New Screenshot of the week

[SerapisIV]

Oh yeah, and I really hope that all those mines are because of bad AI (like the railroad web problem in Civ2). Though I doubt Firaxis would be releasing screenshots that show game faults. But again, there does appear to be too much railroads again, unless railroads give some kind of trade/mineral/food bonus as in Civ1.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by SerapisIV
...
There has to be another reason, maybe irrigation is super-powerful and fewer tiles are needed to supply enough food for a large city. Or mining of grasslands and plains gives a trade and mineral bonus while not hurting food production too badly.
...

industrialagesnumbertwo.jpg: Referring to the city Grand River, upper right on the screenshot, where there are only two irrigated tiles:

Revelation has just struck!! After certain development, perhaps refrigeration, in cities connected with highways or railroads, food distribution starts using the modern western model in which food does NOT have to be produced locally. All qualifying cities SHARE the produced food! Every city gets an equal surplus of food.
Elegant, but probably not the way it is done.

Rivers may also increase food production on adjacent tiles. In Civ:CtP you can mine any tile and it just increases production; it does not decrease food.

[Meyer]

I've never been to concerned about the whole Multi-player thing ... but I do notice an icon on the new screen shot in the upper right hand corner that looks suspiciously like a "chat" or "dialogue" icon.

Indirect, circumstantial, evidence that MP might actually be in?

[RallyK]

So what's the argument? That a size 14 city shouldn't be able to exist there. Assuming the city uses two irrigated tiles to the upper right, and the city has 11 unirrigated grassland tiles, one with what looks like wheat, it makes perfect sense to me that the AI or whoever is playing would mine the majority of the grassland rather than irrigate it if the choice was one extra food or one extra shield. With the extra food the city would be able to expand into other tiles, but those tiles look like swamp and mountain.

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by Jaybe
Revelation has just struck!! After certain development, perhaps refrigeration, in cities connected with highways or railroads, food distribution starts using the modern western model in which food does NOT have to be produced locally. All qualifying cities SHARE the produced food! Every city gets an equal surplus of food.
Elegant, but probably not the way it is done.

I wish such a game dynamic existed as well. I never understood how with trains food wasn't shared between cities. I don't have any idea of how to implement it and doubt its in Civ3, but we can always hope

Rivers may also increase food production on adjacent tiles. In Civ:CtP you can mine any tile and it just increases production; it does not decrease food.

There are a ton of mines, next to and not next to rivers. It seems too many to be be just that. Though it is a good idea and quite possibly true. Damn I'd like to see a terrain chart.

[JellyDonut]

Originally posted by Meyer
I've never been to concerned about the whole Multi-player thing ... but I do notice an icon on the new screen shot in the upper right hand corner that looks suspiciously like a "chat" or "dialogue" icon.

Indirect, circumstantial, evidence that MP might actually be in?

Nope. Dan said that thing in the upper-left was the advisor button. The "Aa" button next to it is the Civilopedia and the one to the left of that is Preferences.

[Inverse Icarus]

did you ever whine about darwins voyage?

i didnt think so.

[HalfLotus]

Originally posted by SerapisIV


But their mining grassland. What are you going to do mine buffalo and wheat? Most mineral resources would only be found in hilly or mountainous terrains, not grasslands and plains. Besides that it can be shown on the map with special resources being shown on top of the mines, so there can't be special resources unless we can see them


Oh yeah, and I really hope that all those mines are because of bad AI (like the railroad web problem in Civ2). Though I doubt Firaxis would be releasing screenshots that show game faults. But again, there does appear to be too much railroads again, unless railroads give some kind of trade/mineral/food bonus as in Civ1

I still think theyre outposts, not mines. Outposts are needed to harvest any resource outside of your city radius. This includes all three types of resources: strategic, luxury and bonus. These arent mines for just minerals in hills. I think that they were built to harvest resources before city radius was large.

Also, you hope the AI is still stupid about terrain improvement? I hope it was a bonehead playtester who did that, not a stupid AI.

[KrazyHorse]

First off, you should use the words "culture border" or "civ border" instead of "city radius".

Secondly, where did you hear that a mere "bonus" resource (wheat, etc.) had the same harvesting requirements as strategic and luxury resources. If this is true, then it's new to me.

Thirdly, those structures appear on almost every grassland tile, many of which do not contain any special resources whatsoever, so they cannot merely be colonies (not "outposts", by the way).

I would submit that the structures in question are the Civ3 version of farmland.

[Stuie]

Some info from Dan...

For those of you who do not visit OTHER Civ3 forums, Dan mentioned this regarding the city info boxes over at civfanatics:

Originally posted by Psy
Just noticed that a small number appears just to the right of the city name. E.g. 4 are displayed next to "Oil Springs" and 2 are displayed just right to "Grand River". Anybody have an idea of what they mean? Maybe they are showing how many turns till the city will grow again?! That would be a nice feature
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are correct. The first number is how many turns until the city grows, while the bottom number is how many turns until the city finishes whatever it's currently producing.

Also, though the screen of the week doesn't indicate it, the large city size number to the left is color-coded, so you can easily see if the city is growing, stagnant, or starving.


Dan
Firaxis Games, Inc.

[KrazyHorse]

Well, the thing about colour coding is new, but I think we had a pretty good idea about the other two things.

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by HalfLotus
Also, you hope the AI is still stupid about terrain improvement? I hope it was a bonehead playtester who did that, not a stupid AI.

Sorry, I worded poorly, I meant hope it's not AI and there is a bonus to mining the terrain, that would mean that either there is a reason to improve in such a way, whether player or AI.

They are mines, not outposts. Dan confirmed it in past screenshot discussion thread.

[HalfLotus]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
First off, you should use the words "culture border" or "civ border" instead of "city radius".

Secondly, where did you hear that a mere "bonus" resource (wheat, etc.) had the same harvesting requirements as strategic and luxury resources. If this is true, then it's new to me.

Thirdly, those structures appear on almost every grassland tile, many of which do not contain any special resources whatsoever, so they cannot merely be colonies (not "outposts", by the way).

I would submit that the structures in question are the Civ3 version of farmland.

First off, try not to let my imperfect Civ3 vocabulary offend you.
Perhaps bonus tiles don't need colonies, but the other two do. A few of the structures have specials in them. One has wheat, and a few others that I dont recognize. There is no way in hell that those things are farmland.

Dan? **knocks on monitor** You in there? Wanna help sort this out? I know he said they were mines before, but what does a colony look like? Is there one in a screenshot somewhere?

[SerapisIV]

Re: Some info from Dan...

Originally posted by Stuie
For those of you who do not visit OTHER Civ3 forums, Dan mentioned this regarding the city info boxes over at civfanatics:

There aren't other forums, just people with large imaginations

[down th' pub]

Halflotus - this week's pic does show mines everywhere as Dan had confirmed a while back. I did find a picture with a colony: http://www.civ3.com/images/screenshots/revolt.jpg - it's in the bottom right corner 'Egyptian colony - Iron'.

Edit - fixed link (I think)