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Here are some thoughts of what could be done in Civ-series to make it even better (not specifically Civ4, but some of my wishes would seem utopic for an expansion). Well, some of these ideas are long explained -food trading and international congresses), because I wanted to give concrete ideas of how it could work ; just skip the whole chapter if these ideas are none of your interest.
Small changes, which could be done in a patch or an expansion :
- Tradable units with other civs. 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.
- Bribing 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.
- The spies should know the vote intentions of other civs. There should be a way to bribe them to vote for you (HIGLY expansive, and impossible if their spies know you're going to win)
- A complete information screen about others civs in which you have an embassy. Government, capitol, relations with other civs (not only war/peace..., but also politiness), 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 should pop up, saying in one screen everything which happened (war declarations, discovered technologies, traded technologies, diplomatic incidents...), big deal such as war and peace declarations being written bold.
- This one-popup-system should be used with the cultural advisor when he learns some civ is building a wonder. It would avoid the "16 popups syndrome" which reminds me Civ2
- Possiblity to import the same good several times (even if you have the resource in local), and sell them to other civs, making profit.
- It should be impossible to exchange communications with other civs before the radio. It would avoid the creation of an international system as soon as the antiquity (irrealistic, plus the knowledge spreads too fast)
More important changes, which I don't know if they are compatible with Civ3 hard code :
- trading food. It could happen like this :
Here, in my city of Delhi, I have 4 excess food. I know that Bombay has no excess food. Therefore, I want 2 Delhi's food to go to the trade network. To do this, I press the "minus" button next to my food bar twice:
Then, I can see at my trade advisor I have 2 food in local trade :
Now, I want to allocate this food in Bombay, I press the "plus" button twice. Voilà ! Bombay will grow again.
If I prefer, I can trade it with my Zulu neighbours, who live mostly in deserts. Since they lack food terribly, they're going to value it much. There shouldn't be any reserve of tradable food (it would be horrible for the game mechanics, for the AI and for the player to manage), so it would be only possible to trade it on a "per turn" basis, not "lump sum".
This should be impossible as long as Railroad and sanitation are not discovered (well, refrigeration doesn't exist anymore), and to trade food through water, mass production would be needed as well.
- Similar system to trade shields. No need for specific knowledge to do it (the Egyptians mobilized the whole empire to build the pyramids), but there should be a terrible loss before Railroad. These shields could be used to rush wonders, but 2/3 of the imported shields should go to waste in this case, like when you disband a unit in a city (correct me if I'm wrong). These shields couldn't be multiplied by factories or the like.
- 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). It should look like this :
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 :
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".
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.
- About trade : 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.
- 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.
- "Rice" tiles : can't produce anything else than food, but lots of it, say five or six, and more with irrigation / railroad / farmland.
- Growth oriented civs, with following bonuses : Extra food in town / city / metropolis. Growth oriented improvements twice cheaper.
Some bigger changes :
- A "newbie mode". No offense in the word newbie, we all were newbies. But most things I have seen written (and written myself) come from really experienced gamers, who already know the game mechanics, and would probably confuse or repell someone who didn't play like hell to civ-games since ten years
Implementing a newbie mode would allow the game to be simple and smooth for those who need it, and would allow much more management to hardcore civers.
- 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.
- Maybe establish a distinction between raw materials (which would be displayed as logs, stones etc.) and industrial goods, displayed as steel bars, construction wood... Purely eye candy before industrialization, but then, ony raw materials could be transformed. The factory-worker specialist would then have sense, increasing the multiplicator. More clearly, if you have a 100% augmentation of industrial output (factory + coal plant), having a worker would change it to 110%, 2 workers to 120% etc. More subtle than the worker in CTP.
- 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.
-There could be a possibily to upgrade the current units to a slightly more powerful of the same kind (like in Starcraft). Historically, the units evolved between true technical revolutions : the early bombards of Hundred years war were far less powerful than the cannons of the American civil war (both are represented by the same unit).
It could be possible to allocate some science -through plus and minus buttons- to these upgrades, which would need much less science than a true advance, and increase attack and defense of the units periodically. The stats of an upgraded unit could not exceed those of a basic, more modern, unit. Say, a wholly upgraded musketman can be as strong as a basic rifleman, but not stronger.
Well these were just my ideas to make Civ series even better. I hope you find them interesting and that I expressed myself clearly !
Small changes, which could be done in a patch or an expansion :
- Tradable units with other civs. 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.
- Bribing 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.
- The spies should know the vote intentions of other civs. There should be a way to bribe them to vote for you (HIGLY expansive, and impossible if their spies know you're going to win)
- A complete information screen about others civs in which you have an embassy. Government, capitol, relations with other civs (not only war/peace..., but also politiness), 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 should pop up, saying in one screen everything which happened (war declarations, discovered technologies, traded technologies, diplomatic incidents...), big deal such as war and peace declarations being written bold.
- This one-popup-system should be used with the cultural advisor when he learns some civ is building a wonder. It would avoid the "16 popups syndrome" which reminds me Civ2
- Possiblity to import the same good several times (even if you have the resource in local), and sell them to other civs, making profit.
- It should be impossible to exchange communications with other civs before the radio. It would avoid the creation of an international system as soon as the antiquity (irrealistic, plus the knowledge spreads too fast)
More important changes, which I don't know if they are compatible with Civ3 hard code :
- trading food. It could happen like this :
Here, in my city of Delhi, I have 4 excess food. I know that Bombay has no excess food. Therefore, I want 2 Delhi's food to go to the trade network. To do this, I press the "minus" button next to my food bar twice:
Then, I can see at my trade advisor I have 2 food in local trade :
Now, I want to allocate this food in Bombay, I press the "plus" button twice. Voilà ! Bombay will grow again.
If I prefer, I can trade it with my Zulu neighbours, who live mostly in deserts. Since they lack food terribly, they're going to value it much. There shouldn't be any reserve of tradable food (it would be horrible for the game mechanics, for the AI and for the player to manage), so it would be only possible to trade it on a "per turn" basis, not "lump sum".
This should be impossible as long as Railroad and sanitation are not discovered (well, refrigeration doesn't exist anymore), and to trade food through water, mass production would be needed as well.
- Similar system to trade shields. No need for specific knowledge to do it (the Egyptians mobilized the whole empire to build the pyramids), but there should be a terrible loss before Railroad. These shields could be used to rush wonders, but 2/3 of the imported shields should go to waste in this case, like when you disband a unit in a city (correct me if I'm wrong). These shields couldn't be multiplied by factories or the like.
- 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). It should look like this :
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 :
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".
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.
- About trade : 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.
- 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.
- "Rice" tiles : can't produce anything else than food, but lots of it, say five or six, and more with irrigation / railroad / farmland.
- Growth oriented civs, with following bonuses : Extra food in town / city / metropolis. Growth oriented improvements twice cheaper.
Some bigger changes :
- A "newbie mode". No offense in the word newbie, we all were newbies. But most things I have seen written (and written myself) come from really experienced gamers, who already know the game mechanics, and would probably confuse or repell someone who didn't play like hell to civ-games since ten years
Implementing a newbie mode would allow the game to be simple and smooth for those who need it, and would allow much more management to hardcore civers.
- 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.
- Maybe establish a distinction between raw materials (which would be displayed as logs, stones etc.) and industrial goods, displayed as steel bars, construction wood... Purely eye candy before industrialization, but then, ony raw materials could be transformed. The factory-worker specialist would then have sense, increasing the multiplicator. More clearly, if you have a 100% augmentation of industrial output (factory + coal plant), having a worker would change it to 110%, 2 workers to 120% etc. More subtle than the worker in CTP.
- 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.
-There could be a possibily to upgrade the current units to a slightly more powerful of the same kind (like in Starcraft). Historically, the units evolved between true technical revolutions : the early bombards of Hundred years war were far less powerful than the cannons of the American civil war (both are represented by the same unit).
It could be possible to allocate some science -through plus and minus buttons- to these upgrades, which would need much less science than a true advance, and increase attack and defense of the units periodically. The stats of an upgraded unit could not exceed those of a basic, more modern, unit. Say, a wholly upgraded musketman can be as strong as a basic rifleman, but not stronger.
Well these were just my ideas to make Civ series even better. I hope you find them interesting and that I expressed myself clearly !
)
). You should be able to add the maximum amount of allowed civs into a scenario, because it brings more reality to scenarios. For instance my Enduring Freedom scenario didn't take off for Civ II, because I simply can't add Russia and Tajikistan into one one bunch and what about China? There wouldn't be enough space for it.
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