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- CIVILIZATION II
-
- Microprose published Sid Meier's Civilization several years ago,
- yet it continues to rate in the top five in a list of the most
- discussed PC computer games on the internet. It also rates in the top
- ten on a list of the top 100 currently played PC games. The game is
- designed well enough that it could remain on these lists for a long
- time to come.
- Because of this strong following, it is almost assured that a
- part two to this game would be very well received. The gaming
- community would appreciate a fresh new version of their favorite game,
- and Microprose would make a great deal of money. This is Microprose's
- chance to make a really innovative, high tech addition to the gaming
- industry. If they have not already begun work on a version 2 of
- Civilization then they are missing a huge potential profit. This
- document is a list of ideas presented on the internet by Civilization
- players. It is hoped that this list might provide some sort of
- stimulus to the creation of a Civilization II.
-
- GAME SYSTEM CHANGES AND NEW CONCEPTS
- ------------------------------------
-
- - Variable Sized Worlds: In the customization menu at the beginning
- of the game there should be an option for world size ( Tiny, Small,
- Medium, Large, Huge ). A medium sized world would be about the size
- of the Earth.
-
- - Variable Complexity Levels: If all the additions and rule
- modifications addressed in this document were implemented, the game
- could become too complex for a novice user. Therefore, it would be
- wise to allow the user to select a complexity level. Level 1 would be
- for people who have never played Civilization or for those who would
- like to play an entire game in one afternoon. Level 1 would cut down
- on the number of units available (no caravans, diplomats, etc.), make
- Wonders of the World unavailable, and so forth. Level 2 would be the
- same Civilization we all know, though perhaps with a few new advances
- and units. Level 3 would incorporate many of the additions listed in
- this document. Level 4 would add the space travel advances, units,
- wonders, and city improvements, as well as new rules to deal with
- multiple planets, spaceship combat, and so on.
-
- - Multimedia: Digital audio, video, and other special effects. Maybe
- have advisors actually talk. Sound effects on disasters. Music that
- changes according to the technology level.
-
- - More Space: Increasing the number of squares in the world would
- give more land to explore, settle, and fight over. This would
- increase the resolution of the game. If in version I a square was,
- say 100 miles across, in version II it would be 50 or 25 miles across.
- Thus the size of the world would not change, but there would be many
- more squares on the map. If Variable Sized Worlds [above] is used,
- then different sized worlds would have different numbers of squares.
-
- - Better Map Design: A spherical model for the world would be too
- difficult to implement, but some sort of work should be done to allow
- crossing the icecaps. Circumnavigation at the poles should be shorter
- than circumnavigation at the equator.
-
- - New Terrain: Add some new terrain types and modify existing ones;
- for example, some coal squares could put out extra production beyond
- normal (these should be very rare, like 0-3 per planet). Have ice
- bergs that move around the ocean and run into ships (would work like
- barbarians.) Also, when a planet is generated there should be more
- clumping of resources, so that several coal resource squares could end
- up in the same vicinity. This would be a major benefit to a city
- placed in this region. It would also promote trade between
- civilizations, as one civilization could have an excess of production
- units, but lack in food, and could trade with another civilization
- with the opposite problem.
-
- - City Growth: Depending on the size of a city, it is classified in
- one of five categories. Different actions are required to change a
- city from one classification to another:
- Villages - Population 1-3; city display limited to only five
- squares. Cannot build any city improvements, but can make units (like
- a settler). Cannot make taxmen or scientists. Symbol is a little
- brown hut.
- Town - Population 1-5; city display limited to nine squares.
- Created by a settler. If settler's square is empty, creates a town
- with a population of 1. If settler is on a village, creates a town
- with a population equal to the village's population + 1. Can make
- taxmen or scientists only if population >= 3. Symbol is a small
- cottage. A town can only make a few of the major improvements (like
- the Cathedral, Power Plant, City Walls, etc.) and can only make the
- Ancient Wonders of the World. There are no restriction as to the
- units that can be created.
- City - Population 6-20; city is the same as in current game:
- display == twenty-one squares, symbol is one city square. Is created
- automatically when a town reaches a size of 6. Allows creation of
- almost any unit, improvement, or wonder. To increase to size 11-20
- requires an aqueduct.
- Metropolis - Population 21-40; created from a City of size 20 which
- must have a courthouse and hospital. To become a Metropolis, a
- settler must move into the city and 'B'uild. A new city square will
- blink into being. It can be set either to the east or the west of the
- original square. Any improvements on that square is lost (Bulldozed
- under to make shopping centers and mini-malls, no doubt ;) ). Now
- city symbol is 2 city squares side by side. In the City display there
- are five more squares available (for a total of 26). The Architecture
- advance is required to build a metropolis.
- Megopolis - Population 41+; created from a Metropolis of size 40
- that must have a power plant, and either the Freeway improvement or
- the Mass Transit improvement. The Corporation Advanced is required
- before a Megopolis can be built. To become a Megopolis, a settler
- must move into the Metropolis and 'B'uild. Two new city squares
- will appear and can be put either to the north or to the south of
- the original two city squares. The city display now shows 32
- squares available for use.
-
- Here is a pictorial representation of city display sizes:
-
- Village Town City Metropolis Megopolis
-
- ### #### ####
- # ### ##### ###### ######
- #v# #t# ##c## ##mm## ##MM##
- # ### ##### ###### ##MM##
- ### #### ######
- 5 9 ####
- 21 26
- 32
-
- {Might want to eliminate restriction on regular shapes, so that a city
- can be spread out in an irregular pattern.)
-
- - Variable Start: Allow the player the option of starting at a more
- developed level. Each civilization starts with a few cities, some
- random advances, city improvements, and units.
-
- - Scenarios: Rather than randomly generated worlds, geared scenarios
- would be challenging and fun. Save the Roman Empire from destruction
- at the hands of the barbarians, or Europe from the Hun and Viking
- invasion, or found USA while defending it from England and the indians
- and try to turn it from a small collection of colonies into a
- superpower.
-
- - Zooming: Would allow different views of the game world. Level 1 is
- a map of the entire planet, like the world map currently available.
- Level 2 looks like the display of squares used for the main screen in
- the current game. Level 2 is a detailed close-up of four or nine
- squares showing additional things like cities, battle fields, etc.
-
- - City Display: When in city display, might allow a SimCity type of
- interaction, where you can build multiple buildings (police station,
- houses, etc.).
-
- - Planetary Conquest: At higher tech levels, can colonize other
- planets, engage in war/commerce/etc. with alien cultures. In a
- multiplayer Civilization II, players would be allowed to start on
- different planets from each other. Alien invasions/contact could
- occur early in the game. To avoid letting super-technology fall into
- the hands of low tech civilizations, it should not be possible to take
- advances from a defeated ET city (the alien writings are just too
- indecipherable to us Earthlings).
-
- - Underwater Explorations: The submarine would be more useful and it
- would make way for different technologies and military units.
- Civilizations at higher tech levels could build underwater cities.
- Resources could include mining, fishing and even cultivation of the
- ocean floor.
-
- - Rivers: Split rivers into rivers and streams. Rivers can be
- navigatible by most ships, but streams are too shallow for navigation.
- Rivers cannot be crossed by land units except at fords, cities, or
- bridges.
-
- - Orbital Cities, Moon Base, Subterranean Cities
-
- - Multiple Game Systems: Civilization can prepare "scenarios" for use
- with separate "game modules" which would allow the player to act out
- the action in more detail. For example, a battle could be carried out
- in more detail using a wargame simulator. A SimCity-type interface
- would make customization of the cities interesting. Of course, these
- modules would be entirely optional - the player need never use them;
- however, by acting out the battle (or whatever) in this detail the
- player has a better chance of doing really well if he or she is good
- at tactical games like this (of course, if the player isn't very good,
- the battle could turn out much worse). By making several different
- modules, a really skilled player can take the game to new levels.
- This is similar to what MindCraft is doing with games like Rules of
- Engagement, an Interlocking Game System.
-
- RULE MODIFICATIONS
- ------------------
-
- - Ranged Combat: Artillery shouldn't have to touch a unit to attack
- it. Maybe only if there is a friendly piece adjacent to the enemy can
- the artillery make an attack.
-
- - Supported Attacks: Some units could act together to produce an
- attack of higher attack strength than either are capable alone. For
- example, calvary, phalanx and legion, or musketeers and artillery.
-
- - Supported Defense: Some units' attack strength should give a bonus
- to defense in certain situations. For example, Cannon, Fighters, or
- Archers in a city or fort, or Engineers in a forest.
-
- - Communication: The game should somehow consider the speed of
- communication, perhaps basing the maximum number of cities off it.
- Speed of Communication refers to technologies in use: road, horseback
- riding, ships, railroad, automobile, flight, satellite, etc. Will be
- important throughout the game, especially when communication forms a
- bottleneck, such as in the early stages of the game until the
- development of railroad, and in the spaceborne portion of the game
- when the player must deal with the difficulties of sub-light
- communication.
-
- - Scientists: Somehow there should be a way to work on multiple
- advances simultaneously (maybe at least one per city?) Every once and
- a while there should be a genius somewhere who makes a breakthrough,
- delivering an advance earlier than predicted.
-
- - Cheating: There are several 'bugs' or 'undocumented features',
- called 'cheats' by the gamers, which allow the player to take
- advantage of the game system. Two of these 'cheats' are a little too
- obvious: the 'Settler Cheat', where a player can make a settler build
- an improvement in a single turn, and the 'Sentry Cheat', where a
- player can regain all movement points for a piece by placing it on
- sentry in a city and then unsentrying it. These should be either
- eliminated or modified so they do not unbalance things.
-
- - Experimental Mode: Some people enjoy a game more when they can get
- inside it and fiddle with it without playing by the rules. For these
- people, an experimental mode would be useful. The player could give
- himself huge amounts of money at the beginning of the game to make it
- easier, or could give his enemies better pieces to make it more
- difficult. Entire armies could be picked up and moved to the other
- side of the world. In other words the player would be more like a god
- then a world leader.
-
- - Programmable Strategy: Allows player to design a strategy for an
- enemy civilization's leader or for a governor of his own civilization,
- or for a particular unit (see meta-commands, below). This would allow
- people to design an enemy strategy, and then share it with other
- people.
-
- - Non-City Disasters: Floods, Mega-Floods, Volcanoes, Earthquakes,
- Global Epidemics, Forest Fires, Ice-Age, Famines, Hurricanes/
- tornadoes/ tropical storms.
-
- ARTIFICIAL PLAYERS
- ------------------
-
- - Increase the number of enemies from 7 to 12+. Have an option that
- will allow new civilization to replace civilizations already defeated.
-
- - Major Barbarian Hordes
-
- - Leaders: Chinese = Sun Yat-sen; Maybe allow leaders to change over
- time or with changes in government (like how the advisors change
- depending on government type and technological level) so that the
- English have King Arthur as leader during ancient despotism or
- monarchy, William the Conqueror for classical despotism or monarchy,
- then King Henry for renaissance despotism or monarchy, Elizabeth for
- renaissance republic or democracy, Cromwell, Churchill, and so forth.
- Might be a tad bit confusing, but also might make the game more
- interesting as your opponent changes to meet the needs of an ever
- changing world (King Arthur was great on the battle fields, but would
- be lost leading a battalion of tanks or cooperating with a republic,
- for instance).
-
- - Cheating: The computer should not be allowed advantages that are
- not available to the player. Resource costs should not be reduced for
- items purchased by the computer civilizations. Also, combat odds
- should not be weighted in favor of the computer just to make the game
- harder unless the odds are similarly weighted in favor of the player
- at easier levels. Still, the Emperor level should be very difficult,
- maybe even more difficult than it is currently.
-
- - Artificial Intelligence: The computer players in the current game
- are very well done. They each act in a way that fits their
- 'personality': they form alliances and they conduct trade and war with
- each other. For Civ. II, we would expect this artificial intelligence
- to be brought to new levels. Different civilizations could team up on
- a player (one civilization attacks you east front; once you have moved
- all your pieces from the west to the eastern battlelines, the other
- civilization attacks you from the west).
- To increase the artificial intelligence would require the
- computer to do more in-depth analysis of potential moves. This would
- result in more lag time between turns at the higher (King, Emperor)
- levels, but this would be acceptable, especially since most computers
- these days are more powerful and faster than before.
-
- - Economics: A must! Trade agreements, embargoes, and other bits of
- economic warfare are badly needed. Split trade into several different
- resources (for example: energy, minerals, organics, and spices). A
- more complicated economic system instead of the 'arrows' will make the
- game more interesting. Different kinds of food should be produced in
- different cities so trading between cities through the new economic
- system will be enhanced.
-
- - Alliances: When making peace with another nation, there should be
- ways of increasing the bonds between the civilizations. Allies should
- be allowed to carry each other's forces, or use railroads passing
- through each other's territories.
-
- PLAYER INTERFACE AND PLAYER FUNCTIONS
- -------------------------------------
-
- - Multiplayer: Should at least be able to play two player games.
- Would be nice to be able to play over a network or modem, as well.
-
- - Players could initiate technology swaps instead of waiting for the
- computer player.
-
- - Trade agreements: Would increase value of trade with the other
- civilization. Maybe modify AI so that loss of this trade would have
- some effect on computer civilization's propensity to conduct sneak
- attacks.
-
- - Deficit Spending: Significantly increases the number of unhappy
- people in government, and increases likelihood of civil war,
- revolution, etc.
-
- - Subvert government: Similar to Subvert City, but would affect all
- opposing civilization.
-
- - Barbarian Turn Off Option
-
- - Goto Command: MUST be made to work better so that a piece takes the
- optimum route between two points and uses railroads whenever possible.
- Should be able to set up link so that a city produces armor units and
- automatically moves them to a port city. You would get a message that
- the unit had been completed, and the unit would start life with a goto
- command. Should also be possible to set several points for the unit
- to pass through, so you can control the path taken somewhat, so that
- if the optimum route is through enemy territory you can give an
- alternate route.
-
- - Meta-Commands: Let player give a general command to a unit, such as
- "Repair pollution anywhere in this area," or "Build a railroad from
- here to here." Some government types (Federalism, Feudalism,
- Cyberocracy) would allow player to give limited instructions, such as
- "Maximize production of ____," or "Defend these cities against ____."
- This would be invaluable in a Space version of the game, as the player
- could land colonists on a planet, help them get started with a few
- cities, and then appoint a governor to "settle the planet" and forget
- having to micromanage the planet.
-
- - When choosing next unit for the player to move, should do it in a
- more organized method, such as choosing the closest piece to the
- current one. Also, should have option to *not* jump to the next
- piece.
-
- UNITS
- -----
-
- - Engineers: Engineers can make roads, bridges, fortifications, mines,
- fences, border stations, and irrigation, perform sabotage on enemy
- cites like diplomats, but can't build cities; also might have better
- combat values or some special combat ability (units stacked with
- engineers increase attack strength by 50% (?) ); cost for engineers
- would be the same as for settlers.
-
- - Explorers/Scouts: Explorers could move at 3, have an attack strength
- of 0, defense of 1, and could "Meet with King" like diplomats; cost
- for explorers would be the same as for phalanx.
-
- - Spies: Can steal production units, food, or trade from cities.
- Also, spy actions could be more interactive, so that you have some
- power over what gets destroyed in a city (along with a higher
- probability that the spy will be caught in the act and executed, of
- course)
-
- - Fishing Fleet: Can harvest food production from squares outside the
- city periphery. Gets one food per turn on ocean squares, two on fish
- resource squares, and can hold upto 10 food. These can be
- "programmed" to travel between a particular city and a particular
- fishing site, so user can ignore the piece after getting it started.
-
- - Oil Rig: Can drill for oil in offshore areas.
-
- - Refugees: A new type of unit (mv:1, att:0, def:0). Does not need
- to be supported. It is created when a city is attacked or taken over
- by an enemy. Also can be voluntarily created by player so cities can
- be moved if they are in danger or are in a bad position on the map
- board. To create one refugee unit requires 2 population points.
- Refugees have only one ability: they can build a Village (see below)
- or can increase an existing city by one population point. Refugees
- will be disbanded after a few (5-10) turns if they are not put to use.
- When a city goes into disorder and stays in disorder for several
- turns, then there is a chance that people will desert it. A random
- number, say 5-25% of the population, become refugees. The refugee
- unit(s) thus produced will be unaligned with any civilization (like
- the barbarians), and will travel to a nearby city that is better in
- some way to the one they just left (happier people, larger population,
- more excess food, more city improvements, or whatever), even across
- oceans (with the help of 'barbarian' ships).
-
- - Chariots and Cavalry should have reduced strength when attacking
- fortified positions.
-
- - Militia and other primitive units should change their appearance to
- something different as the technology levels increase. For example,
- militia should start as half-clad warriors with sticks, change to
- indians with bows, then to Viet Cong with rifles.
-
- - Chariots and Armor should not be allowed into forests, mountains, or
- swamps, or at least should have the movement cost doubled.
-
- - Forward Observer: Move at high rate (like 5), have attack value of
- 0 (1 for veteran), defense value of 1 (2 for veteran). Can be used to
- call in attacks from artillery, or increase the success of the attack.
-
- - Headquarters: Provide an alternate base for units to be based out
- of? If HQ is destroyed, units assigned to it will have reduced combat
- values or will Disband.
-
- - Satellites: Shows exact information about enemy units and cities.
- Also, provides more entertainment to people. Increases trade and
- gives information. [Should this be a City Improvement?]
-
- - Space Shuttle: For carrying satellites and ?
-
- - Space Ships: Building the spaceship is tedious. It should only be
- displayed once per turn. Spaceship component should flash if you
- already have enough of them. When you have enough of them any cities
- building them should come up on the screen just like what happens now
- with Wonders.
-
- - Cargo Transports: Can carry troops or other units at increased
- movement rates over certain terrains.
-
- - Helicopters: Transports and attack, low defense factor.
-
- - Cargo Airplanes: Can carry/drop other units.
-
- - SOSUS: Undersea sonar array for detecting ships and submarines in
- the oceans.
-
- - Radar Station: Used to make an array of radar posts for detection
- of enemy aircraft.
-
- - Hovercraft: Fusion-powered hover-tanks with antimatter cannons.
-
- - Phaser Platoons: Phaser armed with rocket packs.
-
- - Stealth Bombers, Stealth Fighter, Stealth Ship: Hard to detect,
- high defense value, very high cost to build.
-
- - Paratroopers: Can attack the same turn they are dropped rather than
- waiting a turn.
-
- - Marines/Amphibious: Can attack same round they are set on shore by
- a ship.
-
- - Cruise Missile: Unit fired from another unit (Ship, plane, missile
- launcher) which could travel a long distance (say 5 squares) and
- attack a unit or city. Has a high attack strength, can only be hit by
- a fighter or SDI, is good for only one use (is destroyed whether or
- not the attack succeeds), and is destroyed at the end of a turn if it
- hasn't hit a target. Benefit is low cost to produce.
-
- - Strategic Nuclear Weapons: Allow complete destruction of anything
- they hit and cause serious devastation of the surrounding landscape.
- Primarily used for excessively blood-thirsty players. Computer should
- be able to handle a "cold war"
-
- - Ogre: Artificially intelligent nuclear powered tank capable of
- sustaining a thermonuclear blast dead on and keep moving.
-
- - Berserker: Artificially intelligent space craft capable of
- destroying all life on an entire planet with little difficulty. Very
- unpredictable and can learn from its mistakes.
-
- - Repair Yards: The idea of repair should be added to the game. Give
- things the same offense and defense power they have now, with the
- offense number also representing the number of points of damage the
- unit does. The defense number could also represent the number of
- points of damage a piece of equipment could take. Thusly, tanks can
- still kill tanks in one shot, but a lucky shot by a phalanx would no
- longer terminate your battleship. With this repair idea, allow there
- to be a new building called a repair yard that could be built in a
- city. Units could be brought to this city and 'fixed'. Also, you
- should be able to take certain units, such as militia/musketeers
- /settlers, bring them back to a city, and spend 'x' resources on them
- to upgrade them to the next class, rather than disband and start from
- scratch. (Planes and such would obviously have to be totally rebuilt,
- as most of this expense is equipment).
- There should be training for non-veteran units, and more unit
- attributes than just veteran or non-veteran. And when automobile is
- developed, movement rates for older pieces should be increased.
-
- - Reserve: In a republic or democracy, units can be placed in
- reserve. The units stop requiring support, but cannot move, attack,
- or even defend. To bring a reserve unit to active status requires
- extra support and a few turns to prepare. (Might want to make it
- possible to use reserve units to quell unrest in a city - it worked in
- L.A.!)
-
- - Forced Work: The ability to make a settler construct something in a
- single turn is useful sometimes. Maybe this could be done as 'forced
- work' where the unit can continue building or moving, but suffer some
- penalty, such as reduced attack/defense strengths, take damage, lose
- next (or some future) turn, cause unhappiness in home city, require
- double resources, or have a chance that the unit will be disbanded.
-
- - Unit Design: Can design a unit based from sets of abilities. Able
- to set the attack/defense/movement points, as well as special
- abilities; also can draw own icons. This could be set up as part of
- an external game editor, as an integral part of the game that can be
- used during play, or both. If it is made part of the game, then
- certain restrictions must be made: cannot make pieces that are better
- than the units currently available, can only design units after a
- certain technology(s) (Repair Yard?) has been achieved. New advances
- could be created to allow additional abilities to be used with
- designed units. Anyhow, the computer uses these specifications to
- figure out the cost of the unit.
-
- - Patrol: Either a function for certain units, or a quality of a
- separate piece unto itself. Would allow borders to be better defended
- by building border stations that would send out a unit to meet an
- enemy automatically. A piece stationed only a couple spaces from the
- home city should not cause unhappiness in the city.
-
- - Border Patrol Stations: Build a station that keeps sentry over
- about 4 squares and sends out an attack unit if it sees a hostile
- unit, thus allowing concrete borders.
-
- - Improved capabilities: At higher levels, should be able to build
- more efficient mining, farming, etc.
-
- - Air-to-air refueling.
-
- - Airports: Non-city place for planes to land. Built by engineers.
-
- - Supply Lines: A piece that is surrounded by other units with no way
- to trace a route back to a friendly city could be made to disband
- after a few turns.
-
- CITY IMPROVEMENTS
- -----------------
-
- - Walls: Like barracks they should require occasional updating.
- Also, it should be more difficult to attack walled cities without some
- sort of combined arms style attack.
-
- - Bookstore: Increases happiness in city.
-
- - Stadium: Like Colosseum.
-
- - Hospital: Needed to increase city size above 20.
-
- - Research Center: Available at high tech level. Acts like
- university.
-
- - TV Station: Increases happiness in city.
-
- - Radar Station: Increases intelligence. Can see all units within X
- squares of the Station.
-
- - De-salination Plant: Requires refining and electricity, adds one
- more food production on each ocean square.
-
- - Space Lab: Increases light bulbs.
-
- - Fusion Reactors:
-
- - Satellite: [See above in Units]
-
- - Hydroponics Lab: City always produces enough food to sustain the
- population.
-
- - Switching Production: There should be a penalty-factor (5-10% ?)
- each time you switch from one production to another one halfway. This
- is to discourage the "caravan-build-wonder-then-change-to-city-wall"
- type of abuse. Also, should be able to purchase part of a unit's or
- an improvement's development (like increasing barracks from 10% done
- to 50% done).
-
- - Prospecting: Allows for creation of new resource squares. The
- obvious oilfields, gold mines, and coal sources get used up earlier in
- the game; by prospecting new places for resources could be found.
-
- - Automated City Functions: Selling the barracks just before they
- become obsolete is tedious. They should automatically be sold;
- Similarly for the factory when you build manufacturing plant; if you
- hit F5 and click on Universities you should go to a city that has one
- instead of being forced to look at every city to find it. Finding the
- city where the earthquake just destroyed the cathedral is tedious.
- Disasters should bring up the city screen.
-
- - Railroads: It looks really ugly to have the web of black lines when
- a bunch of railroads have been created. How about separating the
- movement effect from the economic effect of railroads. Then rail
- lines would be made only for movement and something else could be done
- to improve production of a square. Also, railroads should require a
- cost per turn per rail for maintenance. It might be a good idea to
- limit the number of moves a unit can make on a railroad, perhaps 20.
- It should be possible to move a huge distance, but not an infinite
- distance.
-
- - Freeways: Faster than roads.
-
- - Canals: Built by settlers (or engineers). Could be used like
- rivers, but would also allow sea units to move through land.
-
- - Tunnels: Underwater tunnels to connect nearby land masses. Like
- the Chunnel Tunnel.
-
- - Bridges: Can be built across short straits (one or two squares) of
- ocean or lake.
-
- - National Treasury: Must be built in capital. Prevents units from
- being disbanded because of lack of support in home city. Units that
- cannot be supported by one unit are automatically reassigned to a
- different city. Only if no other cities can support them are they
- disbanded.
-
- - Shipping: Ability to automatically send excess goods (food,
- production) to another city. This would reduce the time spent moving
- caravans from one city to another. Perhaps this could be available
- after a suitable advance, or maybe it is only possible after a caravan
- has linked the two cities with a trade route. A city receiving food
- or production in this way would have to spend, say, one coin per good
- (or maybe more, depending on the distance between the two cities).
-
- - Suburbs: In addition to mines and farms, suburbs would increase
- happiness, research, or trade directly. Other types of improvements
- should be possible, as well, such as vineyards, orchards, commercial
- zones, etc.
-
- ADVANCES
- --------
-
- - Shamanism: Needed for Mysticism.
-
- - Crafting (Pottery & Bronze): Needed for Music, Construction ...
-
- - Weaving (Crafting & Construction): Increases Move of sail units.
-
- - Music (Crafting & Alphabet): Help makes people happy (?)
-
- - Drama & Poetry (Music & Writing): Needed for Mysticism
-
- - Monotheism (Religion & Feudalism): Allows Cathedrals and Theocracy.
-
- - Manufacturing (Physics & Engineering): Needed for Industrialization.
-
- - Architecture (Masonry & Crafting): Needed for ???
-
- - Microtech (Robotics & The Corporation):
-
- - Satellites (Microtech & Rocketry): Shift 5-6 cheat.
-
- - Stealth Technology (Advanced Flight & Computers): Allows building
- of stealth units.
-
- - Aquaculture: Build roads, railroads, cities in sea areas, and make
- improvements to sea squares.
-
- - Metaphysics (Nuclear Fission & Superconductor): Needed for Research
- Center and Grand Unified Theory WoW.
-
- - Cybertechnology (Genetic Engineering & Microtech): ???
-
- - Nanotechnology (Metaphysics & Microtech): Solar Power Satellites
-
- - Artificial Intelligence
-
- - Gravity Manipulation (Grand Unified Theory WoW, Metaphysics,
- Nanotechnology): Anti Gravity, Black Hole WoW
-
- - Weather Control:
-
- - Hyperspace (Gravity Manipulation & Advanced Space Flight):
- Spaceships
-
- - FTL Communication (Hyperspace & Advanced Communication):
-
- - Advanced Hyperspace (FTL Communication & ???):
-
- - Solar Power Satellites:
-
- - Calendar: Requires Astronomy. Increases the yield of food once
- developed.
-
- - Paper: Requires Writing. Allows construction of library.
-
- - Printing: Requires Invention and Paper. Allows building of
- Bookstore. Increases effect of library.
-
- - Telegraph: Increases speed of communication.
-
- - Modern Communication System: Requires Printing and Electronics.
- Allows building of TV Station and Radar Station.
-
- - Photonics
-
- - Lasers: Star Wars Defense, Faster Communication (+Science), requires
- computers and nuclear power.
-
- - Advanced Lasers: Metaphysics and lasers. Allows laser weapons.
-
- - Antimatter: shock troops with energy weapons? Provides a good power
- source for high tech things.
-
- - Terraforming: Higher tech levels should allow the ability to knock
- down mountains, reclaim land from sea, change the course of mighty
- rivers, and make deserts bloom.
-
- - Biology: Allows biological weapons, better farming techniques, etc.
-
- - Theocracy: No corruption, low science development, but prices for
- temples, cathedrals, and religious WoWs are lower.
-
- - Charismatic Dictatorship: ala Saddam Hussein, Hitler, et al. Units
- do not require support. Trade is the same as in monarchy. Units can
- quell unhappy people, but there are more unhappy people than usual.
- (This is an improved Despotic Government.) Maybe Despotism becomes
- this after development of invention?
-
- - Constitutional Monarchy: Grasslands, Rivers, and Hills are as
- productive as they are under a Monarchy. Also, an additional trade
- unit is generated wherever at least one trade unit already exists.
- Military units each require one resource for industrial support.
- Settlers require two food. Corruption is higher than under a Monarchy
- or Republic. Military units cannot be used to quell dissent in
- cities.
- In addition, the Parliament of your government accepts any peace
- offer made by another civilization.
-
- - Feudalism: Turns over control of several cities to a local lord.
- Allows monarchy-style government, but over a larger number of cities.
- Also, decreases corruption in cities far away from the capitol.
- Further, it makes the computer take control of those cities and units
- associated with those cities, thus freeing up the player to
- concentrate in other areas. The player issues a list of general
- orders for the lord to carry out. Drawbacks would be increased
- likelihood of civil war in some circumstances, need for a palace in
- another city, need for giving gifts to local lord. Governors have
- different capabilities and personalities, so one might be very
- militaristic, and another more willing to negotiate; one might be very
- efficient and able to govern his cities better than the player
- himself, while another is less efficient, with production and trade
- going to less useful things and increased corruption. Under
- Feudalism, removing governors would be difficult and would probably
- result in civil war. Portion of trade converted to production
- (because you don't have the power to tax one city heavily to pay for
- construction elsewhere. Not possible to change the home city of a
- unit.
- If a governor is likely to rebel, the player would get a message
- such as: Sir, our sources indicate that Duke Charles of Normandy is
- gathering military strength. We believe he may intend to rebel!
-
- - Federalism: Similar to feudalism, but operates more like republic.
- Less variation in governor personalities and capabilities, and is
- easier to remove governors from office. Trade not converted to
- production, so taxation is easier, but still is not possible to change
- the home city of a unit.
-
- - Cyberocracy: Fully computerized government. Allows all benefits of
- democracy, but also allows computer assisted government like feudalism
- and federalism. Since no governors, government always works as the
- most efficient and capable governor. Certain improvements
- (Courthouse, for example) have reduced maintenance costs. Computer
- takes over a major portion of the control of player's civilization.
- Drawback is that all military units have a monetary maintenance cost.
-
- - Alteration of Building Times: Gaining tech should allow one to
- complete tasks faster; a civilization with automobile in 1000BC
- shouldn't need 80 years to build a road (4 turns with no cheats). The
- turn length shouldn't depend solely on the year, it should be tied
- into the most advanced tech level, and the "number of turns" it takes
- to do something should be delegated into actual number of years/months
- or whatever and tied to tech levels. So a civilization with automobile
- and fusion could, say, reforest in twenty years, while it would take a
- civilization with math and perhaps metallurgy 80-100 years, instead of
- 10 turns. (Also, there could be further advances introduced at this
- point, regarding biology and other areas, which would allow for more
- rapid development of land, and would decrease the amount of time
- needed.
-
- - Alteration of Learning Times: The more contact you have with a
- civilization, the easier it should be to gain the technology that they
- have. When a civilization begins researching a new advance, you would
- get a percentage of the advance up front, depending on if it were
- already known. The rule would be something like: 10% for each ally
- with the technology, 5% for each trading partner with the technology,
- 2% for each civilization with the technology that your civilization is
- at peace with, and 1% for each civilization with the advance that you
- are not at war with. (The percentages are not cumulative, of course.)
- Also, different types of governments should modify this bonus.
- Civilizations could voluntarily restrict allowing other civilizations
- from getting this benefit from their own technology by turning off a
- switch. Also, it should be possible to steal another civilization's
- technology without causing war (see Spy unit above).
-
- WONDERS OF THE WORLD
- --------------------
-
- Ancient
- -------
- Colossus
- Pyramids
- Hanging Gardens
- Lighthouse
- Oracle
- Stonehenge: (Calendar) Helps crops, so increases food production in
- city. Expires with development of Astronomy.
- DuJinagYan: A massive irrigation project that increases food
- production on all irrigated squares by one. Is made obsolete by the
- Republic.
-
- Classical
- ---------
- Great Library
- Great Wall
- Archimedes' Engineering: (Alphabet) Gives two additional advances
- Plato's Republic
- Aristotle's Science: (Writing) Increases scientific production.
- Voided upon development of University.
- Holy Text
- Sun Tzu's The Art of War
-
- Renaissance
- -----------
- Copernicus's Observatory
- Shakespear's Theater
- Isaac Newton's College
- J.S. Bach's Cathedral
- Magellan's Expedition
- Michelangelo's Chapel
- Constitution
-
- Industrial
- ----------
- Darwin's Voyage
- Hoover Dam
- Woman's Suffrage
- United Nations
- Statue of Liberty: Would attract refugees from dissatisfied cities
- Nobel Society: Requires explosives (or university?)
- Olympics
-
- Electronic
- ----------
- Hollywood: Increases happiness throughout civilization, and attracts
- refugees.
- Manhattan Project
- Apollo Program
- Human Genome Project
- Atlantis: First underwater city
- Mars Expedition }- This accounts for space station, moon base,
- space shuttle, etc.
- Grand Unified Theory
-
- Interstellar
- -------------
- Voyage to Alpha-Centauri
- Interplanetary Council: Peace with aliens.
- Black Hole Experiment
- Terraform Protoproject: One planet is fully transformed to an Earth-
- like environment.
- The Pan-Society Paper: Expresses philosophic ideals in universal
- symbolic logic
-
- CAN I HELP?
- -----------
-
- Of course! Most of this FAQ was compiled from other people's ideas.
- As the compiler of this list I made many decisions about areas other
- people failed to address, and I fleshed out many other people's ideas,
- but I've tried to avoid dictating what goes in and what goes oout. I
- want to get as much input and feedback as possible from as many people
- as possible.
-
- I have plenty of ideas already, now what I need now is criticism.
- Tear it apart. Tell me why a certain approach won't work, or that a
- certain idea is silly or stupid. Tell me to forget about doing
- certain things because they are too hard to program or that they would
- change the nature of the game too much. Also, I want to see arguments
- on some of the more controversial ideas. The more discussion I see
- about a certain thing, the better I'll be able to decide whether or
- not to include it. Finally, if you really like an idea or two, say
- so! Many people liked the idea of aquatic cities, so I'll make sure
- it stays in. Some people dislike the idea of having colonies on
- multiple planets, while others love it, so maybe Space Civilization
- could be a supplement put out later, after the initial release.
-
- And if you have new ideas, then post them. More than anything else,
- this is a brainstorming session. I am not designing Civ II, I am just
- putting together a database of ideas that someone can draw from to
- make a sequel. The more ideas we have, the better!
-
- CONTRIBUTORS
- ------------
-
- Thanks to everyone who shared ideas. I wanted to credit everyone who
- made contributions, but the list was just too big. In particular,
- Thank you to Shadow for his excellent and detailed submissions, Dave
- [Rubicon] for the FAQ, and Bob 'o Bob, Paul Brinkley, and Toshi Tsuboi
- for their many posts.