Civilization 7 is in development

[T-hawk]

Have one mode that goes from ancient to renaissance, then another that goes from renaissance to future.

The game that was built along those lines was Spore, which didn't really do all that well.

As for 1UPT, there's no way that's going away. Although what keeps happening to the franchise is adding more ways to skirt or circumvent that limit, like ways to combine units or stack certain particular ones or unit classes that live off the map (like aircraft based in a city.)

And I'll also point out that the most popular strategy game of all time is 1UPT, and being blocked by your own friendly units is part of the loss condition more often than not. I'm talking about Chess, of course.

[civac2]

It's quite different being blocked by your own units than being blocked by an allies unit. The scarcity of space in 1upt Civ also requires all matter of compromises in game design which are not to the games' advantage.

[Jowy]

Have one mode that goes from ancient to renaissance, then another that goes from renaissance to future.

The game that was built along those lines was Spore, which didn't really do all that well.

Yeah, I remember hearing about it flopping back in the day. I've only seen gameplay years later, and honestly the game looked fun and creative. It might have been ahead of its time. The big difference to my suggestion would be that Spore had whole different gameplay genres between eras. Civilization would just be Civilization, each with its own balancing and flavour.

[Tarkeel]

The other option would be to revamp the core Civilization formula.

I mentioned this in the game recommendation thread, but take a look at Ozymandias.

[Brian Shanahan]

1UPT is probably the only thing saving the late game.

Was playing the late game of a (n already won, but not officially so) game the other night, and even rushing through the turns somewhat, it took me about two hours to get through ten turns. I'd never take so long in Civ 4 unless I was taking extra care because it was a competitive game or one above my comfort level.

[Brian Shanahan]

Have one mode that goes from ancient to renaissance, then another that goes from renaissance to future.

The game that was built along those lines was Spore, which didn't really do all that well.

Yeah, I remember hearing about it flopping back in the day. I've only seen gameplay years later, and honestly the game looked fun and creative. It might have been ahead of its time. The big difference to my suggestion would be that Spore had whole different gameplay genres between eras. Civilization would just be Civilization, each with its own balancing and flavour.

The problem with Spore was that the devs massively over-promised on what would be included in the game. Even comparing early publicity demos with actual gameplay will show a massive disconnect between what they were saying they were going to do and what they actually did. And, unlike No Man's Sky, there was no real effort to correct this gap once the game was released.

Now, I think quite a few things they were talking about doing were probably beyond the capabilities of a game that was going to be widely sold back in 2008, but the solution to that is to first figure out what you can deliver then brag about delivering it.

[Krill]

1UPT is probably the only thing saving the late game.

Was playing the late game of a (n already won, but not officially so) game the other night, and even rushing through the turns somewhat, it took me about two hours to get through ten turns.  I'd never take so long in Civ 4 unless I was taking extra care because it was a competitive game or one above my comfort level.

So your point is that it takes longer for you to play a turn of civ 6 late game than a turn of civ 4 late game, without any consideration regarding what a turn is, and what ccontributes to why it takes so long?

[LKendter]

I also hope 1 UPT goes away, though I think the odds are < 5%.

1 UPT is what broke Civ for me. I still get way more fun from 3 / 4, than the newer versions.

[T-hawk]

If 1UPT goes away, it would be because some other equivalently restrictive system is replacing it, like Old World's orders system or Protoss supply pylons or whatever. The reality is the mass market doesn't have the attention span for any more than a dozen or two units per turn. You can debate what such limiting system to use, but no Civ game is ever going to have hundreds of units in play at once now.

Board games manage this fine - there are tons of board games that have good combat systems with only a dozen or two units per player.

[Tarkeel]

For me the problem with 1UPT isn't the system itself, but the sheer amount of units still necessary to move around. A more streamlined "Army" token fits much better (which is what Ozymandias did).