Role playing Civilizations

[CaptainUnknown]

Civ 6 is a great game but I ended up getting bored playing each civ the same "standard" way as all the other civs. For me, this meant I would do early aggression into science.

To liven things up, I decided to play each civilization like how I think their theme/AI would play them. For example, the Germany leader, Fredrick Barbossa, has attack bonus versus city states. This bonus implies that the Civ should focus on "creating the holy roman empire" and to do this the the player should conquer near by city states. It's quite fun playing this way and I was curious if anyone else tried role playing civilizations and acting as how the leader would. Also, for some nations it's not quite clear what the best hidden goal should be, what do you do as a self imposed challenge for specific civs?

 

[Arent11]

Well, I would like to so that, but until this day and age, there has not been a custom civ option.

It would surely be fun to create a militaristic, mercantile, religious, scientific civ & roleplay it. But the existing civs are, despite their number, not my alley.

 

[AntSou]

Well, I would like to so that, but until this day and age, there has not been a custom civ option.

It would surely be fun to create a militaristic, mercantile, religious, scientific civ & roleplay it. But the existing civs are, despite their number, not my alley.

I don't understand your complaint. The tools for what you are requesting already exist and you can mod Civs and make them however you want. What you're asking for is basically the option to make bland and standardised in-game Civs, since such a feature within the game itself would have to be pretty limited.

As fas as roleplaying, it's the only way I play and I ramp up the difficulty as far up as it can go while still allowing me to make sub-optimal decisions for the sake of immersion. In Civ 6 that's Deity, but in Civ 5 it was usually Emperor or Immortal.

I like to adapt my Civ to my surroundings as well, so it's not just the Civs bonuses.

 

[Victoria]

I was curious if anyone else tried role playing civilizations and acting as how the leader would

Lots do. In fact many civs benefit form doing so and it just feels right. I certainly find the standard VC's a bit dull but tend to play to targets rather than traits because traits I also find restrictive.

Fr example I played a game over xmas where I wanted a spaceport on each corner of a twisted map so I could right the world. (yes IK they are 1 pole)

 

[Pure24]

That's how I mostly play. Late game buildings are well known for being weak, but I make sure a global science leader and pioneer like the United States (in the real world, mind) gets research labs in all their universities. I mean, given the work that Havard and MiT and Caltech and the rest are doing... it's only fair, right?

I also deliberately delay a victory - for instance hard-building spaceports instead of buying them with Reyna/Moksha - because I want to enjoy my civ a little longer.

When I try to min-max my games, I usually start a new game with such a mindset. Most of the time, however, I'm just trying to have a good time. And ending the game too early sometimes gets in the way of such good times

 

[iammaxhailme]

I sort of do that, but usually just via using the unique features, which is kind of what you're talking about lol. Also, sometimes I do runs where I pretend to have the leader's AI agenda.

 

[Nerevatar]

I find the agendas to usually be a good source for RP. Playing as Inca? Make it a point to only settle cities near mountains, and war / denounce anyone doing the same.

 

[Arent11]

I don't understand your complaint. The tools for what you are requesting already exist and you can mod Civs and make them however you want.

Back in my childhood I would have done exactly that. But now, I don't have time for such things I buy games which already provide the options I seek.

 

[WillowBrook]

I've started doing more roleplaying since getting most of the steam achievements.

I recently played a Mongols game where the goal was to win by domination with the only military units being cavalry and siege (the unique unit I didn't upgrade).

I'm currently working on a Khmer game where the goal is to win with culture without building any theater squares. I must have at least ten cities with a holy site with a relic by the end of the game, and every city that can get an aqueduct must get one. No declaring war and if I find myself at war I can take at most one city. I must generally encourage city growth.

I want to try a science victory with no campuses, but I haven't figured out any details.

 

[CaptainUnknown]

In hindsight, I should have assumed a lot of wonderful people here at Civ Fanatics do role playing on occasion. I like a lot of the suggestions here. For some nations I find that role playing is quite fun, but not necessarily helpful at achieving victory but that's where the idea creating self goals comes into play. Perhaps in my next games I will disable all but score victory. This will make it more of a sandbox, but might be fun to see how it all plays out (might need to limit the turn limit though). Another idea might be to start in certain ages. I never really check the options, can you end in a certain age as well? If not I'm sure that could be modded in.

 

[Kmart_Elvis]

I want to try a science victory with no campuses, but I haven't figured out any details.

I believe someone has actually done this with Sumeria via ziggurat spam.

Another way, which I've always wanted to try but haven't done so, would be to play Macedon and build their unique building in every city and just spam units.

 

[Abaxial]

I want to try a science victory with no campuses, but I haven't figured out any details.

Very easy if you use the Pantheon bug.

 

[AntSou]

In hindsight, I should have assumed a lot of wonderful people here at Civ Fanatics do role playing on occasion. I like a lot of the suggestions here. For some nations I find that role playing is quite fun, but not necessarily helpful at achieving victory but that's where the idea creating self goals comes into play. Perhaps in my next games I will disable all but score victory. This will make it more of a sandbox, but might be fun to see how it all plays out (might need to limit the turn limit though). Another idea might be to start in certain ages. I never really check the options, can you end in a certain age as well? If not I'm sure that could be modded in.

Usually if by the Renaissance I already know which victory I'm going for, I'm doing something wrong. It's only around the Industrial Era that I tend to narrow it down, and only around the modern era that I start gamey mode and consider which Civs might win the game if I don't stop messing around.

There's some exceptions, like Mongolia, but most Civs allow for a fluid play style.

As for Score Victory, it should be more fun than what it actually is. It's pretty bland. It's one of the things that makes me anticipate Humankind. They are creating what at the moment sounds like a proper Score Victory.

Score Victory is theoretically the best one for immersion and role-playing, but in practice not much thought seems to have been put into it and the scoring can feel a bit broken and unrewarding.

Edit: Pretty sure there's a mod that locks the end era. Not sure if it's up to date.

 

[WillowBrook]

Very easy if you use the Pantheon bug.

Boooo.

 

[Leucarum]

I believe someone has actually done this with Sumeria via ziggurat spam.

Another way, which I've always wanted to try but haven't done so, would be to play Macedon and build their unique building in every city and just spam units.

I think there was a thread on this. A science victory relying on trade routes to allies also sounded like a fun Dido/Musa game

 

[steveg700]

I don't understand your complaint. The tools for what you are requesting already exist and you can mod Civs and make them however you want.

The tools are cumbersome and exclusive to those who have the considerable time it takes to learn the code of existing civ's to massage them into the civ you desire. The idea appealed to me, but it's a lot of DIY just to get to a starting point.

What you're asking for is basically the option to make bland and standardised in-game Civs, since such a feature within the game itself would have to be pretty limited.

Utterly reductive. Many if not most 4X games have custom options. That goes back to at least MOO2. How limited it gets depends on the breadth of the palette, but even a limited palette that can players can use in minutes is better than the barrier to entry that coding represents.

 

[AntSou]

Utterly reductive. Many if not most 4X games have custom options. That goes back to at least MOO2. How limited it gets depends on the breadth of the palette, but even a limited palette that can players can use in minutes is better than the barrier to entry that coding represents.

You mean like the custom options in Stellaris? Custom options are easier in Sci-Fi titles I think, which is why they're a part of Beyond Earth as well, even if in limited form.

I think it would be interesting if they released a bunch of art assets unused in the base game and maybe improved/simplified modding tools. I would pay for that. It would still require more work than your typical plug and play kind of custom Faction, but I agree the current tools aren't particularly welcoming to first time modders.

 

[steveg700]

You mean like the custom options in Stellaris? Custom options are easier in Sci-Fi titles I think, which is why they're a part of Beyond Earth as well, even if in limited form.

I think it would be interesting if they released a bunch of art assets unused in the base game and maybe improved/simplified modding tools. I would pay for that. It would still require more work than your typical plug and play kind of custom Faction, but I agree the current tools aren't particularly welcoming to first time modders.

A lot of the difficulty stems from the slop-bucket, kitchen-sinked, scrambled-dog design that most civ's have. It doesn't lend itself to modular design where I as a modder can "snap out" the piece I want.

I have a lot of ideas for civ's and I would quite like to realize them, but when I look at video tutorials on YouTube, the tutor tends to just say the code isn't particularly firendly to the process and the best you can usually do is copy-paste from existing civ's and then swap out one yield value for another.

 

[AntSou]

I have a lot of ideas for civ's and I would quite like to realize them, but when I look at video tutorials on YouTube, the tutor tends to just say the code isn't particularly firendly

Official tutorials would be appreciated, but that goes in the list of things I want but have little hope will ever materialise.

I started learning only recently and I've found this guide considerably more useful than most youtube videos out there:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/lees-civilization-6-modding-guide.644687/

But like you said, it's a lot of work. I'm basically studying and it's time consuming.

Edit: That guide also shows you how to access the list of modifiers so that you don't need to be copy & pasting it from other Civs.

 

[Arent11]

The tools are cumbersome and exclusive to those who have the considerable time it takes to learn the code of existing civ's to massage them into the civ you desire. The idea appealed to me, but it's a lot of DIY just to get to a starting point.


Utterly reductive. Many if not most 4X games have custom options. That goes back to at least MOO2. How limited it gets depends on the breadth of the palette, but even a limited palette that can players can use in minutes is better than the barrier to entry that coding represents.

Actually, I always wanted to do some kind of ice civ, for example Norway with additional tundra/ice bonuses, ships & barbarian yields. Basically the ultimate explorer civ that can settle the poles.

It would be really fun to play. But as others said, I would need to invest serious amounts of time to create it & frankly, there are soo many other games that crave my attention

Whelp, I'll probably just go watch Frozen 2 and dream about my unrealized ice civ