Haven't been here in a while Well I got an idea for a thread today, hope we can get some good ideas stirring in here...

One of the best things about the Civ series is replayability - the ability to play the game over and over, always a new game, always a different game, never gets boring, never gets repetative - like this sentence

This is a factor of the game that Civ 1 and Civ 2 followed without flaw. However, from what I hear about SMAC and ToT, it may be falling. In order to be a great game, Civ 3 must be able to be played over and over and over with the user wanting to play again.

I ask you Apolyton...how can this be done effectively? How can Civ 3 be constantly replayable by all people. What are the factors of the past SM games that MAKE it replayable. And what must Firaxis do to keep the game strong in this department?

Do
1) Have many different tribes
2) Have multiple paths for the tech tree
3) Have more and more event triggers
4) Stress the importance of "being the first" to discover a tech (enabling techs)
5) Have more customizability (is that a word? )
6) Have more diplomatic options

Don't
1) make the diplomacy predictable
(E.G. if >enthusiastic = give tribute. If icy = refuse tribute. If>icy - declare war etc...)
2) Have a simplistic tech tree

Please add/comment to this list

Civ II could implement something like Age of Empires native units in scenarios. Such as in the ancient age after discovering 'Animal Handling' you could round up some 'Barbarian' Wolves and make them into a fighting unit after fighting a training war. The training war would have to be simple as complication can turn off the masses in most games.

NOTE:The Animals could NOT be produced they could only be 'caught'

I think even a settler unit could repel a Wolf hoard. I think we should stick with Elephants and horse-drawn units.

CTG (...I need to think of another abbreviation for your name with Casesar and Celestion around..)- I agree that horses and elephants should be the only animal unit. Not to crazy about the wolf idea DC. I think the unit workshop will be important to replayability as well.

As for the comment about settlers being able to stop warriors...

I had posted in I believe a Unit workshop thread a while back that a settler unit should be able to have a 50/50 chance against horsemen and archers, and 75% chance of defeating warriors. This is because settlers in the west (US) were able to defend against native americans with rifles and such. Obviously the odds would change with veteran units...

Keep the great ideas flowing!

I think that any potential problems for Civ IV should not even be brought since we haven't been exposed to Civ III yet. If Civ III uses a polymorphic AI than there wouldn't be any problems because any other Civ games would be centered around improving graphics and features, not the AI.

What I would want to see is an AI that would not allow the player to beat the WWII scenario with the Spanish (although, maybe I'm asking a bit too much here )

quote: Have multiple paths for the tech tree

That's exactly what makes Master Of Magic so replayable! Even i fyou always choose the same spheres of Magic, you won't be able to discover the same spells every time. The higher the spells are, the less is the propability of discovering them. The same should be included in Civ3: perhaps different Civs should be able to research different technologies. Of course those techs shouldn't be too different, we have to remember that we want a historical game. But we all know that the development of the American Natives was not half the same as of the European culures...
Also the way you develop your civ should influence the technologies you are able to research...

What do you think about that?

1. Have many different tribes and also make them different not just by their name or colour. At least include an option to play with a different folder for each civ (civ specific units, technology, behaviour, religion maybe even buildings or wonders)

2. Have multiple paths for the tech tree. Strategist said it right, I want to add here only the idea of minor techs (I think I saw this in the Civ3list). Make it possible for civs to specialize themselves in a certain tech (researching minor techs). After the discovery of a major tech A, you could choose what to do: research the next major tech B or a minor tech A1, and then A2 (specialization in tech A). Militaristic nations would prefer to research "attack weapons" related minor techs while peacefull nations would prefer economical minor techs.

3. Advanced diplomacy. It's a MUST.

4. Give trade/business a more important role.

5. Give resources (coal, iron, uranium, oil, etc) a more important role. Fighting for resources was a missing aspect from Civ2. I think the introduction of the energy concept would be usefull.

6. More random events (natural disasters, diseases, a random appearence of great personalities and leaders: philosophers/ scientists/ generals/ politicians)

7. Rise and fall of Empires

8. Customizability

9. Good scenario editor (and scenarios)

10. Nice graphics (bright colors, not dark one like in SMAC or ToT) and good sound.

quote: Scenarios = replayability for a long, long time

And as to improving replayability - I'm loathe to change the tech tree too much, as it could make the game too complex. Rather, I'll do another for having the SMAC SE choices (that Firaxis are supposed to have rejected for Civ3) - having a SMAC-like SE model would allow civs to different.

edit: I know that SE choices are perhaps more suited to the sci-fic SMAC, but I'm sure that they could change the names or something and adapt it to Civ3...