Patch/Expansion Wishlists

[Wingednosering]

What would you like to see changed, overhauled, or fixed in the current systems we have in future patches/expansions? This thread's purpose isn't to suggest new ideas, rather to go over what you think could be tweaked in the currently existing systems.

I'm curious to see where most people feel the game's 'pain points' are.


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I'll start us off:

1. Policy overhaul. Specifically the UI (this grab-bag approach is a cluster**** every time you open it), but even on a fundamental gameplay level, I find myself using the same ones pretty much every game. I'd lump some into a 'situational' category, but the rest are either 'must use' or 'never use'.

2. Religious Victory. I've seen a lot of people saying that the RV is boring and lacks real strategy. Specific issues are the uselessness of Missionaries, the combat basically boiling down to quantity of units and peace-time 'invasions' that occupy your tiles.

3. AI. I know a lot of people want better combat AI, but I understand that can be a massive headache to code properly with 1UPT. What I'd rather see is improved diplomatic AI. The diplomacy systems that are in place are great and could allow for interesting play/counterplay, but as it stands, none of it is properly utilized. Civs are always unfriendly with you (except right after a war, ironically) and trade deals are almost never worth doing. It isn't as abusable as in previous Civs, but it also blocks a lot of potential gameplay from ever being seen (Research Agreements, Alliances, etc).

This one issue is worth pointing out: If an AI asks me to move troops away from their borders, don't penalize me for having troops inside one of my own cities or in my own borders in general.

4. General UI and control work. I'm an Immortal player (haven't jumped into Deity yet) and yet I have no idea how to see what luxury resources I have, how to sort cities by production, etc (if there are ways to do this, please enlighten me). There is also a general problem of menus thinking you've selected things when you haven't, multiple fullscreen windows on top of each other and general messiness on a lot of screens.

Grouping this in here: the 'next unit auto-select' feature is way too aggressive. Sometimes I'm trying to give a command to one unit and it switches to another right as I click, messing up my whole gameplay plan.

5. Production creep. Production is far too scarce and too many lategame units (and districts) can take 50+ turns in smaller cities. Any cities founded after turn 100 or so will never be useful, which isn't fun and flies in the face of history. Toning down mid-late game production costs would indirectly balance out districts, certain civ bonuses and internal vs external trade routes.

6. Less important to me, but it would be nice to see some more early-game variety. In Immortal+, you pretty much have to just spam Archers to wipe out your nearest neighbour in order to win.

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Yeah, that got a lot longer than I expected. What are the biggest features you'd like altered/fixed that already exist? Let's try not to make this a rant thread. I'm more interested in seeing if other people see the same problems or know of ways to overcome them.

 

[UWHabs]

Patches we'll get simple balance changes, maybe some UI improvements, and some AI updates. Expansions can alter things, and that's probably best in the suggestion forum
As to your above:
1. Yes, it definitely needs some balancing. Mostly, we need better military policies, and worse economic ones. I also think that the wildcard ones need some updates too - especially mid-late game, when my choice is an economic policy that will make me 30-40 gold or more per turn, or a policy to give me +2 scientist points, when I'm already making 15-20 per turn? I think those wildcard ones should be more powerful, maybe the early game ones should be "each district provides 1 extra GPP of their type", with the late game being "double GPP for district+buildings". That might get me to sway away from my defaults.
2. Would love a simple change to just put religious units on their own layer, like traders, so that they are not affected at all by combat units. Just doing that alone would significantly help the religious game not interfering with the rest of the game.
3. They definitely need to tone down the warmonger penalties. Or even if they just had them as a more variable (ie. declaring a holy war won't be as big of a deal with your friends who share your religion), that would make things better. And they definitely need some way for you to ask/bribe your allies to go to war without someone who you're at war with.
4. Agreed. Needs work.
5. I do think there should be some to get more base production later in the game. Sure, if I place a city in 2000 BC it should take 30 turns to build a monument or granary. But should it still take 20 turns if I place it in 1500 AD? Even something as simple as having the base city tile yield increase by 1 food and 1 cog per era, then at least any city built in the industrial era would automatically have something like 6 production, and they can get off the ground a lot faster. It's just depressing when you place a new city and see that it's going to take 250 turns to build an industrial zone.
6. I think this could be handled by better AI. If it's wasn't so easy to conquer a neighbour early, maybe the peaceful/REX way would be better. Or if there were other early benefits to a religion, right now it just feels like if you race for a religion early, you're just going to be foo far behind the AI by the time you get it that it's not worth it.

 

[_ViKinG_]

I would like to see improvements on the AI attack better when its war, take citys, upgrade units, and make more military units. want some better diplomacy to. I would also like the fog of war from Civ 5 back, looks mutch better and more realistic. The maps should be bigger and AI should build mutch more cities and fill upp the map like in civ 5.(now they build 3-6 cities). I like Civ 6 with all the new stuff and i think it can be a better game than Civ 5. So i hope i can see these changes get into the game soon if ever. And sadly i went back to playing Civ 5 for now until some of these things will get fixed.

 

[CPWimmer]

I have no idea how to see what luxury resources I have

The easiest way to do this is:
1. Click the "View Reports" button at the top of the screen
2. Click the "Resources" button at the top of the Reports Window
3. Look at the very bottom and there they are!

Spoiler :

 

[mdm]

Two things that MUST be changed ASAP because they drive me freaking bonkers:

1. All tiles should be able to be swapped between cities, why are only some available to swap? Makes no sense

2. Unit cycling overriding input commands, countless times I'm trying to direct my units especially during a war and then I accidentally move a different unit because the cycling overrides any command I make. I've wasted so many turns with my units going in the wrong direction because of this nonsense.

 

[Browd]

1. All tiles should be able to be swapped between cities, why are only some available to swap? Makes no sense

I fail to see the issue. District tiles, wonder tiles and tiles in the first ring around a city are the only tiles that cannot be swapped to another city. All three restrictions exist to prevent abuses.

The only other restrictions are that:

• the tile has to be in workable (3-tile) range of the city center for the city you want to assign it to
  
  
• you can't "skip over" tiles owned by another city to swap for a non-contiguous tile (i.e., the tile you swap for must be adjacent to some other tile that is assigned to that city; that adjacent tile doesn't have to be actively worked by the city, but it must be assigned to that city), and
  
  
• you can't swap a National Park tile to a different city (all National Park tiles must belong to the same city).

What do you find objectionable?

 

[mdm]

I understand why districts and wonders and national parks can't be swapped but everything else should be fair game, maybe it's the "skip over" rule that was tripping me up because I couldn't figure out for the life of me why workable tiles couldn't be swapped. Will look out for those rules in the future to see if it conforms to what I've experienced

 

[gettingfat]

I don't hold a high hope re the AI and core game mechanics, but at least solve the obvious and simple issues, please.

1. Restart button
2. Remember player starting preference
3. Slightly tone down the barbs, at least give a grace period like 15 turns... Seeing 3 horsemen in 20 turns is ridiculous
4. Make the move to function useful
5. Make the tiles more distinguishable, especially those in the fog
6. Anything that can speed up the pace, like option to skip all battle animation, etc, are welcome

If they can at least get these done, I'll play the game again.

 

[CPWimmer]

I don't hold a high hope re the AI and core game mechanics, but at least solve the obvious and simple issues, please.

1. Restart button
2. Remember player starting preference
3. Slightly tone down the barbs, at least give a grace period like 15 turns... Seeing 3 horsemen in 20 turns is ridiculous
4. Make the move to function useful
5. Make the tiles more distinguishable, especially those in the fog
6. Anything that can speed up the pace, like option to skip all battle animation, etc, are welcome

If they can at least get these done, I'll play the game again.

Wow, I don't mean this to be harsh or dismiss your opinion or anything - but literally none of these would be on my on my own personal wish list. OK, maybe #2 - but it doesn't bug me as it is since i never play the same game twice, but I'm sure it would eventually over the years I plan to play this game. It's interesting to me what different things annoy people about this game, that I don't really care about.

1. Simple combat AI upgrades (ability to perform a coordinated attack especially on walled cities, building/using an air force, better overall logic and army maintaining, etc.) at least at higher difficulty levels
2. Major Diplomacy AI upgrades (including the ability to ask someone to attack a civ you are already at war with and reducing the duration and impact of classical/medieval Warmongering penalties with Civs not directly involved)
3. Build Queue. This is easily my #1 non-AI complaint compared to previous versions. - I am actually surprised more people don't complain about this - especially when things like "restart button" getting brought up so often
4. That damn "last item built" display bug in the city production screen
5. Trade route management refinement, including having the ability to look at all possible trade routes so you can make an informed decision
6. Sorting on the various reports
7. Less popups we don't care about (or at least options to turn some of them off)
8. More popups that we do care about (I often play on mute, can I please get a visual indicator that a new barb camp has spawned, and a clickable notification that will take me to it's location!?!)
9. Lens of Industrial and Entertainment district building coverage. This is just a nice to have. I obviously know how to count tiles and figure it out. I could do that for Settlers too, but they were nice enough to provide a lens to do it for me.

 

[Wingednosering]

The easiest way to do this is:
1. Click the "View Reports" button at the top of the screen
2. Click the "Resources" button at the top of the Reports Window
3. Look at the very bottom and there they are!

Spoiler :

View attachment 465175

You are my hero. I knew there had to be a way!

 

[gettingfat]

Wow, I don't mean this to be harsh or dismiss your opinion or anything - but literally none of these would be on my on my own personal wish list. OK, maybe #2 - but it doesn't bug me as it is since i never play the same game twice, but I'm sure it would eventually over the years I plan to play this game. It's interesting to me what different things annoy people about this game, that I don't really care about.

1. Simple combat AI upgrades (ability to perform a coordinated attack especially on walled cities, building/using an air force, better overall logic and army maintaining, etc.) at least at higher difficulty levels
2. Major Diplomacy AI upgrades (including the ability to ask someone to attack a civ you are already at war with and reducing the duration and impact of classical/medieval Warmongering penalties with Civs not directly involved)
3. Build Queue. This is easily my #1 non-AI complaint compared to previous versions. - I am actually surprised more people don't complain about this - especially when things like "restart button" getting brought up so often
4. That damn "last item built" display bug in the city production screen
5. Trade route management refinement, including having the ability to look at all possible trade routes so you can make an informed decision
6. Sorting on the various reports
7. Less popups we don't care about (or at least options to turn some of them off)
8. More popups that we do care about (I often play on mute, can I please get a visual indicator that a new barb camp has spawned, and a clickable notification that will take me to it's location!?!)
9. Lens of Industrial and Entertainment district building coverage. This is just a nice to have. I obviously know how to count tiles and figure it out. I could do that for Settlers too, but they were nice enough to provide a lens to do it for me.

Not to be harsh to you as well, but it's hard for me to believe you've never wished to quickly restart a game like enthusiastically picking Peter but draw a desert start, or enjoy clicking every option from difficulty to map size over and over before every game, or feel satisfied seeing your units constantly block, trip over one another, halt and the "your units need action" flashes again and again when you use the move to function to transfer your troop from one side to another side of map..... to you maybe they are trivial, but to me these little things affect my game experience and they should be easy to fix.

 

[CPWimmer]

@gettingfat: I can understand your perspective - and I am quite interested in hearing about what other people have issues with.

you've never wished to quickly restart a game like enthusiastically picking Peter but draw a desert start

I guess I've been lucky, so far I've never had a hideous start that I couldn't play with. Also, recently, I've been playing 6otM every 2 weeks which already sets all the game parameters so I don't start as many new games by myself (maybe 1 or 2 a month?) as other players probably do. I understand this is an issue for some.

enjoy clicking every option from difficulty to map size over and over before every game

Partially due to playing 6otM, or not ever restarting a game I start, or just playing different situations each time - I don't use the same settings when I start a new game. HOWEVER, I am sure this will be a problem for me later on in the game's life span as I settle into some patterns. For now, with the games that I do start myself, I am enjoying experimenting with the different options still.

seeing your units constantly block, trip over one another, halt and the "your units need action" flashes again and again when you use the move to function to transfer your troop from one side to another side of map

I'll admit this one does frustrates me, but I got so used to moving my troops individually one turn at a time over years of playing Civ 5 that the fact I still have to do it in Civ 6 doesn't make me want to stop playing. Yes, it would be very nice if they fixed this - but the way they have designed 1UpT seems to have messed up just about anything they can do with group pathing of units. Because of this, the only time I usually bother to use "Move To" is when the war is over and I'm moving troops home from the front to re-garrison cities and I don't usually care how long it takes them to get back. But, again, because this was a Civ 5 issue, I'm not surprised that it's still an issue in Civ 6 and can overlook it. That may be just lazy on my part to be so forgiving of this one.

to you maybe they are trivial, but to me these little things affect my game experience and they should be easy to fix.

Your list is certainly valid, and I empathize with your pain. I love this game, and I know there are a lot of little things they could do to make it better for all of us. None of these things (outside of the AI complaints, and possibly fixes related to 1UpT) should be hard to fix, nor are they difficult design changing "should we/should we not" decisions by Faraxis. I hope the next patch at least addresses some of our items!

 

[CPWimmer]

5. Make the tiles more distinguishable, especially those in the fog

Sorry to double post, but I had another thought on why this particular one doesn't bug me, and wanted other peoples opinion on it specifically.

I've noticed that I always play with "Show Yield Icons" turned ON which other people may not. This visually gives me a quick indicator about what each tile in the fog is based on the tile yields. When I turn this off, I can see where people would be having issues. If this issues is bugging you, I would strongly encourage you to turn the "Show Yield Icons" map feature on if it isn't.

 

[RealAntithesis]

I've noticed that I always play with "Show Yield Icons" turned ON which other people may not. This visually gives me a quick indicator about what each tile in the fog is based on the tile yields. When I turn this off, I can see where people would be having issues. If this issues is bugging you, I would strongly encourage you to turn the "Show Yield Icons" map feature on if it isn't.

Except that greatly adds to the general 'busy-ness' of the map. The map is cluttered enough as it is without overlaying yield icons all over the place. The fact that the yield helps the player figure out what the terrain is points to an underlying problem with the terrain that needs fixing.
What I would like:
1. General UI clean-up and overhaul. Present key information to the player from the get go rather than hiding it all underneath multiple tabs and pop up windows. Pretty much everything what the CQUI mod does.
2. Fog of war - generally very unappealing - go back to Civ 5 style basically, or at least an option to.
3. Traffic jams - sort it out. If Civ isn't going back to multi-UPT, then sort out traffic jams and unit pathing some other way - the current situation isn't working very well. On the same note, give modders the tools to implement a proper multi-UPT solution (that will fix a bunch of issues that 1UPT created and the game couldn't solve to date) to give that option to players who want it.
4. Unit upgrade issue etc - this is more a general immersiveness issue. It's not very good to see AI going around with ancient era units in the modern era. Civ is somewhat based on historical precedent, and the issues with the tech tree, strategic resources etc that cause unimmersive non-historically-accurate (i.e. ridiculous and WTF) situations should be resolved.
5. Other weird things that happen that don't make sense - e.g. embarked land units being able to withstand a full on naval assault because they somehow have their full strength while on water. Helicopters that act exactly like horses with only their picture being different, etc.
6. Mechanics that are bugged: Alert not working properly, unit cycling etc.
7. Mechanics that result in strange situations that require the player to suspend more belief than they should be for a game like this: Great People running out, Great People being immortal, teleporting Great People etc.
8. Speeding up game play: probably a bunch of things in here. Unit animations take too long (should be a user-definable setting somewhere), the general 'click-fest' that is the user interface needs streamlining, fix the turn mechanic which constantly asks the player for input when things should be more automated (spys, trade routes, requesting further player input after the player had already clicked next turn etc).
9. Notifications need improving: the bottom right notification area is just bugged and there are too many 'noise'-type of notifications scrolling in the middle of the screen. Wonder notifications need an overhaul (the player's wonders are just silently cancelled when they are beaten to a wonder etc).
10. Too many things to reasonably expect in the next patch unfortunately. Including those mentioned above re: the game remembering the last game settings etc.

 

[mdm]

I'd like to see more ways to get amenities, maybe through policies or something

When making a custom game there should be a number of city states slider like in Civ 5

AI should space out their cities more

Delay barbarian spawning a few more turns would be nice

 

[Golem the Cat]

RealAntithesis makes a great list. I would place an exclamation point after "Notifications need improving." The center-of-the-screen notifications needlessly block combat resolution graphics ("quick" resolution, at least).

It is disappointing to end my turn, in anticipation of a counterattack, only to have the graphics of the counterattack blocked by notifications I could care less about.

 

[vmxa]

Here is my wishlist, No more dlc using steam. They are the pits. Every single dlc for civ 6, I bought as soon as I saw it. Not once did they download and to try to get a support ticket in is really fun. They want to say everything is your fault and you need to supply this and try that. Then they get back to you about 9 days later to say they are looking into and why it is your fault or contact the seller. Of course, the dlc finally downloaded two days after I make the ticket.

I suspect that in all the cases, they sold the dlc, but it was not in a state where it could in fact be downloaded. The option to DL was not there today, but that is just my guess. How is it my issue when there is no dl button, but
the dlc shows as in my inventory? I even try using another region, no idea why that you make the dl button show up, it doesn't. Ignore this rant.

 

[mdm]

I'd like to see religion revamped, until it's tweaked I'm turning off religious victories. Super annoying to be in the middle of a domination campaign and then you end up losing because you take out an opponent that was keeping the religions balanced.

 

[Lazy sweeper]

Make it a war game again please. Peace is only ok for a few turns.

Totally miss the regenerate map on very first turn.

Unclutter UI regarding popups on wonders, which still shows Stonehenge has been build in 1900. Make it a proper window pop up, not a hoover over with mouse that makes a total uncomprehensiveness with the background trying to read.

Total tech revamp.

Map and tech trading. Map drawing tech. A Lot more techs in the writing and science branch. Infinitely longer Ancient-Classical-med time, 50 more techs, at least. Enable completely different tech style gameplay. Make AI tech choices more difficult, so we don't end up with EVERY AI fastening SPACE race, because MAYBE they need HARDER techs which they IGNORED, maybe the INCA have them. But they missed gunpowder acquisition. MAYBE a key tech is required to advance to MODERN ERA, and that can be get only with DIPLOMACY or WAR or SPY, otherwise YOU ARE STUCK to STONE THROWING. So they would actually build some bloody military UNITS and USE for an AGENDA that makes sense. Just saying....


Further example: Some techs can be acquired only through a great Scientist. Tech trade must be enabled for this to work. This would be far more realistic than the current model. And lead to MASSIVE wars! Spies would makes a lot more sense. Why Spy if you can buy??

You are stuck on an Island without trees and can not build ships? You are stuck and can not send spies on the farawy continent who happened to have discovered gunpowder and they are not likely to sell you the tech?? YOU WON'T GO TO THE MOON! Call it FUNNEL tech, or BOTTLENECK tech, that is.

Ships require woods or Bamboo to build. Add Wood as a resource. So enable ancient times wood mills and count them as resources. That would make a lot of sense. Actually.
Paper plants require Papirus. Add papirus as a strategic resource to build paper plants that produces paper rolls, which is a unioque TRANSFORMED resource which is required to build... guess what??? LIBRARIES!! (Horny clacson)
Don't have papirus? Trade for it or NO LIBRARIES!!! Maybe some City State could deal the business, of selling Paper rolls, also. Libraries comes too Early!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not even talk about universities that did not exists in Europe prior to 1500, apart some Academies and Madrassa.
Paper factory= specialized district building, prior to workshop, and not necessary for its building. This concept should extent to other districts as well, with imagination. Also wood barn would be nice in the Industrial District to have.

Vulcanoes. Lava. Floods. Destruction. I can not stress enough how much flat does look a map being so static.

Real Templars units with a Small wonder. Not just a policy.

Parabolanis, or other than Templars real religion specific units warriors. As Tibetan Shaolin monks. Please. Please. Please. Tibetan Monks.

A city state can now have its own unique Religion. Lhasa would be perfect choice. And getting their temple, would grant also the ability to build their units.

You can train an ADEPT, to go learn a new RELIGION, with every basic PANTHEON, and a SHRINE. mechanically a religion spy (revamped).

Slave trading. More effective Eagle warriors capturing slaves and other similar bonus for all units under a certain government.

A Lot more skill upgrades options. Ten or so would be nice. A unit can get the General promotion. Great Generals still works as they do now and effects stucks with more Generals.


A forth and fifth layer in map height. So canyons could be filled with water or not. Less than Sea level terrain. Global warming disasters. Ice collapse. Sea rise. Annihilations by metheorite or Bonus Great Prophet even if there is already a state Religion. Kill of monks with or withoutout war issues thanks to mercs units *or Ninjas as well as Priveteers being flag less. Vulcanic islands spawn.

Ninjas replace spies in med times.
Spies and Ninjas acts as units and can attack also units and be killed by normal units if other units get a counterspy skill to see them, otherwise, upon discovery, they are invisible as subs. Proximty would reveal them anyway.

Different units for Sparta and Pericles *Athen. not just a duplicate
4 example Archimede's fire catapults and later Chinese and Roman Byzantines galleys.

A less inquisitive warmongering , more Alliances between the AI. Help requests completely disappeared from the game.

 

[Lazy sweeper]

I'd like to see more ways to get amenities, maybe through policies or something

When making a custom game there should be a number of city states slider like in Civ 5

AI should space out their cities more

Delay barbarian spawning a few more turns would be nice

The Slider had been added in Australia patch