Civ 4 ideas - Straits and Canals

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger

Originally posted by Master Zen
The one dug in China did not carry 50,000+ ton ships across

You sure about that?

Yep, absolutely. River-fed goods canal, allowing small craft to move up and down the coast without facing rough waves and navigational hazards of the open seas. Not accessible to ocean-going craft.

The US has an equivalent, going from southern FL to Chesapeake Bay through the Carolina sounds, and a smaller one on the Gulf coast.

These kinds of canals are functionally equivalent to roads in Civ. Civ is too large in scale to model the difference. To answer your question, Platypus Rex, a tile on a Civ map is typically well over a hundred miles across. For example, I made 105x95 map of Eurasia, at which scale tiles were still roughly 75 miles across.

[Addled Platypus]

You are my hero Straybow

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Straybow

Originally posted by Urban Ranger

Originally posted by Master Zen
The one dug in China did not carry 50,000+ ton ships across

You sure about that?

The US has an equivalent, going from southern FL to Chesapeake Bay through the Carolina sounds, and a smaller one on the Gulf coast.

Well, you got your facts wrong

I live on the coast..what we have along the coast are "Barrier Islands"..with little slips to get your boat in and out of the rough seas

I live in Onslow County..about an Hour north of Wilmington and we have no such animal as described by you

Just sharing the facts

Gramps

[star mouse]

Here's how I would do canals:

* They would be built like any other terrain improvement but take a LONG time to construct. (How long did the Panama canal take to build and with how many workers?) There are also restrictions:
* Can only be placed next to the coast.
* Can only be placed on a flat tile.
* Can only be placed such that the canal is one or two tiles in length and the canal is on an isthmus.
* Costs money to build.
* The canal replaces mines and irrigation.

Canals would also be easy to destroy by pillaging and bombardment.

An isthmus divides its neighbouring tiles into distinct water/land regions where the land regions are not adjacent to other land regions bordering the same tile, and the same with water regions.

[Epistax]

I'd like them to somehow modify the navy such that I feel that a canal would help me (if geography allowed) but the way it is now I don't really need it. I really feel the navy is somehow lacking.

[conmcb25]

I like both ideas.

[Quezacotl06]

I think all pre-industrial age ships should all be able to travel through rivers.

It gives civs better expansion abilities, especialy coming to transport of units in galleons and stuff

[Addled Platypus]

Star mouse

Why not a canal that connects two lakes?

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Platypus Rex
Star mouse

Why not a canal that connects two lakes?

I like that idea

but how much could one connect?

would it be possible to create a "Mississippi River" effect from one lake to another with a series of canals/levees?

Just pondering along with everyone else

[Addled Platypus]

Now I will have to stop and think

[star mouse]

Originally posted by Platypus Rex
Star mouse

Why not a canal that connects two lakes?

I thought about the idea but decided against allowing it. It causes potential issues with playability. Suppose you have an inland city that is next to a lake. Because it's next to a lake, it is not considered to be next to a coast and cannot build a harbour, and cannot build ships. The lake is also considered to be "freshwater" because you can irrigate from it. If you build a canal from the sea (salt water) to a lake (fresh water), does the lake become salty?

Connecting two lakes with a canal is pointless because lakes don't allow shipbuilding.

[Addled Platypus]

Originally posted by star mouse


Connecting two lakes with a canal is pointless because lakes don't allow shipbuilding.

I have done it, rarely though

I was trying to remember how often the world maps give you two lakes close enough to do this.

[Grandpa Troll]

as for the issue of salt water and fresh water we have that here on the coastal region of North Carolina we refer to it as "Brackish water"

Just passing information

Gramps

[Addled Platypus]

I di remeber a game where the barbarians had camp by a lake and boy did they build triemenes

[Naokaukodem]

What are straits???... anyway we need another civ, not civ-v4. We need a distinctive management of population to create civilization divisions, unions, another type of war... etc.