This would ideally go with my 'increased number of ages' idea.


Currently each cultural transcendence feels very awkward to your whole civilisation as your cities can completely change its look from one continent to another at the press of a button. Also city names being a mish-mash of different languages is strange to see. Another reason is that keeping your culture at each age up is never worth it as you're missing out on important trait buffs.


My suggestion is to encourage people to keep your current culture more by giving them important buffs the next time they age up. So if you pick Egyptians in the Ancient Era and keep it on the Classical, you get to pick the Ummayads in the Medieval era which has a slightly more powerful unique trait as well as a choice of any trait in the classical era, to make up for the lack of emblematic units. Same thing with picking the English in Medieval and transcending to the Britons in Industrial (or Enlightenment in my other idea). Nobody else can pick this civilisation UNLESS they counquered the original civilisation OR the original civilisation does not exist, to which they can pick it but without the buffed trait. This could be added for most cultures in the game, but obviously there will be more late game cultures than early game as some cultures 'emerge'.