Small Civ 4 Suggestions

[Jumping Choya]

Okay, none of this is particularly important. I just think it's kind of neat. It brings a bit of character and customization to the game, which I think that Civ III kind of lacked.

I think that we should be able to label landforms, like we could in SMAC. I also think that we should be able to name specific units. Again, not particularly usefull but it'd be nice for detail buffs like me. It'd be neat to name units and kind of keep track of them across the map. Or maybe it's just me.

So, any comments on these brief suggestions?

[notyoueither]

I think your ideas are very good.

As a matter of fact, the thing I miss most in Civ3 from others (incl CTP2) is names and other means of giving identity.

In CTP2 I used to try to combine as many units as early as possible to try to get as many of the first 100 Army numbers as possible. Then, I'd go through contortions to make sure I kept them. Nothing like having the 8th Army move on a German city.

In civ2, I'd build exactly 4 or 8 tanks in each city. So there was the Roma Armoured Corp, and the Pompeii Infantry. Fleets would be organized by city name also.

I know it might sound weird, but it added to the game for me.

[ALPHA WOLF 64]

I used to like naming my armies to in CtP2. At first I thought it was silly, but after you start naming them, you really get used to thinking "where is 1st Armored", "10st Airbourne needs rescueing", etc. At least let us name the armies.

[notyoueither]

It was one of the great things going for CTP2. Now if only the unmodded AI did something other than lay there like a 2 dollar *****, it would have kept my interest.

[star mouse]

One thing I would like to see in CIV 4 is a hexagonal grid instead of the isometric one. This will end the ambiguity with ranges that's present in the game. The city radius is a 21-square approximation of a circle, but the bombard radius for any unit is always a square. With hexes, everything is hexagonal and there's no ambiguity.

With a hex grid, the city radius shrinks from 21 squares to 19 hexes, but you can arrange the cities so there's no overlapping hexes, so the effect is much the same.


A second thing I would like to see in CIV 4 is the elimination of the "free" labourer that led to the Infinite Cheese Strategy (ICS). Remove the free labourer, and you defang ICS. This will require a complete redesign of the terrain's resource production. It might work as follows:

* Citizens eat 3 food
* Grasslands produce 4 food, Irrigation +2
* Shield Grasslands produce 4 food, 1 shield, irrigation +2
* Food Grasslands produce 5 food, irrigation +2
* Plains produce 2 food, 1 shield, irrigation +2

To make these work better, the following changes are suggested:

* Under Despotism, if Irrigation or Mining increase the production of a square by more than 1, the benefit is decreased by 1.
* Railroad increases the effectiveness of Irrigation or Mining by 50%, rounding all halves up.
* Large cities with excess food production can lose some of the excess food to waste. Building a granary reduces this loss by 50%. Discovering Feudalism also reduces it by 50% (75% total with Granary), and researching Industrialisation eliminates it completely if the city has a Granary.

I know these may sound weird, but it's better than corruption eating all but 1 shield and 1 trade....