IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Four key themes that dominate the discussion

# Theme Representative quotes
1 Civ III is the “gold‑standard” for many fans “3 is still my favourite of the series.” – data‑ottawa
“I love civ 1 so so much.” – dr_dshiv
“I prefer Civ 3 to 2 and 4.” – warmwaffles
2 Modding and community‑driven customization “The modding community was gigantic for 3 and was simply amazing being a part of it.” – warmwaffles
“OpenCiv3 was started by Civ 3 modders, and we all have our passionate reasons for preferring it.” – WildWeazel
3 Open‑source remakes as a way to revive classic Civs “FreeCiv covers civ 1 and 2 more or less.” – toast0
“OpenCiv3 is built with Godot and C# and is open‑source.” – WildWeazel
“UnCiv covers civ 5 as well.” – culi
4 Critiques of newer releases (Civ 4/5/7) and AI/diplomacy shortcomings “Civ 4 was a travesty unless you’re REALLY into religion.” – apothegm
“Civ 7 deviated too hard from the formula.” – bigstrat2003
“The AI is supposed to play to lose, but it’s still weak.” – chongli

These four threads capture the bulk of the conversation: nostalgia for Civ III, the power of modding, the appeal of open‑source remakes, and the frustration with recent entries and their AI/diplomacy systems.

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

OpenCiv4

Summary

  • A modern, open‑source remake of Civilization IV built on a 2D Godot engine.
  • Solves the lack of a playable Civ IV on current OSes, adds full modding, AI, multiplayer, automation, and LLM‑powered diplomacy.
  • Core value: bring the beloved Civ IV experience to modern hardware with extensibility and community‑driven features.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Hardcore Civ fans, modders, and new players wanting Civ IV on Windows/macOS/Linux.
Core Feature Full Civ IV gameplay with drop‑in asset support, Lua scripting, AI that plays to lose, time‑travel, and LLM diplomacy.
Tech Stack Godot 4 (C#), SQLite for save data, WebSocket server for multiplayer, OpenAI API for diplomacy.
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • “OpenCiv4” would satisfy comments like “I’d love a Civ IV remake” and “Civ IV modding community is huge”.
  • Provides a platform for mods, AI plugins, and LLM‑generated diplomatic text, directly addressing “AI that plays to lose” and “LLM for diplomacy” pain points.
  • Encourages discussion on how to balance AI difficulty and modding flexibility.

Civ1Web

Summary

  • A browser‑based, fully playable clone of Civilization I with modern UI, multiplayer, automation, and time‑travel.
  • Addresses nostalgia for Civ I and the lack of a modern, accessible version.
  • Core value: let anyone play Civ I on any device without installing legacy software.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Casual Civ fans, mobile users, and nostalgic players.
Core Feature WebGL 2D engine, instant turn‑skip, worker automation, LLM‑enhanced diplomacy chat.
Tech Stack React + Canvas, Node.js backend, WebSocket, OpenAI API, Docker for deployment.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue‑ready: Freemium (ads + optional premium features).

Notes

  • “I love Civ 1” and “Civ 1 is the best” comments show strong demand.
  • The web platform solves “no modern Civ I” and “difficulty running old games”.
  • Provides a low‑bar entry point for new players and a nostalgic experience for veterans.

CivAI‑Plugin

Summary

  • A plugin framework that lets developers create, train, and integrate AI modules for any Civ game (Civ III‑VI).
  • Solves the AI frustration: “AI that plays to lose”, “AI extensibility”, “AI training”.
  • Core value: democratize AI development and enable community‑driven AI improvements.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience AI researchers, modders, and hobbyist developers.
Core Feature SDK with Lua/C# bindings, ML training pipeline, AI difficulty slider, LLM‑based diplomatic reasoning.
Tech Stack Python (TensorFlow/PyTorch), C# SDK, Docker, REST API.
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Directly addresses “AI that plays to lose” and “AI that can be trained” pain points.
  • Enables mods like “Fall From Heaven” to have smarter AI opponents.
  • Sparks discussion on best practices for AI in turn‑based strategy games.

CivAutoTime

Summary

  • A standalone toolkit that plugs into existing Civ games (Civ III/IV/V) to automate worker placement, city management, and provide instant time‑travel.
  • Solves “Automate feature is really bad”, “time‑travel forward 12 hours”, and “tired of manual worker management”.
  • Core value: reduce micromanagement and speed up gameplay for long sessions.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Players of Civ III‑VI who want smoother gameplay.
Core Feature Lua scripts, UI overlay, command‑line time‑skip, worker‑placement AI.
Tech Stack Lua, C# (for Godot), Electron wrapper for UI, SQLite for state.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue‑ready: One‑time purchase ($4.99) or subscription ($0.99/month).

Notes

  • “Instantly time‑travel forward 12 hours” and “worker automation” are recurring frustrations.
  • Provides a plug‑and‑play solution that can be used with OpenCiv3, Unciv, or the official Civ games.
  • Encourages community contributions of new automation scripts and time‑travel presets.

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