Wonders for Traits...

[Guacamole]

One thing that might be kinda cool for Civ would be if there were wonders that you could use to pick up additional civilizations traits. An example of such wonders might be:

Temple of Solomon: (Ceremonial Burial) Grants builder or conqueror Religious civ trait. Made obsolete by Theology.

Plato's Academy: (Alphabet) Grants builder or conquerer Scientific civ trait. Made obsolete by engineering.


This would work for all the traits except sea-faring and expansionistic. The addition of the extra trait is balanced out by the build investment in a wonder that will only last for 1 age and then is lost. They can be additionally tweaked by adding minor bonuses (become a tourist attraction, Academy counts as additional library, Temple of Solomon makes an additional person happy, etc.) or varying the amount of culture given to a wonder.

 

[searcheagle]

that could make things more interesting and put things in the hands of the player. And it could work for all traits (including seafaring and expansionistic) and could exist without a time limit.*

*ONLY if traits have both positive and negative components
-Militaristic might have less agriculture or something

 

[Philips beard]

Imagine a Civ having all the traits, would be overpowered indeed I think!

From my point of view I think having different traits on different Civs adds to gameplay. It's fun that playing different civs means different challanges.

I hope Civ 4 will make the different Civs even more special, not less!

 

[Guacamole]

First off, it wouldn't be wholly possible for a single civ to have all the traits because if all the trait wonders opened at the beginning of the ancient period and the AI is going to trying to build those, then I predict a player getting 1 or maybe 2, on the lower settings like chieftan or warlord. On the higher settings they would only serve to make the game slightly more challenging because it is unlikely that the human player would get any of them.

Furthermore, at least as I have conceived of them, they would only last at most until the middle part of the middle ages. At that point you are stuck with a bunch of culture/tourism wonders that don't do anything else.

There's also the balancing of oportunity cost. If you are going to get 1 wonder in your first 200 turns and you build the Academy of Plato to become scientific, then you aren't getting pyramids, oracle, light house, etc.

fwiw
guac.