"OK, with all these micromanagement suggestions, let me throw out one a suggestion to make certain they don't take over the game...
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."

if asked why out of the five things to put on the new ideas thread why would this idea belong? what are the greatest strength in adding this idea? and what if any weaknesses or exploits does this idea have?

have you ever played rail road tycoon two?

they have a neat system that would work well with your idea...

when setting up a civ3 game maybe have the following four sliders

1. AI difficulty (how smart and aggressive the AI is)

2. realism settings (turning on things like religion, LASS-d combat, economic victory, advanded diplomacy, things of that nature)

3. internal strife (make this a double slider, one for you and one for the AI)

Second, I really like korn469's modified idea. In SMAC there are four map settings that can be changed, and only two AI settings (difficulty level and 'aggressive').

Rather than sliders though, I'd like to see something like the preferences checkboxes in SMAC - lots of on-off or 1-2-3 switches that can be used to change many game parameters.