Forum for future Civ ideas

[Optimizer]

Is it possible to start a forum for future ideas for Civ games?

Ideas that could be implemented either in an expansion pack, or in Civ 4, or in some other Civ game.

[Inverse Icarus]

check freeciv / ggs forums

[Immortal Wombat]

We need a forum for civilisation discussion in general. For future ideas, current trends, "which game is better" discussions, and history of civilisation (and even history of Civilization)

[Dauphin]

A "Civilization: Past, Present and Future" forum under the miscellaneous section would be good.

[alva]

Well, you could make a list and put all your ideas together ....

[DarkCloud]

We really need a Civ IV Forum.

alva- I for one have already done the Civ IV list

I can't find where I put it on the net so here it is: (although it's a bit old)




Dear Firaxis,



We (the Civ community), greatly appreciated your releasing the computer game, Civilization III.

However, we do believe that some things can be fixed in the patch, an expansion pack, or a sequel.

Thus, what follows is a HTML file that contains a list of over 100 ideas and suggestions to make Civ III even better.



These ideas came from nearly 80 different Civilization II and III players


We hope you will use them wisely.


We also hope for a response to this letter.



Thank you,



DarkCloud and the Apolyton Civilization Site Civ III community



Major Contribuitors-

DarkCloud- List Assembler

Rasbelin- Idea Assembler

Mongoloid Cow- Many Ideas

Spiffor- Many Ideas



---The List for Civ IV

ver. 1.1.0



Index



I. Resources

1. Synthetics

2. Food

3. General



II. AI

1. General AI

2. Mutable AI

3. Learning AI



III. Wonders



IV. Units/War

1. Realism

2. Reports

3. Units

4. Movement

5. Military Advisor Screen

6. Espionague

7. Combat

8. Satellites

9. Negotiations



V. Terrain

1. General

2. Improvements



VI. Multiplayer



VII. Interface



VIII. General



IX. Editors



X. The UN/Diplomacy

1. Domestic Affairs Advisor

2. Methods to win the game



XI. Governments

1. Corruption

2. General

3. Great Leaders



XII. Trade



XIII. Technologies



XIV. Religion



XV. City Improvements



XVI. The Map



XVII. Civilizations

1. Culture/Outlying Cities

2. Civilization Traits

3. Immigration

4. Borders



XVIII. Pollution


----


I. Resources



1. Synthetics


-Rubber should be able to be synthetically produced in certain factories after a certain date, say after the civilization discovers Synthetic Fossil Fuels... After that time rubber can be found on the map, grown, or produced in Rubber factories

-DarkCloud



Dye and Saltpepper could also be synthetically produced with a factory or a chemical factory

-Wernazuma III/DarkCloud



There should be a way to build manufactured luxuries (cars, hi-fi, but also some manufactured medieval ones). A specific improvement, say "car factory" should be available if you have the needed resources (coal, iron and oil), and would turn one shield into a luxury. It would also cease to function when you stop having these resources. You couldn't build more "luxury producing improvements" than the number of civs, and only one per city

-Spiffor



2. Food

-there should be some way to share food resources, there should be no reason to have two cities near each other, linked via road with one overflowing with food and the other starving.

-Bleyn



- "Rice" tiles : can't produce anything else than food, but lots of it, say five or six, and more with irrigation / railroad / farmland.

-Spiffor



3. General

-Coffee

-Tobacco

-Sugar

-Venger



Copper (needed for some ancient and modern units

Stone (Strategic - for wonders/improvements : eg. Pyramids, Hanging Gardens)

-Mongoloid Cow



Strategic Resources:

Quicksilver

Whale Blubber

-TrailerParkJawa



1) unlogic and historical failures: 3 cases of recource restrictions


a) slapeter as strategic recource you need for gun powder. Stupidity.
Salpeter isn't a strategic recource in fact (wake up in shool, ask your
chemistry teacher) but always available where enemies or humens are. But
inthe game it may happen that you don't have Salpeter recource and then you
can build the versions of that gun powder weapons.


b) oil as condition for tank and motor ships / early air units
also ask yout teacher. If you have coal (and do know the chemistery or
refining coal) you can make the same.That was made until end of 2nd world
war from Hitler as Germany didn't have oil but lot of coal.
It's a bad joke in the game that oil is rare and your research already is
until rockets and atom power but you are still using horses for your troops.

-Dreifels



Luxury:

Resin

Slaves

Marble

-Wernazuma III



cotton

-DaleC76



In regard for resources, instead of having them divided into Strategic / Luxury / Food / Other, maybe each resources has its own uses and traits.



For example:

Take the idea of a new resource Silver. Out of all of the above categories, it would best fit into the luxury or other category, even though it was used differently. So instead, give it its own traits :

- Gives x amount of money into the treasury each turn

- Tradeable (can be traded)

- City Trade Bonus of y trade production

- Happiness benifit of 1



The idea could be applied to all resources, and although it might get a bit complicated, the importance of each, individual resource is enhanced.

-Mongoloid Cow



MANUFACTURING

Maybe you can turn raw materials into new resources, that can be traded.



eg: You start near Barley. If you build a brewer, it can be turned into Beer, a luxury resource with +1 food. You could use it to supply your empire, or you could trade it off to another civ.

-Mongoloid Cow



- ability to stockpile some resources (non plant nor animal) to prepare for war for example.


We would like to be able to produce synthetic luxuries, etc.



- a Resource screen rather than a trade one. You can see all the ressources u have access to or stockpiled and can decide (click) to trade it or transform it for example (if u have a factory and it can be transformed). For both luxuries and strategic.

-LouLong




II. AI


1. General AI

-Have the AI enforce it's borders against other AIs.

Grunthex



Workers:

Instead of fifty workers all running to irrigate the same square on the opposite side of the map, I'd like to see a level of communication and co-operation between them. Seriously, the Worker on AUTO wastes so much time, I have to micromanage them to ensure the job is done correctly. Pet annoyances:


1. Workers don't communicate. They all run to the same location to do the same job.


2. Workers bypass tasks that need to be done HERE in preference to tasks that need to be done over THERE.


3. Workers move up and down the same bloody road, almost as if they can't decide what they want to do.


4. Workers sitting in town, not doing anything, fully automated, with a thousand tasks that still need to be done. What *are* they doing?

-Kolyana



2. Mutable AI

- The idea is that the a.i. code is highly flexible and new algorithims can be inserted or old one modified easily. Then, presuming the presence of a multiplayer feature, Firaxis reps monitor the MP games and use recordings of the best players as basis for new a.i. code. The code will be available as a free download on a bi-monthly

-Delthayre


3. Learning AI

The artificial intelligence monitors your moves and reacts accordingly, much like in Command and Conquer, etc.

-DarkCloud



III. Wonders


I know this will be difficult, but make the effects of the wonders fully editable. I.E, I can make a wonder called "Royal Road" that doubles the trade to all cities on the continent, even though there is no "official" wonder with this ability.

-Taylost



When you build a Wonder, make it actually appear on the territory of the Civ which built it, rather than just having the name of the Wonder appear on an impersonal inventory list. Imagine seeing the Great Pyramids, the Great Library, the Colossus of Rhodes, etc adorning the landscape of the world.

-Leonidas



Wonder movies

-mrbilll



The Great Library seems to expire instantly, and the Great Wall really isn't even worth building in the first place.

-mrbilll



The Apollo Project

Even if you made that wonder, the earth still has black holes. Devil, play
on a huge earth map with 16 factions and you have some wars you can't see
what where recourses/cities they have, althought you made Apollo wonder.
Also unlogical and stupid.

-Dreifles



Wonders should not be allowed to be prebuilt as it is not realistic.

-DarkCloud




IV. War/Units


1. Realism



they could create a system of warfare where wars don't take 50 years to complete, even in the modern age.

-Taylost



Perhaps time should slow to months in times of war, or maybe be selectable by the human player.

-The Rook
Unit movement is hosed. It shouldn't take a century to circumnavigate the globe. Units movements maybe should scale to the time period.

--The Rook



Blockades

You know if you continue with the shared food idea you can have actual seiges if you surround a city or use a naval blockade to bombard the roads/rails leading into town. (And of course themselves blocking any sea route.)



It would be interesting to watch your blockaded city slowly slip into civil disorder cause by unhappiness do to starvation. Now if only you’d work it that said city has a chance to surrender under such conditions, the chance of course increasing as starvation and unhappiness run rampant.

-Dravin



UNIT PRODUCTION -- A suggestion that many units, particularly offensive fighters, should require their own structure to be produced before they can be constructed was generally well received. A system that allowed any city to build that era's basic infantry (i.e. civilian militia type mobilization), but required more complex units, especially offensive forces, to have facilities in place is what is currently proposed. In addition, upgrades to these facilities make more workshop items available. Feedback for this is positive."

-The List

[DarkCloud]

When a loaded transport ends a turn next to land or in port the units on board should ask permission to unload (as in SMAC).

-Purple



Build Multiple units at once

-Andrew Cory



How about CTP2's Mutual Assured Destruction option for nukes? (Sorry if I missed this above, I looked to c if it was there).


Basically, you can order a friendly city to use any nukes it has there to counterattack any enemy city that attacks it with a nuke.

-Raleigh



subs should be able to atack citys on land, but there attack would be like 2 or 3 if the
atacked a city. is is ww2 subs had a deck gun. also they could be like bomders with that
they can chose to attack

JayMan



I'd like to see air units be able to actually destroy units instead of only bringing them down to 1hp.

-NYLatenite



Civil War/revolutionary wars

-monkspider



Possible last minute idea: Casualty totals for wars?


Perhaps this has been suggested many, many times in the past and more elequently. Heck, maybe this is even already in the game ( ) but it is a little something I have always wanted to see in Civ.
I envision a system (nothing too fancy, mind you) which would simply record the total casualties for each side in a war. I'm talking actual lives, rather than units lost. In anchient times, say the Romans lost 30,000 men and the Japanese lost 20,000. In modern times Germany loses 10 million men and the Russians 20 million, and so forth. It would provide a sobering look at how terrible war really is, and you could sort of keep track of your worst wars ever for future references and so forth (oh, in this one game, I was the Babylonians and I was fighting China and Persia and I lost 100 million guys! It was crazy man!).
This would be a super-simple thing to add, really just an algorithm based on time periods or something like that to calculate how many men are represented by each unit. I say Firaxis ought to go ahead and implement this if they haven't yet.


c=casualties in war
p=population of civ
u=units killed in war
t=total number of units


c=p[0.2(u/t)]

-monkspider/JellyDonut



The possibility for an option of when you take a city- you can order the entire population slaughtered; of course the UN wouldn't like that, and the civ may now fight against you to the death; but it adds a whole new dimension.
"I want my racial purges!!!"

-DarkCloud



Return Firepower (See this thread: HERE

-Venger



2. Reports

a report showing odds before a battle is attemped (as in SMAC)

-cort



3. Units

Privateer must have attack = 2

-Alex Kravetski



Since privateers were privately owned pirate vessels; you could merely comission one in a city after a certain amount of population is present; then the ship would merely run amock and sink enemy shipping or be sunk itself... However, If you wished to add more levels of complexity, your empire could make basic decrees to the privateers (IE: don't sink Spanish shipping OR only sink Spanish battleships OR avoid any frigates, etc.)

-DarkCloud
Explorers are currently almost useless. I think they could be used to claim land and expand your borders. Alternatively, they could simply 'claim land in the name of blah'. Claimed land might not affect the fog of war but the idea is that this land can become something you can use in negotiations, to plan future expansion of your empire, or simply keep others off this land.

-Drathx



Mines! be able to place mines on squares within your cultural border (land or sea). Works similar to bombard in that it can't kill a unit just hurt. To join U.N. you must remove all mines from teritory. Also affects trade.

-YahMon



Stealth land units such as commandos which can also be placed on subs. Could be inserted with helicopter as well (might actually use them) detect chance 99% if on tile being worked by enemy city, base detect chance each turn 10% with modifyers (-5% mountains/hills etc..etc..)

-YahMon



Nuclear submarines that are able to carry multiple cruise missiles(2 or 3 will be fine)

-conquistadore



A "Fleet" option where you could build a combined-arms fleet of ships and use them as one unit:

EXAMPLE:

map making- triremes (antiquity)

feudalism- galleys (middle ages fleets)

navigation- caravels, galleons (Renaissance)

magnetism- Man-o-war, frigates, galleons (Colonization era)

refining- dreadnoughts, ironclads, late wooden ships (industrial)

mass production- battleships, cruisers, destroyers, carriers,

Rocketry- modern fleets, composed of nuclear subs, AEGIS cruisers, and carriers.

-Oncle Boris



CAVALRY CHARGE TO THE DEATH OPTION

-Raleigh



Let the nukes be like the planetbusters of SMAC. Devastating, but with SEVERE diplomatic and environmental repercussions. They'd still be usable, but only if you've got a very good reason.

-mrbilll



War atrocities such as razing a city, bombing city populations back to the stoneage, etc... should make "partizans" spring out of the enemy civ (weak infantry?) and cause diplomatic problems unless it is in retaliation for a similar war atrocity commited by the AI

-YahMon




Well, Civ 2 did not really make use of ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missles). Instead Civ 2 mostly used tactical nukes or nukes you specifically tell what to do each turn, and there was also the ability to place a nuke using a spy. But the real fear comes from ICBMs.

I suggested adding an ICBM unit to civ 2.

Here's how it would work:



Assign it a target.




The ICBM would have a command allowing you to assign a specific tile for it to attack. It would then retain this tile in memory till your ready to use it.

Nuclear War

Somewhere in Civ 3 there should be a command to allow you to lauch your all your preset ICBM's. This is where the cold war idea comes in. All other Civs would have the option to launch their preset ICBMs in retaliation (even before your make another move). In a similar manner if someone else uses nuclear weapons you would immediately have the option to launch your preset ICBMs on them before they can make another move. Thus, things would take on a true nuclear war with all sides incurring casualties.


-Give it 0 movement points

Since the ICBM is not a regular unit, it has no movement points. To load it into a submarine you would move the sub into the city and load it on (like you can in Civ 2). To move to another city, there should be a unit that can do the same thing -- as well as an aircraft that can transport them as well).



Attack Order

There should be an order where you can tell a single ICBM to attack a location on the map instead of having to launch all your preset ICBMs. The enemy would of course detect it and have the option to retalitate with all their forces of ICBMs before your turn is over.



Missle Silos

Using your worker units you should be able to build silos anywhere you want and thus transport ICBMs to them for keeping till you use them (if ever).


Other Nuke Options

1. There would still be the regular old nukes in Civ 3 like there was in Civ 2 -- nukes that have move points as well as using nukes via a spy.

2. Thes other nukes cannot be detected upon launch or anything because they're not big and noticeable like ICBMs. However, once you hit a civ with one of these alternative nukes, the enemy should have an option to strike you with their ICBM arsinal before the turn is over (and of course you can respond in the same as can other civs). Thus, this would deter you from even using other types of nukes.

3. When a spy hits a city with a nuke, there should be a chance that the other civ did not detect your spy and thus cannot tell who did it.



Neutron Bomb

The neutron bomb would be a nice third type of nuclear weapon (perhaps in regular form AND ICBM form). The neutron bomb just kills lifeforms, but doesn't touch structures.



Options

Any time the message pops up asking if you want to launch your ICBM arsenal, you should also have a list of check boxes for the countries you want to attack. For example if you have some ICBMs targeted at Russia and some targeted at China, you can just put a check beside Russia to have those targeted at Russia to fire



Here is the message toolbar summarized:


"Russia has been detected lauching ICBMs.

Do you wish to launch your ICBM arsenal? "

YES | NO | CONTACT EMBASSY




Contact Embassy:

"The first detected Russian missiles will arrive in 15 minutes.

But be warned, if you chose to contact them, there may be some undetect missiles that may hit sooner!"

CONTACT | LAUNCH MISSILES | EXIT




YES/LAUNCH

"15 minutes till first Russian ICBM strikes



Which countries would you like to strike?



You have the following countries targeted:




Russia (19 ICBMs - 3 neutron)




China (10 ICBMs - 0 neutron)




Spain (3 ICBMs - 5 neutron)





Open Diplomacy channels after launch. "

LAUNCH | CANCEL

Kevin Ar18



4. Movement
More movement points for units. It makes sense from both a
realism and gameplay standpoint.
2 movement should be the minimum for regular ground units.

-ndnls



it'd be nice to be able to move a stack of units with one command (IE Tying units together)

-wotan321/DarkCloud



A (the) Patrol function ala SMAC

-Elowan



1/3 of a movement point still gets you to the next square

-EnochF



The AI rarely has a plan when there is no war. However, 'he' insists on moving every gaddammed units anyway ... even if his has to move 20 cavalrymen around and around in circles. I'd like to see these units fortified when nothing is going on.

-Kolyana



The Sentry function

Knasboll



5. Military Advisor

it'd be nice to have a scroll bar on the pop-up list of units on a square if there are so many that all the units don't fit in the pop-up window.

-wotan321



in the Military Advisor window, it sure would be nice to be able to upgrade all upgradable units in the units sorting at once, so you don't have to visit each unit one at a time....

-wotan321



For the military advisor screen- you can activate more than one unit on the screen at once without it closing and zooming in on the unit.
Dominator_Jones/DarkCloud



6. Espionague


1) A spy adviser screen: Like the other adviser screens. It shows both your own country and the other countries with whom you have established an embassy. For each there is a list of espionage options. For each country you also know how strong their espionage is in terms of the number and quality of spies( to be explained)


2) Spy units: I would bring back the spy units but in a different way. First of all they would be more expensive , more like city improvements than the spies in the Civ2. So you can only have a small number at any given time and you have to think carefully how to allocate them. Secondly they aren't like normal units but can only be allocated via the spy adviser screen. So this cuts down a lot of the tedium of moving spies to and fro. Like earlier games the spies will have a number of moral upgrades and also perhaps a diplomat/spy distinction like Civ 2.


3) Multiple defensive operations: this is a new concept( I think) where you can choose what branch to allocate your spy on the defensive. So if you are the technological leader you might allocate your spies to defending from tech stealing.. If you are lagging in culture you might allocate your spies to preventing revolts.


4) Allocating spies: This is fairly straighfoward . Just go to the spy adviser screen and click on the offensive operation for a particular country or whichever defensive operation you want. You can allocate multiple spies to an operation if you want. You can reallocate spies but that will cost you something in terms of unfinished missions.


5) Completing a mission: Each offensive mission has a certain number of spy points. Each spy unit produces a certain no. of spy points per turn depending on morale. You complete the mission only after the number of turns you need to accumulate the spy points for that mission. If you have more spies, their points are added up and you finish the mission more quickly.


6) Spy wars: These happen when the guy you are attacking has a defensive spy for that operation. So suppose you assign a spy to steal Rome's tech but Rome has a spy defending technology, then there is a spy war. This also happens if you have already accumulated points and if Rome decides to allocate a spy from somewhere else to fight you. The spy war is decided according the number and moral of the two sides ( and perhaps some other modifiers). If you win you destroy his spy and simply continue accumulating points. If you lose either your spy is destroyed and exposed or you simply lose all your accumualated points and have to start over.


7) Options to see other players' spy allocations: There are various possibilities. Perhaps you can have an offensive mission to see all of one opponent's spies for a certain number of turns. Perhaps if you build a certain wonder you can see how other countries are spying on you permanently etc.


8) Joint spy missions: You can ask other countries to join you in some spy mission. So you allocate a spy to stealing Roman tech and ask Greece to join you which increases the speed of the mission and makes you stronger in spy wars. Of course both of you get the tech when the mission is complete. There are other diplomatic possibilities as well.

-Kautilya



Your spies should know the vote intentions of infiltrated civs (POSSIBLE SPY OPTION??? INFILTRATE PLANNED COUNCIL VOTE???).
There should be a way to bribe the other civ to vote for you (HIGLY expensive, and impossible if their spies know you're going to win)

-Spiffor



1.29) Security Stations: Automatic genetic and/or fingerprint identification when accessing city areas/buildings everywhere: Automatically "detects" spies within city limits and may have a chance of making them fail. Spies may later gain an ability to have a chance to be hidden from security stations and decrease their fail chances. [Freddz]

-The List



7. Combat

I'd like to see a change in the combat system itself. IIRC, the basic combat equation for Civ3 isn't really that much different from Civ. And other than the (to me) minor changes in terms of hitpoints/firepower, its not much different from Civ2 either.

Its all still variants on the same equations:

AWP = A/(A+D)

DWP = 1 - AWP


Where AWP and DWP are attacker and defender chances of winning a round respectively.


What I don't like is that if you don't read the explaination on how combat works, I don't think you'll realize exactly what those numbers mean. Ie. To me, they just aren't intuitive. That the attack number is how strong they are when attacking seems right, but that the defensive number is how strongly they can strick back when attacked seems right at first, but when you look at how large the difference in some of the numbers between the attack and defense strength of some of the units are... It doesn't quite make sense to me.



Rather, I would like a system where attack strength represents a units ability to inflict damage on the enemy and defense strength represents the ability of the unit to absorb or avoid punishment without significant loss. Combine it with equations like the following:

AHP = Attackers Attack /( Attackers Attack + Defenders Defense)

DHP = Defenders Attack / (Defenders Attack + Attackers Defense)



Where the attackers chance of hitting and defenders chance of hitting are seperate, allowing for combat rounds where neither side hits or both do. I would even go so far as to suggest that this allow for situations where the combat either ends in a draw if there is no victor after a certain number of rounds(to avoid a combat never ending) or a pyrrhic victory where both units are killed, representing a situation where both sides sustained so much damage that they were shattered and no longer useable as a combat formation.

-Bleyn



8. Satellites


Spy Satellite (0,0,40?) requires Satellites



A new unit type that can be used in two ways. It can fly over a vast swath of the map revealing the terrain/cities/units below. It should be able to completely map the world (average sized map) in 10 turns or so. This path can be automated so that the player doesn't have to move it manually.
At any time it can stop within one space of a rival city and spy on that city revealing the city improvements built and any that are being produced. This ends its turn.
These units are invulnerable. {Perhaps they can be destoyed by civs with Strategic Missile Defense, ICBMs, or stealth fighters.}

Sze



TV Satellite (city improvement) requires Satellites


Functions like wealth, but converts shields into entertainment (4:1).



Space Telescope (city improvement) requires Satellites


Functions like wealth, but converts shields into science (4:1).



9. Negotiations


Wartime:

Make some nations (AI's) want to do everything to get peace after a while of war. If a war is started in the "mutual protection" days it's almost only one way to stop the war (destroy all the other nations), because...well, if you have been in this situation (and who haven't) then you know what I'm talking about here, so no need for an explenation. It would be great if the AI would do more to keep peace after 50 years of war, instead of making peace and the next turn he/she breaks the peace again (Because of the mutual protection pact)

-ADG





V. Terrain



1. General



More varied terrain!

-VanManstien



Volcanoes: Unable to build on them as mountains are now (but no roads or mining is allowed either)

-Jer8m8



In real life hills and mountains are not very useful at all. Production should stem from the population, education, facilities and terrain should only play a minor role.

-Sandman



Allow us to build cities, roads and mines on mountains! At least allow us to build them in the modern era.

-DarkCloud



The ability to right click on terrain and add text (from SMAC). This adds a great deal to the experience.

-jimmytrick

[DarkCloud]

2. Improvements



-upgradable fortresses (maybe they can add defense AND act as a colony?)

-national flags (basically claim a square and eight surrounding squares, similar to colonies, but still count as within borders)

-bridges across one tile of ocean between landmasses

-canals (ship movement over land)

-Airbases

-cassembler



Missile Silos

-Drathx


-Farmland (Refrigiration)

-EnochF






VI. Multiplayer



- Included with the game

DarkCloud



- Simultaneous Turns

DarkCloud



Mini-Games that have very specific victory conditions - maybe "discover new world"
So as to decrease game-time.

-jack_frost



MP specs for Civ IV

- Both TCP/IP and IPX/SPX protocols supported.

- Supported game types: LAN, Internet, modem, hotseat.

- The game would be played as usually, expect humans could negotiate and chat (like in Civ II MP).

- The hotseat model should be reconstructed.

-Rasbelin



- Hotseat Multiplayer

Ribannah



VII. Interface



Pressing "R" instead of CTRL+R should build a Railroad on top of a road.

-DarkCloud



FIND


FIND resource, FIND inactive Worker, FIND Spearman, FIND fortified troops ...

-Kolyana



Optional keyboard control, via arrow, tab, or letter keys of all aspects of the game, especially in screens that require choices (some already have this, but not all).

-Purple



Keyboard command editor (a la CTP).

-Purple



The Info Box (lower right corner) should show movement points remaining for the active unit including fractions .

-Purple



Right-click on a tile should display (or at least list) not only the basic terrain type and resource, but also any enhancements (road, mine, etc.) and all units on it. Sometimes a resource makes it hard to discern whether a mine has been placed there, for example.

-Purple



Floods, draughts,... events. Diseases (a little attempt in jungle and flood plains here) that would spread along trade routes. Possibilities to act on blocade (macro or micro-issue)

On the other hand, cities could grow more quickly (though limited in size at the beginning) so that it is a problem to deal with but not a decisive drawback.

-LouLong



- more specialists and make them possible only after some tech discoveries

- slaves : as bad as slavery is, it had (until very very recently in some areas) a strong economical and sociological importance. They could not be assimilated or extremely slowly until emanciption but would cost/eat less. Possibility to trade them a bit as some worker units. Could act as workers or be incorporated into cities. Obtained when destroying a barbarian camp.

Foreign workers could be assimilated as well as citizens.

- Immigration : advantage and shortcoming. Possibility to accept or refuse, nationwide or in some cities (macro or micro-issue)

-LouLong



Ability to turn off city defections

-markusf



all screens especially the diplomacy polished to accomodate 16 civs at once

-cort



civilopedia link from within production decision points (as civ2)

-cort



Allow links to the Civilopedia by right clicking in the selection box in town for improvements/units.

-Grunthex



Make ctrl+s => save the game as the last file saved (like in other programs like MS word) and ctrl+shift+s => save as

-ADG



When SINGLE clicking on a city I want to view the city screen, not activate a random unit

City screen--Under preferences you can uncheck the preference that the units defending a city are shown on top of the city. Then you won't activate them when you click on the city. (but you can't see what units enemy civs have defending, either!)

Double clicking should activate the top stacked unit, hopefully the most powerful unit; Single clicking should activate the city.

Credit for first paragraph-ADG...Possible Fix- Boris Godunov, Third Line- DarkCloud





A more aesthetic icon for the .Exe file for Civ

-ADG






VIII. General



Buttons on cuty screen that will automatically reallocate workers to maximize a type of production. For example, click button 1 to maximize science, button 2 to maximize food, etc. This was a useful feature in CTP1/2

-chill123



1. The Player should be allowed to assassinate leaders

2. If the player does so, there should possibly be turmoil in the country or possibly a war declaration on the agressor nation

-Andrew Cory/DarkCloud



What if, Like Europa Universalis; the Leaders of your country grew old and died, then were replaced over the ages: For example with King Henry, then when the citizens revolt he's replaced with, let's say, Prime Minister David Lloyd George

-The Infamous X



it would be greatly appreciated if Firaxis includes tools for modification in a Modification Expansion Pack.

-DarkCloud



Here's a radical idea: change the hard-coded city radius model to something more fluid. I'm sick of having to space my cities "just so" to get highly productive cities without vast wildernesses in the middle of my nation for all time. If nothing else, give the cities an "economic radius" like the cultural radius. Preferably, so much would change about squares, population, and production that I wouldn't be able to briefly describe it here.

-Dienstag



Wouldn't it be nice if Firaxis went the way of Maxis and released tools for their game after the patching period is done.
Such as- new units, new color designs (this should be easy) for units, modification programs, development programs, etc.
for the game to encourage continued play and sales of the add-on packs (it worked for the sims) or, on their website host downloadable files like The Sims and RCT did.

-DarkCloud



Food redirect. A big city can redirect food to a new city (same way as with shields above?) so it can grow faster. And by redirecting the one remaining food to another city with one remaining food you can stop the Supermodel effect (growth-starvation-growth-starvation etc.).

-kailhun



There may be 2 kinds of happyness, one refecting contentment with socitey, and one that refects happyness with the leader. Thus, even if everyone is happy as clams, (how happy are clams, anyway? and how do we know?), the leader may have been caught in some huge scandle involving selling arms to forign nations, and thus violating congress. Wait, never mind, that could never happen...

-Andrew Cory



abilty to speed up AI movement in later game. Preferences choices aren't enough.

-chill123



Terrorists(no offense please) - Being able to (possibly) destroy wonders and buildings in other civs with radicalists willing to die for your nation(also religions could have this as well)

-Sharule



Also as a extra idea, you could "eliminate" or "propigandinize" any religion, nationality or political group.

-Sharule





Propogana use on your own civilization to increase your morale.

Examples: Counter Corruption; Lower War Weariness

-Trifna



Counter-Spying Measures: Use a Spy on one of your cities to set up a counter-espionague ring in the city and defend your city from Spying attacks.

-DarkCloud



Or, you could allocate tax money and resources to the anti-espionague units in your Espionague screen

-DarkCloud




SPECIALISTS



· Serf - unhappy worker, suffers -1/3 production (see below)

· Worker - works in city radius square

· Farmer* - improves food output by 1 in square

· Trader* - improves arrows output by 1 in square

· Miner* - improves shields output by 1 in square.

· Mason - beginning terraforming unit (later Yeoman, engineer, terraformer).

· Settler - special unit, can work or terraform, but cannot be a specialist. Can move from town to town. Must be constructed first, as per Civilization II rules. Never becomes unhappy.

· Scientist - + science

· Tax collector - + tax (limit 1 per 5 citizens)

· Entertainer**- produces luxuries (make normal citizen happy).

· Priest** - makes unhappy citizen happy (limit 1 per 5 citizens)

· Governor -available only in regional centers, or cities outside of a region. Improves efficiency for region or city (by +3, assuming a 0-10 scale for each social engineering value). Only one allowed, and only at capital/regional centers and cities outside of a regional radius (represents the regional bureaucracy - a significant investment in human resources in any culture to date).

-The List


Farmers and traders appear automatically when in the right square, and require certain technologies to be discovered first. They can also be manually selected. However, they limit mineral output to a maximum of 2. A Miner gets +1 minerals, but destroys ALL food output in their square (they should also appear much later in the game).

-The List



I know it can be done in the editor, but it would be nice to be able to assign colors to civs at startup. Some colors (Russian brown, for example) are hard to see on the mini-map, Others are OK for AI civs (like the French magenta), but I'd prefer not to use them when I play that particular civ.

- Purple



Revert to flags to identify nationality of units, and reserve color on the units themselves to make them visually more distinctive. On a high-res monitor they are so small that I can't always distinguish one type from another.

-Purple



The ability to traverse over the north poles' ice cap with submarines etc.

-Trifna



If a sea square has already been explored- the ship who next enters it does so with 1/3 less movement required.

-HolyWarrior



It should be possible to take the resources of squares which are not in your city radius, like in SMAC. These resources go to your local trade, like the food/shield you want to trade between cities. To takes the resources far from your cities, you would build a special square improvement, losing the worker in the process (in fact, it would be a colony for food/shields). Such a "food-colony" could be built only in your borders, but only destroyed if someone pillages it : if my ennemies expand their borders in my former territory, they can use these food-colonies without rebuilding them, provided they didn't pillage them during the war.

Building food-colonies should be possible anytime, but useless as long as you don't have the knowledge to trade food. Since many tiles will probably have food colonies on it, the graphics should be discreet (not bigger than a mine for example)

-Spiffor



Migration: People move around, they look for more oppertunities.

People get unhappy if they are not allowed to leave when they want to. Eventually riot, and leave anyway...or something. Could be very cool. People should even move around in your own cities. If there isn't enough food in one, people would go to another.

-I think a migration model is much better then sudden changes of allegance

It shouldn't be a big event once every 1000 years, but a constant ever changing process.

-jack_frost




Great People (Einstein, Picasso, John Lennon, etc) Who can add bonuses to your civilization's culture without being involved in wars.

They will be produced when a civ's "culture" rating is high for a number of years.

monkspider/DarkCloud



Post-Modern Era: Roughly about 50-100 years in the future: so that the game can fill up to 2100 AD.

But not too many 'strange' units... There are many new weapons on the drawingboards- EMP bombs, super-stealth fighters, Sub-space fighters, Mach-8 planes, etc.

-Wrong_shui/DarkCloud



For the post-modern era- Engineers can build a "suspension bridge" across 1 to 2 blocks of ocean

-DarkCloud



You should be able to build a seabase in the water (city in water).

Before you can build a seabase you must discover some specific knowledge.

As a differns from normal cities submarines should be able

to attack seabases. The same knowledge that allows you to build seabases will

allow you to build a new unit called (for example) mini-sub. The buildings in a

seabase should be different from the usual

cities but do the same thing. Instead of Coastal fortress you got torpedodefence

for example. Only some units should be able to defend a seabase and some able to attack.

The only units that should be able to find a seabase should be subs and a new unit like

harpuneman. Ships would just sail over the base.

Anyon



Flexible city radii.


I'm no fan of the 21 square cross that every city gets in civ, civ2, and civ3. You just end up with a dreary grid of evenly spaced cities all three or four squares apart. Nothing like the real world.



So, i'd suggest a system which allows city radii to 'meld'. That is, when you build city close to another one, instead of getting several squares of overlap, the radii expand in other directions so both cities get a decent amount of squares.

-Sandman



I'd like the Transform ability back.

-Sinapus



A new timeline:

Each time the game is ended we see this timeline telling when the cities/wonders were built and where, etc. But I'd also like to see another smaller timeline telling when a major war starts/ends, the golden age for all civs, era changes for the civs (you know, the modern days, ancient days, etc...). This timeline is not ment to be mixed with the classic timeline so we can choose which one we want to see/read (Just like we can choose if want to see the history for power or culture...)

-ADG



Free maps of allies territories if they are allied with you.

-ADG

[DarkCloud]

Special needs for special wonders:

e.g. the Pyramids needs to be built in a city built on a dessert square (or the dessert square next to a river) square. If this is made there need to be made some changes in how many shields the Pyramids (or any wonder with a such change) needs, otherwise we end up having to built the Pyramids in the year 2k AD

-ADG



1.Bring back random placement of Civs! Civs *always* starting next to their culture buddies really ruins the surprise element & makes things too predictable. Culture Civ Placement should be an option at most.

-Pyrodrew



Please give the zoom in and out more levels.

BarnDoor



City 2-square grid

Andrew1999



"Dont zoom to units with orders" command from SMAC, if not familliar with this order it means that a unit with orders (say Automated Worker) just does his work 'off screen' and the view doesn't switch to him, this would save heaps of time later in the game when I have 50 automated workers...

-Blake



see the total of rebelling/unhappy cities in the lower right status box. I wouldn't end my turn knowing that my cities will revolt next turn.

-Marko Polo



More animations for the wonders, cities, etc.

-tishco



Barbarian villages

Randomly placed resources

-EnochF



Corruption should be less intrusive: Example: WE NOW HAVE: 100% corruption after 20 or so cities

-markusf



instead of just having a city switch sides suddenly, perhaps a few population points could exchange first over a couple turns so that you know you have a cultural problem instead of being surprised by it.

-YahMon



IN SCHISM:

- Maybe if you lose your capital, instead of a recently conquered civ (if you conquered them or not) taking half your empire, your empire splits up into

a) Cities loyal to you (the largest and most powerful part)

b) Smaller, unhappy minorities (the civs that have been conquered)

c) The largest minority (religiously/economically) with a different name (eg: Persians - Parthians, French - Burgundians, Babylonians - Assyrians, Greeks - Macedonians)

It would make keeping your empire happy more important

-Mongoloid Cow



If you do not treat colonies well (forced labor, civil disorder) they might join with other colony/cities and become a new civilization.

-Jer8m8



Replace the histogram with a simple line graph, which displays compared values more effectively, IMO. At the very least, how about a toggle?

-Purple



Barbarians settling and becoming empires

-Kolyana



Perhaps a movie a la "Age of Empires" after you win the game?

There should be different ones for different victory styles, UN, Market, Conquest, Space, etc.

-DarkCloud/Libertarian



Also, I wish you didn't have to launch the spaceship when it's built. I wish you could launch when you decide to.

-Libertarian



Windows mode

-KaiserIsak



Intro a la Civ I

-Eli



I'd like some way to guage the cultural attitude of a city. Are they about to jump ship? Are they happy? How long do I have to say, build a temple to boost the local culture? How many military units will I need to keep them from defecting? For that matter, how about giving the units a chance to evacuate or put the rebellion down, instead of just vanishing?

-Culture



We need more ways to deal with corruption.

-Monoriu



Immigration (emmigration) if you have high culture (happiness) people from a nearby civ could immigrate to your civ's closet cities and vise versa. This could lead up to an entire city switching civ loyalty.

-civmonger



I would love to have a program added to the game that would allow us to make our own flags to represent our country. Maybe in the game have a small flag on a pole waving over each of our cities. To me it puts more imagination into the game. Or better yet, not even have the program just have all countries flags today to choose from and maybe a few fictional flags. If this was implemented into the game it would be very easy for us to have mods or downloads of other flags if the ones included were not what we wanted.

-fascistdictator



Courthouses that really reduce corruption.

-jimmytrick






IX. Editors



*Events for the Editor

Ribannah



-The ability to make scenarios

-Roman



Allow City placement in the scenario editor

-Dienstag



Scripting Language for the game

-Rasbelin



The scenario editor needs all the power in the world! If he/she wants it to happen that if one city falls, every other city in a region goes to that civ, or if he wants a world war to be programmed in, he should be able to without having to go through an enormous list of events; ie create the world war in one event not 100+ after something specific happens.



The Scripting language should be clear and simple

-Mongoloid Cow



BRING BACK CHEAT MODE!

1. For scenario editors

2. As a 'sandbox' mode for the game.

-The entire scenario community/newbies to civ



*Corrected Earth Maps

Ribannah



the editor needs the zoom function.

BarnDoor



We should be able to edit the pollution rates

DarkCloud




X. The UN/Diplomacy



International Peace Conference



- Since the world wars are difficult, if not impossible, to end, there should be a possibility to call international congresses (by clicking a button in the diplomacy / shift-D screen).

( See this site for how it should look:

The central proposition (such as "peace treaty with any other, right of passage with any other"...) must be accepted by all so that the congress is a success. The proposition would make the leaders react, and you can see with their faces if they agree or not.

If they don't agree, what to do ? Bribe them ! By double clicking on their face, a specialized diplomacy screen should pop up, where you make propositions only to make them accept the treaty (private diplomacy can be held anywhere else during the game).

Naturally, you don't want to pay for the whole world peace. In such a situation, there should be a button when you're speaking to "give to..." an other :

(See this site)

Once you click it, the concessions you ask from your partner don't go to you, they go to another civ. Here's an example :

Let's say the Aztecs have won against the Iroquois, capturing Salamanca, but due to intricated MPPs, this war cannot cease. As the neighbours of the peaceful Iroquois, you don't want the balance to be broken by an unfinishable war. Then, you call a congress between Iroquois, Aztecs, all of their allies. The Aztecs will accept the peace treaty for 20 gold per turn, but you feel the Iroquois must pay : On the congress screen you double click on Hiawatha, choose "give to..." -> "the Aztecs". And then, as you would do in a normal diplomacy screen "gold"-> "per turn" -> "20".

(See this site: )

When you return on the congress screen, you see Moctezuma accepting, because he knows he recieves a compensation.

If you definately cannot have everyone accept, you could kick the "rebels" out the congress.



Well, I admit managing the other's diplomacy is not easy, so I think such a tool should be completely optional. But useful if you want to influence more directly the others. These multilateral bargainings could be used to make solid alliances too, by asking all those who are MPPed with you to MPP between themselves as well. (or to ask everyone to reduce his nuclear weapons, and so on...)

International congresses should be available once nationalism is discovered, or once UN is built. I don't think the AI could manage such a thing, so only the player could call for one. If the negociations succeed, due to your great diplomatic skill, the invited civs would be a bit more likely to vote for you.

-Spiffor



BORDERS AS A NEGOTIABLE COMMODITY:

I think borders should be another bargaining tool. In the diplomat screen you should be able to move the boards around and offer the new arrangement to the other civilization. (i.e. you move the border) so you have more land (maybe including a city or two) in exchange for something” (Blue Waldo).

-The List




I thought about an information screen telling everything about another civ. It would be accessed by right clicking the portrait of a foreign leader in the diplo screen. It could look like the attached picture.

(Here I'm commenting the picture. If my post interest you, you should watch it first). The shown resources are everything the foreign civ has at disposal (local + import), not only what they can trade. This way, you know if they can build knights or not at all. The "may want" resources are what they could buy from you. When your cursor is on a resource, you have a small popup which indicates where it comes from, or where it goes to (like "fine chinese silk" in your trade advisor)

The map is here so that you know where are the cities, like at the culture advisor.

The science tab would show all their knowledge, the most recent discoveries they made being at the top (it is useless to know directly they mastered writing when you have to scroll down all the way to know if they have advanced flight).

The buttons in the bottom would make it more practical to go spying (you are directly spying by the French) or comparing their army (you go directly to the defense advisor screen, the French being in the right column)

http://apolyton.net/forums/attachmen...&postid=661805">THIS IS A LINK TO SPIFFORS PICTURE MENTIONED ABOVE

In addition the Intelligence Information screen should include information about What science they are researching and Who they intend to vote for


-Spiffor



Land, therefore, a commodity:

Allow buying, selling, and trading individual pieces of land. This would allow simulation of: The Louisiana Purchase, The Gadsden Purchase, The Polish Corridor, The Alaska Purchase, etc.”

(HolyWarrior)."



Declare atrocities, sanctions, nuclear arms reductions, pollution reductions

-David Murray



Ask another Civ to end a war against a third civ.

-Kyle



Ability to pressure allies/others into breaking treaties/stopping war

-Raleigh

[DarkCloud]

Players should be able to trade units with other civilizations.

With the same system as for workers (the unit you want to trade must be in your capital, you must have trade roads with your partner).

The AI should value this unit about : the unit's modernity, the unit's experience, the civilization's military needs.

-Spiffor



Players should be able to bribe other civs to declare war to others, without getting directly involved, like in Civ2. With this tool, you really can play a puppet-master kind of game : weakening your ennemies, and direclty helping your friends, without waging a war.

-Spiffor



Your spies should know the vote intentions of infiltrated civs (POSSIBLE SPY OPTION??? INFILTRATE PLANNED COUNCIL VOTE???).

There should be a way to bribe the other civ to vote for you (HIGLY expensive, and impossible if their spies know you're going to win)

-Spiffor



A complete information screen about others civs is needed for the civs with which you have an embassy.

It would list the: Government, capitol, relations with other civs (not only war/peace..., but also politeness), trade agreements, treasury, vote intentions, and most important : the knowledges they have and are researching. This screen should be accessed by a right click.

At the beginning of each turn, your foreign advisor "could" pop up (with an option for turning it off), saying in one screen everything which happened (war declarations, discovered technologies, traded technologies, diplomatic incidents...), big deal such as war and peace declarations would be written in bold.

-Spiffor



Toned down requests for unit removals; or require the enemy to hurry their unit's movement through your lands

Examples: Ask them questions: ""Well, what is that unit doing here? Where is it going? How long will be be within our borders?" "

-Kolyana



I'd like to be able to co-ordinate actions with the AI from time to time, rather than just have him running around doing his own thing.

-Kolyana



There must be some way of demanding that the units NEVER RETURN to your lands

-Kolyana




An expirable, non-revocable non-aggression treaty. This would fix trading between agressive and non-aggressive countries.


Example:

A Civ is agressive but needs some resources. Right now, the other Civs won't trade with them, likely due to security concerns. Why give oil to the enemy war machine?


But - a non-aggression treaty involved with a mutual trade that expires after 20 turns would allow the non-aggressive Civ a sense of security and give the aggressive Civ an opportunity to obtain trades and enjoy the diplomatic aspect of the game.


Allow us to trade security for goods - it makes sense and benefits both parties.

-Venger



In the UN: anyone can ask someone to stop fighting another- useful if you have two potential allies but when you side with one it pisses the other off...

-Cian McGuire



If the UN is built and other nations have agreed to vote in favour of one of your competitors you have the option to say "F**k the UN!" and go on with your bussiness.

This decision would result in all other nations being at war with you for a period of 40 years.

-Mannamagnus



Amassing troops next to A.I. border should be considered hostile and they should prompt you to demilitarize the area or declare war if they are outnumbered more than 5:1.

-YahMon



Is a "Dont watch allies/peace/enemies moves" (except combat) too much to ask for? (wasn't for SMAC)

-Blake



We n eed to have more info on other civilizations in the foreign advisor screen (i.e. are they more or less technologically advanced?, what gov't type?, income per turn?, yada yada yada)

-YahMon



1. Domestic Advisor


I'd like "Domestic Advisor" screen tweaked as follows:



- the advisor should start her reports from the most serious ones:



1. "city is revolting"

2. "city is unhappy" (will revolt next turn)

3. "city is not growing"

4. The city is content/happy


Right now these reports comes in random order.

- when advisor says "Rheims is unhappy", the city name should be underlined and if I click on it I should get the city screen.


- I can sort the cities by various columns (food, production etc.) but the effect only lasts a few seconds and then the city list reverts to the default order. The effect of sorting should stay until I sort it otherways.


- the revolting/unhappy cities should be red in the list

-Marko Polo



2. Methods to Win the Game


-Commercial win (Monopole of productivity, a certain amount of shields per turn or an amount compared to your closest rival, like a cultural win but not)
-Happiest civ (minimum number of happy civs but it has to be, ummm, let's say 70% of your empire)
-Military win (3 or 4 times the army of your closest rival)
-Wealth win (Certain amount of money, let's say 70000 gold. Cuz sometimes I get 1200 gold a turn so less would be to easy)

-Spectator



There should be some sort of reward for winning the game; perhaps a specific movie, or a specific city that unlocks a new unit or such.

-Spectator/DarkCloud




Conquest: This is the most obvious. Controlling the entire world is a worthy goal for a civilization and shows that you really dominated your opponents.

Space Race: Not as satisfying as Conquest, but to win your civ has to have been very scientifically and industrially advanced. I think that this is a legitimate win because your are expanding your civilization throughout the galaxy, ensuring its survival.

Diplomatic: This is where I would make the most changes. I think that Diplomatic, Cultural, and Domination should be combined in this. To win a diplomatic victory you should have to have a large amount of culture (maybe around 80,000 points or so) This is because no one would take a rude, uncultivated state seriously in a diplomatic situation and prevents the diplomatic winner from being a total warmonger. You should be in a dominant position militarily and population wise ( something like the 66% of the world that is already required in a Domination victory) because no one would take a weak power seriously as a diplomatic force. Would the world bow to the diplomatic wishes of Belize if it built a building and said that it was the U.N.? No. The diplomatically dominant country has to be very militarily powerful to give it diplomatic legitamacy. Finally, you have to fulfill the current requirements of the diplomatic victory. I think that these new requirements would make for a satisfying diplomatic victory, and would kinda resemble the U.S.'s worls role today.
This would be a good victory for someone who likes to play with a balance between war and city improvement, and would cause someone to try and conquer a few rivals while being diplomatically honorable. This would be much more satisfying than the three victories that it combines.

Scoring: It is an unsatisfying way to win, but it was designed to be that way and should remain so. I wouldn't change it.

-Nationalist



I have got a plan about changing the Cultural vitory into the Precursor Legacy victory.

I have posted it long before, and it is simply about researching techs in the very end of the end of the Tech tree. You will then be able to find a strategic resource, the Artifact. This will allow a Wonder that produces enough culture to gain victory within a few turns.

-Optimizer




XI. Governments



1. Corruption



I don't exactly know how corruption works in Civ3. I'm also stealing some of these ideas from other threads. Those qualifiers in hand, let's talk about corruption.



Both waste and corruption are affected by the city's distance from the place, the empire's size, the government type. I can see how a courthouse would diminish the corruption/waste due to distance from the palace, but I think there should be more ways to mitigate corruption/waste. As I see it, corruption can be lessened by improving the effeciency of the workforce, increasing communication throughout the empire, and by developing more efficient and reliable ways of handling resources. What I propose is a system with several baby steps to lessening corruption based on several techs and city improvements.



Each one of these techs would knock off, say, 5-10% of the overall corruption in a city. That number is a total guess because I don't really know what the corruption model is.



Currency <- exchanging money is more efficient than bartering

Banking <- reliability & accountability in finances

Corporation <- corporations are known for improving efficiency to maximize profits

Steel <- a mixture, a more efficient use of natural resources

Recycling <- by definition decreases waste



Writing, Printing Press, Radio, Computer, Satellite <- decreasing corruption by making the empire 'smaller' through communication


I don't want this to result in zero corruption. I just want a more realistic and manageable system. An added plus to this system is that half of these techs currently have no new improvement or unit attached to them (corporation, steel, writing, printing press, radio). This would also restore some of the importance to tech gains that has been lost due to the revamped resource/combat system.


Police Stations fighting corruption is a good idea, but they wouldn't really address waste. so I would only allow them to do so if corruption and waste were decoupled which would probably just add unnecessary complexity.


An idea which I love from another thread was the introduction of a Supreme Court small wonder, buildable when you have 5 courthouses, that gives 15-30% corruption reduction to every city in your empire.

-Sze



The corruption model in Civ3 is excellent - that is, until the industrial ages.

All through dawn of civilization to the industrial revolution, every empire suffered rampant corruption. The Romans keeping only one shield in far away cities like Londinium seems fair to me.

However, with the development of railroad, telegraph, and then radio, EFFICIENT post (mainly due to the invention of the stamp), telephone, and now internet, it is completely ridiculous to think corruption (in modern, advanced countries) has any link to distance from the capital. Is San Francisco more corrupt than New York just because it is farter from Washington?



My suggestion would be to put a cap to corruption depending on the government and tech level. At best, under a democracy with all techs, it could be something like 25% (which would justify offshore cities). This would yield approximately the same results as all the other "add this improvement" "add this small wonder" suggestions without creating unuseful complexity.

-Oncle Boris





2. General



Fascism, Theocracy

-Yoleus



-I know this has been talked to death, but I really do think it is a good idea. A social enginnering thing (alaa smac). Not futuristic, but just something that lets us customize our civ. It think the Commuism, Republic, Democracy are too out of date. Example: what kind of economy do you want your civ too have? Is it a peaceful civ, or warlike? And have the choices impact how other civs look at you. Have bonus's and punishments, ranging; for the choices you make. You want to have a depoist government?, but with huge military power?

-Jamison

[DarkCloud]

If the civ Series continue to use exclusive governments, they should have much more identity. If your people are too unhappy under democracy, they should not vote for you next elections, and you will suffer a whole term watching a !&# AI managing YOUR empire. Under communism, there are no local governors or automated workers, you decide everything (economy is planned after all). Under despotism, instead of atrocious corruption, the governors should sometimes build what they want in the city, without you being able to be obeyed during this construction (lack of true authority and bureaucracy)... Just ideas. But having government types with strong identities would make a revolution not only a choice between trade and war, but also a choice of society.

-Spiffor



Dynamic social engineering: Where the values of your citizens would be based not only on your civ caracteristics, but also on your level of tech advancement, and the city improvements you have. For example, a civ with many banks and stock exchanges would have Wealth as its social value. Religion could be included in this screen, but I disagree with it: whatever religion he had, man has always been the same - he wanted decent living conditions, food, love, etc. Adding religion would add unnecessary complexity, while the idea of holy wars could be replaced by antagonism between different social engineerings.

-Oncle Boris



How about the idea of Wind? Where certain paths in the water provided quicker route cause of the winds are stronger in that area? or something along those lines.

Midway



Political--Monarchy, Republic, Democratic

Economic--Capitalist, Communist, Fascist

Religious--Polytheism, Monotheism, Existentialism

Scientific--Philosophy, Scientific Method, another to be named

-HolyWarrior



Social Engineering:



political structure:

tribal - despotism - monarchy - oligarchy - republic

main "reason" behind the political structure:

religion - bloodline - wealth - military - constitution

civilization "core" (like the "goals" in SMAC"):

religion - commerce - power - research

them freedom level, education level...

-Yoleus



More govts with strategic value (everyone goes for democracy, even the AI;there is not enough variation) Maybe even variations on current govts say for instance Parliament as a variation of Republic (a modern republic if you will)

-civmonger



I can't remember if the game had governments, but it had castes: military, religious, worker (sounds like Minbari so far ), maybe scientific, not sure. And with sliders you could adjust how much power each caste had in your civilization. My memory gets foggy afterwards, but I'm sure that when you had scientific caste higher you'd get science discovered more quickly, but your military built up slower and all... But with more scientists and less workers, you'd get less stuff done, less food/production, etc. It was a very interesting concept. Too bad I don't have that game anymore :/


Where I'm leading with this is that, dunno, the concept of Governments in civ-games doesn't really represent the whole variety of governing bodies in the world. US and France might both be democracies, but they certainly don't work the same way. So adjusting various attributes to tell how you want to run your country might add more variety. Instead of going "Fundamentalist" you'd pump up your Religious Caste slider and get some bonuses from that. Instead of going "Communist" you'd pump up your worker caste. But maybe you don't want to be ultra-communist? So you'd also give some power to your Merchant caste, or your military caste. And so on... Changes wouldn't be immediate, just like revolutions things don't happen instantly.

-narmox



also have an environmental caste (cheaper environmental structures (Solar Plant, Mass Transit, Recycling Centre) and slightly better resource management (environmentalists recycle everything after all))

-Mongoloid Cow



A way to manage large empire. Instead of just city governors, how about "state" or "territory" governors. One could group cities together and assign perhaps a "ground offensive" command or a "culture building" command.

-cassembler



Feudalism

-DarkCloud



Socialism

-YahMon



3. Great Leaders



Getting a great leader could unlock a new small wonder like a statue that only adds culture. When a major war ends I think it could also unlock a similar monument, or memorial. Even a fortress that withstands a great conflict might become a culture booster (Remember the Alamo?)

-Drathx



Well there should be a maximum amount of time a leader can be around, say 100 turns or whatever.

-THE INFAMOUS X



XII. Trade



Ability to trade military units--international arms dealing, a very important part of modern day diplomacy!

-David Murray



1- Possibility of exchanging territorial maps. Exemple: giving all cartographic info we have about China (their territory only) or of our own country. Territory not possessed by any country could be traded too. Useful to unveil the enemy without unveiling ourselves. Or to mutually unveil our territories.


2- Possibility of only exchange cartographic info, without exchanging info about ressources emplacement. Veeeeery useful... Also opposit: possibility of exchanging present info about where are which ressources. Here also, it could be done per territory, but I guess you would necessarily need the map first!


3- Possibility of doing the two things already mentioned, but by determining the territory per city territory instead of civilization territory. Pointless? Well, could be useful to unveil only a PART of a territory. Do you really think Europeans gave their discoveries' maps?... Anyone wanna try for asking maps of USA's Zone 51? Good luck and carry a M-16 with ya. Now you stil could furnish maps of only a part of your territories without problem. Or maybe you could determine, before exchanging, which city territory you'll pass to anyone asking for your territory map? Well... this idea stil needs some polishing to know how it may be useful and I have an exam tommorow.


-Trifna



Ability to trade food to prevent the ridiculous situation of one starving city and one city overproducing in the same Civilization.

-David Murray



Roads provide trade bonus anywhere

-EnochF





XIII. Technologies


Ability to steal a technology when capturing a city

-TLG



I think that we should have 2 "science" bars in our advisor screen. One is the funding for the number of turns you want it to take to discover the new tech and the other one is the funding you give to your scientits. Let me explain.

Example: If you give your scientists the max funding for the "flight tech" they will come up with the best plane they can with that tech. If you give less funding to your scientists and more funding for turn time then you might get your planes faster but they wont be top of the notch planes. It adds a lot of strategy.

And how would it work. We know a 100% is max funding. So if they make 5 kinds of planes for that tech it would be 20% funding for the worst plane then 40% for the not so bad plane and so on. And that for each tech.

Imagine the replay value! Everygame would be different. And if you got money growing in trees you can max out both bars.
And it would add lots of units but you wont have anymore on your "build" screen.


Programming Logic


Funding=f

Techs=T+tech number so let's say flight would be tech 12.

and the unit=U + a unit number so let's say the second best plane number is 24.



So when a tech is completed, the AI goes to that line:

If "f"=40% then "t12"="U24"



*The two sciences bar resulting in multiple types of the same unit is really only applicable to the industrial and modern eras, where scientists and engineers actually targeted civilization advances. Earlier "discoveries" had little in common with that model.

-Blaupanser (Credited with the * note)

-Spectator



MOO II had a similar idea with their tech tree. You could only chose one of the upgrades in each advance to research, the other you would have to get from other players through war or trade.

-Tuberski




Philosophy use to give a free tech to the 1st Civ to discover it... now it appears to do nothing.
-Pyrodrew




XIV. Religion


I think different religions could be implemented like any governmental
forms. It could have some kind of effect on the cultural expansion and support certain governmental
forms. They would also replace the lack of fundamentalism in the game.

-Rasbelin



Religion:

There should be several different religions, with authentic names like Islam, Christianity etc. if one prefers so. Each religion would be rated on a orthodoxity scale. The more orthodox, the more prone the practicing civ would be to reject science. This could be illustrated by having limits on available research rate on the Domestic Advisor screen. Only a practically atheist civ should be a granted 100% research rate. Look at Bush's current cloning bashing, for instance.


But, there must be some pros with having a religion right?


-Without a current religion, you can't build any religious improvements. Hence, religion will be an essential part of the management until the discovery of advances such as Electricity etc, which allows construction of modern happiness-related improvements such as stadiums, TV stations (one's enough, although all cities must be connected via cable), outruling the religious improvements with their superiority.

The more orthodox a religion is, the more happiness does the improvement give. Look at eg. the complete death-defy of the Taliban soldiers.

This also opens up for a most wanted return of Fundamentalism. The most orthodox regims doesn't approve Democracy as government.

As for diplomacy, certain religions are more tolerant to other religions than other, although Islam and Hinduism should be made the most ignorant.

-Uncle_Funk



General information

Every civ would have a state religion that would be practiced in all cities of that civ. The ruler of the civ could implement different religions that he would have the prequisites for. Each religion/ideology would have different effects and features. The ruler could also decide that there wouldn't be any state religion at all. The religions would also affect certain city improvements. The ruler wouldn't be able to adopt any religions/ideologies before inventing Ceremonial Burial. Before that there wouldn't be any common worship of higher powers. There wouldn't be any common religious city improvemnets like the Temple and Cathedral. Instead all religions would have their own ones. The Wonders of the World would still be the same as usual. Every religion/ideology would also have a specified attitude towards other religions/ideologies. That would give some benefits in decrease or increase of war weariness when having war against a civ with a certain religion. Example: If the Aztecs have Islam as their state religion, the war weariness would be slightly increased when fighting against the Islamistic Germans.

What new would be added?


- A new advisor, the Cleric Advisor. He would work as the spiritual matters and theology advisor of the player. Implementing state religions would be done in his screen, where you could also monitor the status of your empire's spiritual life.


- Different religions and ideologies reflecting the different eras. Each of them would have their own prequisites, features and city improvements.


- New RCIs (RCI=religious city improvement).

Example religion


Indigenious religion


Prequisites: Ceremonial Burial.

RCI: --

Effects: Additional luxuries in the capital city. Boosts any Despotic goverment by paying 1 unit's support in the capital. Decreases the overall science production per turn.

Attitude to other religions: Cautious.


Comments: Indigenious religions doesn't usually have any temples, so therefore they don't have any RCI. The effects in the capital reflects that the leader is often seen as a person comparable to the gods. Indigenious religions doesn't support science, so that's reflected in the drop of science production.

-Rasbelin



With regards to Rasbelin's idea of religion, maybe after certain technological achievements, different types of religion pops up with each better than the last.


For example: (needs work)


All citizens start of Animistic. With Ceremonial Burial, they can build a shrine/idolia/deific building

After researching Polytheism, Polytheic priests pop up. The shrines are upgraded to temples are more effective.

After researching Monotheism, larger and better forms of happiness/cultural are available, and a HOLY WAR can be declared where all nations with that religion as the state religion are invited to join in without reputation damage.

-Mongoloid Cow



Religion would be a non-controlable force(Unless you decide to use or have a mass killing of that religion ect...) There would be religious spheres, and each religion would have a capital(like holy city in italy is the "capital" of christianity). Also you could use it to convert those of another country, making it harder for your enemy to keep, and easier for you to control(hehe).

-Sharule



orthodoxy : great idea ! You should decide how orthodox is your religion. Historically, all religions have been fundamentalistic sometimes (inquisition anyone ?), and all have been more open-minded sometimes (the muslim world was the most scientifically advanced Civ at a time).
Maybe we should have an "orthodoxy tab" in the religious advisor screen, like the science / luxury tab at the domestic advisor.

-Spiffor



Indigenous Religions- no temples; auto=temple effects.

Drop in Science rates.

-DarkCloud



Religion could also play an integral part in diplomacy - two civs of the same state religion would like each other more than two civs with different state religions.

-Mongoloid Cow

religion should be like culture, in fact in abstract religion could be seen as part of civ3's culture simulation.

Religion can also influence and allow taking over of people like culture does.

Perhaps you need enough religious points (or culture) before you can install a State Religion. Religions could be banned, like roman catholicisism was in early protestant england(15-17th century at least).

-Admiral PJ



religion,like shogun, can make you friends and enemies.

like government changing.

it can cause revolts, immigration, new civs.

each religion has a rating that is how many citizens are that religion.

each citizen has its religion, like nationality

etc.

-tishco






XV. City Improvements

Superhighways

Stock exchanges

-EnochF



More improvements and worker abilities to boost demographic growth : modern farmland (which positive effect is cumulative with railroad), industrial fishing harbours, which produce three food per water tile instead of two. Agro-industrial complex as a city improvement which raises the food output by 25% or 50% in the city. A very modern agriculture feeds more than 200 people for one peasant after all.

-Spiffor



Some projects would need not only industrial production to be built, but also money and science. I think about wonders particularly : to build the SETI program, you would use the normal shield production (say, it needs 200 shields), but also the scientific output (600) and and some money directly (200, these figures are just examples), since SETI programs dosn't need ultra big buildings but ultra big research

-Spiffor



Make the Hospital city improvement buildable with with Medicene advance. It can heal friendly units (1 HP / turn) within the city's cultural boundaries, prevents population reduction during times of anarchy, and decreases casualties due to bombardment and/or nuclear attack.

-Sze



highways

-Jer8m8



City Improvements



City Hall: reduces corruption, but has relatively high maintenance and reduces happiness (as opposed to increasing unhappiness).


Zoo: increases happiness, commerce and science.


Cinema: possibly a replacement to coloseum.


Small Wonders


Senate/Upper House of Parliament: Enhances all effects of City Halls , vetos some actions a la Civ2.


National Library and/or Museum: increases culture, happiness and science.

National Gallery and/or Concert Hall: increases culture and happiness.


Fleet Street (National Press): increases culture, happiness, commerce and war weariness; prerequisite - Printing Press (well it's not used for anything at the moment ).


National Radio Station (think BBC): as above but made possible by - guess what - Radio!


National TV Station (also think BBC): as above.


Written Constitution: increases happiness and reduces corruption.


National Health Service: increases happiness, reduces disease, but has high maintenance.


Secret Police: reduces enemy espionage and corruption, but increases unhappiness.


FBI/NCIS: reduces corruption.

-Xenophon

[DarkCloud]

Stadium - modern Colosseum. Gives +1 gold per turn.


Theater - Happiness +2, Cultural improvement.


Mill - increases food produce per turn by 50%. No maitenance.


Apothecary (ancient Pharmacy) - Decreases disease by 25%. Makes one citizen content. 1 maitenance.

-Mongoloid Cow



1.19) Base Support Structures: This Improvement includes ALL PAST CRITICAL structures under a single name and structure, including all the benefits. The old buildings will be replaced, and the upkeep costs will be low. Auto upgrade or build upgrades when you move to a new age [Trachmyr].


1.20) Pasteurization Plant: Adds 25% to total food due to the reduction in losses to spoilage. [Sieve Too]


1.21) Pesticide Plant: Adds another 25% to total food but increases pollution. [Sieve Too]


1.22) Doctor’s House: Added to the already suggested “Pharmacy” and “Hospital”—a series of three related improvements. [Ralph]


1.23) City Park: Makes one additional citizen content. Requires: Sanitation (Maybe a new advance, something like Modern Fertilizer). Cost: 60 shields Maintenance: 1 gold.


1.24) Theme Park: Two citizens happy. One additional gold for every 4 population. Plus 5 gold for every wonder in city (tourism). Requires: Mass Media advance (if Mass Media advance not in game then Electronics). Cost: 240 shields, Maintenance: 4 gold.


1.25) Transmitter: Makes two citizens content (by distraction). With the advent of Mass Media (Electronics if Mass Media not in game), provides one additional gold for every two citizens (advertising). Requires: Radio, Cost: 120 shields, Maintenance: 2 gold.


1.26) ISP: Plus 20% science in city. Plus 2 science for every other city with an ISP, including cities in other civilizations. Requires: Computer, Cost: 160 shields, Maintenance: 3 gold [ALL above by HarryKattz].


1.27) Bomb Shelter: Protects citizens from artillery attacks, missile attacks, and bombing runs from aircraft. Prevents the city from going down in population from these attacks.] [Travathian]


1.28) Stationary Units (Possibly custom-designed) [Isle]


1.29) Security Stations: Automatic genetic and/or fingerprint identification when accessing city areas/buildings everywhere: Automatically "detects" spies within city limits and may have a chance of making them fail. Spies may later gain an ability to have a chance to be hidden from security stations and decrease their fail chances. [Freddz]


1.30) Military Academy: Would control the upgrading of units. Units must be moved to a city with an Academy and stay there for 1 turn, and they would be automatically upgraded to the most modern military unit of their strategic type. Leonardo's would still exist as a wonder, but would act as a Military Academy in every city. [AgedOne]"

-The List with [xxxx] being the specific attribuited (courtesy of Jer8m8)



XVI. The Map



3D landscape ala SMAC or even better

-John Paul Jones



Railroad tycoon's elevated landscape w/transparent oceans.

-John Paul Jones



A 'Spinnable' Spherical view of the globe.

-John Paul Jones



I would like to play on a world which is actually shaped like a sphere. This would mean abandoning the square grid, as a square grid can't fit on a sphere. This would affect how cities fit on the grid and would affect the game at every level.

-Wombat





XVII. Civilizations



Growth oriented civs, with following bonuses : Extra food in town / city / metropolis. Growth oriented improvements twice cheaper.

-Spiffor



Every civ could have two different rulers available for being chosen as the civ's leader. Example: Americans - George Washington and Woodrow Wilson.

-Rasbelin



That reminds me of another idea - cities could gain the ability to surrender when presented with insurmountable odds. Ie, you surround a city with a few dozen tanks (or whatever) the citizens think 'bugger me' and fly the white flag. I think this would tie in with the fact that the AI has such high regard for your military strength.

-Xenophon



Barbarians, through capturing cities, could become civilizations themselves, over time. Thus we start with 8-10 civs on the map at the beginning and can end with 16 simultaneous civilizations.

In addition, some civilizations (ex: USSR) can split apart, through a peaceful coup, or a civil war.

-narmox



Close allies should be able to join each others civilization if the civs are much alike (examples: USSR)

-DarkCloud



1. Culture/Outlying Cities/Colonies



You may also send out settlers, but some of the same conditions apply. If they are too far away from the capital, they will revert to a proto-city state, as they are too far away from your control. (This provides an easy and logical control for ICS.) So your empire can only grow as your culture grows. Remember Alexander? He established a vast empire. And (in game terms) it reverted quite quickly.

As a result, the most important thing that a new civilisation must do is to establish a strong culture. With a strong culture, its citizens have purpose, the cities thrive and the empire will grow. Probably spontaneously. With a weak culture, your citizens don’t feel a part of anything worthwhile and you lose control of your own cities.

-Icewine



about colonies: have them count as air bases. You own them, they're outside of your territory and they are semi cities...so why can't you land planes there?

-Jer8m8



If a one civilizations culture is 50% lower than the other civs' culture, the game could be won by that one civ.

(example: English have a 66% culture rating and the Zulu,Americans,Iroquios have 10% each... Thus the English win because their culture rating is much higher than all the others... not necessarily because it is at a certain level)

-Trifna



military victories could add culture to a militaristic civ (and defeats reduce culture?).

-sophist



2. Civilization traits



Authoritarian/Obedient - Cheaper courthouses and police stations. Reduced corruption. Less unhappiness from forced labor. War weariness is reduced.

Fecund (couldn't come up with a non-pejorative sounding word. "Breeder" doesn't sound good either) - cheaper granaries. Possibly cheaper workers, settlers, harbors, aqueducts, and/or hospitals. Cities (pop 6-12) generate extra food on city square. Metropolises (pop 13+) generate even more extra food on city square). Workers possibly irrigate faster (but no other terrain improvements are faster).


Pacifist/Green/Tree Hugger - non-military based (no barracks, units, etc.) production is cheaper (10-20%). Population produces less 10-20% pollution. Cultural improvements are 10% cheaper. Extra resources from jungle and tundra tiles. Military Morale is VERY LOW. People riot if there are more than 2 military units per city.


-sophist/DarkCloud



Please, give the AI a target to follow. Everyone wants to win, but some civilization prefers to win by domination, others by diplomatic achievements. They should be intelligent enough to determine if their starting position makes this way of winning possible at all - starting in a huge swamp will not actually give you a huge bonus. I would have expected the Zulu, for example, to be a very aggresive people, giving you with one hand and threatening you with the other, regardless of their current strategic and financial situation.

-Cozy_22303



3. Immigration



Immigration/ Emigration. I once sent a post on another pre-CIV3 forum somewhere where I wanted this issue debated. CIV3 already has parts of it: if you conquer an enemy city, e.g the Greeks its inhabitants will still be greek for some while, happy or not. Now what would happen if the greeks could actually send people into your cities as workers whenever you're not at war, for example if your city is close to the greek borders. What if any civilization could do that? The city status window could show a diagram of the city population demographics, saying "90% Romans, 5% Greek, 2% Babylonians" or so. Those cities with more than, say, 20% foreign inhabitants could likely fall into disorder when a war erputs, or anytime on higher difficulty levels... restrictive/repressive governments (Communism? Despotism?) might throw out "unwanted" foreigners, thus decreasing city sizes... of course, YOU (the player) could send your own people to foreign cities... they would leave anyway if they don't like the way you govern the country, adding up to your competitor's city sizes... spies could only plant propaganda in cities holding inhabitants of your civilization (they can barely hide with people which language they don't speak or so)...

-Cozy_22303



4. Borders



Borders are defined by where a unit is located during a war; for, that unit has conquered the land which it is on.

-Cozy_22303




XVIII. Pollution



To me, pollution in a Civilization game should mean population decrease, or at least decreasing its growth.

-Cozy_22303



It's true that certain resources have simply gone because of pollution, but this does not necessarily mean resources close to the cities that actually produced pollution. It could happen anywhere else on the planet, depending on wind and water currents etc. In the game, imagine the Aztecs (deliberately?) polluting America's beaches or plains - couldn't that lead to war?

-Cozy_22303



I think a lot more should be made of pollution in the game. For instance, the same things that cause war weariness should cause unhappiness about high levels of pollution. Whenever there's a spill in a city's boundaries it could go into civil disorder. You should be able to make agreements with other nations to reduce pollution and if a country doesn't live up to its obligation all the other signatories impose embargoes. Also once you get to a certain stage (approximately the era of mass media) whenever you cut down a forest/jungle, the a couple of peeps in the nearest city are made unhappy.

-Xenophon

[DarkCloud]

Well, I understand that this list needs some work and additions, as well as a little repositioning, but it could serve as the basis for a new Civ IV list; when combined with the already existing Civ III Wishlists; and if we could have a few threadmasters, it would make for a good forum thread-area!

enjoy!

[alva]

I have read 'THE LIST' once (well almost ), do you know if anyone of Firaxis actually read it?

[Cyclotron]

Or, you could have just posted a link to the list...