form a part of a broader Health/Disease mechanic.
Expanded Spy Mechanics: Mostly this is just additional missions they can pull off-like Election Rigging & Coups in City-States (more powerful versions of Fabricate a Scandal), gaining intrigue regarding a 3rd party civ, Sabotaging Districts besides Industrial Districts, leaving behind evidence to implicate another Civ in your Spying & permanently converting your Spy into Diplomats, for use in City-State & Major Civ diplomacy. More promotions to tie into these extra mission types would be great too.
Expanded Era Mechanics: One thing I want to see is a more dynamic system for determining if you enter a Normal or Golden Age, aside from what Age type you had in the previous era. Negative Events, in particular, should increase the number of points you need for a Normal/Golden Age. By contrast, a particularly positive event-like winning an Emergency-could slightly reduce the number of points you need. Likewise, I'd like to see Dark Ages have their own set of Dedications to choose from (either instead of or as well as Normal Age Dedications) & a set of Golden Age Policy Cards you can use to further boost your empire during the current age.
Miscellaneous: Just a few other little things I'd like to see. More units to bridge the gap between Classical & Renaissance, in particular. Unique Governors gained during an actual game-perhaps as a Suzerain bonus?
I admit, not absolutely everything on this list needs to be in a final X-Pack to make me content, but it would be nice to see the vast bulk of this implemented.
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