Invisible cultural boarders

[Unimatrix11]

Some of you guys certainly remember exploring overseas in Civ I - one thing i remember is, that it was not that easy to see if a newly discovered island was occupied by a civ and if so which. Your ship would reach the shore and see a tile-improvement (means it is inhabited - but by who ?) or a unit ("thats where those mongols are...").

In Civ4 you see the cultural boarders before you even see the coast.

Of course it's not a big deal, but i would prefer it, if cultural boarders were only displayed after you made offical contact. And also i would like to limit establishing official contact to either discovering a city or contact by land units (not just sea-vessels).

I think that would exploration even more exciting...
Your opinion ?

[Urban Ranger]

A tile is not empty even if it is not worked. Presumably your intrepid explorers would see people, ships, buildings, etc. Maybe even flags

[Unimatrix11]

The good old realism-vs-gameplay discussion. Of course you are absolutely right, i just thought it would be more exciting the old way - but maybe i am just nostalgic...

[johnmcd]

the cultural borders, I think, represent the area where there is constant but undisplayed activity by your civ, those people come hurrying back to your palace to say "lions!" or "Greeks!" or whatever. It's the key military and domestic units that are drawn, but we know well that any hick farmer can take you to his leader.

[Amarsir]

The good old realism-vs-gameplay discussion. Of course you are absolutely right, i just thought it would be more exciting the old way - but maybe i am just nostalgic...

I'm not sure it would be though. Would that mean you have open borders by default so you can get to the city to see who it is? Or that an invisible force is keeping you from entering borders, even though you don't know who's border it is and therefore you don't know who's telling you not to enter.

Either way my $0.02 is that I like it better this way.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by johnmcd
we know well that any hick farmer can take you to his leader.

Added to my To Do list:

• Parachute into rural Missouri
• Find a hick farmer
• Get him to take me to see President Bush

[GeoModder]

Well, by bringing you to the local mayor, which contacts the governor, which in turn... get my drift? A turn *does* take several decades in that part of the game you meet most civs.

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Added to my To Do list:

• Parachute into rural Missouri
• Find a hick farmer
• Get him to take me to see President Bush

Rural Texas might work. Some hick farmer might be relative of Bush. After all, he is a hick farmer himself, no offence to hicks or farmers.

[Willem]

Originally posted by GeoModder
Well, by bringing you to the local mayor, which contacts the governor, which in turn... get my drift? A turn *does* take several decades in that part of the game you meet most civs.

At the very least he'd be able to tell you where the White House was.

[Amarsir]

Added to my To Do list:

Parachute into rural Missouri
Find a hick farmer
Get him to take me to see President Bush

Well firstly, hee! But to make the analogy fair, do so sporting military weapons and claim to be from a country no one's ever heard of.

I'm pretty sure you'll get at least some contact with the government.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Amarsir
But to make the analogy fair, do so sporting military weapons and claim to be from a country no one's ever heard of.

But in that part of the country, there's no such thing as military weapons - they're all for self-defense or for hunting, duh! And if I say "I'm from another country," they'd probably reply "The only country I know is the Republic of [insert their state's name here]."

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by Amarsir

Well firstly, hee! But to make the analogy fair, do so sporting military weapons and claim to be from a country no one's ever heard of.

I'm pretty sure you'll get at least some contact with the government.

Well, if you count the local pschrink/eventual MiBs as those representatives, perhaps.

[johnmcd]

Originally posted by LordShiva


But in that part of the country, there's no such thing as military weapons - they're all for self-defense or for hunting, duh! And if I say "I'm from another country," they'd probably reply "The only country I know is the Republic of [insert their state's name here]."

They are for the purposes of a militia I thought!

Anyway, there are no hicks in Missouri, the Opera and Art state.

[Yosho]

Originally posted by Amarsir

Well firstly, hee! But to make the analogy fair, do so sporting military weapons and claim to be from a country no one's ever heard of.

I'm pretty sure you'll get at least some contact with the government.

Hey, it worked for Marco Polo.

[johnmcd]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Added to my To Do list:

• Parachute into rural Missouri
• Find a hick farmer
• Get him to take me to see President Bush

Also, it's not just you, it's you and your army.