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ENVIRONMENTAL DEGREDATION
"Awww, I don't want to worry about that! I just want to build stuff and fight!"
Bahhh! Historical civilizations have been done in by environmental changes and depletion of farmland. _Civilization_ should reflect this.
Step 1:
Double food production and food consumption, to allow a finer graduation of food production.
Step 2:
Every terrain square should have a exploitation counter. When a city actively uses a square, the counter decrements. In some cases irrigation would make make it decrement faster (salt intrusion).
If left fallow, the land recovers and the counter increments a bit.
When the counter reaches a certain negative value, it degrades. A crop or cattle bonus might go away. Grassland might become plains, plains become desert, and flood plains desert or marsh. Forests would disappear. Severe degredation might be represented by pollution (salt crust.)
New Tech advances -- Artificial Fertilizer, Ecology, a late-medieval Civ Advance called "Agronomy," an early industrial advance Botany -- would effect degredation and recovery.
Volcanos currently create pollution. They should also enrich the soil, ratcheting up the exploitation counter of nearby squares. Once you clean up, you can get bumper crops!
FOOD RATIONING
Running a bit short of munchies? Autocratic governments might allow you to cut back food consumption from four to three per person. Generates an unhappy face, and the population doesn't grow, but this might get you through some tough times.
You might also encourage consumption. The "bread" in bread and cicuses. Food use goes from four to five. An unhappy face or two becomes content.
FOOD TRADING
Civ II's wonderful food shipment system went away with Caravans. There should be some way to reinstate this important and realistic feature.
If there's a road between two cities, you should be able to move food along it. Perhaps at a loss (50%, 20%, or nothing, depending on whether you have pottery or electricity (refrigeration) ), perhaps at a cost (1 gold per 10 food moved between cities). An enemy army or barbarians on a road would block it entirely.
ENVIRONMENTAL WONDERS, SCORING
Anyone out there play SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD? The wonderful Dan / Dani Bunten game for the C64 and Atari that let you explore and colonize the New World?
7COG was an inspiration for Mier's _Colonization_, and there was something in it that I would like to see in Civ IV: Environmental wonders.
These would be randomly scattered great natural places. The could be taken from the real world (Victoria Falls, Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef) or be randomly generated. You could exploit the square its in, but there's a chance it would eventually degrade. Simply having it in your Civ's borders, however, would earn you tourist money and some culture points.
Then there's environmental grading. Essentially, you'd get victory points for *not* developing a square. A square that has *never* been exploited would be worth more; a Forest or Jungle that has never had so much as a road pushed through would be worth a lot. There might be a bonus for having contiguous wilderness squares.
Wilderness might generate some tourism and culture points.
"Awww, I don't want to worry about that! I just want to build stuff and fight!"
Bahhh! Historical civilizations have been done in by environmental changes and depletion of farmland. _Civilization_ should reflect this.
Step 1:
Double food production and food consumption, to allow a finer graduation of food production.
Step 2:
Every terrain square should have a exploitation counter. When a city actively uses a square, the counter decrements. In some cases irrigation would make make it decrement faster (salt intrusion).
If left fallow, the land recovers and the counter increments a bit.
When the counter reaches a certain negative value, it degrades. A crop or cattle bonus might go away. Grassland might become plains, plains become desert, and flood plains desert or marsh. Forests would disappear. Severe degredation might be represented by pollution (salt crust.)
New Tech advances -- Artificial Fertilizer, Ecology, a late-medieval Civ Advance called "Agronomy," an early industrial advance Botany -- would effect degredation and recovery.
Volcanos currently create pollution. They should also enrich the soil, ratcheting up the exploitation counter of nearby squares. Once you clean up, you can get bumper crops!
FOOD RATIONING
Running a bit short of munchies? Autocratic governments might allow you to cut back food consumption from four to three per person. Generates an unhappy face, and the population doesn't grow, but this might get you through some tough times.
You might also encourage consumption. The "bread" in bread and cicuses. Food use goes from four to five. An unhappy face or two becomes content.
FOOD TRADING
Civ II's wonderful food shipment system went away with Caravans. There should be some way to reinstate this important and realistic feature.
If there's a road between two cities, you should be able to move food along it. Perhaps at a loss (50%, 20%, or nothing, depending on whether you have pottery or electricity (refrigeration) ), perhaps at a cost (1 gold per 10 food moved between cities). An enemy army or barbarians on a road would block it entirely.
ENVIRONMENTAL WONDERS, SCORING
Anyone out there play SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD? The wonderful Dan / Dani Bunten game for the C64 and Atari that let you explore and colonize the New World?
7COG was an inspiration for Mier's _Colonization_, and there was something in it that I would like to see in Civ IV: Environmental wonders.
These would be randomly scattered great natural places. The could be taken from the real world (Victoria Falls, Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef) or be randomly generated. You could exploit the square its in, but there's a chance it would eventually degrade. Simply having it in your Civ's borders, however, would earn you tourist money and some culture points.
Then there's environmental grading. Essentially, you'd get victory points for *not* developing a square. A square that has *never* been exploited would be worth more; a Forest or Jungle that has never had so much as a road pushed through would be worth a lot. There might be a bonus for having contiguous wilderness squares.
Wilderness might generate some tourism and culture points.
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