Most important things

[Sarxis]

I'd have to say that two of the most important aspects to any CIV-type game are:

1. AI

2. User Interface


These two things can really make or break CIV. And I can't say that either one has been perfected in any game. Alpha Centauri had a decent and interesting interface; CIV3's was decent also. But the AI in most of the games to-date have been lacking in any lasting challenge for most fans. Which, is not surprising as AI is a tricky thing to program.

Of course, a good multiplayer mode solves that (and to an extent, so does modding, as can be seen by various works of love by fans like what has been done in Ages of Man for CTP2, and the work for SMAC, etc.)

[wgabrie]

I have read posts about Civ IV that indicate that the AI will be editable. I don't know the truthfulness of it but it would provide a boost to the the AI once we find strategies that work.

[TomVeil]

If any Comp Sci PhD candidates want a free thesis idea, how about:
Back-engineer the AI from the old Civ games, Master of Orion, Age of Empires, etc, etc, and force it to play Civ4. Then, draw conclusions about the ability of specific-task game-theory AIs to handle tasks that a human would consider "related" but which involve different equations. Then, develop a learning AI which can play all of these games.
If you succeed, you'll have passed the Turing Test as far as the people of Apolyton are concerned.
If you fail, you'll have a great time anyway, and probably still get your PhD.