Here is where you submit YOUR ONE IDEA for the Essential Civ 3 list. Your idea will be given its own topic thread for debate/discussion.

Guidelines for New Ideas are "anything goes," so long as it is clear how the new idea will enhance the game in Civ 2 terms.

Borrowing from other games is not a new feature. Sorry if that wasn't clear. Can you be more specific -- which of those other game features do you want to see?

Instead of Chieftain, Warlord, etc. being governed by progressively tougher AIs, have each level include more advanced features. For example, Chieftain would be a lot like Civ 2, with just a few new concepts (such as, perhaps, the LASS system) and using the new interface. Deity would include all the new features: regions, battle maps, customizable units, civilian population with its own agenda, etc., etc., etc.

I make this suggestion because I am quite fond of designing scenarios, and many scenarios would not be able to handle so many complicated features. For example, if you were playing a scenario based on an alien invasion, do you want to deal with domestic problems? Of course not, the great premise of sci-fi is that if the Earth were invaded, we would all band together, right? So if you want to keep that mood, you would play the scenario on Chieftain or Warlord level, whereas if you wanted to get a more realistic experience, you would play Emperoro or Diety.

OK, that suggestion only applies if they decide to include all this micromanagement stuff, but that's my contribution to the pot.

------------------
Anarchist Supreme of the Glorious PROT! :)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Audentior Independant Nation.

To elaborate just a bit, I would like to see a Civ3 feature that provides a turn by turn summary of the game events that can be edited as fits the player's need--example:

OCC Game
3500 BC Alphabet
3400 BC Hut-50gd
.
.
.
20 AD Contact-Romans
.
.
.
1645 AD Ship Arrives in Alpha

Making logs in multicity games is too complex but a computer could do it trivially and players could compare games as well as analyze play....

The use of logs is very good in competition as any good game must have a way of being recording.

Aurelius

'cuz I'd really love to see both LASS/CLAS-D combat used and see espionage/diplomatic missions as opposed to units. Also just about everything from don Don's original SUPPLY, MOVEMENT, etc. posts. Okay that makes three.

If I have to settle for one I'll pick the combat.

------------------
Theben
Co-Moderator of the Civ3 Forums

Theben, could you be a little more descriptive about what combat your talking about?

Some rules are needed to resolve conflicting orders (you can't fund adiacent city by different settler, can't end same Wonder in two different cities, etc.) but you can have a better use of time (better multiplayer support, not PBEM), and some mix of TBS and RTS strong points.

I would suggest the following to beef up civ3 (I originally wrote this up for ctp2, but bear these toughts in mind nevertheless):
-Have a proper city view like civ2
-Continue the use of the build cue (que, whatever)
-Give more info about what is being built in the cities (when it is built in the city)
-Put all pertinent info on one city window(happiness, food, units, cash production, industrial production)
-Keep those great underwater and space cities(but make em' MUCH more efficient to get at)
-Civ and civ2 had a city viewing button, which was cool. It let you see what your empire actually looks like. Add this feature for certain, but be sure to update the appearance of the buildings as time passes.
-Be SURE to have the game last longer.
-Make the game continue if you win, like in civ2(i'm mentioning civ2 a lot, get the picture?)
-Make the space view once again, and perhaps add another couple of layers to it. More orbit levels, or even make it possible to colonize the planet's moon.
-Make more units available.
-Keep the unit stack idea, its very efficient
-Make it possible to name ships and units, and have a screen that allows the player to access the unit with these assigned names.(do not make this idea compulsory, however, it will rather tick me off to have to assign names to things if i'm trying to play fast)
-The old goto feature with route tracing was a good idea, keep it!
-I want a unit upgrade wonder, like the leonardo's workshop in civ2
-Have detrimental wonders, make it possible to really screw the other players with your wonders
-The visible trade routes in ctp are good, but try not to make them so bogging.
-Keep the caravan as it is in ctp.
-MORE GOVERNMENTS!!!!!!!
-Include national borders on the map.
-let the player assign the area that the city will draw it's food from. It would be nice if you could assign areas for this outside of the traditional city radius, so you can have vast grain producing areas in a agricultural area, and position your cities in an area wich provides more efficient production.

What I mean by this, is a system that would allow you to move citizens between existing cities, without the use of Settlers/Engineers/Colony Pods/whatever.

This idea is essential because though it is one idea it adds or fixes many things. For instance it fixes ICS because the main reason people were able to expand so easily in Civ 2 was that it didn't cost them anything to do so.

In the Energy Model that I posted to The List forum, the larger the Civ the more energy resources required to support it. That way ICS theoretically remains possible, but a player would have to have huge amounts of resources. Some features of the model:

Unit construction now includes "energy barrels" along side production shields;
Adds new levels of strategy to trade, unit supply, and movement;
Players must also compete for strategic control of seeded natural resources "Coal Deposits," "Oil Fields," and "Uranium Deposits."

As a city grows in way of population and improvements, the radius of the city itself should grow too. Instead of only occupying one of the squares, it could take up 2, 3, maybe 4 as the city grows. As this happens, maybe include more squares that the city can use for food, shield, and trade production.

i'm on it...got the afternoon set aside to manage the thread

unresolved issues are:

This could easily be shown by giving a unit a resistance value of 1 to 10.

Early warriors and settlers could sustain large and distant marches, thus having a resistance of 10, and Modern units like, armor ect, which require fuel ect would have a resistance of 1, and cant wander too far from supplies without losing fighting effectiveness.