logo Sign In

Idea for Sid Meier's Civilization 6

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I've been engrossed in the complete edition of Civilization 5 lately. Thank you, Steam sales!

Having beaten a game and started many others, I have digested the changes made to the series in this newest installment. I agree with most of the changes made, but somehow the whole thing feels too clean. I can recall some mechanics in Alpha Centauri that would have greatly benefited Civ 5, but now it seems like they have run their course with DLC (the fan mods are great though).

What sorts of changes/additions would you like to see in Civ 6? Below are some of my suggestions.

1) More random events: Perhaps my only serious complaint about Civ 5 is that your civilization's progress is too steady. I think there would be a great increase in replayability with the institution of random events. Not too many of them, or the game would cease to be about player skill and instead center around luck.

Marshes and jungles in your territory carry a certain probability of initiating a Plague in one of your cities. Plagues hamper population growth and put a certain number of workers out of commission for several turns. They have a chance to spread through trade routes that link to other cities. In the late game, when your civilization gains access to modern medical techniques, the effects of Plagues can be reduced by constructing certain buildings and/or enacting certain UN resolutions...or even eliminated if you construct a certain Wonder.

A special kind of Mountain tile can be introduced: the Volcano. Volcanoes erupt once every several centuries or millennia. When this occurs, adjacent tiles cannot be worked by citizens and units ending their turn on these tiles incur a significant amount of damage. With the discovery of a certain technology, you can order a Worker unit to construct a survey site near the volcano, which provides the player with a little box that indicates the number of turns until the next eruption.

Tropical storms affect a number of coastal tiles and their adjacent land and ocean tiles. They decrease Production output, increase Food output, and create their own Zone of Control that does not allow land units to pass and constricts the movement of naval units. Air units have a certain chance of crashing if their flight path takes them through a tropical storm.

2) Rebellions are the polar opposite of the Golden Age. In Civ 5, as long as you have more than zero Happiness, you are on your way to a Golden Age. Civ 6 should have another counter running alongside the Golden Age counter, known as the Rebellion counter. Negative amounts of Happiness contribute to the Rebellion similarly to how positive amounts of Happiness contribute to the Golden Age counter. If your Happiness stays in the red and reaches a certain threshold on the Rebellion counter, then your civilization will enter a Rebellion phase lasting a number of turns. No Wonders may be constructed during a Rebellion and your civilization's Culture output is decreased. Other civs will have a easier time conducting espionage operations in your cities during a period of Rebellion. Stationed military units may be used to put down dissenters, but this comes at the cost of reducing the city's population.

3) Modified unit stacking: I like that Firaxis eliminated the "stacks of doom", but I think some stacking is a good thing in these games. The way I propose doing that is through the use of Great Generals and Admirals. In all hexes adjacent to a Great General, you may have two military land units stacked in one tile. Same goes for Great Admirals, but with naval units instead. I think this is a good compromise between the Civ 5 system and the prior Civ system of stacks of doom. You can do stacking but you still have to spread out your army and think tactically about unit placement.

4) Corporations: Though I have not played Civ 4, I have heard some good things about its implementation of private corporations. The way I see them working in Civ 6 is in some respects similar to how the Religions work. If one of your cities has access to, for instance, three units of Cattle, then that city can construct the Corporate HQ of "MooCow Industries", a beef and dairy agribusiness. Only one Corporate HQ of each company can be constructed in the whole world. From your Corporate HQ may purchase (not build) an Executive, a civilian unit that travels to another city that is harvesting the appropriate resource(s) and establishes a Corporate Office there; this provides your empire with another stream of Gold income.

Author
Time

Frey said:

2) Rebellions are the polar opposite of the Golden Age. In Civ 5, as long as you have more than zero Happiness, you are on your way to a Golden Age. Civ 6 should have another counter running alongside the Golden Age counter, known as the Rebellion counter. Negative amounts of Happiness contribute to the Rebellion similarly to how positive amounts of Happiness contribute to the Golden Age counter. If your Happiness stays in the red and reaches a certain threshold on the Rebellion counter, then your civilization will enter a Rebellion phase lasting a number of turns. No Wonders may be constructed during a Rebellion and your civilization's Culture output is decreased. Other civs will have a easier time conducting espionage operations in your cities during a period of Rebellion. Stationed military units may be used to put down dissenters, but this comes at the cost of reducing the city's population.

 You do know what happens in Civ5 if you have sufficient negative happiness, right?

ROTJ Storyboard Reconstruction Project

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I guess the change would be that instead of rebels manifesting as units to be fought by your army, they are instead internal dissidents that negatively influence your cities. You can use a military unit to "expend" a worker and immediately cease the Rebellion's negative effects. This is an expedient option for dealing with the problem, but relations with other civs will be soured as a result. It's a bit like Nerve Stapling your bases' rioting Drones in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

Author
Time

More civilizations would be another welcome addition. Off the top of my head: the Safavids, the Capetians, Italy, the Hittites, the Yuan, and Belgium. 

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Here's another concept: implementing Mutual Assured Destruction in Civ 6. When there are X number of nuclear missiles present in the world, then the first time any of them get launched, the game enters MAD Mode. In MAD Mode, all players give orders to their nuclear arsenals. These commands are then enacted simultaneously, resulting in a nuclear holocaust. Then the game ends and the winner is determined by score. Obviously the scores will be affected by the apocalyptic devastation of MAD, so choose your targets wisely! Destroying enemies' Wonders and population centers goes the longest way towards reducing their endgame score counts. This would add a ticking time-bomb element to the late game. Will you be able to launch that spaceship before the nukes start flying?