using of uranium

[pletiplot]

Hi,
I noticed one odd think in Civ IV with uranium.
The late naval units (submarines, battleships etc.) are either oil or uranium powered. The combustion engine is developped at same time as the oil is revealed, there is no problem. The uranium is revealed with physics and can accesd with the ancient skill of mining. It be used in ships much earlier that the fussion engine is developped. Is it a bug or does it have some reason?

[CerberusIV]

It requires the Fission technology before you know how to build nuclear reactors. Only then can you use nuclear power for ships.

Uranium was known for quite some time as a radioactive element before anyone figured out how to manage a controlled nuclear reaction.

You do get the tile benefit of uranium mines as soon as you build them, that doesn't require Fission.

[Thedrin]

It requires the Fission technology before you know how to build nuclear reactors. Only then can you use nuclear power for ships.

I think that change only came in with Warlords.

[pletiplot]

Maybe the new patch corrects it, but I am sure I was able to built the ships without the Oil resource and without the Fission technology. The Nuclear plant building is available after the Fission technology, but the ships, which have the nuclear reactor inside were available just after the Industrialism tech (or other respective techs). And second, once it is built it can switch the engine and it is not possible in real world.
The solution is to make different unit for each kind of engine and make them available in correct consequences. It is just a few editing of the XML game data.

[CerberusIV]

Yes, my mistake. Civ IV has it wrong in that you can build nuclear powered ships without knowing Fission. This was changed for Warlords.

Oil is handled correctly in both games, you discover it with Scientific Method but can't build modern warships until you discover Combustion.

It's probably simply a consequence of Firaxis trying to keep things simple. The naval side of Civ IV and Warlords could be improved in many ways.

[Pardalious khan]

nuclear race

One thing that I have though about, is making so that the manhattan project becomes a small wonder, and the UN vote for non proliferation not letting people construct manhattan...
This seems more like reality, where those who already have the bomb can still build it, but other countries have a hard time in trying to aquire the tech.
There could even be a option of asking the oppoent to stop his nuclear program (manhattan) or suffer the consequences (like iran, north korea etc..)

[Diadem]

More realistic, perhaps, but also rather unbalacing. Build UN, get secretary general, build manhattan, ban nuclear weapons...

Then stockpile lots and lots of 'em - and kill 'em all!

[zeace]

The idea behind everyone getting Nukes with a single Manhattan project was that as soon as one country developed Nukes, the information would leak out. Maybe though it should be that once any country has built their MP, all other countries get a 3x hammer bonus for building subsequent MP. It would still make it hard to be first and easy to follow. Combine it with your idea for non-proliferation.

[MasterDave]

Realistically, even the more modern countries do not instantly go from the drawing board to building nukes. It is a long and somewhat tortuous process, taking many years to go from theory to production.

However, I like the game mechanics the way they are: once one power gets nukes, everyone with rocketry can build em. The reasoning is this: if a human player has a monopoly on nukes, that could get exploited very badly if it takes everyone else an additional 15-20 turns or more to catch up.

[Ijuin]

What I like is that you can use the UN to vote to ban nukes BEFORE the Manhattan Project is ever built!

[Xorbon]

I like some of the ideas here about making the Manhattan Project a small wonder. Especially the idea of making it easier for the second and successive civs to build it once the first has been built. Another way of doing that (other than just decreasing the cost) would be to allow spies to 'steal' nuclear plans. This would provide a civ with a certain number of 'shields' towards completing their own Manhattan Project.

Another idea would be to allow civs to sell nuclear 'plans' to another civ. This would have the same effect as having a spy steal the plans.

Of course there should be a limit to how much production could be gained this way towards building the project. A civ shouldn't be able to rush a Manhattan Project in one turn this way. If a civ wants nukes, they should have to put at least some time towards it.