Hi there everybody, I am now going to present a list of various ideas that I have written down during boring uni lectures and long train rides. As always keep in mind that I am basing all this off my knowledge of 1.12 and whatever I learn second hand via hearsay about the current development, so some things might already be implemented or obsolete.
Trade Routes should provide food and/or production in addition to commerce the lategame. Just look at modern megacities like New York, London or Shanghai, they aren't so big because they have so much food within a certain radius, but because they are centers of trade and comerce and can import food from all over the world. This is very easily implemented via XML for civics, as there is a tag that gives +X% to whatever yield you want from trade routes, e.g. you could double commerce or you could make all trade routes provide food and/or production which itself is boosted by things like the Lighthouse. This would certainly be the easiest way for Leoreth, as he could just give that effect to all Economy civics but Guilds and the default one, however it would make the civics screen look pretty inelegant when almost every civic in a category has the same "+X% Food from Trade Routes +% Production from Trade Routes" description, so another way to implement food and/or production from trade routes might be better for gameplay. Ideally it should be unlocked by techs, Production by Railroad and Food by Refrigeration I think. Certain civics could still be used to boost this effect further, giving Leoreth more tools to finally get wretched Mercantilism to work without giving up the imo very fitting ban of foreign trade routes.
Overall I want less clutter on the map by resources, especially in areas that are heavily urbanized in real life like England, the American East Coast and Japan, as they should be filled witth cottages.
The AI should get a new diolomatic modifier just for getting units gifted, as the "fair and forthright trade" modifier is capped at +4. Something like "You supplied us with weapons". This simulates arms trading, and will certainly make life easier for a Russia headed for the UHV.
Now to make myself very unpopular, let me bring forth the notion that Civ5 isn't entirely bad. Something we should definitely steal is the concept of late game international projects triggered by international voting. Basically in Civ5 the World Council / United Nations has three resolutions that when adopted unlock the ability to invest hammers into a specific international project for everyone, like the World Fair or the International Space Station. Any civ can invest as much or as little as they want in however many cities they want, and once finished there's three tiers of prices, two that are given to any civs that reached certain milestones (like 200 Hammers or 500 Hammers) and and one that is received by the civ which invested the most production. This ought to get rid of the massive overproduction in the lategame everyone keeps whining about.
Also, City States.
Workers ought to be consumed upon constructing cottages, you have something to throw production at and I don't have to deal with idle workers againk it's win-win.
Efticiency of Wealth, Research and Culture yadda yadda, and don't forget the failgold!
Make National Wonders provide an extra yield or commerce type per specific specialist, e.g. Ironworks for Engineers and settled Great Engineers, so specialists remain competitive in the lategame even without running specific civics. Could be food, could be production, could be commerce, whatever. This also has the upshot of making every National Wonder more desirable.
Slightly buff priests to make up for lack of dedicated NW for them, I always found it odd they don't provide culture to be honest
Industrial Park provides extra production and/or commerce with Oil, Coal, Power, or maybe +X% Production from trade routes, just give the poor fella something to make it worth building!
Here is what I would like all improvements to look like:
Farms remain as they are
Cottage:
Consumes Worker upon construction
Town:
Carries Irrigation
Acts like a city for combat purposes
+25% Defense
+4C
+1C with Printing Press
+1P with Railroad (route)
+1C with Mass Media
+1C with Fiber Optics
+1C with Future Tech (Come on, it'll be hilarious!)
Fort:
Acts like a city for combat purposes
Carries Irrigation
Ensures control of tile for builder independent of cultural pressure (can also be used for the likes of Russia to connect arctic resources without having to settle there)
+100% Defense
+1C
+1P with Military Science or maybe Railroad
Workshop:
+1P
-1F, +1P with Guilds
+1P with Chemistry
+1C with Steam Power
+1C with Railroad (route)
+1P with Robotics
Watermill:
Leaves Forest in place
+1P
+1P with Engineering
+1C with Guilds
+1C with Replaceable Parts
Lumbermill:
Unlocked at Mathematics
+1P
+1P, +1C when next to river (to simulate pre-Industrial logging only really being cost effective along rivers on a large scale)
+1P with Replaceable Parts
+1C with Railroad (route)
Forest Preserve:
Carries Irrigation
+1 Happiness in nearby cities
+%chance of forest spread
+1C
+2C when next to river
+1C with Ecology
Mine:
+1P
+1P with Iron Working
+1P with Steam Power
+1C with Railroad
+1P with Robotics
Windmill:
+1F
+1C with Engineering
+1P with Replaceable Parts
+1C with Electricity
+1C with Plastics
+1P with Robotics
Sprinkle in civic bonuses as needed
Btw has that one bug ever been fixed where Lumbermills and Preserves don't provide commerce when on riverbends?
Something else we can steal from Civ5: Barbarian Camps! It's just frustrating when barbarians randomly (well historically, but unless you are an expert for the history of a given civ or replay the same civ over and over it might as well be random) pop up in the middle your empire and wreck your stuff. Thus I suggest we abolish barbarians popping up by themselves at all. Instead, whenever previously a group of barbarians was scripted to spawn somewhere, a Barbarian Fort (which if in your borders flips the tile to Barbarian control until you conquer it) appears instead a few turns before, along with a garrison that will never ever leave their camp. Then, at the point where the barbarians were supposed to pop up previously, they do, in the fort, and from there proceed as they would have previously, that is ransacking and pillaging everything in sight. This has the benefit of giving the player a forewarning, and gives them time to move units into place. If they already have units in the vicinity they can just conquer the fort right away, preventing the previously scripted barbarians (which should ideally be stronger than whatever garrisons the fort) from spawning in the first place. This system would help inexperienced players keep their lands safe from barbarians unless they really only have minimal units and still reward veterans that already know every little scripted detail in and out.
Aaaaaaaaaand that's everything for now. Good night everybody.
