Where do I submit ideas to Firaxis for Civilization IV?

[Vince278]

I think I (and others) would probably feel better if someone would come forward and say "I'm with the design team at Firaxis and would like to hear your suggestions. Please place them here and we will take them into consideration".
On the other hand, I suppose they may need to insulate themselves so nobody can say their "ideas" were stolen by them.

[Skanky Burns]

If they made a thread saying "would like to hear your suggestions. Please place them here and we will take them into consideration" then people would post their ideas in the thread. People would then be offended if their ideas didn't make it into Civ4, opening up a whole can of worms Firaxis does not want to deal with.

The best we can do (imo) is to list the general ideas we would like in a somewhat organised fashion, conduct polls on major issues so that the design team at Firaxis can see the weight of numbers behind the various ideas and then make more informed decisions based on that. Thankfully this is the general direction that forum has been heading in.

[WarpStorm]

One thing that Soren said at the GDC was that he was not making a more complicated game. That type of game would only appeal to the most hard core minority of fans. (Likely if you are reading this that is you). Doing that is the the death of the franchise.

He said for every feature added one will be removed. The trick is to figure out what wasn't fun and remove it.

It's actually an interesting Powerpoint presentation.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
It's actually an interesting Powerpoint presentation.

It would be cool to see that.

[WarpStorm]

http://www.gdconf.com/archives/2004/johnson_soren.zip

[Antrine]

quote//'He said for every feature added one will be removed. The trick is to figure out what wasn't fun and remove it.'// by WarpStorm quoting Soren.

To be frank, this only gives me shivers, the whollys and a sinking hole feeling in a far too deep sand pit.

I look forward to another franchise...

[Vince278]

I'd like to see them revamp what is slowing down the game on those huge, 31 player maps. I heard the trade routes get recalculated every turn. Perhaps abstracting trade somewhat will speed things up. Less animations could help too (and anything else to make modding easier). Thanks.

[spy14]

Wonder if theres a way to give the option at the title screen of a "Vanilla" game and a "Hardcore" game with extra features?

[Jaybe]

Yes, for the hardcore gamers there should be multiple complexity levels:
BASIC game which adheres to Soren's stated philosophy of simplicity;
ADVANCED game with added levels of complexity;
OPTIONAL rules for those who prefer even more micromanagement.

Does Soren have the resources and ingenuity to develop a multi-level game? I sure hope so.

[WarpStorm]

Originally posted by Vince278
I heard the trade routes get recalculated every turn. Perhaps abstracting trade somewhat will speed things up.

It's not just calculating the trade routes but updating the the movement costs for all paths.

[WarpStorm]

Originally posted by Jaybe
Yes, for the hardcore gamers there should be multiple complexity levels:
BASIC game which adheres to Soren's stated philosophy of simplicity;
ADVANCED game with added levels of complexity;
OPTIONAL rules for those who prefer even more micromanagement.

That's what expansion packs are for.

It is a very bad business strategy to cater to the hardcore in your main game. If you do you will turn off the casual players, killing the game in the marketplace. This means the end of the franchise and no expansions. Only the hardcore minority who enjoyed the main game and want more breadth and depth will buy the expansions.

Edit:

This is not to say that Civ4 should be a totally simplistic game out of the box either. It should start at roughly the same complexity level as the previous Civ games.

[Cerbykins]

Actually, Civ mainly lacks one thing it used to have, but could do with back. Brain-dead easy level
I've heard too many complaints of folks getting chieftain-whooped...especially considering I started on, civ 1, atari ST, on a WARLORD level demo

Short point = too hard for newbs to get into. make even easier level for them so I get more local victims

[Vince278]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
It's not just calculating the trade routes but updating the the movement costs for all paths.

I can definitely see that with hundreds of units for each of 31 players. Any way to streamline that process? The limit to the number of cities in a game would help but I greatly dislike something like that. I wouldn't mind too much if the system requirements went up to accomodate everything.

[Antrine]

Well, I have the advisor screen for you...

"It has come to our attention that we (the AI's) are beating you, therefore we will start killing each other off in earnest, so you have chance... please stay with us, it will get better and in the meantime, here is a gift of money, a few techs we got just lying about and some units we won't need for as we noted we are all so far ahead of you..."

[Cerbykins]

Easter egg?
Good way to get Civ noticed some more, anyway