SIMPLE and EASY Ideas for the Patches

[RadeonZero]

[125] fix the problems with non-working (not giving bonus) wonders

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143113

[Doktrjerms]

RE: 21 changing city production

Referring to suggestion [21]

You can change the city queue from the map.

Click on the name of the city once; the bottom of the screen shows the production queue.

I would like to see

[126] You can move items up and down through the queue by selecting them and using arrow keys or little click up/click down arrow. Right now, all we have is click something to start, and shift click to add. No rearranging!

[RadeonZero]

[127] allow more games in autosave (ie: last eight consecutive turns)

[128] hide extension in load/save game dialog

[129] allow user mask for saving games (I like to save them as AD0010)

[Lucilla]

[130] When using the number pad for moving a unit, move the map when the unit walks out of sight.

[Doktrjerms]

[131] Civilopedia to include text index instead of just pictographs. I believe others suggested hyperlinks to work.

[132] Civilopedia to divide buildings category into buildings, world wonders, national wonders.

[133] Civilopedia to be more specific on how things work. Does adding power to a town more than once still increase production? What does it mean in terms of gameplay that the Kremlin is obsolete?

[134] Allow you to access all the features during start of turn build queue determination.

[135] Allow you to review the events in the event/notification box. (Some have suggested a feature to take your through the events at beginning of turn. I think the idea is that the event/notification box is off to the side to save time and not force you to look at everything.) Having said that, once something scrolls out of the box, and I was busy somewhere else, I cannot fins out what it said.

[136] Other have mentioned not being able to switch between windows when necessary. I would like to go about my business during the beginning of the turn "What will you build in this city now?" cycle. For instance, I may want to plant a missionary before I decide to build the temple which is not available.

[137] NOT SO SIMPLE FOR A QUICK PATCH
I'd like to see spies have more missions that they can do. Right now, they lack many abilities that were possible in Civ II. I love inciting riots!

[138] You should be able to build monasteries after Scientific Method in order to build missionaries and get culture, even if the science bonus is removed.


BTW, this is a great topic. I would love to see the beginning updated again!

A note on that: we could consolodate many suggestions. Also, I noticed some things are opinions or gameplay balance questions. Do these fit? Also, I think some of the suggestions have been answered by other people on how to do them.

I'd love to know if Firaxis takes an interest.

-DoktrJerms

[Yaga]

Originally posted by Doktrjerms
[135] Allow you to review the events in the event/notification box. ... [O]nce something scrolls out of the box, and I was busy somewhere else, I cannot fins out what it said.
-DoktrJerms

Hit <Ctrl>-<Tab>. This will bring up the dialogue box with the various messages in it from the last N turns. You can then click on the message you missed and it will take you to that place.

[Tadaas]

A couple of Ideas:

1) Increase Size of Icons for High Resolution Settings: I run at higher resolution and the icons for resources on the city screen are sometime to small to see what they are and I have to mouse over them; on the city screen it is sometimes hard to make out the difference between gold and happy faces (make the face more black than grey); when I have a conversation with another civ's leader the icons above his image are too small to see.

2) On the civics screen when I choose a new civic leave the old civic highlighted with a dull yellow and the new one with the brigh yellow (as it is now). Down below where it lists the upkeep cost, show the new upkeep cost but also show the change so +5 (gold) or -3 (gold), and you can tell what the new civic(s) are costing.

[meriadoc]

Suggestion #140:

The earlier discussion about artilleru units is correct. Artillery is (usually) placed behind the front lines of troops, offering them support. They aren't supposed to attack like the infantry.

While I can appreciate the usefulness that collateral damage gives us, I would prefer to use my artillery to bombard from a distance without the risk of losing the unit in the process, a la Civ 3. I can understand that the stacks of artillery in Civ 3 that could be used to demolish enemy armies with no risk to the player can be unbalancing, but I would think that lowering their effectiveness might counter this.

BTW, I have to admit that I haven't actually had a chance to use artillery yet, so if I can bombard units, especially in a city, in this manner I apologize for this post.

[kallussed]

[26] When someone asks me to break current deals with someone else, I'd like to have the ability to see what deals I have open with the 3rd party (while in the diplomacy screen).

When the diplomacy window comes up (for example someone asking you to cancel all deals with a certain civ) you can (with scores showing) mouse over the scores on the side to see your diplomatic standing with each civ. However, when you mouse over the portrait of the person you’re talking to, you see the same diplomatic status with all trade agreements listed on the bottom. You can solve #26 by making the diplomacy popup showing trade agreements universal. It should only take a few seconds to code (since it’s already done for one of the screens). Also force scores to show when any diplomacy screen pops up. A cleaner way to do this would be to put the diplomatic popup over the name of the referred to civ.

[141] Upgrade buttons next to unit names in military advisor to upgrade all of that type. It would allow you to quickly spot your outdated troops and upgrade them. Also I second the ability to see a breakdown of cities. I would think my military advisor should be letting me know what cities are poorly defended.

[142] Make the domestic advisor a time saver. Double click a city name centers the map on it. Right click (or shift + click, or better yet put a button) allows you to view the city menu. The build menu is aready at the bottom of the domestic advisor, so you can change / queue production in the city from it. So make it that at the beginning of each round where a city’s production is complete the domestic advisor screen opens up instead of doing each city individually. Any city that has no production is at the top, highlighted in red. You can then assign production in this screen rather than jumping between them. Closing this widow while a city has no production goes back to individual per city "What Next" prompt. It could cut several minutes off of turns in end game. A "finished producing [item]" in the current production box would help.

[143] Allow the player to choose a limit for trading resources and techs. For example trading only with someone you have a particular relationship with (open borders, defensive pact, alliance, etc.) or better. That could cut down on some of the diplomacy nag screens. Also a "will not trade" option like the AI has so you can ignore trade requests for certain items.

[144] Event log link in upper left where event messages pop up.

[145] Production waypoint button when a city is selected.

[146] Allow selecting cities from globe view. I would like to be able to view a city without having to zoom all the way in on it. Currently, if you double click on the actual city (not the name tag) from the globe view it “tries” to zoom in to view the city, then zooms back out. This seems to be a bug. It would be nice if you could select the city name from the globe view (mouse over the name tag to make it glow like the zoomed in view) then either double click or right click to zoom in and modify the city, then be returned to the glove view.

[147] Attack enemy option, not just the square. Hate it when I right click on an enemy, stop one square away, they move past me on their turn, then my next turn starts and my unit continues to move to that square before I can stop them.

[BUG] Selecting multiple cities (SHIFT + CLICK) and telling them to produce a unique item (like a wonder) will cause one city to produce it, while the others produce nothing. Ending the turn doesn’t prompt them to change production either. They just don’t seem to produce anything.

[SPQR300]

My suggestions are all about the multiplayer at Gamespy. You can find some discussion about it: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140503

so:

[148] There should be an option to give the control over your civ temporary to the AI. You don't quit the game, the AI plays for you for a few minutes. It's very useful if you have something to do while playing, but only for a few minutes. After you are ready to play again you just take the control back from the AI. Because the game turns are often very fast, this would be an EXTREMELY useful feature.


[149] In the lobby there should be a function to join a ceratin game by typing the game name.


[150] In the game list in the lobby there should be MUCH more information about games. There should be columns like: how long ago the game started, the size of the map, the game speed(epic, normal, quick), the game turn time(none, snail, slow, medium, fast, blazing) and the year the game is in(1780AD for example)

[151] When joining a game in progress and choosing an avaible civilization you should see the actual game scores, so you can choose the best civ avaible.

[152] Passwording your CIV is useful if you leave the game for a few minutes, then later rejoin, and you don't want others to occupy it. So concerning this, I think passwording your civilization when you start the game is just not useful. You don't know if you will quit the game later, or you will want to rejoin. And if you password your civ, and you don't plan rejoining later, your CIV will be managed by the AI from then on. I think you should only be able to password you civ, when you are retiring from a game.


[BUG] In team games we actually see if the enemy team is pinging somewhere. It's good if your ping can be seen by everyone in other games, but if you are permanent allied with someone, then your pings should only be seen by him.


[BUG] The game list in the lobby is jumping around, it's such an amateur mistake by Gamespy. Fix it plz! There should be a refresh button, and the gamelist shouldn't be refreshing all the time. If it's not fixed soon, it will be a bigger issue later, because when there are more games the list will move even faster, and it will be practically impossible to join a certain game.


[BUG] There are problems if someone is joing a game in progress. WHY? Optimize the code, because these problems and waiting times are not necessary. I think joining is buggy: someone joined a game, he was in the game, could chat and manage his units, but the game still told that he was joining, and we couldnt play. When he quit and joined again the same problem occured. So we had to tell him to leave and we could continue playing.

I really hope the first one will be in the game sooner or later...

[Atlanteax]

#61

#61

When you Customize your own game, with the AI character, your difficulty level, the various options...

Civ4 SAVES those preferences, so that the next time you Customize, it has them by default... so you do not have to keep redoing it every freaking single time.

As some starting locations are just horrible, and I quit to recreate the world, and then have to continue with the hassle anew.

[Lansing]

#61

When you Customize your own game, with the AI character, your difficulty level, the various options...

Civ4 SAVES those preferences, so that the next time you Customize, it has them by default... so you do not have to keep redoing it every freaking single time.

As some starting locations are just horrible, and I quit to recreate the world, and then have to continue with the hassle anew.

I WAS JUST GOING TO POST THIS.

Most annoying thing in the game by far, particularly since I like to play with 18 civs.

[greggbert]

[153] Option for the camera to follow friendly units when they are executing a goto order.
[154] Religion icons in the city status screen should be brighter. On my screen it’s hard to tell which religions are active\not active in the city because it’s not much brighter.
[155] A hotkey for next unit of the currently selected unit’s type. So you can cycle through your obsolete units and decide which ones to scrap\upgrade
[156] A map on the religion advisor showing which religions have spread to which cities. Similar to current military advisor.
[157] A text-only option for city production buttons inside the city screen, it would list the improvements rather than show icons.
[158] More visible civ borders on jungle squares
[159] Double-click city name in the trade routes section of the city screen puts you into map mode with that city centered.
[160] Warning message and confirmation box when you trade away your last one of a resource type.

I fully support the idea of showing the deltas on the civics screen so you can calculate the before and after costs.

I want to second 70. I hate being presented with the same city name over and over after I have rejected it.

I also support 142. You should be able to go to the city screen from the domestic advisor.

[PaoloZ]

[161] Add the ability to switch a human played civ to AI control and vice-versa in PBEM games.

[Wolfgod]

I'd like to second the request to be able to abandon a city! I had a barb city flip to me in the worst location possible ... I could limit it's growth, but it was close enough to two major cities to block a useful tile, but just close enough to keep my from planting more useful cities around it because of the coastline. I'm stuck with the blasted thing, too - at least in earlier versions I could've starved it down and built a worker to get rid of it. I never got an option to raze it or reject it, it just joined.