Suggestions and Requests

I didn't really have anything in particular in mind. Should start a thread for it. Quests could be included too. They're pretty bland and almost all of them come down to "build X structures" which is boring and only feasible for larger civs. I'm sure the community could brainstorm a whole lot of interesting ones. I imagine it wouldn't be a high priority, but that's okay since events and quests almost feel like an afterthought anyways.
 
It would be fun to have flavor events too, based on civilization, region, religion, civics, techs, etc. Something similar to the Europa Universalis events. However, it does take up a lot of effort, and if ever considered, would have to be implemented way further into the future.
 
It would be fun to have flavor events too, based on civilization, region, religion, civics, techs, etc. Something similar to the Europa Universalis events. However, it does take up a lot of effort, and if ever considered, would have to be implemented way further into the future.
These do exist actually, though not for all civilizations (even excluding DoC-specific civs). France has the "Anti-monarchists are protesting" event for instance.
 
It would be fun to have flavor events too, based on civilization, region, religion, civics, techs, etc. Something similar to the Europa Universalis events. However, it does take up a lot of effort, and if ever considered, would have to be implemented way further into the future.
First one to be added should definitely be about comet sightings...
 
Given our recent discussion about ship capture mechanics, I’ve looked for some more information about it in non-Western naval history so we can think about adding the mechanic or not to the mod. Thus, first I point to some historical evidence to support the idea and then I present my suggestion for it.

Spoiler :

As I’ve imagined, boarding was also the main naval tactic for most seafaring peoples precisely because it was hard to sink enemies before modern naval guns. Just like their ships in Mediterranean Sea, the Arabic/Islamic naval forces in the Indian Ocean during the Middle Ages often employed devices to prevent boarding parties, which is a strong indicative how common this naval tactic was also in that region.

Going further East, information is more limited in Indian Subcontinent. While Indian maritime history dates to the Harrapan civilization, evidence of true naval warfare (in sense of ship-to-ship combat) is lacking. The Kalinga Kingdom was the dominant sea power during Ancient and Classical eras (even launching military expeditions to modern Indonesia), but the region’s great naval superpower was the Chola Dynasty during the Middle Ages. Again, there is some controversy about the precise forms of naval warfare, and the Cholas doesn’t seem to have developed specialized warships (even about their regular ships information is scant), but it seems that they also relied on boarding tactics against their enemies, which included the mentioned Arabic fleets.

In Southeast Asia we had many thalassocracies such as the Srivijaya, Majapahit empires, and the successor Malay and Javanese Sultanates, naval warfare was crucial for maintaining their domains. There is a long list of ships and warships that included galleys and larger seagoing vessels, but again information about ship-to-ship combat is less common, specially before the adoption of gunpower weapons. Either way, boarding seems to have been a common tactic, even after naval cannons were deployed, particularly among the local powers. When European powers (notably the Portuguese and the Dutch) arrived, they often captured enemy ships in hoping to gain their precious cargos; the natives responded regularly mounted surprise boarding attacks with small ships, however it was unusual that they were able to capture European vessels, often preferring to kill the crew and burn the ship. Further East, among Polynesian peoples, naval battles seem to have been uncommon because Wakas and outrigger boats were too fast, mobile, and small for being suitable for boarding tactics or other ship-to-ship combat.

In East Asia, however, we have much more information about their navies and naval tactics. We have accounts about naval battles since the Warring States period, but it was the Han Dynasty that established the first independent navy in China, whose warships were divided into ramming-specialized ships (called spear ships or earlier as stomach striker) and regular ones, but the main naval tactic was still boarding with specialized corps (marines) that captured enemy vessels, though Chinese naval warfare also featured commonly the use of fire ships that had a remarkable success (such as in the famous Battle of Red Cliffs). During much of Middle Ages, one of the most important Chinese warships were the Tower Ships (Louchuan), which were designed to boarding and siege actions, and the Song Dynasty established a large standing fleet that could field more than 50.000 marines for boarding and amphibious missions. During the Ming, the Chinese naval policy swayed between support and restriction of naval expansion; the famous 14th-15th century Treasure Ship was armed with several gunpower and incendiary weapons, but soon after the fleet and ship sizes shrank. Nonetheless, boarding was still regarded as a crucial naval tactic, and Chinese victories against the Portuguese in the Battle of Tunmen and the Dutch in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay show that.

Similarly, boarding was also an important for the Japanese and Korean naval forces. The Japanese used primarily this naval tactic, both before the adoption of gunpower weapons (as seen in the Battle of Dan-no-ura) as well after. The famous Korean turtle ship (Kobukson) was designed with an upper deck covered with metal spikes precisely to deter Japanese boarding parties; the decisive Battle of Noryang (that put an end in the Japanese invasion of Korea) ended in a desperate melee combat and the capture of many Japanese ships by Korean and Ming forces.


So, how can we build the capture mechanic in the mod? The first point is that this mechanic is available for navies from Ancient, Medieval eras, and Age of Sail. The next generations of warships, those of Age of Steam (Steamship/Ironclad/Torpedo Boats) on cannot capture other vessels or be captured: they have weapons that effectively can sink or destroy any other ship, making boarding/capturing essentialy impracticable as naval tactic - there are few exceptions (particularly involving submarines), but I feel we can dismiss it given how rare were these occasions.

So that leaves in how to distribute the percentages of capture chances. I’d argue that Naval Transport Units (Galley, Cog, and Galleon) should have slightly higher chance of capturing defeated enemies, since those aren’t battleships: theoretically, they have less firepower to sink (or damage) an enemy, so it would make more sense that on their victory they were able to subdue the enemy’s crew and capture the enemy vessel. Naval Combat Units (War Galley, Heavy Galley, Galleass, Caravel, Frigate, and Ship-of-the-Line), on the other hand, have all more firepower (or capacity to damage enemies), so they have a slightly lesser chance of capture. The exception, as suggested by Cosmos1985 and Publicola, would be the Privateer (and its UUs versions) that have a significant larger chance, giving their specific character.

So, to suggest some numbers, I’d say that Naval Transport Units would have something like 20-25% chance of capturing a defeated enemy ship, while the Naval Combat Units would have 10-15%. Privateers, on the other hand, would have something like 30-35%.

Some naval UUs could have adjusted rules for the mechanic. So, let’s say, the Dromon certainly would have less chances of capturing enemies (given the use of Greek Fire), while the Kobukson would be almost immune to capture (if this is possible to implement).

On some side notes, maybe the capture could be applied to those cases of conquering a city with sleep/stationed/garrisoned vessels; we can also include Work Boats as preys for capturing; the English and Korean UHVs that require sinking enemy ships could also become significantly harder if we have this mechanic, so that's another issue to think about.
 
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Given the above mention in the Civilisation Attributes open discussion thread, I’ve got thinking about something to represent the Jesuits and their colonization role, particularly in the Americas but also in Asia and Africa. As many of you know, they not only gathered, converted and organized the indigenous peoples under one of the Catholic colonial powers (Spain, Portugal and France), but also many of their missions and reductions became or greatly contributed to the growth of important cities such as São Paulo (Brazil), Córdoba (Argentina), Asunción (Paraguay), Quito (Ecuador), Los Angeles, San Francisco (USA), Montréal (Canada) and others. Besides, they established many educational institutions that became important universities and schools. Giving their history, I think it would be great to have them as a special mechanic for Catholic colonial powers, even though we know that the Catholics already have several religion-specific mechanics in the game.

One possibility is to create a building available (with Companies or a contemporary tech) only in colonies for Catholic civilizations called Jesuitic Mission or something. After building it, it would automatically spread Catholicism and give a culture, production and possibly science bonuses (let's say, + 2:hammers:, +2:culture: and + 1:science: or something) representing the establishment of the colonial rule and the organization of local people around it. This powerful building, however, would expire relatively early (around late 18th and early 19th century, maybe with Representation or Nationalism techs) and obviously would require Catholicism as state religion and possibly some specific Civic. We could use some art assets available in some Civ Colonization mods, who also have specific mechanics for Jesuitic missions.

Another possibility that maybe can be combined with the above is to have the Jesuits as a colonial corporation similarly (and possibly competing) with the regular Trading Company. I’m not sure about which resources it would consume (maybe the same), but it would also spread Catholicism and give similar bonuses as the proposed building.
It would be really cool if different religious orders could be represented that gave different bonuses. Especially during the colonization era there were major disputes and even violence between the Jesuits and Dominicans over how to best evangelize
 
My suggestion for new civs for the new map (sorry if this isn't the right thread for this, I'm new here)

Africa
Boers - I wrote some suggestions for them in the map suggestion thread, I can copy them here if you would like
Swahili - I have no suggestions for this civ's gameplay or unique elements, but I think it would be good to have, both to fill up coastal East Africa, and because it could have interesting interactions with Arab, Persian, Ethiopian, Indian, and Portuguese civs
Islamic Egypt - I know it shows up as a respawn of ancient Egypt, but it was a very different culture and civilization, and it would be nice if it was playable and had its own UHVs

Asia
Manchu - they could take over China in the 17th century, and have new UHVs that are different from China, they could provide interesting gameplay as well as making 1700 AD China a civ that can win UHVs (although in this case, China wouldn't be present as a civ in 1700 AD, only Manchus would, China could spawn again in the early 20th century if the Manchus are unstable)

Europe
Sweden - Scandinavia shouldn't really be represented by just one civilization - the Vikings can become Denmark-Norway once Sweden spawns
Kyivan/Kievan Rus - now that Eastern Europe has more space, they can fit in, and can be an interesting rival to Poland and Russia, they can respawn as Ukraine if Russia collapses to core in the modern era
Celts - it would be nice to have a playable Celtic civilization, it can respawn as the Kingdom of Scotland in the Middle Ages and as the Republic of Ireland in the Modern Era, although a color change would likely be necessary (Scotland is blue, Ireland is green, or you could split the difference and make them some greenish-blue intermediate color)

Australia - the only major post-colonial civ that is missing other than the Boers, it would be nice for Australia to be an actual civ instead of just staying a British colony for the entire game

Those are the only civs missing that I think are really essential

Some others, like Nubia and Israel, might be nice to have, but are probably too small to even include on the bigger map.

It might be nice to split Islam into Shia and Sunni, too, but I don't think it's that important, since the only Shia civs in the game would be Iran and Islamic Egypt.
 
It also might be nice of music could be tied to the specific tech column in addition to just the era...hearing baroque music during the early renaissance era is a little odd, but it's not a big deal if it's impossible

Speaking of music, it would be nice to have some music in the modern eras that isn't classical. Civ III has a track called StarsFull on its soundtrack that is sort of a smooth jazz type thing, instrumental, like all Civ III music, but it might be nice to include that. You could include ragtime and marching band music for the industrial era, and possibly some instrumental folk songs played on the guitar...I think it's a better representation of modern music than just contemporary classical, though I understand if you want to just use classical music for more consistency.

A potential timeline could look like
Early 1800s - guitar-based folk/traditional songs
Late 1800s/early 1900s - ragtime and marching band music
Mid-late 1900s (and into the 2000s, even though most UHVs are over by then) - StarsFull from Civ 3 and the rest of the Civ 3 modern soundtrack (which includes SmashFULL, a guitar-based rock type of song and two others called ModernFull and Techno MixFull)

I can make a more detailed suggestion for music and eras if you're interested
 
Suggestion: a message in the notification center: "Connection with [Civilization] reestablished.", when you had lost contact with a civilization and restored it. Or something of the sort. Similar to: "[Civilization] has [X] amount of gold available for trade." message.
 
The current Distillery is underwhelming; libraries, for example, can be expected to add about 6 to 10 commerce in a decent city through their multiplier, while Distilleries only add 6 in the very best situations, while coming at double the cost. Therefore, I propose a reworked version:

Distillery ( :hammers: 3 granaries)
+1 :yuck:
+2 :commerce: on Rice, Wheat
+3 :commerce: on Sugar, Wine
Provides 1 Alcohol ( + 1 :), supplies two cities)
Allows 1 Merchant slot
Requires Chemistry
Requires either Rice, Wheat, Sugar or Wine in city radius

If you like this idea, Leoreth, I can come up with some more 'industrial buildings' providing resources which can provide either :) or :health: in order to mitigate the current unhappiness and especially unhealtiness excess in the late game caused by corporations.
Maybe another category of resources called commodities/products that are produced by buildings, similar to the hit happiness resources made by their respective wonders. Only these would consume whatever raw material they need to create their higher-value products. Kind of like in Civ Colonization.
 
While reading about a certain infamous Mesopotamian copper vendor, I learned that Dilmun (modern Bahrain?) was a major source of copper during ancient times. While I don't know how long the copper mining resumed there, placing a copper resource in the general region of eastern coastal Arabia would be a decent encouragement for the player to settle a city there.
 
I noticed that Protestant and Catholic missionaries share the same model - would it be possible to replace the Protestant one with the Luonnotar model from FfH2? It's pretty blatantly inspired by Luther:

luonnotar.png
 
Oh that's cool, sure.
 
Great! I believe these are the files once you unpack the FPK:
 

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I thought a little more about ideologies and how they might be represented in the game.

1) Ideologies get a similar role to religions in earlier eras: diplomacy, (un)happiness, possibly wonders, etc. Accordingly, they have some mechanical similarities: they spread to cities to represent a receptive population, they have missionary-type units ("militants"/"propagandists"), persecutor-type units, they can be spread by Great Statesmen the same way Great Prophets do. However, some differences exist: no equivalent for temples, cathedrals, holy cities. Something like a monastery might exist (with a bonus to espionage instead of science?), or militants might be trained in some other way.
- If we want to complicate things further, the spread could also be attracted by specific buildings like factories, news corps, etc. though that might be unnecessarily granular.
- Some civics like Democracy or State Party might further influence how militants and ideological spreading happen.

2) You can't adopt a particular state ideology since that would be redundant with civics. Instead, you have a score for each ideology over how much your civics match it. So Central Planning might give you a big communist score, etc. It's possible to have a very high score in a single ideology, or moderate ones in two or three.
- Diplomatically, you receive a bonus with another civ for each ideological score that is close, and a malus for those that have a greater difference ("+2 You have liberal civics."). Instead of its leader's favorite civic, an AI might ask you to adopt new civics that get your score closer to their.
- The presence of an ideology in a city also reacts to your particular civics, through (un)happiness modifiers, possibly some other effects on buildings, etc.
- Ideally, it should be just as viable to fully commit to an ideology or be moderate between two of them.

3) As to which ideology should be included, I think we should avoid unnecessary granularity and stick to the big three (liberalism, communism/socialism, and either fascism or a broader "reaction" camp), with older more traditional ideologies like conservative monarchism simply being represented by the absence of those three, with the appropriate diplomacy modifiers.
- Reaction or fascism? I'm inclined toward the former name because it's a much broader umbrella term across modern history, but it's a bit harder to pinpoint what tech should start it. It could be reaction as an ideology, but still keep fascist dynamic names and particular benefits if you adopt Totalitarianism.
- Each ideology could have some minor aspects unique to them. As an example, I'm thinking in particular that reaction could have lesser positive diplomatic modifiers with civs that do not share the same religion/secularism civic, and positive ones with civs that have the same religion and are reactionary or merely conservative.

EDIT: Thinking back on it, there may be a fourth ideology that did have enough geopolitical impact to be worth including: third worldism/decolonization/anti-imperialism/whatever name isn't too unwieldy. That one might be a bit less dependant on civics (though obviously some like Colonialism, Tributaries, etc. would still be impactful) and instead get entirely different modifiers:
- Having vassals vs being a vassal,
- Having territory outside of your historical one and especially inside another civ's core, vs the opposite, having another civ in your core,
- Diplomatic tributes of resources, etc.
- Maybe something to do with lagging in techs?

That one might produce a more organic shrinking of the huge colonial empires by putting pressures on them through unhappy population and diplomatic penalties against the smaller civs.

Decided to revisit the proposal of ideologies. What do you think of these goals?

GENERIC​
Hegemony​
Spread [your ideology] to X% of the world and make sure [your ideology’s] civilizations represent Y% of the scoreboard.​
SOCIALISM​
Industrialization​
Following the adoption of socialism, have the most production and multiply it by X before Y turns.​
Proletarian Vanguard​
Have your specialists generate a combined output from Production, Espionage and Research of X per turn.​
LIBERALISM​
Global Market​
Make sure corporation commerce represent X% of the world’s output.​
End of History​
Be the first to discover X Global Era technologies and make sure all U.N. resolutions are passed.​
REACTION​
Cult of Heroism​
Create X Great Generals while remaining at war and reactionary.​
Strength through Unity​
Generate X espionage per turn while having foreign culture and non state religions and ideologies represent less than Y% of your population.​
DECOLONIZATION​
Post-Imperialism​
Make sure decolonial civilizations and Independents represent X% of land area.​
Green Revolution​
Following the adoption of decolonization, have the biggest average city population and multiply it by X before Y turns.​

I've also started fiddling with modifiers from civics and other aspects but it's pretty barebones and subject to changes, see attached files.
 

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I've seen people complain that shrines rarely get built by the AI. Would it make sense to have them autobuilt in AI-controlled holy cities at a certain date or trigger?
 
Suggested renames for cities (sorry, I might have missed a few, the City Name python file is really hard to read and browse through, maybe when you switch to the new map, there is a way to make it so there is only 1 city name map, and the renames are just done as dictionaries)
Russian Warszawa - Varshava
Russian Kraków - Krakov
English Warszawa - Warsaw
English Kraków - Cracow
English Kopenhagen - Copenhagen
English Antwerpen - Antwerp
English Beijing - Peking
English Hangzhou - Hangchow
English Xi'an - Sian
English Chongqing - Chungking
English Chengdu - Chengtu
English Luoyang - Loyang
English Taibei - Taipei
English Nanjing - Nanking
English Guangzhou - Canton
English Qufu - Kufow
English Qingdao - Tsingtao
English Qingzhou - Tsinchow
English Haojing - Haoking

More to come, when I have the time.
 
I've seen people complain that shrines rarely get built by the AI. Would it make sense to have them autobuilt in AI-controlled holy cities at a certain date or trigger?
AI has a high preference to build shrines. They just don't hire prophets.

I would like great prophets to auto spawn in the holy cities at particular dates. This would guarantee the holy shrines would exist, especially St Peters for the catholic apostolic palace mechanic. Hopefully independent AI will also build the shrines.

I also find religions spread more slowly in the 300BC start since the shrines are supposed to speed spread of religions
This also rewards civs for building shrines normally with a free GP.

Say (just eyeballing):
500BC Judaism and Hinduism
500AD Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Orthodoxy
1000AD Catholicism and Confucianism
1500AD Islam and Taoism
1700AD Protestantism
 
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