lumpthing
generic lump
First of all, I would like to repeat what everyone else has been saying: that this mod is truly awesome! I used to have plans of remaking my civ2 ‘Ascension of Europe’ scenario in civ4 but this mod is so much better than anything I had in mind that I see there’s no point! If it seems I’ve written a large number of suggestions here it’s only because I’m so inspired by this mod that I’ve been putting lots of thought into how it could be enriched even further.
So here, in no particular order, is my humble list of suggestions for future amendments:
1) Scandinavian civ
I heard rumours of a Scandinavian civ being introduced in a future version. This would certainly be welcome as having Oslo and Stockholm effectively forming part of the English, German or Russian homelands (and in my game Spanish too!) just doesn't feel right. Scandinavia was briefly united as a single power under the Kalmar Union so a united Scandi civ would have some historical basis. Or they could be made the Swedish or Danish, the dominant powers of the region.
2) No city freebies
I realise that European expansion needs a boost but I really don't like the population and building freebies I get when I found any new city. Historically, the first European colonies were tiny, struggling outposts that took centuries to become true cities. In my game (as the English) they were immediately self-sufficient and quickly developed enough to start pumping out enough settlers and armies to colonise their continents on their own with no dependency on the mother country. I think this totally undermines the feel of the early colonial period, as well as the general civ-pleasure of building up your city from scratch.
Couldn't expansion be boosted in some other way? Say by reducing city maintenance costs caused by distance from capital to encourage far-flung colonies?
3) British, not English
Rename the English the British. They really might as well be since Scotland flips immediately and the Welsh don’t exist. The ‘British’ empire has a much more historical feel than the ‘English’ empire.
4) Portugal and the Netherlands
Bring in the Portuguese and Dutch. In general I think the more civs the merrier as far as this scenario is concerned, - I had no intentions of buying the Warlords expansion before but if it means I get to play against more civs in this mod then I’m getting it
. But I really think the absence of these two civs is a big loss for a mod which simulates the big events of world history. They may seem overshadowed by Britain, Spain and France but both countries formed vast world empires that had a huge impact on global history. The colonial era just isn’t complete without them.
5) Limit Sino-Japanese overseas settlement
China, India and Japan like to colonise the South-East Asian archipelago and Australia/New Zealand, whereas in history, these areas were the preserve of native powers right until the Europeans started fighting over it. I don't know if this is possible but it would be nice if settlers were unable to enter ships. They could be outmoded by a later 'colonist' unit (perhaps arriving with galleons), identical in every way save that they can enter ships. This would ensure that only the more advanced civs could engage in colonisation. Civs that started overseas colonisation relatively early (the Romans perhaps?) could perhaps get their own colonists as unique unites with an earlier tech.
6) Add independent cities in sub-saharan Africa and South-East Asia
I wrote about this in another thread but I will repeat myself here for the sake of completeness... I would like to see more cities in sub-saharan Africa. At the moment this has the feel of the Americas or Australia, where European diseases destroyed already very sparse populations and meant colonization was mostly a matter of settlement rather than dominating existing populations. This was not the case with Africa, and I know there were many minor cities in the southern half of Africa. Maybe the same should also be done for the South-East Asian archipelago (Indonesia etc) as well, since they also had dense native populations.
7) Remove Judaism
I think something has to be done about Judaism. In my game, Rome was the first to have Judaism as its state religion and later this passed to Eygpt. This makes no sense if Judaism is assumed to retain its basic historical character. The truth is that a historically-accurate Judaism should not be in civilization because it is so linked to a particular ethnicity. The Roman Empire should never adopt Judaism as its state religion simply because it has conquered the religion’s holy city. I suggest replacing it with Zoroastrianism. Today Zoroastrianism is also tied to a particular ethnicity but I’m pretty sure this is a relatively recent practice and was not the case in its heyday. If we have to have Judaism, couldn’t we make it so that the Christian holy city is always the Jewish holy city? That way, civs would almost never adopt Judaism as a state religion after the discovery of Christianity.
8) Christian schisms
Splitting Christianity into Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy would be nice as it would cause greater conflict amongst the currently rather snug Europeans. I suppose if you did it for Christianity it’d make sense to do it for Islam and its two major divisions as well. Might be rather complicated to mod though if the schisms and holy cities were done realistically though.
9) Add marathon speed
Like many others I would love to play this mod in marathon speed, in order to get the most out of each era. It might be worth toning down naval speeds in such a case though, otherwise the world would be revealed very quickly. It would also be nice to limit early land exploration too but I can’t think how.
So here, in no particular order, is my humble list of suggestions for future amendments:
1) Scandinavian civ
I heard rumours of a Scandinavian civ being introduced in a future version. This would certainly be welcome as having Oslo and Stockholm effectively forming part of the English, German or Russian homelands (and in my game Spanish too!) just doesn't feel right. Scandinavia was briefly united as a single power under the Kalmar Union so a united Scandi civ would have some historical basis. Or they could be made the Swedish or Danish, the dominant powers of the region.
2) No city freebies
I realise that European expansion needs a boost but I really don't like the population and building freebies I get when I found any new city. Historically, the first European colonies were tiny, struggling outposts that took centuries to become true cities. In my game (as the English) they were immediately self-sufficient and quickly developed enough to start pumping out enough settlers and armies to colonise their continents on their own with no dependency on the mother country. I think this totally undermines the feel of the early colonial period, as well as the general civ-pleasure of building up your city from scratch.
Couldn't expansion be boosted in some other way? Say by reducing city maintenance costs caused by distance from capital to encourage far-flung colonies?
3) British, not English
Rename the English the British. They really might as well be since Scotland flips immediately and the Welsh don’t exist. The ‘British’ empire has a much more historical feel than the ‘English’ empire.
4) Portugal and the Netherlands
Bring in the Portuguese and Dutch. In general I think the more civs the merrier as far as this scenario is concerned, - I had no intentions of buying the Warlords expansion before but if it means I get to play against more civs in this mod then I’m getting it
. But I really think the absence of these two civs is a big loss for a mod which simulates the big events of world history. They may seem overshadowed by Britain, Spain and France but both countries formed vast world empires that had a huge impact on global history. The colonial era just isn’t complete without them.5) Limit Sino-Japanese overseas settlement
China, India and Japan like to colonise the South-East Asian archipelago and Australia/New Zealand, whereas in history, these areas were the preserve of native powers right until the Europeans started fighting over it. I don't know if this is possible but it would be nice if settlers were unable to enter ships. They could be outmoded by a later 'colonist' unit (perhaps arriving with galleons), identical in every way save that they can enter ships. This would ensure that only the more advanced civs could engage in colonisation. Civs that started overseas colonisation relatively early (the Romans perhaps?) could perhaps get their own colonists as unique unites with an earlier tech.
6) Add independent cities in sub-saharan Africa and South-East Asia
I wrote about this in another thread but I will repeat myself here for the sake of completeness... I would like to see more cities in sub-saharan Africa. At the moment this has the feel of the Americas or Australia, where European diseases destroyed already very sparse populations and meant colonization was mostly a matter of settlement rather than dominating existing populations. This was not the case with Africa, and I know there were many minor cities in the southern half of Africa. Maybe the same should also be done for the South-East Asian archipelago (Indonesia etc) as well, since they also had dense native populations.
7) Remove Judaism
I think something has to be done about Judaism. In my game, Rome was the first to have Judaism as its state religion and later this passed to Eygpt. This makes no sense if Judaism is assumed to retain its basic historical character. The truth is that a historically-accurate Judaism should not be in civilization because it is so linked to a particular ethnicity. The Roman Empire should never adopt Judaism as its state religion simply because it has conquered the religion’s holy city. I suggest replacing it with Zoroastrianism. Today Zoroastrianism is also tied to a particular ethnicity but I’m pretty sure this is a relatively recent practice and was not the case in its heyday. If we have to have Judaism, couldn’t we make it so that the Christian holy city is always the Jewish holy city? That way, civs would almost never adopt Judaism as a state religion after the discovery of Christianity.
8) Christian schisms
Splitting Christianity into Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy would be nice as it would cause greater conflict amongst the currently rather snug Europeans. I suppose if you did it for Christianity it’d make sense to do it for Islam and its two major divisions as well. Might be rather complicated to mod though if the schisms and holy cities were done realistically though.
9) Add marathon speed
Like many others I would love to play this mod in marathon speed, in order to get the most out of each era. It might be worth toning down naval speeds in such a case though, otherwise the world would be revealed very quickly. It would also be nice to limit early land exploration too but I can’t think how.
Also, some tiny cities in to Russia's east/Mongolia's west, as well as some in old Turkistan, would be realistic and fun for the mentioned civs, as well.
