The Little Things in Civ 4

[Fosse]

We have lots of topics requesting grand chagnes (or strict adherance) to the current rules. Requests for huge increases in capabilities, dramatic chagnes to the economy, military, diplomacy........ etc.

What about the Small Things? Those that will probably fit into any game design, and are too small to warrant their own unique threads. Many of these ideas get glossed over in threads dedicated to bigger topics, and my hope is that amassing them in one place will keep them visible longer.

So here is my initial list of Small Things I (and others whose ideas I've shamelessly taken) would like to see:

Turn Summaries.
What did the other players do between turns? Who declared war on whom? Did anyone start trading? Which cities need orders? This is a better presentation of the information already given to us one popup at a time - "Babylon started the Hanging Gardens" "Greece started the Hanging Gardens" "China Started the Hanging Gardens" blah blah blah - and should incorporate additional information in a single window.

Many other games have thigns like this, and many people have been asking for it for years.

Grandiose Names
Why always "Rome"? Why not, "Our trusted and powerful allies, the Holy Roman Empire." Have the names change when governments do, or when big things happen. If England manages to wipe out another Civ, then the AI might change its name to "The United Kingdom."

Game End Rewards
"I built the perfect empire, bested the best, and got this great "You Win!" text box to prove it!! WOO HOO!!

Make the AI Listen to No Tresspassing requests
It's a big deal to us, but such a small request.

No Cartoons

edited for typo

[Brent]

City Names

Let city names be chosen somewhat randomly from the list. Let some civs have their own way of recycling names, such as Germany adding Ober and Unter to the beginnings of city names built nearby existing cities, like in Switzerland. Use North, South, East, and West appropriately. The capital would always get the same name unless manually changed. Have names with tags for terrain, let cities on rivers add River after the name. Include names that are words or phrases from the language, not just names assigned to real cities.

Filing

Make many more saved games visible on one screen. Allow separate screens to load from for scenarios and civs played as.

[treedom]

I really loved the idea of unique terrain like SMAC had which only occoured in one spot per world (ie. the Uranium Flats and others). It added a bit of flavour to the map. It would be very cool if Civ had this.

[hexagonian]

I know my suggestions are minor, and are not really needed for gameplay, but since this thread is about the 'minor' things...

More interlude screens a la SMAC Adds a bit of atmosphere. Take it beyond the level of palace upgrades or your standings in relation to other civs. Perhaps some interesting quotes from the Great Leaders that are in your current game.

Like Fosse said, more events and reports about the world Random messages - such as the first city in the world to reach a certain population level or the first civ to reach advances - stuff that might not have a great deal of importance in gameplay but gives the player some atmospheric info.

Wonder movies Yeah, I know they are only eye candy, but they create a greater sense of reward, especially the first few times you play the game...Even a movie when you enter a new age would be nice. I remember playing 'Pharaoh' and as I progressed to the next round of city-building challenges, I would get a movie. Very nice...

It ultimately boils down to the gameplay, but at the same time, when I shell out $30-40 for a game, I want to get the sense that the creators of the game crafted the game to have atmosphere - to set a stage for a player.

And given the success of civ3 from a financial standpoint, some of these 'atmoshere' elements could have been justified as part of package.

[Brent]

Interlude Screens sounds good.

Have the option to turn off reports that reveal who else is in the world.

Put the game on a DVDROM and take up plenty of space with music and movies.

Make sure when you complete a Wonder you are told its effects whether or not you watch the movie.

[Childeric]

Game End Rewards
"I built the perfect empire, bested the best, and got this great "You Win!" text box to prove it!! WOO HOO!!

what about, I built the almost perfect empire, fought toe to toe with the best, came second by a few points, and got this great "you suffered an embarassing lost" text box to prove it ?

[Sandman]

Animated rivers and coastlines.

Before the frugalists flame me for wanting eye-candy, they were in civ1!

Hell, I wouldn't mind animated mountains (with clouds billowing off them), animated resources, even animated railways.

[POTUS]

I want eye-candy.

[Brent]

Retiring

Be able to retire without seeing the histograph and especially the replay map. I retire every time I stop playing. I want to get on the hall of fame without having the whole map revealled to me, sometimes I will want to see the histograph, but I guess I can do that before I stop playing.

City names

have an automatic box suggesting that you rename a city when it builds the Forbidden Palace.

[Fosse]

I would like to see anachronistic improvements renamed in later eras. I feel a bit off building an aqueduct in the 1950s.

Some improvements should have their names and graphics changed to reflect the advancement in the tech tree, but leave their effects the same. So if I need to make a city grow beyond size 6 after discovering industrialization I would build Sewers instead of Aqueducts. (Current Sewer improvment renamed Water Treatment. )

European Civs could start building "Parishes" instead of "Temples" when Monotheism is discovered. And why build a Colliseum in the after you've discovered Manufacturing? Why not a Sports Arena?

We've already seen unit and improvment graphics changing throughout the game, let's just stretch this concept a tiny bit more.

[hexagonian]

How about graphic/label changes for units as they progress through the ages if they are not upgraded?

For instance...
Spearmen 1/2/1 (sprite and name) auto upgrades ---> Militia 1/2/1 (sprite and name)
Of course they would still have the same stats...or the Spearman/Militia could auto-upgrade to a defense of 3 if it makes it to the Modern Age.

That way, you would never again hear about a tank being killed by a spearman.

[Fosse]

hex, thanks for pointing out the GIGANTIC omission in my own proposal!

[wrylachlan]

Can I get an Amen for Fosse and Hex. Those simple graphics changes would be awesome.

One little thing I'd like is more... I'm not sure what to call it... but mechanisms for letting the AI do some of the tedious work of the units. I think an example would explain it better:

If I have a bunch of spearment in a barricade along my border, and I reach pikemen I want to upgrade them. But I don't want to pull them all out at once. It would be nice to be able to go into the military advisor's screen and choose "Upgrade all Spearmen" then I'd be asked "Do you want to upgrade all at once, or one at a time?" Then depending on what I choose, the AI would do the tedious work of moving the spearment one at a time to the nearest city with Barracks. Obviously I could cancel the actions at any time if I wanted control of the units again.

Essentially what I'm asking for is High Level Tools to deal with unit command.

[Fosse]

Originally posted by wrylachlan
Essentially what I'm asking for is High Level Tools to deal with unit command.

Thanks for the Amen... but you deserve two or three for this one!

Incidentally... I find myself building Sun Tzu if even I don't want to war, not because I want to build units from every city, but simply because it makes mass upgrades less tedious.

It would be nice to be able to go into the military advisor's screen and choose "Upgrade all Spearmen"

It would be nice to go to any advisor's screen and do anything as useful as this!

[wrylachlan]

It would be nice to go to any advisor's screen and do anything as useful as this!

but also