Forts - What gives?

[wodan11]

Note that patch 3.19 seems to fix this whole issue. (looking at the change list now....)

[slnz]

A rare use case that might not be self-evident to everybody: if you have a long coastline obstructed by (floating) ice, you can make an arbitrarily long canal along it with forts. The ships only require water being next to the fort; not that it's in a liquid form and accessible

[wodan11]

A rare use case that might not be self-evident to everybody: if you have a long coastline obstructed by (floating) ice, you can make an arbitrarily long canal along it with forts. The ships only require water being next to the fort; not that it's in a liquid form and accessible

I think that was a bug they might have fixed in the patch. I remember seeing some discussion along those lines.

[slnz]

I think that was a bug they might have fixed in the patch. I remember seeing some discussion along those lines.

Nope, still works. I don't think it's a bug, any more than the ability to "sail" through consecutive forts without the ice. For submarines it's all the same anyway

[wodan11]

Nope, still works. I don't think it's a bug, any more than the ability to "sail" through consecutive forts without the ice.

Right. Both are probably bugs.

[slnz]

Right. Both are probably bugs.

Well the semantics kind of make sense, if you think about it. If there would be 2 cities in adjancent squares (as in grown together), they would probably have interlocked port areas, hence making it possible to travel from one to another without going in the open waters.

All the coastal forts have ports, because ships can enter them, and a fort covers the whole square, hence making it viable that 2 adjacent forts actually form one big fort with a common port area that a ship could travel along :P What makes it confusing is the game graphics which obviously look silly and don't convey any of this

[wodan11]

Well the semantics kind of make sense, if you think about it. If there would be 2 cities in adjancent squares (as in grown together), they would probably have interlocked port areas, hence making it possible to travel from one to another without going in the open waters.

On a normal size map, the scale is approx. 1 tile = 500 miles.

If the improvement in question was "canal" then I would buy it. As a "fort" it's simply ridiculous.

[Lord Avalon]

Surely the fort/canal is a "feature"?

Actually, I've wanted a canal improvement for a long time , ever since you couldn't build cities next to each other (was that Civ II?).

[joncnunn]

As I recall, it's intended that tiles of fort adjoining water to be accessible to water units, but not landlocked fort tiles.

[rah]

Another thing that bugs me is that ship goto commands will route them through ports so it's possible for a ship to end it's turn in an undefended port and be vulnerable to land attacks.

[sorinache]

As I recall, it's intended that tiles of fort adjoining water to be accessible to water units, but not landlocked fort tiles.

And that leads to pretty ridiculous sights - as this hill covered in jungle separating the ocean from a small lake (size 1). The AI built a fort on it, then brought a frigate in it. The sight was pretty weird : here was this frigate, on top of a jungle covered hill ! For whatever reason, he frigate was aiming for the small lake beside ...

[wodan11]

That happened to me one time and I laughed maniacally because we were at war and I simply pillaged the fort to landlock those annoying ships.

[Jaybe]

That happened to me one time and I laughed maniacally because we were at war and I simply pillaged the fort to landlock those annoying ships.

You filled in the ditch (canal)?! What a nasty trick!

[-Jrabbit]

That is awesome, wodan!!

[rah]

I'd have let the ship escape.
Only because I remember the one time where it was similar but a city instead of a fort and when I took the city and kept it. Every stinking turn you'd get the "enemy spotted near" message. After quite a few turns I stopped paying attention to it and he snuck a stack in on me since I had stopping checking out the warnings for that city.