What “killer feature” do you want to see in Civ 4? (Read, then pick up to 4 options)

[dh_epic]

NOTE: Assume that the developers are absolutely brilliant and implement a feature in the coolest way you can envision. Which killer feature do you want in Civ 4 the most? (You can choose up to 4 options, plus any, all or none of the “free” options.)

You’ll see brainstorms about an idea below, for those who may not know what I’m talking about. The concepts will overlap and may even internally conflict (e.g.: more ages, eliminate ages), but don’t worry. The idea is imagining what YOU want it to look like, instead of what people have wrote about it (including me). Pick the coolest sounding aspects and ignore the stupid stuff. The idea is to assume that the developers are brilliant enough to pull the "killer feature" off, if you ask for it.

CHOOSE UP TO FOUR
(plus as many of the "free" options you want)​

TERRAIN++:
Cultural Affinity for Terrain (desert-loving, mountain-loving), Culture Generating Landmarks (highest peak, great lakes, old forest), Tiny Islands in a Single Square (like the Caribbean), More variety in a random map (like Earth), greater significance to rivers, new worker-actions, canals, improved road system

SCIENCE++:
Dynamic Tech Trees, Different Tech Trees for Different Culture Groups, Different Tech Trees for Different Civs, Separate Tech Trees for Social/Military/Scientific, Blind or Limited-Choice Research, Different Ages, Eliminate Ages, New Pre-Requisites for a tech (resources, buildings, population, events)

RESOURCES++:
Stockpiles and reserves, Quantity and Abundance, Trading for one-time quantities instead of 20 turn deals, Luxuries tied to Cultural Fame (e.g.: Indian Silks, Roman Wines produce culture), Refine and Prospect Resources, Resource Surplus and Deficit, move food between cities

NEGOTIATIONS++:
UN that does something cool instead of instant-victory, 3 or more civ trade agreements, 3 or more Civ defence agreements, surrender, annexing rival nations, encourage peace between two nations, encourage war between two nations, trade embargos that mean something, tariffs and bans, improved intimidation and coercive action, liberate allies, rewards for liberating allies, change diplomatic victory, remove diplomatic victory

INTELLIGENCE++
New kinds of propaganda (increase war weariness, increase demand for international product, inprove citizens attitude towards a rival, increase demand for new government), weapons trading, illegal activities (in modern age), ability to discover illegal activities (with penalties), illegal weapons trading, pay for and take control of revolutionary units (secretly), puppet regimes (secretly), monitoring enemy for tech or production progress, ability to wage cold war

GOVERNMENT++
New kinds of government, adjusted government attributes, SMAC-style social engineering, flexibility within a government (Bush, Clinton, Scandinavian, Latin-American Style Democracies), sliders to change nation’s political controls, bring back the senate, absolutely no senate, pick your advisors

WAR++
More unique units, unit types with bonuses against other unit types, terrain penalties and bonuses for unit types, new special abilities and tactics, social engineering during wartime, occupation, military aid, liberate allies, rewards for liberating allies, take prisoners, take no prisoners, hostile territory, cut supply lines, traps, troop stacks

ECONOMICS:
Economic Warfare, “Economic Victory” for being rich, socio-economic class, improved trade routes, world marketplace, large-scale trade agreements, stockpiles, quantity, abundance, surplus, deficit, shields and food as a tradable commodity, multiple kinds of food, detailed tax levels, regulated and free economies, employment, recession, economic booms

PROVINCES
Regional small-wonder improvements (like forbidden palace), automatically determined provincial regions, user-determined provincial regions, annexing a new province from an enemy, seceding a province to an enemy, slave provinces and colonies, hidden provinces (puppet regimes), provincial attitudes, provincial independence or civil war

DISASTERS
Preventable disasters, random unpreventable disasters, game-play balancing disasters, improved global warming model, flooding, earthquakes, blizzards, seasons, forest fires, droughts, dark ages

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS
Demands for luxuries, demands for war, demands for peace, differences between class, differences between ethnicity, immigration and emigration, exploiting differences and strife in your enemy’s population, ethnic cleansing, NO ethnic cleansing, leveraging your country’s unity when fighting an enemy, unifying your country using a common enemy, “Domestic Victory” for being prosperous at home

MORE OF THE SAME IN CIV 3
New units, more unique units, new wonders, new buildings, new leaders, new techs, new civs

Something Else -- anything big or small not mentioned here, from a nomadic age or future age, to just tweaking some of the realism of the battleships

Great Multiplayer Game (FREE) – because you want to see multiplayer improved, without affecting the main game-play

Quality Mod-Tools (FREE) – because you want to see cool user created content, without affecting the main game-play

Improved AI (FREE) – because you want better governors and a more strategy by the AI instead of cheating, without affecting the main game-play

More Civ-Specific Art (FREE) – because you’d like it to feel like you’re playing as a totally different civ, who builds their own unique version of the pyramids, and their own unique looking warrior, without affecting the main game-play

CHOOSE UP TO FOUR
(plus as many of the "free" options you want)​

 

[Vizurok]

Science++ is very important!
Negotiation++ is necessary!
War++ is needed, too...
Provinces could be great fun!

Free:
Improved AI
and the most important: worker system reforms...

 

[Zeekater]

Resources++: the all or nothing system sucks IMO
war++: supply lines and such
economics++: that stockpile thing sounded good

then modding, ai and more art from the free ones

 

[dh_epic]

Haha! Well, I'm going to add another assumption:

Assume the developers simplify something else that you don't like about the game in order to make room for your favorite killer feature.

For me, in my perfect world, I'll probably assume that workers get simplified drastically to make room for my favorite killer feature. I can't quite decide, although there are a few I'm not crazy about.

This is really just to look at the "big vision" for the game, without getting bogged down in details.

 

[ManOfMiracles]

I chose science, provinces, resources, disasters, AI, and modding.
I'm big on exploration and research in my games and often win peacefully although I'm quite capable of pulling off domination when I want. Science, provinces, and resources all fit into the way I like to play. I'm a weather junkie so want disasters just for kicks. It goes without saying that the AI needs improvement. I haven't really messed with the editor because it looks complex so simplifying the process of modding would be awesome.

 

[dh_epic]

I'm pleased with the poll response. Definitely full of surprises, ups, and downs from where I sit. Gotta love democracy for that reason

Vote now, more discussion later...

 

[Colonel]

Provinces no matter what

 

[Haradrim]

Research: Knowlege is my main focus in my Civ games, so I would love to see a better system of research.

War: Supply, definately. Siege, Flanking (maybe), groundwork and walls, and combat modifiers.

Provinces: just because they would be great.

Disasters: To add a degree of randomness.

 

[dh_epic]

Geez, Colonel. What part of "pick only 4" was so hard to understand?

Oh well.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Dammit, DH, you made it sooooo hard to pick ONLY 4!!! I did, though but, looking at the results, I feel I could have picked a bit better!!
Civics, economics and religion are very important to me, but I also hope to see terrains have a greater impact on the game than simply the amount of food and shields they produce!!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[dh_epic]

Hey Aussie,

I tried my best to really look at the threads and find all the different areas that people were focusing on, so the fault isn't all mine. About half of them I'm either negative towards or lukewarm towards (would be cool, but I wouldn't fight for it)... but the other half make me excited at just the idea of playing them.

Needless to say, I'm having a lot of trouble making the choice myself. Why do you think I haven't voted yet?

 

[warpstorm]

Assume the developers simplify something else that you don't like about the game in order to make room for your favorite killer feature.

Soren has said that this will happen. He said that the overall complexity of CIV would stay roughly the same.

 

[Colonel Kraken]

NEGOTIATIONS: to me, greatly enhancing this part of the game could even make Civ3 seem awesome!

PROVINCES: I think this is a great idea and can lend more credance to running an empire, even having different levels of government, annexing provinces, etc.

CIVICS and RELIGION: adding these new levels to the game will help enhance the immersion feel of it. I'm not sure what these would entail, but it sounds intriguing.

 

[dh_epic]

Thanks, warpstorm, for relaying the word of Soren. Forgot to back that assumption up myself.

I picked all the free ones, naturally, since they don't interfere with the complexity of the game and could make the difference between an okay and a great game.

In the end, I settled on:

INTELLIGENCE: to me, this would spice up the modern game vastly. you need to be able to do illegal activities and covertly fight your enemies, while smiling at them in the UN. It would be the most interesting thing you could do in a world where the borders are largely determined.

RESOURCES: This would make for more strategic wars and more war in general. It would also allow peaceful nations to leverage their neutral status during war time as a resource seller, and for warring nations to drag said peaceful nations into the conflict by saying "I will KILL you if you give oil to the British!" This simple gameplay lick would lay a foundation of great war AND peace strategy.

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS: i just really like the idea of being able to make your nation stronger at home in the face of crime and corruption, apartheid, and class warfare. I also like the idea of exploiting weaknesses in other nations with violent leadership, but a disenfranchised population. it also makes your civilization feel like a living breathing entity, instead of little chess pieces you move around.

PROVINCES: i just kind of felt obligated but this is a lot like domestic affairs in its ability to make your civilization come alive. it could also add a lot of strategy to war.

... but i almost picked a tech tree overhaul, or adding social engineering to government. The others sounded too complex, not important enough, or not fun enough.

 

[Ballazic]

I picked all of them. He HE

 

[dh_epic]

Ugh. Someone needs to lock Ballazic in a room with Colonel with a bunch of weapons, so they can pick all of them and DESTROY EACH OTHER.



PS: i ain't mad atcha. a little disappointed, but i'll be fine.

 

[Colonel]

Hey how'd i get into this arguement i havent even posted here. i voted for all but something else feature. Anyways i think out of the chooses i would say provinces is the best

 

[phorvath2110]

I like the social engineering/governmental forms idea. Can you imagine if they did that for each country? It would be rather cool.

As an example:

Americans:
New Deal
Reaganomics
Capitalism

England:
Mercantilism
Capitalism

Russia:
Theocracy/Czarism
Communism/Planned Economy
Capitalism

Some of these social choices could be put under Values or Government and each would have an effect on how things work out for the civ. Similar to Alpha Centauri's social engineering.

Was this how the rest of you thought of this idea or is this new? (I might have missed the thread on this topic if it was already discussed)

 

[dh_epic]

Haha, while it would be cool to do it for each country, I think it came up in a lot of different topics... "New Governments", "Bring Back SMAC-Style Choices", "Freedom within Governments" or even "More Distinct Feel" type threads.

There was always one person or another who suggested a few multiple choice radial buttons, or sliders... they could determine whether you were legalist (dress code, outlaw swearing, etc.) or the exact opposite (legalize all drugs, legalize marriage between people and animals) or anywhere in between. The sliders would be powerful enough to create a feeling of immersion and open up strategies, but not so detailed that they couldn't apply across ages and civilizations (Reaganomics is probably a bit too specific, if only by name).

Here are a few threads, even ones that started out, and moved towards that kind of idea:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=94794
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=93547
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=89523

 

[Drakan]

My choice:

1.Intelligence: would be an excellent addition
2.War: a must
3.Economics: will give the game more depth, albeit complexity?
4.Religion: i had suggested this myself. Religion Wars ! Locked alliances !
*improved AI: and allow the AI to build Armies (and load them with units intelligently), PLEASE
*Civ-specific art: in order to avoid being so Eurocentric or Western. A touch of exotism.

The idea of provinces is very cool also (civil wars à la CivII)

Does anybody know what they refer to as "civics" (no dictionary definition please, only what it means in CivIV) ?