Wheeled Settlers

[Willem]

For those of you get annoyed at the AI building everywhere, but don't want to go through a major hassle with food bonuses to control it, I've found an easy way to limit those pesky settlers. Simply make them a Wheeled unit. They won't be able to build in the jungles anymore, and any large mountain ranges will stop them cold. And it makes sense, if you think that they're bound to have wagons loaded up with their personal belongings.

[Gramphos]

Sounds good, now everytinh needed is someone to bring back the good old Civ1 settler graphics (but improved).

[Willem]

I like these ones actually. I think they've done a really good job with the unit graphics/animations. Now all I have to do is stop those bloody Riflemen from firing their guns everytime they move.

[GodKing]

Good Idea, unless you start out a game stuck in the middle of a jungle stuck behind a mountain range.....

Just playing on a random map this happens to me more often than not. The new graphics are good, but it would be more realistic to have a wagon picture.

Just my 2 cents. I do like the idea. Perhaps I will try it out this weekend.

[Willem]

Originally posted by GodKing
Good Idea, unless you start out a game stuck in the middle of a jungle stuck behind a mountain range.....

Yes I admit that's a bit of a problem. But at least it's easy enough to start a new game. I'd rather have more strategic elements to deal with than a good starting position.

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Willem
I like these ones actually. I think they've done a really good job with the unit graphics/animations. Now all I have to do is stop those bloody Riflemen from firing their guns everytime they move.

Yeah, they are good, but if they are going to be wheeled you could use the settler wagons.

[The Andy-Man]

hey! this sounds like a good way to impliment my idea for not letting settlers settle on jungle. now to stop them going on tundra and desert, but i dont think there ias a otion for this is ther...

[Optimizer]

Making Settlers wheeled would make perfect sense. Together with making them more expensive, that would prevent early expansion. There should be an upgrade of the Settler, however.

[Willem]

Originally posted by The Andy-Man
hey! this sounds like a good way to impliment my idea for not letting settlers settle on jungle. now to stop them going on tundra and desert, but i dont think there ias a otion for this is ther...

Not directly, but I've managed to do it by adjusting the food values. Make your citizens use 3 food, then remove food from Tundra and Desert, even Hills if you like, that's what I've done as well. Then increase your irrigation bonuses for Grasslands, Plains and Floodplains. The AI will still try to build, but the city will starve out of existance by the next turn.

It works quite nicely, the AI is still expanding fairly rapidly, but now it's not this mad rush for territory at the first of the game. Plus it forces it to build more Workers instead of Settlers right away. I can actually do more than just plan the location of my next city, or control a horde of Settlers all being completed at once.

The main problem with this approach though is that you end up having to make some compensations in several other areas, like shields and road bonuses. So it's taking awhile to fine tune things. It doesn't help matters any when they change the rules on me, and I have to rethink my plans. Oh well, at least it was a good change. BTW, I've come up with a name for my mod, The Builder's Dream Mod.

[The Andy-Man]

Nice name, brings back fun thoughts of my 12 mega cities all 38pop 60+ production, in civ2.

if the AI's cities just startve straight away, how does it effect the colonies? or havn't you tried this yet?

[Willem]

Originally posted by The Andy-Man
Nice name, brings back fun thoughts of my 12 mega cities all 38pop 60+ production, in civ2.

if the AI's cities just startve straight away, how does it effect the colonies? or havn't you tried this yet?

It doesn't matter about the colonies, they're just there. They don't require any food in order to exist, only cities do.

[The Andy-Man]

i meant, does the AI still just plonk cities right next to em, destroying the colonie, and then the city starves?

[Willem]

Originally posted by The Andy-Man
i meant, does the AI still just plonk cities right next to em, destroying the colonie, and then the city starves?

Ah yes, I see what you mean. I hadn't really thought of that. Oh well, that's the price I'll have to pay I guess. So far it hasn't come up.

[lockstep]

Originally posted by Willem
The AI will still try to build, but the city will starve out of existance by the next turn.

It works quite nicely, the AI is still expanding fairly rapidly, but now it's not this mad rush for territory at the first of the game.

Even if the 'mad rush for territory' is eliminated, I'd be hesitant to add a feature that the AI obviously can't cope with. And it's the same with wheeled settlers - in my test games for korn's blitz mod, I've observed AI civs that were 'bottled in' by jungle and/or large mountain chains, failed to expand and later became easy prey for me or other AI civs.

[wervdon]

Something I just tried for the heck of it was I made settlers actually become obsolete with nationalism (Ie set settlers to upgrade to rifleman, basically so at the mid-point in the game no new settlers could be built)

It was interesting, but really only impacted war....by the time I got to nationalism every inch of land on earth was settled :P The only real change was burned cities stayed burned....except for the wimpy japanese who were behind in tech until I finally got bored and gave them a "gift" of nationalism :P

Anyways, I think Id like it if only colonies were considered to automatically have the harbor & airport improvements once it makes sense for them to have them, so unsettled land could still be controlled.


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One thing Im going to try is this modification on a huge map with 16 civs...only having settlers expire at more like feudalism. Mostly to see if the extra empty space that results makes the game run faster in later ages.