Civilisation IV

I’m a great fan of the Civilisation games. I spent way too much time at University in the all-night computer lab playing Civilisation II, and Civ III on the laptop was one of the things that made waiting in airport lounges across America bearable. For some reason I got thinking about the things I want in Civ IV, so here they are.

1. Better maps

Up until now, Civ has been an isometric grid, either a flat world (if you can’t go from one edge of the world to the other) or a cylinder (if you can). I’d like to play on a sphere. Not only would it be more realistic, you could view your world as a spinning globe in space, which would be exceptionally cool.

I’d also like to see more realistic coastlines; if we’re still going to use a square grid, let’s at least have the coastal sections be less square. Have, for instance, a coastal tile that is part land and part sea, and have that reflected on the map view.

2. Better trade

It’s ridiculous that every city in your empire needs to be self-sufficient. At the moment you can’t build a modern US with the Kansas grain-basket providing food to the rest of the country, for instance, or for that matter an industrial-revolution UK with food production in East Anglia and industry in the Midlands and Scotland.

I’d like to see trade routes for food, either internal or external. Obviously there’d be wastage like everything, but it would mean that you could build a science or manufacturing city without having to worry about food production.

Of course, that would mean that if someone captured that city from you, you’d be in real trouble. I don’t think that’s a bad thing :-).

3. More flexible science

Civ III has the exact same technology tree for every civilisation, and it’s easy for everyone to learn anything (although it’s easier if more civilisations have learned a technology). I’d like to see some more complexity there: it should be easier for scientific civilisations to learn stuff like Astronomy, and harder for them to learn Horse Riding, for instance.

Also, if you capture an enemy city, and assimilate it into your culture, you should start getting knowledge of parts of their technology as people who come from a culture that knows about, say, Banking start talking to your wise men. Even if you’re currently researching something completely different.

I’d say the same sort of thing would happen if you had regular exposure to other civilisations (e.g. by trade and/or common borders). Of course, I expect that would lead to culture leeching as well.