It's very frustrating (and sometimes maddening) the way the game automatically shifts between all the cities and units that require orders, back and forth, all over the map. I'd like to be able to focus on the things I want, when I want, without interruption. A solution would be to have the automatic move sequence toggable by a button in the info box, with the default being "off" after each turn. The player would then be free to fully concentrate on one matter at a time, and take care of any unfinished business by pressing this "auto sequence" button. Another button should also be included that would cycle between pending moves currently within view on the screen (advancing once per click), so the player could easily manage all the necessary moves in a particular zone. A turn would begin with only the display of enemy/friendly moves, informational messages, and contact messages by other civs; the player would have full control after that.
Here's a list of other things I think need to be fixed/added:
There absolutely needs to be a way to make a group selection of units in a stack, so they could all follow a single order (such as fortify, activate, or load) simultaneously. Shift + left-clicking should add units to a group rather than select individually.
When a city square is polluted and the citizen working on it is automatically removed, it should be automatically put back when the square is cleaned up. This will not only reduce a step of micromanagement, but also prevent problems in large empires when many cities become polluted and cleaned up by automated workers in the same turn, whereby the player has to keep track of and look for the cities that _were_ polluted for manual readjustment.
There should be a way to maximize a city's production for food, shields, or gold with a single click of the mouse in the city display.
There should be a persistent indicator for the presence of unhappy cities, to warn the player before they go into disorder. A frowning face with a number next to it (indicating the number of unhappy cities) that appears in the info box would do nicely. Maybe there could be two indicators; the second one being for cities in disorder (an angry face), to distinguish between the two. The player would no longer have to check each city individually in the Domestic Advisor screen unless there was a warning.
The numbers in the city display that indicate production per turn and commerce per turn should be _net_ values (even better would be separate numbers for waste and output). This would make it easy to see the city's exact production capability in relation to an item's cost, which is important for tweaking cities to produce a unit every turn. For example, if a city's net shield output of 119 is displayed, then it's immediately seen that it needs one more shield to build a modern armor every turn. As it is now, you have to count wasted shields and subtract that from the total output per turn.
Clicking on a spot on the info box when there are no current pending moves shouldn't initiate the next turn! This can cause unexpected and unintentional end of turns, such as when trying to click on one of the buttons on the right column and missing by a mere pixel.
Workers should not cross borders to get to isolated cities unless there is a right of passage.
The Trade Advisor screen should not only show what other civs have (to offer you), but also what they need (don't have). In large games, it becomes very tedious contacting all the different civs periodically to find the ones that will make trades for your resources/luxuries.
There should be up/down buttons available when inputing values of gold in trades so amounts can be changed by clicking, to make fine-tuning much less of a hassle.
Workers ordered to clean pollution with shift-p should go to sleep after they've done their jobs, and reactivate when pollution appears again. They shouldn't wait for new orders like they do now.
There should be an option to automate workers for roads/railroads only. This would prevent automated workers from wasting time improving terrain that isn't being used by a city.
There should be an option to enable a pop-up message when a technology has first been researched by a civ, just so the player doesn't have to keep contacting civs to find out.
The grid on/off setting should be saved so players who always use it don't have to keep turning it on every session.
When a game is lost, there should be a message that says which civilization won, and by what method.
16 player games should be allowed on tiny maps. That would be fun.
That's enough for now.
I have many more suggestions regarding AI stupidity, but I want to finish my game first. I'm playing my fourth game (16 civs on emperor level), and there doesn't seem to be much of a challenge after the middle ages. The research tree is almost finished, and the remaining civs (10) are all much weaker than me, and either consistently broke or way behind in technology.
Here's a list of other things I think need to be fixed/added:
There absolutely needs to be a way to make a group selection of units in a stack, so they could all follow a single order (such as fortify, activate, or load) simultaneously. Shift + left-clicking should add units to a group rather than select individually.
When a city square is polluted and the citizen working on it is automatically removed, it should be automatically put back when the square is cleaned up. This will not only reduce a step of micromanagement, but also prevent problems in large empires when many cities become polluted and cleaned up by automated workers in the same turn, whereby the player has to keep track of and look for the cities that _were_ polluted for manual readjustment.
There should be a way to maximize a city's production for food, shields, or gold with a single click of the mouse in the city display.
There should be a persistent indicator for the presence of unhappy cities, to warn the player before they go into disorder. A frowning face with a number next to it (indicating the number of unhappy cities) that appears in the info box would do nicely. Maybe there could be two indicators; the second one being for cities in disorder (an angry face), to distinguish between the two. The player would no longer have to check each city individually in the Domestic Advisor screen unless there was a warning.
The numbers in the city display that indicate production per turn and commerce per turn should be _net_ values (even better would be separate numbers for waste and output). This would make it easy to see the city's exact production capability in relation to an item's cost, which is important for tweaking cities to produce a unit every turn. For example, if a city's net shield output of 119 is displayed, then it's immediately seen that it needs one more shield to build a modern armor every turn. As it is now, you have to count wasted shields and subtract that from the total output per turn.
Clicking on a spot on the info box when there are no current pending moves shouldn't initiate the next turn! This can cause unexpected and unintentional end of turns, such as when trying to click on one of the buttons on the right column and missing by a mere pixel.
Workers should not cross borders to get to isolated cities unless there is a right of passage.
The Trade Advisor screen should not only show what other civs have (to offer you), but also what they need (don't have). In large games, it becomes very tedious contacting all the different civs periodically to find the ones that will make trades for your resources/luxuries.
There should be up/down buttons available when inputing values of gold in trades so amounts can be changed by clicking, to make fine-tuning much less of a hassle.
Workers ordered to clean pollution with shift-p should go to sleep after they've done their jobs, and reactivate when pollution appears again. They shouldn't wait for new orders like they do now.
There should be an option to automate workers for roads/railroads only. This would prevent automated workers from wasting time improving terrain that isn't being used by a city.
There should be an option to enable a pop-up message when a technology has first been researched by a civ, just so the player doesn't have to keep contacting civs to find out.
The grid on/off setting should be saved so players who always use it don't have to keep turning it on every session.
When a game is lost, there should be a message that says which civilization won, and by what method.
16 player games should be allowed on tiny maps. That would be fun.
That's enough for now.
I have many more suggestions regarding AI stupidity, but I want to finish my game first. I'm playing my fourth game (16 civs on emperor level), and there doesn't seem to be much of a challenge after the middle ages. The research tree is almost finished, and the remaining civs (10) are all much weaker than me, and either consistently broke or way behind in technology.
