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I have an other idea for a mod for Civ 4 but no code-fu, so I thought I'd just post my idea here. If someone thinks it's a good idea, please make something of it – and please let me know.
One of the issues I've been having with the game is the huge monetary cost for maintaining cities. I do realize why the game works that way, and support the concept as such. But the present city management just keeps me from playing colonization type of games, since the cost of my resource hoarding colonies simply drain my coffins. Of course I think I have a solution to the problem – if only I would know how to mess with the SDK (or what ever it is you have to work on).
Firstly, I'd use standard cities as a base for my colony design. Building a colony would be a second Settler option, maybe after discovering some appropriate technology. A colony would function as a size 0 (zero) city, but without some of the city features. On the plus side it would only have the distance to palace maintenance cost (since a colony simply isn't considered any number of a city).
The point of having a colony is just that; you get to have access to a resource (in the same square) but the cost of that doesn't brake your economy. (Having a resource colony should be lucrative, or at least potentially lucrative.) You'd still have to defend your colonial empire, but with a technological advantage you should be able to this with a single or just a few units.
On the practical side, a colony has no food production and cannot grow. (You should however get to transform a colony into a standard city, if you choose to do so.) The colony has some production however, but a very limited array of buildings and units to choose from. Scouts/Explorers are the only units I can think of, and maybe Workers and/or Settlers. (I'll get to the buildings in a while.) That production comes from the actual square that the colony is built on, but the difference is that the colony also acts like a terrain improvement, which cities do not. (If it's built on gold, it's a mining colony. If it's build on wheat, it's a farming colony. And so forth. And oh, you do get the resource production bonus for your colony.)
What do the population of the colony do, then? Well, the colony has no city radius - and no cultural border of it's own. Since it's basically a city with no size, the inhabitants are simply considered to be "working the fields" (as in the square the city is built on).
So, as for the buildings. As the mod designer you either let colonies build some of the regular buildings, or you create special colony only buildings. The one's I can think of would be "Trading Post" (Market), "Governor" (Courthouse), "Stockade" (Walls) and "Docks" (Harbor). These would all have tweaked abilities contra the usual buildings. When all buildings are completed, you'd only be able to choose between building units, or converting the hammers into gold.
The bottom line is that you should be able to make a colony profitable, even with the obvious cost for defense and from distance from capital. I also think all colonies should have one single trade route – with your own capital. I don't however think you should be able to rush build anything in your colonies, but have to rely on your loyal colonists to build everything themselves.
As for graphics, I should think that the easiest way to get it all going would be to harvest some existing graphic elements from the game. The basis for a colony should therefore be the appropriate terrain improvement based on the type of resource the colony is built on (mine or quarry on hills, farm or plantation on low land, and so on). You could also put in a single or a few buildings from a hamlet, to make the square stick out more. (So a mining colony would look like a combination of a mine improvement and a hamlet.) The city label also doesn't need all existing elements (city size and food production), but colonies should have names so they can be identified (when traded/gifted).
The practical game issues, then. You would want to build colonies on places where you just can't or don't want to build cities, but where the map square it's either of strategic value or has valuable resources on it. Colonies without special resources work more like forts (after building a Walls/Stockade), by the way, so a fort-colony would look like a combination of a fort and a hamlet. (I guess.)
You would also only be able to build colonies outside of the radii of your or other civs cities. You should however be able to build colonies within ANY cultural borders, even if it would spark a war if you did this in rival territory. (You can of course always build colonies where there are no cultural borders what so ever.) You would even be able to build colonies neck to neck, so to speak. (Useful when there's special resources in clusters, but no way to utilize them efficiently while maintaining a meaningful city on the site.)
Finally, colonies should be immune to cultural borders and influence. (I just don't see my Old World colonists going native on me, regardless how culturally impressive the neighboring natives would be.) It would therefore be a more efficient way to elbow in on your rival's territory, not having to worry about losing your newly found cities due to culture. (Colonies can of course change hands due to war or politics, but that goes without saying.) One way to destroy a colony comes to mind though – simply building any city within two squares from it makes it disappear. (The colony then transforms into a regular terrain improvement within that city's radius.)
Happy modding!
/Baldyr
One of the issues I've been having with the game is the huge monetary cost for maintaining cities. I do realize why the game works that way, and support the concept as such. But the present city management just keeps me from playing colonization type of games, since the cost of my resource hoarding colonies simply drain my coffins. Of course I think I have a solution to the problem – if only I would know how to mess with the SDK (or what ever it is you have to work on).
Firstly, I'd use standard cities as a base for my colony design. Building a colony would be a second Settler option, maybe after discovering some appropriate technology. A colony would function as a size 0 (zero) city, but without some of the city features. On the plus side it would only have the distance to palace maintenance cost (since a colony simply isn't considered any number of a city).
The point of having a colony is just that; you get to have access to a resource (in the same square) but the cost of that doesn't brake your economy. (Having a resource colony should be lucrative, or at least potentially lucrative.) You'd still have to defend your colonial empire, but with a technological advantage you should be able to this with a single or just a few units.
On the practical side, a colony has no food production and cannot grow. (You should however get to transform a colony into a standard city, if you choose to do so.) The colony has some production however, but a very limited array of buildings and units to choose from. Scouts/Explorers are the only units I can think of, and maybe Workers and/or Settlers. (I'll get to the buildings in a while.) That production comes from the actual square that the colony is built on, but the difference is that the colony also acts like a terrain improvement, which cities do not. (If it's built on gold, it's a mining colony. If it's build on wheat, it's a farming colony. And so forth. And oh, you do get the resource production bonus for your colony.)
What do the population of the colony do, then? Well, the colony has no city radius - and no cultural border of it's own. Since it's basically a city with no size, the inhabitants are simply considered to be "working the fields" (as in the square the city is built on).
So, as for the buildings. As the mod designer you either let colonies build some of the regular buildings, or you create special colony only buildings. The one's I can think of would be "Trading Post" (Market), "Governor" (Courthouse), "Stockade" (Walls) and "Docks" (Harbor). These would all have tweaked abilities contra the usual buildings. When all buildings are completed, you'd only be able to choose between building units, or converting the hammers into gold.
The bottom line is that you should be able to make a colony profitable, even with the obvious cost for defense and from distance from capital. I also think all colonies should have one single trade route – with your own capital. I don't however think you should be able to rush build anything in your colonies, but have to rely on your loyal colonists to build everything themselves.
As for graphics, I should think that the easiest way to get it all going would be to harvest some existing graphic elements from the game. The basis for a colony should therefore be the appropriate terrain improvement based on the type of resource the colony is built on (mine or quarry on hills, farm or plantation on low land, and so on). You could also put in a single or a few buildings from a hamlet, to make the square stick out more. (So a mining colony would look like a combination of a mine improvement and a hamlet.) The city label also doesn't need all existing elements (city size and food production), but colonies should have names so they can be identified (when traded/gifted).
The practical game issues, then. You would want to build colonies on places where you just can't or don't want to build cities, but where the map square it's either of strategic value or has valuable resources on it. Colonies without special resources work more like forts (after building a Walls/Stockade), by the way, so a fort-colony would look like a combination of a fort and a hamlet. (I guess.)
You would also only be able to build colonies outside of the radii of your or other civs cities. You should however be able to build colonies within ANY cultural borders, even if it would spark a war if you did this in rival territory. (You can of course always build colonies where there are no cultural borders what so ever.) You would even be able to build colonies neck to neck, so to speak. (Useful when there's special resources in clusters, but no way to utilize them efficiently while maintaining a meaningful city on the site.)
Finally, colonies should be immune to cultural borders and influence. (I just don't see my Old World colonists going native on me, regardless how culturally impressive the neighboring natives would be.) It would therefore be a more efficient way to elbow in on your rival's territory, not having to worry about losing your newly found cities due to culture. (Colonies can of course change hands due to war or politics, but that goes without saying.) One way to destroy a colony comes to mind though – simply building any city within two squares from it makes it disappear. (The colony then transforms into a regular terrain improvement within that city's radius.)
Happy modding!
/Baldyr