OK guys, this back and forth arguing-not to mention flaming-is really getting us NOWHERE. A really easy solution to our problems, IMHO, is to do the following:
1) As in Civ3, break the entire worlds civilizations-past and present-into accepted 'Culture Groups'. Possible Culture groups could be: North American, South American, North-Western Europe, North-Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, West Africa, East Africa, South Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, South-East Asia, Pacific.
2) For each culture group have a list of around 20-30 nations, from various points in history, that have ever existed.
3) When you start the game, you will be shown a screen with a list of each of the culture groups. When you click on the name of each group, you will be shown every available nation from that group. You then select which nation you wish to play OR you can click random (either random FROM a culture group, or completely random!)
4) You can use the very same process to determine what other major powers you play against.
5) Once step 3 and 4 are taken, then ALL remaining civs in the lists will be randomly selected to form a new 'game list', which will provide the basis for the names of both Minor Civs, and any new civilizations which form as a result of the break-up of existing nations.
This would allow almost every concievable nation on Earth to be potentially in the game, but with the actual nations you DO encounter in a game being dependant on both player choice, and the actions taken within the game!
Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.
