GarethBeaumains
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2007
- Messages
- 37
1. Allow ships to travel along rivers. Galleys should be able to transport troops along rivers. Ironclads should be able to patrol rivers. The Roman empire had an entire fleet assigned to the Danube and another one on the Rhine. Great rivers need ships. Ships should also block enemy land movement over the river.
2. Allow ships to bombard coastal units, like aircraft can. They might need a special upgrade in order to do so, but the sailors should not sit there twiddling their thumbs while the soldiers die.
3. Allow coastal archery and artillery units (catapults, artillery, etc.) to engage adjacent naval units. (Imagine frigates and a port city's cannons duking it out, or an ancient archers and cats vs. triremes. Units boarded in the naval stack should be able to defend, so now there's a reason to put archers and cats on galleys -- to defend your fleets.) A ship could destroy enemy units but not take a city, much like helicopters work.
4. Allow missionaries to possibly convert barbarian cities without just getting eaten for lunch as they approach. Barbarian tribes may have a "hostility" factor. Some may attack the missionary. Some might just attack the missionary 50% of the time. Some may peacefully accept the missionary among them. You should be able to get converted barbarians to join through a culture pop -- shared religion, proximity, and even possibly trade. I think of them more as "minor powers" rather than "barbarians".
5. Separate the concept of a "nation" from an "ethnicity." Rome became Rome not by spreading around Italians, but by allowing Nubians, Greeks, Britons, Gauls and Hispanic tribes to all consider themselves "Roman." Two different civilizations might even share the same "ethnicity" but be separate nations. For instance, imagine a game set in medieval Europe. There might be a lot of "German" ethnic states, but with different leaders. Your ethnicity and religion might be the same as your rival, but you have different leaders. This might aid you if you attack and take over your rival, and it might thwart you both if you are both trying to attack and control the areas of, say, a Russian enemy, who had a different ethnicity than yours.
6. Division of Territory. Civil War. Allow a player a chance to "break their nation." Often in history, from Alexander the Great's successors (along with countless other divisions between heirs) to the division of the Latin west and Greek east of Rome, or the Rescript of Honorius which made Briton independent of Rome ("Seek to your own defenses..."), there have been times when a nation has sundered itself. A nation should be able to undergo such radical change. Sometimes peacefully and purposefully. In such a case, a player might choose to purposefully alienate lands and say "Assign a new AI to it." Other times, it might be inflicted on the player, leading possibly to revolt or civil war. A civil war might even divide a nation, its cities and units, based on the popularity of your leader at the time. ("Greetings, [PlayerLeader]. I am George Washington. I now represent the United States of America. We're taking some of your territory and leaving your glorious nation to start our own." [Show minimap] Do you agree to divide your nation along these lines peacefully, or will there be war between brethren?") The civil war might be along cultural, religious or political lines. Cities, for instance, might have a "favorite civic" based somewhat on what they are used to, and somewhat based on what the AI might think would make them most profitable. Hence you could actually model the conditions for the American Civil War, if the Southern states preferred Slavery as a means to their economic prosperity because of a lack of ore, and the heavily-cottaged North preferred Emancipation. The ebb and flow of history should allow a once-profitable colonial empire to switch tactics and abandon owning territory -- instead, letting it go independent politically, but maintaining corporations, religions, and even foreign military bases in those former imperial lands to continue a cultural presence. You're not alone in the world of possible schisms and civil wars -- allow the AI to fracture as well. In fact, allow a player to put pressures on opponents to get their rivals to fracture.
7. Effective spies far earlier in the game. You should be able to foment unrest in other cities -- sparking cultural dissatisfaction or satisfaction. Or use them internally to "root out opponents to your regime" and make your people secure and happier without noisome foreign opponents. Of course, such use of spies domestically might be improved with Police State, and the effect of foreign spies might be lessened with things like Free Speech. Your spies might also even cause cities to rebel, and might have upgrades that allow them to sabotage buildings and entire cities at advanced levels. The "spy with a suitcase nuke" is the classic fear of Cold War and Post-Cold War thrillers. Allow them in Civ. Also allow spies far earlier in the game. Rome, China and Japan used them extensively. Spies might also help lower or obviate an enemy city's defenses for besieging troops -- allowing them in through the postern gate, as it were. Spies and counterspies should be part of the arsenal of all leaders from the Classical era onwards.
8. Always ship maps of the real world. Always. Different areas. Different scales. The entire world. The Fertile Crescent. The Med. The Indian Subcontinent. China. Japan. The Americas. British Isles. Europe++ (spanning to North Africa, the Persian Gulf and the Caucuses).
9. Religious and corporate suppression. It happens. Religions and corporations get banned or expelled from cities or whole nations or at least driven underground. You might send a missionary to a city not just to add a faith to a city, but to drive a rival belief out of it. It might hurt you later in the game when Free Religion comes along, but for the short term (or the nature of the scenario), it may keep your opponent from having a chance to make inroads in your cities. Such suppression might have a price in Unhappiness, and the attempt might fail yet still produce the Unhappiness effect. It might even backfire, reinforcing the strength of a religion in a city. Hearts and minds have been swayed by strong regimes and firebrand zealots. Allow your players a chance to do better than Diocletian or the Spanish Inquisition.
In sum, I see three "bars" for a city:
1. The "Culture" bar, which is presently presented (eg: 85% Austria-Hungary, 10% Prussia, 5% Turkey)
2. An "Ethnicity" bar (eg: 30% German, 25% Slav, 25% Croat, 15% Hungarian, 5% Turk), and
3. A "Religion" bar (eg: 60% Catholic, 32% Orthodox, 8% Islam).
2. Allow ships to bombard coastal units, like aircraft can. They might need a special upgrade in order to do so, but the sailors should not sit there twiddling their thumbs while the soldiers die.
3. Allow coastal archery and artillery units (catapults, artillery, etc.) to engage adjacent naval units. (Imagine frigates and a port city's cannons duking it out, or an ancient archers and cats vs. triremes. Units boarded in the naval stack should be able to defend, so now there's a reason to put archers and cats on galleys -- to defend your fleets.) A ship could destroy enemy units but not take a city, much like helicopters work.
4. Allow missionaries to possibly convert barbarian cities without just getting eaten for lunch as they approach. Barbarian tribes may have a "hostility" factor. Some may attack the missionary. Some might just attack the missionary 50% of the time. Some may peacefully accept the missionary among them. You should be able to get converted barbarians to join through a culture pop -- shared religion, proximity, and even possibly trade. I think of them more as "minor powers" rather than "barbarians".
5. Separate the concept of a "nation" from an "ethnicity." Rome became Rome not by spreading around Italians, but by allowing Nubians, Greeks, Britons, Gauls and Hispanic tribes to all consider themselves "Roman." Two different civilizations might even share the same "ethnicity" but be separate nations. For instance, imagine a game set in medieval Europe. There might be a lot of "German" ethnic states, but with different leaders. Your ethnicity and religion might be the same as your rival, but you have different leaders. This might aid you if you attack and take over your rival, and it might thwart you both if you are both trying to attack and control the areas of, say, a Russian enemy, who had a different ethnicity than yours.
6. Division of Territory. Civil War. Allow a player a chance to "break their nation." Often in history, from Alexander the Great's successors (along with countless other divisions between heirs) to the division of the Latin west and Greek east of Rome, or the Rescript of Honorius which made Briton independent of Rome ("Seek to your own defenses..."), there have been times when a nation has sundered itself. A nation should be able to undergo such radical change. Sometimes peacefully and purposefully. In such a case, a player might choose to purposefully alienate lands and say "Assign a new AI to it." Other times, it might be inflicted on the player, leading possibly to revolt or civil war. A civil war might even divide a nation, its cities and units, based on the popularity of your leader at the time. ("Greetings, [PlayerLeader]. I am George Washington. I now represent the United States of America. We're taking some of your territory and leaving your glorious nation to start our own." [Show minimap] Do you agree to divide your nation along these lines peacefully, or will there be war between brethren?") The civil war might be along cultural, religious or political lines. Cities, for instance, might have a "favorite civic" based somewhat on what they are used to, and somewhat based on what the AI might think would make them most profitable. Hence you could actually model the conditions for the American Civil War, if the Southern states preferred Slavery as a means to their economic prosperity because of a lack of ore, and the heavily-cottaged North preferred Emancipation. The ebb and flow of history should allow a once-profitable colonial empire to switch tactics and abandon owning territory -- instead, letting it go independent politically, but maintaining corporations, religions, and even foreign military bases in those former imperial lands to continue a cultural presence. You're not alone in the world of possible schisms and civil wars -- allow the AI to fracture as well. In fact, allow a player to put pressures on opponents to get their rivals to fracture.
7. Effective spies far earlier in the game. You should be able to foment unrest in other cities -- sparking cultural dissatisfaction or satisfaction. Or use them internally to "root out opponents to your regime" and make your people secure and happier without noisome foreign opponents. Of course, such use of spies domestically might be improved with Police State, and the effect of foreign spies might be lessened with things like Free Speech. Your spies might also even cause cities to rebel, and might have upgrades that allow them to sabotage buildings and entire cities at advanced levels. The "spy with a suitcase nuke" is the classic fear of Cold War and Post-Cold War thrillers. Allow them in Civ. Also allow spies far earlier in the game. Rome, China and Japan used them extensively. Spies might also help lower or obviate an enemy city's defenses for besieging troops -- allowing them in through the postern gate, as it were. Spies and counterspies should be part of the arsenal of all leaders from the Classical era onwards.
8. Always ship maps of the real world. Always. Different areas. Different scales. The entire world. The Fertile Crescent. The Med. The Indian Subcontinent. China. Japan. The Americas. British Isles. Europe++ (spanning to North Africa, the Persian Gulf and the Caucuses).
9. Religious and corporate suppression. It happens. Religions and corporations get banned or expelled from cities or whole nations or at least driven underground. You might send a missionary to a city not just to add a faith to a city, but to drive a rival belief out of it. It might hurt you later in the game when Free Religion comes along, but for the short term (or the nature of the scenario), it may keep your opponent from having a chance to make inroads in your cities. Such suppression might have a price in Unhappiness, and the attempt might fail yet still produce the Unhappiness effect. It might even backfire, reinforcing the strength of a religion in a city. Hearts and minds have been swayed by strong regimes and firebrand zealots. Allow your players a chance to do better than Diocletian or the Spanish Inquisition.
In sum, I see three "bars" for a city:
1. The "Culture" bar, which is presently presented (eg: 85% Austria-Hungary, 10% Prussia, 5% Turkey)
2. An "Ethnicity" bar (eg: 30% German, 25% Slav, 25% Croat, 15% Hungarian, 5% Turk), and
3. A "Religion" bar (eg: 60% Catholic, 32% Orthodox, 8% Islam).
A pop head With percentages? Each head would represent a set number of people, say 10. When you hover over the head, it shows you what percent of the population it represents are 'whatever'. 
