Before I begin, I would like to remind everybody that I have not been on here for quite a while and have yet to play the new version (my last was version 22). So if some of my ideas have already been implemented or have been discussed, please point it out.
1. Realistic trade routes.
I've recently been playing a Rome Total War mod called Europa Barbarorum. It's much more realistic than the vanilla version, and some of my ideas are going to reflect features from it. The first one is RTW-like trade routes.
Like this:
It could be implemented over tiles, for instance, if you had a trade port in a city, you could have trade routes reaching across tiles (scaling to map size and type) to cities within a certain range. If there aren't enough ports nearby or if they aren't upgraded to allow enough trade routes, your loss.
One possible problem might occur if a small body of water gets crowded up and multiple trade routes go through one tile, so we should be able to see detailed information on a particular tile if we click on it or something (information like how many trade routes are passing through it, and details on the trade routes as well). This opens up whole new tactical possibilities such as blockades in open water (which were not possible in RTW due to not having a tile system), trade routes through canals, and making the game a lot more realistic. Maybe it could be combined with that rivers-on-tiles feature I've heard about recently.
2. Cultural government system.
Another feature from Europa Barbarorum. In EB you have to build a "government" in each city you conquer. There are for types of government (these are only the Roman names):
Italian Regional Government: Only used in the homeland. Allows recruitment of all Roman troops and some elite ones.
Romanized Province: Used in traditional Roman expansion regions. Allows recruitment of most Roman troops.
Lightly Romanized Province: Used anywhere. Allows recruitment of limited Roman troops and some (less loyal) native troops.
Roman Allied State (puppet): Used anywhere. Allows recruitment of few, if any Roman troops but a decent selection of native troops.
I was thinking we could implement something like that in C2C. However, there is a critical difference between the two games- RTW does not have a culture system. In Civilization, we wouldn't be limited to a specified region; the government system would rely upon culture levels.
A newly conquered city would have a low Roman (example) culture level, and at a cost (exterminating some of the populace), it could be increased dramatically. In that way, your starting area could be your homeland, the areas closer to you could be your expansion region, the areas a bit farther away would be less Romanized, and at the edges of your empire there might be puppet states. Puppeting wouldn't be mandatory, because maybe killing 50%? percent of the population would give you enough culture to build the "lightly Romanized" building immediately. I think this makes more sense than having culture be "resource" based.
3. Resource amounts should matter!
I've always hated the resource system in Civ IV. I don't understand how one oil resource is enough and anything over that is just surplus to be traded off. Civ V's solution was stupid as well. I realize this may have been discussed before, but what about providing a boost to production for each resource acquired?
If you want to make swordsmen, each iron resource you possess gives you a ten percent boost to production, with the maximum being +100%, which still leaves room for surpluses. For units or buildings that require two resources, the bonus could be 5% (which still allows for a maximum of +100%). These bonuses could also scale according to map size. Just a thought.
4. Overhaul espionage.
I see absolutely no point to the current system. What we need are spies that go into cities and rack up points for that city alone. In that way, we could have a balanced, interactive, and much more realistic system while getting rid of a source of yet another source of excess micromanagement. Think about it.
5. Make the AI better.
How do you think chess programs know all of those tricks? Unless it's VERY advanced, the vanilla algorithm can't think like that. The programmers will intentionally program specific moves, openings, and strategies into them. We should do the same here, for instance programming Genghis to develop normally but send spies around, and when he finds a possible target, quit all development and rush it (afterwards returning to normal). Maybe Mansa is focused on getting gold, and might build a small empire of rich, vertical cities focused near valuable resources. Izzy will not just be aggressive to heathens and have a higher rate of missionaries, she will systematically focus on converting one or two Civs at a time before moving on (or using the newfound good relations to declare a joint war against the heathens).
EDIT: Seems too unrealistic given the complexity of the game and might make the AI predictable. I concede this.
6. Let us embark units for the love of God!
This was one of the only good ideas Civ V had. I have no clue how hard this might be to implement or if you are willing, it's just always irked me that I've never seen it done in any Civ IV mod. I guess it would open up the possibility of colonial empires.
What do you think of all these? I'll go back through it and fix things that you point out are unnecessary, impossible, or already done.
1. Realistic trade routes.
I've recently been playing a Rome Total War mod called Europa Barbarorum. It's much more realistic than the vanilla version, and some of my ideas are going to reflect features from it. The first one is RTW-like trade routes.
Like this:
It could be implemented over tiles, for instance, if you had a trade port in a city, you could have trade routes reaching across tiles (scaling to map size and type) to cities within a certain range. If there aren't enough ports nearby or if they aren't upgraded to allow enough trade routes, your loss.
One possible problem might occur if a small body of water gets crowded up and multiple trade routes go through one tile, so we should be able to see detailed information on a particular tile if we click on it or something (information like how many trade routes are passing through it, and details on the trade routes as well). This opens up whole new tactical possibilities such as blockades in open water (which were not possible in RTW due to not having a tile system), trade routes through canals, and making the game a lot more realistic. Maybe it could be combined with that rivers-on-tiles feature I've heard about recently.
2. Cultural government system.
Another feature from Europa Barbarorum. In EB you have to build a "government" in each city you conquer. There are for types of government (these are only the Roman names):
Italian Regional Government: Only used in the homeland. Allows recruitment of all Roman troops and some elite ones.
Romanized Province: Used in traditional Roman expansion regions. Allows recruitment of most Roman troops.
Lightly Romanized Province: Used anywhere. Allows recruitment of limited Roman troops and some (less loyal) native troops.
Roman Allied State (puppet): Used anywhere. Allows recruitment of few, if any Roman troops but a decent selection of native troops.
I was thinking we could implement something like that in C2C. However, there is a critical difference between the two games- RTW does not have a culture system. In Civilization, we wouldn't be limited to a specified region; the government system would rely upon culture levels.
A newly conquered city would have a low Roman (example) culture level, and at a cost (exterminating some of the populace), it could be increased dramatically. In that way, your starting area could be your homeland, the areas closer to you could be your expansion region, the areas a bit farther away would be less Romanized, and at the edges of your empire there might be puppet states. Puppeting wouldn't be mandatory, because maybe killing 50%? percent of the population would give you enough culture to build the "lightly Romanized" building immediately. I think this makes more sense than having culture be "resource" based.
3. Resource amounts should matter!
I've always hated the resource system in Civ IV. I don't understand how one oil resource is enough and anything over that is just surplus to be traded off. Civ V's solution was stupid as well. I realize this may have been discussed before, but what about providing a boost to production for each resource acquired?
If you want to make swordsmen, each iron resource you possess gives you a ten percent boost to production, with the maximum being +100%, which still leaves room for surpluses. For units or buildings that require two resources, the bonus could be 5% (which still allows for a maximum of +100%). These bonuses could also scale according to map size. Just a thought.
4. Overhaul espionage.
I see absolutely no point to the current system. What we need are spies that go into cities and rack up points for that city alone. In that way, we could have a balanced, interactive, and much more realistic system while getting rid of a source of yet another source of excess micromanagement. Think about it.
5. Make the AI better.
How do you think chess programs know all of those tricks? Unless it's VERY advanced, the vanilla algorithm can't think like that. The programmers will intentionally program specific moves, openings, and strategies into them. We should do the same here, for instance programming Genghis to develop normally but send spies around, and when he finds a possible target, quit all development and rush it (afterwards returning to normal). Maybe Mansa is focused on getting gold, and might build a small empire of rich, vertical cities focused near valuable resources. Izzy will not just be aggressive to heathens and have a higher rate of missionaries, she will systematically focus on converting one or two Civs at a time before moving on (or using the newfound good relations to declare a joint war against the heathens).
EDIT: Seems too unrealistic given the complexity of the game and might make the AI predictable. I concede this.
6. Let us embark units for the love of God!
This was one of the only good ideas Civ V had. I have no clue how hard this might be to implement or if you are willing, it's just always irked me that I've never seen it done in any Civ IV mod. I guess it would open up the possibility of colonial empires.
What do you think of all these? I'll go back through it and fix things that you point out are unnecessary, impossible, or already done.
