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Below is a series of possible enhancements to the game that I've been thinking about. I don't know anything about the coding or AI. I'm just a player with some ideas I'd like to throw out there and let you guys chew em up.
What if you could build an improvement that did nothing at all but add culture to the city? I imagine they would be something like a small wonder you could build a few of, maybe depending on the size of the map or the size of your empire. Alternatively, when you get a Great Leader, it could spark the building of a monument in one of your cities, (seen any old statues lately?) Other RL things that significantly add to the culture of an area or a nation are the Alamo, Mt. Rushmore, Big Ben, The Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon... things you think about when you think about a country.
What if Explorers served a purpose? I don't know about the rest of you but the explorer comes so late I have never even built one. I can certainly understand why they are where they are, so I wouldn't necessarily push them forward. I might however, given the ability, add a new function to them. Explorers of old 'Claimed land in the name of... well you know.' Most of America belonged to someone else and had to be bought. Maybe explorers could claim untouched land kind of like a worker builds an irrigation network, a square at a time. This land could be used as a bargaining chip later, or it could keep enemy civs from planting down settlers there without declaring war.
What if barbarian navies had a chance of becoming more organized pirates? They might inhabit some of those piddly little islands only the AI bothers to claim. They might be a serious pain but defeating them might net you much more than a measly 25 gold you get from other barbarian groups.
This one is by far the most abstract and probably hardest to implement.... What if there was another way to lose? Many great civilizations met with a decline and fall. I don't need to name any, they're all over the world (many represented as barbarian tribes) I wouldn't want to see this abruptly end someone's game that's going good, so I would add one of those pre-game rule toggles, like diplomatic victory. Anyways. I imagine that when a civilization starts to stagnate... it's behind in all its research, its cities are coming in and out of disorder constantly, it suffers major military defeats. These and more could lead to the 'Decline of civilization' defeat. I could see a number of different results that might make it interesting when it happens to AI or multiplayer (whenever) The cities could become just empty shells of a once mighty empire, which others could come claim (probably with some existing improvements and maybe a hefty culture rating) The nation might instead split into others, like in Civ 2 when the capitol was seized, sometimes the empire would split, or when the USSR fell, we got more 'Stans' than we know what to do with. If it happened to you, your empire might get split in half and a portion of your military ousted from each city you formerly owned (the rest having joined the rebels). I think it would add an interesting twist. One other possible and less dramatic effect of suffering decline would be a change in leadership. Call it a bloody or bloodless coup, a major change in politics and the signing of a new constitution that changes an empire from militaristic and expansionistic, to commercial and industrious.
These are just some things I've been thinking about that might enhance the gaming experience. I played recently as the aztecs twice, with my nearest neighbor both times as America. Both times I decided to go with strategies I've read on these forums, and be much more of a bully than usual, taking about half their cities. I thought it might be interesting if someday those foreign nationals in my cities might rise up and form a new nation, as has happened so many times throughout history. Please feel free to add, discuss, trash these ideas as you please, I'll be interested in watching.
(btw sneak a peek at my website at www.geocities.com/drathx )
What if you could build an improvement that did nothing at all but add culture to the city? I imagine they would be something like a small wonder you could build a few of, maybe depending on the size of the map or the size of your empire. Alternatively, when you get a Great Leader, it could spark the building of a monument in one of your cities, (seen any old statues lately?) Other RL things that significantly add to the culture of an area or a nation are the Alamo, Mt. Rushmore, Big Ben, The Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon... things you think about when you think about a country.
What if Explorers served a purpose? I don't know about the rest of you but the explorer comes so late I have never even built one. I can certainly understand why they are where they are, so I wouldn't necessarily push them forward. I might however, given the ability, add a new function to them. Explorers of old 'Claimed land in the name of... well you know.' Most of America belonged to someone else and had to be bought. Maybe explorers could claim untouched land kind of like a worker builds an irrigation network, a square at a time. This land could be used as a bargaining chip later, or it could keep enemy civs from planting down settlers there without declaring war.
What if barbarian navies had a chance of becoming more organized pirates? They might inhabit some of those piddly little islands only the AI bothers to claim. They might be a serious pain but defeating them might net you much more than a measly 25 gold you get from other barbarian groups.
This one is by far the most abstract and probably hardest to implement.... What if there was another way to lose? Many great civilizations met with a decline and fall. I don't need to name any, they're all over the world (many represented as barbarian tribes) I wouldn't want to see this abruptly end someone's game that's going good, so I would add one of those pre-game rule toggles, like diplomatic victory. Anyways. I imagine that when a civilization starts to stagnate... it's behind in all its research, its cities are coming in and out of disorder constantly, it suffers major military defeats. These and more could lead to the 'Decline of civilization' defeat. I could see a number of different results that might make it interesting when it happens to AI or multiplayer (whenever) The cities could become just empty shells of a once mighty empire, which others could come claim (probably with some existing improvements and maybe a hefty culture rating) The nation might instead split into others, like in Civ 2 when the capitol was seized, sometimes the empire would split, or when the USSR fell, we got more 'Stans' than we know what to do with. If it happened to you, your empire might get split in half and a portion of your military ousted from each city you formerly owned (the rest having joined the rebels). I think it would add an interesting twist. One other possible and less dramatic effect of suffering decline would be a change in leadership. Call it a bloody or bloodless coup, a major change in politics and the signing of a new constitution that changes an empire from militaristic and expansionistic, to commercial and industrious.
These are just some things I've been thinking about that might enhance the gaming experience. I played recently as the aztecs twice, with my nearest neighbor both times as America. Both times I decided to go with strategies I've read on these forums, and be much more of a bully than usual, taking about half their cities. I thought it might be interesting if someday those foreign nationals in my cities might rise up and form a new nation, as has happened so many times throughout history. Please feel free to add, discuss, trash these ideas as you please, I'll be interested in watching.
(btw sneak a peek at my website at www.geocities.com/drathx )
. We can't even make a good Civ 2 style scn right now -- the stuff you're suggesting is well beyond the scope of any game editing function I've seen (not that I've looked for many). Still, good ideas... just no clue how you'd do them...
And it wouldnt really bother me if these ideas didnt make it into anything, its just fun to explore and maybe we can hit on something that's doable.
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