First of all, don't get me wrong I love Civ I and II, logged many hours, but for me if Civ III is not different I probably won't spend that much time with it. There is only a limited amount that better graphics and added units, technologies, etc do for me.That is why I believe that the population of your nation needs to be radically changed. Here are a few basic ideas that I would like to see put in to Civ III in terms of the population make-up of your empire.
1) Ethniticity. Ethnic backgrounds affect happiness and the way people live. Obviously Firaxis needs to be careful and not have the English hate the Celts or Irish or whatever, but maybe anytime a nation attacks you and appears to be hostile, the ethnic backgrounds grow revengeful to each other.
2) Immigrants. Cities should grow with population from other nations if the city is prospering and happy. If a neighbor is fighting a war and the city of Calcutta is under attack, a certain percentage of the population should flee and go to a near by city to escape. This could be both a friendly city or enemy, examples of late would include the whole mess in Kosovo or in Africa.
3) No numbers for population representation. You should not have a city of 3, but instead 65,374. This would add complexity to the game. Then you can have percentages of the population being happy (12%), content (61%), and rioting (27%). Again the percentages should go to ethniticities with an English population (65%), Indian (10%), German (7%), Russian (6%), etc.
4) Count the country. It was not until the 20th Century that the majority of the population lived in cities. In civilization this number changes to when you start. While the population in the country may or may not affect play, it should at least be counted in both make-up of ethniticity and in official population ratings.
That about wraps it up in my ideas at this time. Tell me if I am totally off base, but I would like to see some changes. Truthfully I played Civ II much less than Civ I because it seemed too much like the original.
Apolyton Civilization Site Forums
