Previous Games' Features/Mods' Features that you want to see back in Civ7

[Naokaukodem]

Caravans were amazing in Civ2 because each city produced some manufactured goods that were displayed in the bottom of the city screen, and yuo could trade them from city to city with a caravan. IIRC, when creating a caravan and pointing it out to another city, you had to choose the goods you wanted to trade. The downside was that there was no limit of caravans you could build, leading to a gold bath mid-late game.

Also in Civ2 : truly powerful and unmitigated wonders. In Civ6, most of the wonders are okay-ish in some circumtances, but bad in most cases. In Civ2 you wanted to build them, because they had simple, easy to read and understand powerful bonuses, like a wonder that upgraded all you old units into modern ones with no money.

 

[Zegangani]

Caravans were amazing in Civ2 because each city produced some manufactured goods that were displayed in the bottom of the city screen, and yuo could trade them from city to city with a caravan. IIRC, when creating a caravan and pointing it out to another city, you had to choose the goods you wanted to trade. The downside was that there was no limit of caravans you could build, leading to a gold bath mid-late game.

A combo between that and the Trade Route System in Civ 6 (with the Trade Capacity limit) would make for a good Trade System. I always disliked the Trade Route System in Civ6 that isn't built on a City's Resources. Just like the Luxuries' Amenities that somehow get distributed over Cities that aren't even connected with a Route. So choosing which Resources/Products that get traded with other Cities (the main way for other Cities to get hands on Resources/Products (Amenities) they don't possess) when starting a Trade Route would be a nice Feature.

Also in Civ2 : truly powerful and unmitigated wonders. In Civ6, most of the wonders are okay-ish in some circumtances, but bad in most cases. In Civ2 you wanted to build them, because they had simple, easy to read and understand powerful bonuses, like a wonder that upgraded all you old units into modern ones with no money.

The most selling Point of Wonders of Civ6 is their great Graphical Looks. But you're right, I end up with using just a few of them, because most of them have Effects that I rarely have a use for in my Games (or at least not worth the costs).

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

A combo between that and the Trade Route System in Civ 6 (with the Trade Capacity limit) would make for a good Trade System. I always disliked the Trade Route System in Civ6 that isn't built on a City's Resources. Just like the Luxuries' Amenities that somehow get distributed over Cities that aren't even connected with a Route. So choosing which Resources/Products that get traded with other Cities (the main way for other Cities to get hands on Resources/Products (Amenities) they don't possess) when starting a Trade Route would be a nice Feature.

Better yet, IMHO, would be a 'Resource Market' where each City (including, based on Diplomacy, Foreign Cities) would indicate which Resources it wants from the other cities, and as a result of the Desire, Market, and Potential Profit, invisible digital traders would establish the trade routes for you. That, after all, is pretty much how it usually worked IRL As someone said sometime long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: "Greed Is Good" - it motivates people to do things so the gamer doesn't have to do it for them.
Your job as Gamer/Grand Nagus of the Civ would be to develop the infrastructure that would make Trade Routes easier, or possible, or more profitable: naval patrols to protect trade ships, trading posts and armed Forts to protect overland trade, later building railroads, harbors/ports, canals, container terminals and other advanced infrastructure to enhance Trade.

The most selling Point of Wonders of Civ6 is their great Graphical Looks. But you're right, I end up with using just a few of them, because most of them have Effects that I rarely have a use for in my Games (or at least not worth the costs).

I am an unabashed Wonder Hog: would cheerfully spend most of the game building Wonders, regardless of how useful they are.
BUT
I agree that right now they are more Eye Candy than actually advantageous to your Civ in most games.

I think Civ 7 (or 6.7, or 77) needs to keep the Eye Candy (that almost always sells a few more games) Aspect, but make the requirements for building any specific Wonder much more stringent and the consequence/rewards for building a Wonder much more important in more different ways. You might not meet the stringent criteria to build a given Wonder in more than 1 out of 10 games, but when you do get to build it, it should be worth it to whatever Civ you are playing.
That would include requirements of Government Type, Civic or Social Policy, as well as Technology, and the consequences might include a 'bias' towards certain Civics or Social Policies or even Technologies in the future. After all, building a God-KIng Tomb of a Pyramid early in the game should teach your little digital citizens something about organization and support of massive labor forces, geometry, masonry, the mechanics of moving Large Objects, etc. And it's hard to imagine any Civ that didn't have a pretty All Powerful Ruler who needed to be buried impressively bothering to build such a thing.

 

[Zaarin]

Better yet, IMHO, would be a 'Resource Market' where each City (including, based on Diplomacy, Foreign Cities) would indicate which Resources it wants from the other cities, and as a result of the Desire, Market, and Potential Profit, invisible digital traders would establish the trade routes for you. That, after all, is pretty much how it usually worked IRL As someone said sometime long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: "Greed Is Good" - it motivates people to do things so the gamer doesn't have to do it for them.
Your job as Gamer/Grand Nagus of the Civ would be to develop the infrastructure that would make Trade Routes easier, or possible, or more profitable: naval patrols to protect trade ships, trading posts and armed Forts to protect overland trade, later building railroads, harbors/ports, canals, container terminals and other advanced infrastructure to enhance Trade.

I know I've been pointing to ES2 a lot, but ES2 has something like this, or at least a market where players can buy and sell both luxury and strategic resources (and even units and heroes), where price is based on supply and demand. The system needs refinement, but the idea is out there.

 

[Zegangani]

Better yet, IMHO, would be a 'Resource Market' where each City (including, based on Diplomacy, Foreign Cities) would indicate which Resources it wants from the other cities, and as a result of the Desire, Market, and Potential Profit, invisible digital traders would establish the trade routes for you. That, after all, is pretty much how it usually worked IRL As someone said sometime long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: "Greed Is Good" - it motivates people to do things so the gamer doesn't have to do it for them.
Your job as Gamer/Grand Nagus of the Civ would be to develop the infrastructure that would make Trade Routes easier, or possible, or more profitable: naval patrols to protect trade ships, trading posts and armed Forts to protect overland trade, later building railroads, harbors/ports, canals, container terminals and other advanced infrastructure to enhance Trade.

I agree, the Job of the Leader must be to ensure the infrastructure needed for the People to make Trades (and other things that don't require the Leaders). I think you gonna like one of the Packs of my Mod. It revamps the Resource and Amenities Systems so I can make a Resource Market (For Luxuries, Products and Miliratry Resources/Weapons - But it's not too complicated) for International Trade that needs the Player's acting, but also to make automated Resource Trade between your Cities, where the Player yet has to establish Roads between its Cities for that, making the City that sells the Resource also benefit from the Trade (which isn't the case with the current Amenities System of Luxuries). It's still in the Design Phase, but I took lots of inspiration from Threads in this Forum, including your own Ideas.
Tho, It's going to take some Time before I get to make all of that, since my Mod is structured to Focus first on small and individual Things (like individual Units/Citizens) then going to more bigger things and lastly to global things, so that I won't end up making, for examle, a rework of the Culture Victory just to later also rework the Corporations Mode, in which case I would need to rework the Culture Victory again to take into account the changes of the corporations Mode.

I think Civ 7 (or 6.7, or 77) needs to keep the Eye Candy (that almost always sells a few more games) Aspect, but make the requirements for building any specific Wonder much more stringent and the consequence/rewards for building a Wonder much more important in more different ways. You might not meet the stringent criteria to build a given Wonder in more than 1 out of 10 games, but when you do get to build it, it should be worth it to whatever Civ you are playing.
That would include requirements of Government Type, Civic or Social Policy, as well as Technology, and the consequences might include a 'bias' towards certain Civics or Social Policies or even Technologies in the future. After all, building a God-KIng Tomb of a Pyramid early in the game should teach your little digital citizens something about organization and support of massive labor forces, geometry, masonry, the mechanics of moving Large Objects, etc. And it's hard to imagine any Civ that didn't have a pretty All Powerful Ruler who needed to be buried impressively bothering to build such a thing.

I think you hit the Nail here. It should be a bit difficult to unlock the Possibility of building a Wonder (meeting a Criteria), but building one should give Bonuses that Benefits the Player regardless of any Situation. But I think the Problem is already solved when you hit the Criteria, because, I think, the Criteria itself is what should make the Wonder Valuable. Like only a Civ that has X Cities that the majority of their Tiles are Desert, and that have worked most of those tiles (with improvements), aka aclimated to desert, can build the Pyramid Wonder, which improves productivity in desert Cities and adds Faith Yield to all the worked Desert Tiles.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I think you hit the Nail here. It should be a bit difficult to unlock the Possibility of building a Wonder (meeting a Criteria), but building one should give Bonuses that Benefits the Player regardless of any Situation. But I think the Problem is already solved when you hit the Criteria, because, I think, the Criteria itself is what should make the Wonder Valuable. Like only a Civ that has X Cities that the majority of their Tiles are Desert, and that have worked most of those tiles (with improvements), aka aclimated to desert, can build the Pyramid Wonder, which improves productivity in desert Cities and adds Faith Yield to all the worked Desert Tiles.

Egyptian-type Pyramid Great Tombs don't 'require' any desert, they require a megalomaniacal God Ruler, which are not that hard to find, and lots of good stone, the techniques of organizing and maintaining a large work force, and knowledge of masonry and geometry.

Another way to define the Criteria might be to start with Need and expand from there rather than focusing on a single Wonder.

For example, you have a God King or other singular despotic Ruler who needs a Grand Tomb.
If you have the criteria (stone, workers, geometry, masonry) you build a Pyramid.
If you have stone, fewer workers/population, a Sky God religion/belief, and Astrology/Astronomy, you build a Great Barrow like Newgrange.
If he's been a really militant, conquering SOB and you have lots of workers, Pottery, Bronze-Working, Chariots, you might end up building Terra-cotta Army.
Everybody focuses on the army, but the army was just Grave Goods like the gold buried in the Pyramids with Tut and Cheops: Pyramids, Newgrange and the TCA were all Big Honking Tombs and so their similarities should perhaps be reflected in the game.

The Wonders, each with a similar Cultural/Political Need, would be available to very different Civs with different resources/Technologies available, and therefore might give slightly different 'sets' of Bonuses when built.

Taking this approach could result in a larger list of Wonders available in the game - with all the animations and 'eye candy' associated with them - but fewer Wonders built in any single game because the criteria are stringent and more than one Wonder can fulfill the same in-game Need.

 

[Gedemon]

Better yet, IMHO, would be a 'Resource Market' where each City (including, based on Diplomacy, Foreign Cities) would indicate which Resources it wants from the other cities, and as a result of the Desire, Market, and Potential Profit, invisible digital traders would establish the trade routes for you. That, after all, is pretty much how it usually worked IRL As someone said sometime long ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: "Greed Is Good" - it motivates people to do things so the gamer doesn't have to do it for them.
Your job as Gamer/Grand Nagus of the Civ would be to develop the infrastructure that would make Trade Routes easier, or possible, or more profitable: naval patrols to protect trade ships, trading posts and armed Forts to protect overland trade, later building railroads, harbors/ports, canals, container terminals and other advanced infrastructure to enhance Trade.

When your describtion of a mechanism is quite close to how my overhaul was actually doing things, it feels very satisfying

 

[Naokaukodem]

In regard to the trade routes discussion, here is what i wrote some time before in a notepad document, but never ended because i felt things were going to complicated in my head when thinking about it deeper and deeper :

TRADE ROUTES and COMMERCE

Civ4 city-to-city trade was good, I don't know why it was removed, it was a perfect balance between "infinite Civ2 caravans" and no trade. Maybe it was too automatic.

Civ5 internal city connection with roads was good too. Maybe it was too automatically beneficial when done ?

So, let's do something less automatic (that requires a build or several) and not automatically beneficial.

I guess we should introduce the idea of rights of passage (with the construction of trading posts on a given trade route/road) and trade control (by having some kind of armed units around it that would control if the route is not got around to avoid to pay the taxes) that would be only beneficial to you or who controls it.

Trading posts would be contructible only by cities or embryos of them. (like in the idea in my signature) Cities themselves would automatically act as trading posts.

Caravans would spawn automatically when possible. If they come from your territory, you could tax them everytime they go through one of your cities or trading posts. You would get no money when they go through other factions trading posts or cities, the gold would go to them instead.

The creation of a caravan may depend on the natural resources your city have connected. For example, if you have furs in your borders and didn't improve them, you would get a small lump of gold each time a trade route goes through your trading posts/cities. If you have improved them, you would get much more gold. You also need a city or trading post in range, varying with eras/technology, of any owner.

If your resource cease to be the only one owned by you, your trading posts/cities income go down. But caravans merely bring one single thing at the same time. All your uniques would be present in all your caravans. That way, you may have bananas, elephants, gems, and all kind of unique natural goods you would have in your cities in your caravans. Note that you may not want to trade cultivable or breedable resources, unless you are in desperate need of gold, because your trade partners might not need you anymore soon.

I don't know. Maybe some elements could make somebody think about something more clear.

 

[Leucarum]

Honestly... The palace/throne room...

 

[Krajzen]

Civ5 AI leader personality spreadsheets, you type a bunch of numbers and somehow get an actual deep personalities from that, with which the player forms actual meta - emotional attachments.

 

[Xandinho]

Features from pre-Civ6 editions that I'd like to have back in Civ7: ideologies, corporations, nationality, individual parts of space projects, and great wonders of the world (I mean, this last one isn't exactly a resource, but I feel like most of the wonders in previous editions were quite powerful and worthy to build, while in Civ6 I feel that only a dozen wonders are worth building while most are easily overlooked. So I see myself almost always building the same wonders in every match. Brings me the feeling of Civ4 where the wonders were too impactful and leaving them to the AI could be a problem).

 

[Zegangani]

One Feature that I would really like to have back is the Puppet City System from Civ5. It would be nice to make your Colonies and conquered Cities Puppet Cities that don't require much of your Attention ===> Less micromanaging Cities, especially in Late Game where you have more than 7-8 Cities that you constantly need to check for.