I never really bothered to come to the Civ 3 - General forum much since I really lacked any reason to come. However, since I have made it a regular stop on my daily browsing of the forums, I have come to realize that this is the place for people to
gripe about Civilization 3.
Not all of this is just complaining of bugs and minor details either. There are slams against the very nature of the game itself! And I see so many posts saying "The Programmers should do this..." and "Wouldn't it be great if...". I hate to break it to these folks, but the Civ 3 Design Forum is gone. Remember that Forum way back when... and a lot of us here used to give our 2 cents about what we wanted to see in Civ 3?
I personally feel that the game is only a Patch and an Expansion Pack away from Nirvana. At that point I can officially retire from public life and spend my days staring at the computer screen and sitting in my chair expanding the already-vast province of Assylvania.
This is not a forum, but it'll suit the purpose. I am basically establishing this Thread for all those die hards out there who are convinced that the designing of the game still is not done but who still have faith that the game programmers will hear your cries!
I'll go first just to encourage the timid among you out there...
What I want:
[list=1][*]Scenario Editor: I would say this is a top priority. I think we'd all be kidding ourselves if we expected to see a proper editor in some upcoming patch. I think its going to definitely have to be on the XP wish list.
Just so some of those less-attentive programmers understand, I will enumerate what I want in the editor:
- Events Language (CtP2-style script or macro language, I don't care as long as it lets me do anything! If I want all defending units to turn around and moon the invaders the second they cross the border, I want it to be able to be done!
)
- The ability to place cities, units, etc. on a map we design. (C'mon, guys. Even the space cadets at Activision got that one!)
- An opening of nearly all non-hard-coded info. (For example: Instead of only allowing one government type for the construction of a particular building, give us all existing government types and have us select the ones we want like where it shows what civs can build what units.)
- Oh, and some sort of instruction or simplified method for adding/altering improvements, units, resources, etc. so that way the game doesn't just crash from some missed minute detail we know nothing about...
Alright, I think that's good for the scenario editor.
[*]Add more tile improvements! (Getting rid of Airbases: Who was asleep at the wheel when that was scrapped? They were pretty useless in Civ2 granted, but that was before the advent of Transport Helicoptors. On Island worlds they're essential!)
[*]Fix the stacked unit movement!
[*]Armies: Come on now... let's be able to unload units from them! In fact, it might be nice to get rid of armies altogether and go with a more CtP2 format (but not as easy).
[*]Diplomacy:
Here's a list of things I want to see in Diplomacy:
- Add multiple-civilization diplomacy screens to create a sort of Concert of Europe type deal. Sure, this wasn't all that important in Civ2, but in Civ2 you could let two other civs have it out for a while and the only one who profited was YOU because nobody would ever conquer the other. In Civ3, they're conquerin' right and left! Let the player be able to intervene to bring peace (particularly if those damned MPP's are involved... YEESH!)
- More trade options: Give us the ability to sell off excess weaponry or buy excess weaponry from opponents.
- For the UN feature (as per SMAC) allow for direct discussion of votes that way you can finesse 'em into voting for you.
- For the love of God, make the AI a little more receptive to receiving free cities! I could offer half of Asia for Free Artistry and the AI will still "NEVER accept that deal!"
- And these Mutual Protection Pacts! At least give us the option not to declare war (the penalty being heavy reputation loss). My God! It's the Senate all over again!
- And how about if we could actually SEE what our standing in the eyes of the world is towards us. In Civ2, we had a screen that told us about our reputation. As far as I've seen, that is lacking in Civ3.
- Coordination of attacks with allies: this was a nice little feature in SMAC, it allowed for some organization of warfare. Throw that in, but make sure it works well too.
- I also liked in CtP2 how you could approach another civilization with a particular type of tone, this could help avoid nasty confrontations, or make them depending on the sort of fellow you are.[/list=A]
Thats the end of Diplomacy changes.
- One word: Multi-Player. (AND INTERNET MULTIPLAYER AT THAT!)
Okay, I've gone off enough. Make the changes, and I will be in heaven. You've got the makings of something great! Ignore us and don't do anything more, and I'm going to come riding up Sid's street in a Modern Armor with about a few thousand other P.O.ed Civ fanatics...
