philippeactor
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2010
- Messages
- 12
I love Civ, always did. And as a student of History, the game keeps on appealing to me. But there are a few things in Civ5 that genuinely bother me; I keep on being turned off by a certain lack of realism, specifically as it pertains to the notion of time, but also with regards to many other elements of the game.
I would like to see each turn reflect a realistic passage of time, and each achievement or action be bound to that same realism. But before we can talk about the notion of time, we need to talk of the details of a given population, and the management of resources. Heres a few examples of what Im talking about.
- I would like to see the real amount of citizens living in each city, not just some arbitrary number like 4 or 5, which doesnt mean anything to me. If a city has 300 inhabitants, then it should say 300.
- I would like to know what those 300 people are assigned to doing children, men, women, those fit to work or fight, those too old to work, number of deaths and birth each turn, how many in a couple/married, single, etc
- The place of women and men in the workforce, each gender being limited to specific tasks at different point during History, and such possible assignment changing according to scientific discoveries or policies, etc.
- Among those fit to work, I would like to see who is assigned to doing what those to cultivate food, these to building a particular building, those to extract resources from the ground, or take care of the animals around the city, those to researching new technologies, being artists, etc.
- The number of people not busy, or depending upon the rest of the population to live (children, elders, etc.) and how much resources must be dedicated to that segment of the population.
- Policies regarding said population, and how that affects said population (could we, like China in real life for example, limit the number of babies per family, etc )
- I would like to see the medical situation of my population How much food and water each person is receiving on average each turn and the impact on the health of the population, how an epidemic might be affecting the population, etc.
- A defense indicator for a given city, showing how vulnerable said city is to external attacks.
- Etc
Now, once this framework would be in place, notions of realism could be expended to other areas, starting with the above-mentioned time concept. Examples:
- If a percentage x of the population is assigned to building improvements, then said improvements will be built slower or faster. I would like to be able to see that if I assign 1,000 individuals in a given city the task of building a barrack, it will not arbitrarily take 20 tours to build it, but rather require the accurate amount of time needed to build such building, if x people are assigned to doing it!
With this basic concept in place, each turn could be specified I would personally like to be able to select that each regular turn be 1 year. But with exceptions see further.
When a scout is exploring the map, limiting the amount of space that can be explored per turn should be in line with the amount of time for each turn. And while, as an example, it makes sense for a scout to be able to explore 1 hex per turn (per year) during antiquity, the same exploration would be much quicker as technology advances. How?
- Scouts (and armed units for that matter) need to eat, and sleep. It is absolutely not normal for a scout to be able to explore 2/3 hexes in a desertic or polar regions without carrying sufficient water and food! And therefore, scouts exploration should be limited in this matter.
- Therefore, early in the game, such exploration should be very slow, and speed up with time.
- Perhaps scouts should refill water and food by visiting hexes that have appropriate resources before being able to carry on their exploration.
Now when it comes to fighting battles, the normal turn time of 1 year would stop, and be replaced by a realistic timeframe as well:
- It is absolutely not normal for each battle to take more than a few days / weeks / months in between each assault!
- During medieval time for example, an army could siege a city for several weeks, ONLY if they had appropriate food and water (again) to stay there for such time.
- Otherwise, army units would need to refill food and water appropriately, or else face the prospect of having to leave and return later, or else die.
- When an army unit sieges a city, a certain amount of food accumulated inside the walls of said city (thanks to a granary) would ensure the population could survive well while being under siege, while the enemy would be at risk of having to leave for lack of food.
- Etc
Other non-realistic pet peeves:
- Once a barrack is constructed, what would prevent an army in real life from training each year/turn to gain further XP? That doesnt make any sense to have the building but being unable to use it!
- All units should be able to move realistically, in accordance to their real capacity, and to the reality of the terrain! In modern time, crossing the Atlantic requires only a few days for a modern boat. During the renaissance? 3 months. Thats what Im talking about. And so, if each turn is 1 year, then it takes 1/3 of a turn for a boat to cross the entire Atlantic during the renaissance not an arbitrarily number of hex per turn! Therefore, a units Movement Points should change over time, thanks to appropriate technology and/or epoch.
Other misc. pet peeves:
- When upgrading a RANGED military unit garrisoned within a city (such as crossbowmen) with better technology, the upgraded unit is no longer a ranged unit!!! (such as musketmen) --- NOT good A ranged unit should always be upgraded with a better ranged unit, a melee unit as a better melee unit, and a mounted unit as a better mounted unit.
- Why limiting the amount of units that can be garrisoned into a city to only 1???
I have a feeling none of this can me moded, right? It would require a fundamental change in the underlying game code?
Thanks for your feedbacks.
I would like to see each turn reflect a realistic passage of time, and each achievement or action be bound to that same realism. But before we can talk about the notion of time, we need to talk of the details of a given population, and the management of resources. Heres a few examples of what Im talking about.
- I would like to see the real amount of citizens living in each city, not just some arbitrary number like 4 or 5, which doesnt mean anything to me. If a city has 300 inhabitants, then it should say 300.
- I would like to know what those 300 people are assigned to doing children, men, women, those fit to work or fight, those too old to work, number of deaths and birth each turn, how many in a couple/married, single, etc
- The place of women and men in the workforce, each gender being limited to specific tasks at different point during History, and such possible assignment changing according to scientific discoveries or policies, etc.
- Among those fit to work, I would like to see who is assigned to doing what those to cultivate food, these to building a particular building, those to extract resources from the ground, or take care of the animals around the city, those to researching new technologies, being artists, etc.
- The number of people not busy, or depending upon the rest of the population to live (children, elders, etc.) and how much resources must be dedicated to that segment of the population.
- Policies regarding said population, and how that affects said population (could we, like China in real life for example, limit the number of babies per family, etc )
- I would like to see the medical situation of my population How much food and water each person is receiving on average each turn and the impact on the health of the population, how an epidemic might be affecting the population, etc.
- A defense indicator for a given city, showing how vulnerable said city is to external attacks.
- Etc
Now, once this framework would be in place, notions of realism could be expended to other areas, starting with the above-mentioned time concept. Examples:
- If a percentage x of the population is assigned to building improvements, then said improvements will be built slower or faster. I would like to be able to see that if I assign 1,000 individuals in a given city the task of building a barrack, it will not arbitrarily take 20 tours to build it, but rather require the accurate amount of time needed to build such building, if x people are assigned to doing it!
With this basic concept in place, each turn could be specified I would personally like to be able to select that each regular turn be 1 year. But with exceptions see further.
When a scout is exploring the map, limiting the amount of space that can be explored per turn should be in line with the amount of time for each turn. And while, as an example, it makes sense for a scout to be able to explore 1 hex per turn (per year) during antiquity, the same exploration would be much quicker as technology advances. How?
- Scouts (and armed units for that matter) need to eat, and sleep. It is absolutely not normal for a scout to be able to explore 2/3 hexes in a desertic or polar regions without carrying sufficient water and food! And therefore, scouts exploration should be limited in this matter.
- Therefore, early in the game, such exploration should be very slow, and speed up with time.
- Perhaps scouts should refill water and food by visiting hexes that have appropriate resources before being able to carry on their exploration.
Now when it comes to fighting battles, the normal turn time of 1 year would stop, and be replaced by a realistic timeframe as well:
- It is absolutely not normal for each battle to take more than a few days / weeks / months in between each assault!
- During medieval time for example, an army could siege a city for several weeks, ONLY if they had appropriate food and water (again) to stay there for such time.
- Otherwise, army units would need to refill food and water appropriately, or else face the prospect of having to leave and return later, or else die.
- When an army unit sieges a city, a certain amount of food accumulated inside the walls of said city (thanks to a granary) would ensure the population could survive well while being under siege, while the enemy would be at risk of having to leave for lack of food.
- Etc
Other non-realistic pet peeves:
- Once a barrack is constructed, what would prevent an army in real life from training each year/turn to gain further XP? That doesnt make any sense to have the building but being unable to use it!
- All units should be able to move realistically, in accordance to their real capacity, and to the reality of the terrain! In modern time, crossing the Atlantic requires only a few days for a modern boat. During the renaissance? 3 months. Thats what Im talking about. And so, if each turn is 1 year, then it takes 1/3 of a turn for a boat to cross the entire Atlantic during the renaissance not an arbitrarily number of hex per turn! Therefore, a units Movement Points should change over time, thanks to appropriate technology and/or epoch.
Other misc. pet peeves:
- When upgrading a RANGED military unit garrisoned within a city (such as crossbowmen) with better technology, the upgraded unit is no longer a ranged unit!!! (such as musketmen) --- NOT good A ranged unit should always be upgraded with a better ranged unit, a melee unit as a better melee unit, and a mounted unit as a better mounted unit.
- Why limiting the amount of units that can be garrisoned into a city to only 1???
I have a feeling none of this can me moded, right? It would require a fundamental change in the underlying game code?
Thanks for your feedbacks.
