What would you have wanted different in Civilization 4?

[ngraner42]

The ability to share food between cities. This would add a lot of character to your civ, with agricultural areas and giant production or commerce cities. This would be limited in the early game, but techs (railroad, refridgeration, etc.) would increase the capability.

 

[Balderstrom]

I'm not positive, but a request comes from friendly civs, and demands from ones that you don't have such great relations with.
Either way I do believe its the same penalty: -1
And a "Refused to Help Us"
Likely if you already have a trade bonus with that civ, you don't get the "Refused to Help Us" - your trade bonus is just decreased.

 

[CCRunner]

I think that you get the "refused to help us" and your trade bonus stays the same when you don't give someone help. Not 100% sure though.

 

[carsandguitars]

There is so many things I preferred in Civilization III. I wish that Civilization IV was III with better graphics and maybe the additional tile improvements, though even there I like that adding a road improved the tiles productivity, that only makes sense. The list of things I miss from III, what happened to the advance artillery. In IV all siege weapons have the same range. In IV they are treated as a combat units rather then as weapons. Also you can't bombard ships with siege weapons. I could do paragraphs about how the artillery was better in III. I almost always play as Greece tend to be very aggressive but a lot of that strategy was based on getting a good defensive position and bombarding everything in sight. I used forts in III because of this but forts are useless in IV. I miss the advisers and I miss the city close ups. I preferred the unpredictability of combat in III and I preferred that troops advance just by being hardened not with the optional upgrades that don't seem realistic. I miss workers being able to make remote camps and I miss workers being able to settle into a city, that used to be a great way to beef up the population of a city if you had to. I miss the spheres of influence with the calvary

 

[Yxklyx]

I find it intensely irritating that it is almost impossible to capture all of a civ's cities on a crowded continent without other civs' cultural borders enveloping all.

Yeah, I agree. I think it's odd that a city's culture drops to 0 once it's been captured or flipped by culture. I think a solution would be that the captured city's culture would only suffer a percentage loss - perhaps this could be a leader trait. Some leaders might prevent all culture loss in captured cities or change the percentage lost.

 

[carsandguitars]

I am so glad I have somewhere to vent ... And what happened to missiles? I mean, like, missiles are not a important part of modern warfare ... right. You research rocketry and you get ... nothing. Now if someone is coming at you with an Armata you can't do anything about it. You can't shoot at them with artillery, and even if you could you can't get anything that has a range past the adjacent tile, no more mechanized artillery. You have no missiles, and what used to be the best thing about nuclear weapons was dropping them on ships and now they do nothing. I also miss helicopters, in 3 you could load on a couple of marines into a helicopter and drop them at a decent range. Not all that great but kind of fun. I forget but they should be able to cross small bodies of water. I also don't think you should be able to transfer any units by air unless both cities have airports. You can get rid of the SAM infantry, they're awful and totally out of place in the era they appear. You get them before tanks? and they should add paratroopers. That's the first new feature I would add. You should be able to paratroop in deep behind enemy lines and wreck havoc.
I do like the religion addition not to be totally negative. They should add some sort of bridge building component. You should not be able to cross rivers or some other types of obstacles with mechanized units until you build a bridge, and planes and artillery should be able to take those bridges out, and of course roads. They should have some sort of army engineer unit or upgrade. And you should be able to transport transports on railroads but you should not be able to land a plane in a city without an airport. You should be able to build canals in an era before railroads. You should be able to build canals to create trade routes into landlocked bodies of water or across ismus You should be able to sail some sort of navel units up rivers some. I also liked how a city could only grow so much without a water source. Oh, and one more thing, if global warming turns farmland into dessert, how come it never turns tundra into farmland? or melt icecaps to create new fishing grounds. I'm cool with Al Gore but there are some winners in global warming, want to move to Canada, anyone? Oh, the best addition to the game are spies, they are sooo fun but the other civilization should get pissed off at you if they're caught.

 

[CCRunner]

You should be able to build canals in an era before railroads. You should be able to build canals to create trade routes into landlocked bodies of water or across ismus

You can, in BTS. Forts act as canals.

And what happened to missiles? I mean, like, missiles are not a important part of modern warfare ... right. You research rocketry and you get ... nothing

Actually in BTS you can build guided missiles.

and they should add paratroopers. That's the first new feature I would add. You should be able to paratroop in deep behind enemy lines and wreck havoc.

Once again, BTS has what you're looking for. Go Paratroopers!

Oh, and one more thing, if global warming turns farmland into dessert, how come it never turns tundra into farmland? or melt icecaps to create new fishing grounds

I agree completely

Oh, the best addition to the game are spies, they are sooo fun but the other civilization should get pissed off at you if they're caught.

They do, in BTS.

In summary- You should go buy BTS.

 

[Balderstrom]

@ CCRunner2 *chuckle*
Man, CIV ought to have Corporations and the Babylonian empire too!

Though I will say, Guided missiles in BTS are nearly next to useless. Drop 10 or 20 of them onto a City is about as effective as 3-5 bomber runs.

 

[Crowqueen]

The ability to share food between cities. This would add a lot of character to your civ, with agricultural areas and giant production or commerce cities. This would be limited in the early game, but techs (railroad, refridgeration, etc.) would increase the capability.

The return from Civ II of trade/food supply caravans and disbanding a unit producing hammers for the city in question.

 

[Lexicus]

I want artillery and bombardment to be the same way it was in Civ III. Otherwise, I like Civ 4 a lot.

 

[Thedrin]

Balderstrom:
* Ability to issue (next-turn) commands to units that have no movement left.
+ Currently units w/ no move ignore commands and you have to re-issue it next turn.

I can issue commands to units that have no movement points lefts, e.g. fortify, go to, worker options, etc. And they don't ignore them on the next turn.

 

[ICNP]

That when the what would you like to build rounds come you can say "Pass" ( Same goes for units) so that it will come back to them and let you do something without you having to say skip and then make sure you come back to the unit

Diplomacy could definitely be improved.

Some form of breadbasket, it's just wrong that the agricultural rev comes along and it just means you only need half the number of farms you used to need.

 

[Kazbar]

Personally, I'd love it if they calculated something's power by the number of units in that squadron. Heck, you should be able to build a certain type of warrior for however long or short you want, to get the results you want. Let me elaborate.

Say I want to make a small group of infantry. So, I build an infantry unit for two turns. As a result, I get an infantry set of, say, 1000 people. On the other hand, if I built up for twenty turns, I could have a set of 10000 people. And my power in battle would accordingly work out depending on the technology and size of the opposing side. If my 1000 Marines men go up against 7000 Grenadiers, it'll be a close battle, because while they have the numbers, I have the technology. Of course, the size of army built would correspond with the unit type; twenty turns of gunship building would not give me 10000 choppers, probably more like 100 or so. I won't make exact numbers here, though; it's the idea I'm talking about.

And, of course, the winning side of a fight between two armies will still end up with casualties based on the odds. My Infantry, even if they beat the huge number of Grenadiers, would lose quite a few men in the process. Likewise, the Grenadiers would not lose all of their troops, because it's very rare for an army to lose all of it's fighters in a whole war, let alone a single battle, though if it were a small number of fighters to a big one (Say it was an army of 70 grenadiers instead of 7000), it's possible that it would turn out that they all perish. It wouldn't be a huge remnant, but it would be something to, hopefully for the one commanding them, rebuild off of.

Also, in this system, I'd like to be able to group all of my units into one army, as in, if I want my riflemen, cavalry and grenadiers to join together and fight as one army, I should be able to. The bonuses would still be there, but of course, my rival would also be able to group against my units. So I could have an army of 10000 troops overall, consisting of the previously mentioned unit types, going and trying to sack a city all at once. Of course, the fortified units in the city will still hold up pretty well.

And adding to this system as well, I should be able to choose, when I'm attacked, to either fight with my unit, try to retreat away from the attacker (based on movement qualities of the army), or to surrender the fight, thus letting them take my army as POW's, which, if I manage to defeat this army who captured them later on, I would be able to recover some of. Like, if I surrendered with an army of 200 to an attacker, then later managed to defeat them, I could recover, maybe, fifty of them, all of it depending on how long they'e been POW's.

And to go completely away from that idea, an option to choose a smaller units of time passed as time would be cool. Maybe by the month or something. Why? Because I'm sick of wars taking seventy-five years, when we all know wars hardly ever go that long. I know it's possible, having played the American Revolution scenario, so I'd like that as an option.

Beyond that, I'm pretty content with what we have going in the series.

 

[Ambidexter]

That when the what would you like to build rounds come you can say "Pass" ( Same goes for units) so that it will come back to them and let you do something without you having to say skip and then make sure you come back to the unit

If you tell a unit "wait" (w), you go to the next unit and return to the waiting unit(s) after all the other units have been given their orders.

 

[Ambidexter]

Diplomacy really needs work. In my present game, I've got a -1 diplo hit from Vicky because 1500+ years ago I wouldn't give her a tech. I can understand her being annoyed because I wouldn't give in to her bullying, but 1500 years is a long time to carry a grudge.

 

[AbbieRevo]

The Cold War should have been won hands down by Russia. Especially since the USA has its capital in the wrong place to be effective

You're forgetting about the Forbidden Palace we built in Colorado (NORAD)

Which just made me think... It would probably be impractical, but it would be awesome of National Wonders had unique names for each civ.

As far as things that I wish were different in CIV IV...

I've thought about the idea posted earlier on this thread about Treaty-set borders and always thought it made more sense historically and game-play wise.

And a map-style more like SMAC's would be nice too... ie: elevation/ rockiness/ and rainfall stats for each tile.

Personally I think CIV V will have a more realistic global enviroment as a primary feautre... ie: global weather patterns (oceanic currents and whatnot) which are affected by pollution and terraforming. Tectonic plates as a paradigm for map generation, with subsequent vulcanism and earthquakes. And a water system modeled on the same princibles, meaning mountain ranges break clouds, which then determine the courses of rivers.

 

[ICNP]

If you tell a unit "wait" (w), you go to the next unit and return to the waiting unit(s) after all the other units have been given their orders.

Yes but my problem is remembering to come back to the unit/city. Especially late game when so much is going on.

 

[Balderstrom]

DoublePost.

 

[Balderstrom]

@ ICNP - I use a multi-key mouse, the Logitech MX-510

SideButtons (thumb), Shift & Ctrl
Top buttons:
Above Scroll Wheel: \
Scroll Wheel Click: "Middle Button"
Below Scroll Wheel: ESC
Middle Top: Enter
==========================

If you select: "No Unit Cycling" - main options.
You can press 'Enter' to jump to the next unit, and '\' to go back to previous unit.

'Enter' by itself will only end your turn if all your units have been given orders.

I always make sure to have one unit somewhere, in a city/out in the wilderness/etc
that I haven't "Fortified", when I hit enter more than once in a row and it stays at
that unit, I know my unit commands are done.
Then I can press End Turn ICON, or Skip (unit) & Enter, or Shift Enter. (End Turn).


Though I would like a setting in the options menu, to stop the preemptive
"CityBuild menu" from automatically appearing at all - since it always takes
the view away from where I am trying to watch on the map.

Have a button beside the Arrows in the CityScreen, that toggles them
between "Next/Prev City" & "Next/Prev City w/ NoBuildQueue"
If you want the Advisor to give you a recommendation, then a button to ask your advisor what he thinks would be good (popUp).

If you don't select that option in the menu to stop the preemptive CityBuild.
Then it should at LEAST not start until you click "BeginTurn".

I almost ALWAYS just set a city to Culture or Wealth or something and go back later, which doesn't work very well when I've started to actually want cities to build culture, wealth or research - since I can't pick them out easily.

 

[Tibur753]

They need to bring back auto-bombard from civ 3. It is so annoying to have to click on the bombard button for seige units every turn! Why did they have to take that away. Is there an option that you can click on for that that i'm missing?