I did not play galactiv civ alot, but I remember in Moo2 when you had conquered 70% of a civilization, they would usually surrender... To someone else!

This really helped alleviate steamrolling, since you got your fair share of new colonies, but some random opponent also got beefed up just a tiny bit.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

I figured that would happen, but that was not the part I liked .

Probably right, either that or just have some special stages off the other buildings work well, so the building adding defense gives little bonus otherhow.

Say its "Merchant +2 gildar"
"Market +3 gildar, +1 defensive mercenary"
"very very big market +6 gildar, +1 defensive mercenary"
So the building that gives the defense gives only a slight bonus to the focus of the upgrade line.
The reason I suggest this is I usually ignore defense buildings, because right now they are totally useless, until you stacked them all up AND is keeping units for garrison.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

I am totally open to any improvement. I have had a few good conversations with the devs about this over the betas, but I think now that the game is settling into a permanent balance, the issue remains and needs to be addressed before release. However they want to do it. And I'll even let up about it right now since they probably just got out of the Monday morning meeting and have a ton of stuff to do. Let's hope we hear from them today though! 

A question to the modders out there.

Which of these are possible with the current engine?

1. Modifying the equipment of militia units depending on available techs (i.e. Civ got leather, so does militia)

2. Modifying the equipment of militia units depending on city level/type (i.e. The fortress got spears to spare)

3. Modifying the equipment of militia units depending on buildings (i.e. The merchants gave the watch some shields)

4. Modifying the equipment of militia units depending on quests (i.e. Lizbeth the Light found a cash of braided belts)

5. Modifying the equipment of militia units depending on garrisoned heroes (i.e. Naressa crafted some Ignys shortbows)

In case it's still unclear to anyone, I see nothing wrong with militia being able to fend off an ogre or two on their own.

Really only 1 is possible. The other could be done by adding a specific unit to city defense with the desired equipment and traits.

Is it possible to create / addto a tech so that a new building can be built onto an existing city like an Armory.  First level armory would upgrade City Defenders to Leather and so on?

Sounds like a really good idea to add to the game.  If not something that will likely be modded in very quickly.

These are all good ideas in this thread , I really hope atleast one of them makes it into the game. 

I have this current mechanic for level 5 Fortresses where they fire a volley of arrows at the beginning of a battle. I use the auto-cast function like Pariden blood does. Fires a ranged attack that will do light damage. It's a nice addition to city defense and requires no special units or things that the AI might not be able to use. Of course, I also added some mage towers that cast a spell on a city at the beginning of combat and we have some vanilla enchantments that do this too. I would frame any idea like this to use the auto-cast function to make sure the AI uses it and its power can be tightly balanced. 

While I don't want cities to be an easy pushover, you have to be careful about making them too autonomous. The last time we had this discussion, my stance was that there is already too little impetus to build your own troops in this game, and cities with strong self-defense will only further deflate the need to build troops. I haven't seen anything to massively change that paradigm in the last few betas and I stand by it. Sure, I think a city shouldn't be able to be knocked over by a lone sov on turn 15, but they shouldn't be self defending against troll armies on turn 120 either.

this is very complicated imo but i like it

i dont think its moddable for now though

It is very very poor. I would not for a second hesitate or change the way I made my sov/army composistion knowing it was there. They should atleast lose the first level statue and make them all guardian idols. Atlest the AI could cast spells each battle.

I see what you are saying but I must disagree. The reason why there is few troops is that Hero are so much better at every occasion. You cant solve that problem by making cities weak, in fact I argue you exacerbate it. Want better defence for

A. I hate monsters killing my cities early to mid game. It feels weak that a few spiders/wolves/bears can kill my city. It frustrates me and even if I try and put a troop or two in a city it usually dies anyway, no real difference, but a big cost.

Current Answer: Rely on heros to clear area. Too bad so sad if you say, made them govenor or otherwise tried to mix up your playstyle.

B. I hate wondering super monsters - Dragons, Hoarderspiders, etc Taking out my city at any time. Troops will not stop these without huge investment if at all. This I think is a monster rules/AI issue, not a city defence issue

Current Answer: Do your best with your heros to stop them. Or better yet, get attacking the much easier to kill AI and make sure you have plenty of cities to spare!!!!

C. Steamrolling AI. AI for whatever reason often has little city defence/junk. I go from city to city (often within a turn or two) with my heros taking out his cities.

Current ANswer: None, use willpower  to not crunch AI

In all three cases the answer is never build more troops dont use heros. Its get your heros going as early as possible.

Giving cities a massive boost that the AI cant take away or mismange and doesnt require huge changes to the game is the goal. If done right it would make it necessary to perhaps atleast REST between city assaults, ideally, even having to gett some troops to help out my heros.

So I dont see extra city defence in any way encourages heros.