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Here lies a list of features that were once part of either Civ1, Civ2, SMAX, CTP or CTP2 that, imho, made the TBS experience much more enjoyable.
I'm just wondering where these features went, features that had already been designed, implemented, tested, coded (the majority of which firaxis owns the code to) and for the majority much appreciated by the gaming community. Here goes:
Barbarians: They used to evolve as the game went a long. Now we only have 2 types.
Diplomacy Victory - SMAX had it best. CIV3's is just crap.
Diplomacy Options - Asking Ally To Stop War On Other Allie
- Asking Allies For A Gift
- SMAC: Bonus if you were council leader
(to trade, and we had spy info)
- Atrocites and the ability to vote on them
- The general idea of a planetary council
Devastating Weapons (if properly balanced, like in SMAC. They did it then with planet busters, why cant they do it now with nukes?)
Spies/Info: In SMAC, We could pretty much view anything about our allies/enemies if we had infiltration. It was also well layed out.
SMAC and CTP2: Underwater Cities
Water Level (and the icecaps)
Terraforming
CTP2: PUBLIC WORKS!!!
Stacking Of Units
CTP2 Army Concept (well I liked it)
Futuristic Units (again, I thought it was fun. Could have an option to turn it off)
The Dan Quayle Screen
The Planet Turing On You In a Non Boring SHIFT-P way, and the whole concept of gaining bonuses by being freidnly with the planet
Slaves
CTP2: Pirating Of Trade
Unit Workshop: Couldve been adapted to fit in with CIV3
Cool Spying Options
SMAC: Real Difference Between the Civs. They had different abilities, different personnalties and different goals and ideals.
I thought it was really cool that some would declare war on you just because you didnt share there ideal. So it was up to you to either adapt or face their rath. Quite a variation from the "give me 8 gold and territory map" crap we have now.
SMAC: The fantastic government system.
CTP2: Environmentalists, Fundamentalists,Terrorism
Bribing Units
Random Events / (Just Put Switch)
SMAC: Smac had a great setting to it. The sounds, the personalities of theleaders, the way they would speak, it added a lot to the game.
CTP:Fog Of War Even in your territory.
CTP: Looking Posts, Sonar
Stealth Units
Sea Formers / Sea Installations
CTP2: Had a lot less micromanagement then The CIvs. I thought it was a huge step up.
CTP2: They had "culture" better implemented. Depending on your city's size, you would gain more terrirtory. They also had the "City X is revolting against its leader and is joiing your CIV!" thingy. So it's nothing new in CIV3, just an old idea badly implemented
CIV2: The Eiffel Tower Wonder (enhances other's regard)
SMAC: Landmarks
SMAC: Terrain Elevation
In CTP2 they had a cool conept: You could build TV's and make people happier. But If someone built the Hollywood wonder, he would get money from any city in any civ that had a tv in it.
It wouldnt have been too hard to develop more ideas like this one.
SMAC WONDERS: Prevent All Spying Action. Better Terraformers, Cities Start at size 3, etc...
CIV1, CIV2, SMAC, CTP2: (S)ENTRY!!!
The Ability to send supplies to needy citites
In SMAC, You could "coordinate your attack plans". That was cool.
In most of the other games, when you were in an allied war, if you didnt actually send units to attack the enemy, your ally would get mad. In Civ3, all you have to do is declare war, and the ally is happy.
SMAC:Stationing Of Units In Allied Bases
SMAC:Trading Military Units
The ability to choose what improvements to destroy (and the ability to destroy fortresses!)
SMAC: The IRONMAN Feature
SMAC: Blind Research (i liked it; again could be an option)
The Option to slow down turns
Units that do extra "police" effect
Ability to view your casualities in a non-mind numbing way
Ability to View How Many Shield Produced So Far For "x" improvements (all we get now is how many turns are left)
View All Techs an opponent has and being informed when he discovers one.
CTP2: You could set your tone when you did diplomacy (ex: hostile, friendly etc...
CTP2: FEATS OF WONDER! (1st to sailing whole world, 1st to have have x number of cities, first to discover this etc...)
CIV2: Barbarians Taking Over Cities
A Warning Of When Enemy WOnder Gonna Be Ready
SMAC: Right Clicking on a unit gave you a menu of ALL the commands it could perform. (and if you thought there were too many options, you could just set it to simple menus instead of advanced)
SMAC: Logging Of Messages
SMAC: Had a good (but not perfect tech tree), in the sense that you could specify yourself in one of four branches
CTP2: The ability to immediately disband an unwanted city (had to be under pop size of 8 i think though
And finally, Prototyping, from SMAC.
What was cool about that was the fact that you were rewarded for discovering a technology before other civs because, during the turns the other civs were still discovering it, you were building your prototype. So when they discovered it, they couldn't put it to use right away.
Lemme know if I'm missing any.
Also let me know if you figure why they were taken out (sure a few of them could be a matter of taste, but I beleive the majority of them made the gaming experience better for everyone).
One more thing: Although I mention CTP2 a lot, it was a badly implemented game. But that doesnt mean it didnt have some great concepts.
Oh, and yeah, I almost forgot:
A non-moronic governor that will LET ME BUILD MY LAST UNIT FOR ALL OF ETERNITY.
I'm just wondering where these features went, features that had already been designed, implemented, tested, coded (the majority of which firaxis owns the code to) and for the majority much appreciated by the gaming community. Here goes:
Barbarians: They used to evolve as the game went a long. Now we only have 2 types.
Diplomacy Victory - SMAX had it best. CIV3's is just crap.
Diplomacy Options - Asking Ally To Stop War On Other Allie
- Asking Allies For A Gift
- SMAC: Bonus if you were council leader
(to trade, and we had spy info)
- Atrocites and the ability to vote on them
- The general idea of a planetary council
Devastating Weapons (if properly balanced, like in SMAC. They did it then with planet busters, why cant they do it now with nukes?)
Spies/Info: In SMAC, We could pretty much view anything about our allies/enemies if we had infiltration. It was also well layed out.
SMAC and CTP2: Underwater Cities
Water Level (and the icecaps)
Terraforming
CTP2: PUBLIC WORKS!!!
Stacking Of Units
CTP2 Army Concept (well I liked it)
Futuristic Units (again, I thought it was fun. Could have an option to turn it off)
The Dan Quayle Screen
The Planet Turing On You In a Non Boring SHIFT-P way, and the whole concept of gaining bonuses by being freidnly with the planet
Slaves
CTP2: Pirating Of Trade
Unit Workshop: Couldve been adapted to fit in with CIV3
Cool Spying Options
SMAC: Real Difference Between the Civs. They had different abilities, different personnalties and different goals and ideals.
I thought it was really cool that some would declare war on you just because you didnt share there ideal. So it was up to you to either adapt or face their rath. Quite a variation from the "give me 8 gold and territory map" crap we have now.
SMAC: The fantastic government system.
CTP2: Environmentalists, Fundamentalists,Terrorism
Bribing Units
Random Events / (Just Put Switch)
SMAC: Smac had a great setting to it. The sounds, the personalities of theleaders, the way they would speak, it added a lot to the game.
CTP:Fog Of War Even in your territory.
CTP: Looking Posts, Sonar
Stealth Units
Sea Formers / Sea Installations
CTP2: Had a lot less micromanagement then The CIvs. I thought it was a huge step up.
CTP2: They had "culture" better implemented. Depending on your city's size, you would gain more terrirtory. They also had the "City X is revolting against its leader and is joiing your CIV!" thingy. So it's nothing new in CIV3, just an old idea badly implemented
CIV2: The Eiffel Tower Wonder (enhances other's regard)
SMAC: Landmarks
SMAC: Terrain Elevation
In CTP2 they had a cool conept: You could build TV's and make people happier. But If someone built the Hollywood wonder, he would get money from any city in any civ that had a tv in it.
It wouldnt have been too hard to develop more ideas like this one.
SMAC WONDERS: Prevent All Spying Action. Better Terraformers, Cities Start at size 3, etc...
CIV1, CIV2, SMAC, CTP2: (S)ENTRY!!!
The Ability to send supplies to needy citites
In SMAC, You could "coordinate your attack plans". That was cool.
In most of the other games, when you were in an allied war, if you didnt actually send units to attack the enemy, your ally would get mad. In Civ3, all you have to do is declare war, and the ally is happy.
SMAC:Stationing Of Units In Allied Bases
SMAC:Trading Military Units
The ability to choose what improvements to destroy (and the ability to destroy fortresses!)
SMAC: The IRONMAN Feature
SMAC: Blind Research (i liked it; again could be an option)
The Option to slow down turns
Units that do extra "police" effect
Ability to view your casualities in a non-mind numbing way
Ability to View How Many Shield Produced So Far For "x" improvements (all we get now is how many turns are left)
View All Techs an opponent has and being informed when he discovers one.
CTP2: You could set your tone when you did diplomacy (ex: hostile, friendly etc...
CTP2: FEATS OF WONDER! (1st to sailing whole world, 1st to have have x number of cities, first to discover this etc...)
CIV2: Barbarians Taking Over Cities
A Warning Of When Enemy WOnder Gonna Be Ready
SMAC: Right Clicking on a unit gave you a menu of ALL the commands it could perform. (and if you thought there were too many options, you could just set it to simple menus instead of advanced)
SMAC: Logging Of Messages
SMAC: Had a good (but not perfect tech tree), in the sense that you could specify yourself in one of four branches
CTP2: The ability to immediately disband an unwanted city (had to be under pop size of 8 i think though
And finally, Prototyping, from SMAC.
What was cool about that was the fact that you were rewarded for discovering a technology before other civs because, during the turns the other civs were still discovering it, you were building your prototype. So when they discovered it, they couldn't put it to use right away.
Lemme know if I'm missing any.
Also let me know if you figure why they were taken out (sure a few of them could be a matter of taste, but I beleive the majority of them made the gaming experience better for everyone).
One more thing: Although I mention CTP2 a lot, it was a badly implemented game. But that doesnt mean it didnt have some great concepts.
Oh, and yeah, I almost forgot:
A non-moronic governor that will LET ME BUILD MY LAST UNIT FOR ALL OF ETERNITY.
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