Suggestions and Requests

[Gianmarco Silvestro]

I am not aware of any mods, no (but I am not a veteran player, more like a casual but loving this modmod of yours).

I would expect to have a slot in the domestic advisor (or another window accessible from the city screen) to set a number for each city or drag and drop the desired order. I am sure that starting from this trivial comment something good can come out!

 

[Leoreth]

I'm not sure if the Civ4 UI supports drag and drop... I cannot think of any interface that makes use of that paradigm.

Just setting a number is too complex to be worth it: what if the player sets duplicate or invalid numbers or there are gaps. Too many edge cases to handle and probably also not always transparent to the user.

 

[merijn_v1]

IIRC the order of cities in the domestic advisor and order of cycling through cities is the same as how the cities are ordered in the m_cities container in CvPlayer.cpp. If we can (safely) alter the order of cities in m_cities, we can create a custom cycle.

I think a simple a "move up" or "move down" button in the domestic advisor could work, swapping the order of a city in the list with the one above or below it. All it does under the hood is swapping the order of 2 cities in the m_cities container.

Is this a feasible approach?

 

[1SDANi]

What about a moderately high production cost one time project to move a city one tile adjacent? No clue how that'd be done UI wise tho, so prolly never gonna happen.

 

[Gianmarco Silvestro]

Same for high cost wonder movement.
Would ne interesting.

As per the cycling order, if that kind of approach would work it would be awesome.
In addition one could introduce buttons to change the ordering in a defined way, for instance:
- distance from capital
- ordering by size
- ordering by name

And even more complex (if easy to introduce):
- ordering by total culture
- ordering by continent or geographic region (Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Egypt...)

The top level would be to introduce the possibility to set 2 or 3 layers of filtering, for instance:
1) by region
2) by name

or

1) by region
1) by size

 

[Visard]

Ordering by by total culture would nice, since now you have to manual check the cultural order of you cities, since there is no list of cities' total culture.

 

[merijn_v1]

Ordering by by total culture would nice, since now you have to manual check the cultural order of you cities, since there is no list of cities' total culture.

I'm fairly sure that BUG gives you the option to customize the domestic advisor so that it shows the total culture of a city.

 

[Publicola]

It's such a minor quibble, but... Leoreth, any chance you could rename 'The Oracle' world wonder to 'Pythia' instead?

'Oracle' is the more generic term, referring to any diviner or prophetess -- the proper term for the person would be 'Oracle of Delphi' (like 'Mausoleum of Halicarnassus', since mausoleum is a common noun). The specific oracle -- both the high priestess and the entire 'Prophecy Inc.' operation in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi -- was known by the name 'Pythia'. That is also the title for the related Wikipedia article. One of the editors did a Google Books search showing that 'Pythia' was the most common name with over 400,000 results (vs. 'Delphic Oracle' at less than 200k and 'Oracle at Delphi' or 'Oracle of Delphi' at roughly 50k apiece)

 

[Leoreth]

I think it's deliberately a generic oracle.

 

[Publicola]

I just checked, and the Civilopedia entry for all Oracle wonders (Civ 1-5) is the same:

In ancient Greek religion, an oracle was a priest or priestess through whom the gods spoke in response to questions. The oracle interpreted dreams, the actions of entranced persons, and physical signs found in the entrails of sacrificed animals. The most famous oracle resided in the shrine of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Greeks, Romans, and others consulted this oracle for centuries about public policy and private matters. A priestess called the Pythia would, for a fee, make public predictions for the future. These ecstatic pronouncements became infamous for their ambiguity.

In Civ 6, the Oracle wonder has new civilopedia text:

Of all the places in ancient Greece where priestesses uttered prognostications, by far the most famous (and cryptic) was the Oracle at Delphi, a shrine to Apollo located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. There a priestess known as the “Pythia” would – for suitable compensation – interpret dreams, commune with the gods while in a trance, and read the signs in the entrails of sacrificed animals (chickens for the cheap, or goats for those willing to pay more). The Oracle began operation as early as 1400 BC, and enjoyed a thriving business until Christianity arrived with the Romans. The greatest structure was the stately temple to Apollo (of course), and it stayed standing until pulled down on orders from Theodosius I in 390 AD. The site remained an active “pagan” center throughout the 4th Century, however, and the Pythian Games (a predecessor to the Olympics today) continued to at least 424 AD.

So at least the Civ 6 wonder is very clearly meant to represent the Pythia, while the wonder for Civ 1-5 is more ambiguous, though Pythia is the only oracle actually mentioned by name. Considering that, as far as I can tell, every other world wonder in every Civ game refers to a specific monument or event, I'd argue that the default should be to assume that the Oracle is no exception.

 

[Visard]

Oracle could also be a project which usually are more generic.

 

[Enyavar]

lots of Oracles existed in the ancient world: I think it's good to have it remain ambiguous.

The Egyptians had the oracle in the oasis of Sima (got famous for oracling for Alexander); the Greeks had their Delphi Oracle. The Chinese Shang dynasty threw Oracle bones. King Saul used an oracle as well according to the Bible, and the practice is well-documented all over Mesopotamia and the Levante of that time. The Romans used Augurs and some other methods, iirc they had three distinct ways of oracling the future, one of them involved substances. We have little proof of the Celtic Druids doing the same, but it's a somewhat safe guess. The Pre-islamic Arab tribes still had priestesses as future-tellers...

The Oracle is also closely tied to winning strategies for several Civs in DoC: Babylonians and Greek require it, Egyptians still benefit greatly. It was also a viable option for China when they still started in 3000BC.

 

[Steb]

By that token, the Oracle should be a building or a national wonder.

Pretty much every other world wonder represents a specific building, so I agree: it feels off that the oracle is generic, and I support renaming it "Oracle of Apollo", "Oracle of the Pythia" or something like that.

 

[Enyavar]

The issue is still to have The Oracle, i.e. the most famous one. In a parallel world where Babylon wins an UHV, it would probably not be the Greek one. But there can only be one.

I think those who want the oracle get a more specific name, got the problem backwards: "The Pyramids" are a unique feature, as is "The Sphinx" or "The Liberty Statue". These monuments are/were setting a standard, and while there are copies standing in Las Vegas or elsewhere, the brand doesn't need to mention "of Gizeh" or "of the Pythia".

That's not the case with all wonders, however: "The Big Bridge" or "The Beautiful Church" are not really distinctive, hence the more specific names: "Sixtine" Chapel, "Brooklyn" Bridge and "Itsukushima" Shrine. In fact, I would argue that all names that can be made more generic, should be given that advantage. It amuses me endlessly to see the "Brooklyn" Bridge in Guangdong, "Tsukiji" Fish Market in Anuradhapura, "Neuschwanstein" Castle in Recife or "Brandenburg" Gate in Mekka.

"The Bourse", "The Mausoleon", "The Empire State Building", "The Crystal Palace", "The United Nations", "The Motherland Calls": Wonderfully neutral/generic desriptions, no need to specify further. Likewise, "The Oracle".

 

[Enyavar]

Oh, I just had another idea I'd like to suggest: Workers may cheaply be upgraded to the lowest-HP foot unit of the previous era. The effect would be called "Mobilization", or "To Arms!" or the like.
The conversion would be irreversible, and the converted workers would get a "Mercenary" promotion, meaning that they deduct money from the treasury and cannot be further upgraded.

Ancient era: No upgrade possible.
Classical era: Worker may be upgraded to Militia.
Medieval era: Worker may be upgraded to Skirmisher.
Renaissance era: Worker may be upgraded to Longbowmen.
Industrial era: Worker may be upgraded to Arquebusier
Global era: Worker may be upgraded to Musketeer, Laborer into Rifleman
Info era: Laborer may be upgraded to Infantry.

This could be useful in sieges (mostly for the AI though), or to get cannonfodder units in times of worker surplus (mostly for the player).

 

[DanLT3]

Well if a worker can be upgraded once to any military unit, it can be upgraded again (as all military units) to the latest one (with some gold). Would this not ruin your idea of cannon fodder?

 

[1SDANi]

Well if a worker can be upgraded once to any military unit, it can be upgraded again (as all military units) to the latest one (with some gold). Would this not ruin your idea of cannon fodder?

Mercenaries can't be upgraded

 

[Xfactor]

Has there been a suggestion for a unit like the Oghuz/barbarian type which has a hidden nationality but available to all the civs as a raiding type of unit? Ofcourse with a certain build limitation and very vanilla stats? Something like 1-2 unit build limit (depending on era and tech to unlock more). I think it might have some uses for some civs , and yeah spies definetely can do the pillage/sabotage job on land the same way , but we don't really have a land unit like the Privateer to sweep units.

 

[need my speed]

Let the wonder effects of vassals apply to your own civilisation, if applicable. E.g. if a vassal builds a wonder that grants +X tile yield to one city, that is hard to translate to your own civilisation. But if a vassal builds a wonder that grans +X commerce yield to state religion buildings, that can apply to you as well.

 

[1SDANi]

When not mousing over a civic, civics that currently give stability bonuses/penalties for non-civic synergy reasons (religion choice, current era, etc) should be highlighted in green/red. I've been trying to think of a way to graphically represent these in the Civic Screen for months, I can't believe I didn't think of something so straightforward.