Kick Ass Idea for PtW: Supply Crawlers

[FrantzX]

Two big problems in Civ III are that more, less developed cities always beats out fewer, better cities and that workers become near useless in the end game. This idea fixes both problems with the inclusion of three new unit abilities that can be given to workers; harvest food, trade, and production (working names).

Just like the supply crawlers in SMAC, these three abilities would allow for workers to send either food, trade or production to a city off one tile. Any thoughts so far?

[Andrew_Jay]

perhaps just make it so workers can make colonies on anything, not just luxuries or resources. Then there can be an option pop up when a colony is made to
1. transport luxury or resource to trade network,
2. transport shields to a city
3. transport commerce to a city
4. transport food to a city
You can only do one or the other, and it makes a colony just liek we have in Civ3 right now. Sure you lose your worker, but it makes it a little more realistic, and not too much of a great advantage.

[jdd2007]

that sounds cool. it would, theoretically, allow for enormous cities. however, more, less developed cities would have access to the most food/shields/commerce and so, in the long run, the civ with more cities would win. however, it would allow for small, but powerful nations to be formed. they would have large cities, plenty of production, minimal corruption and plenty of pollution. it would change OCC -drastically-

[Reptilicus]

It would also give a reason to play a sea-faring civ.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Andrew_Jay
perhaps just make it so workers can make colonies on anything, not just luxuries or resources.

You can only do one or the other, and it makes a colony just liek we have in Civ3 right now. Sure you lose your worker, but it makes it a little more realistic, and not too much of a great advantage.

Yes, current colonies are underused (too weak, too short life), so adding them some different features can be a good idea.

[Panag]

Originally posted by Adm.Naismith


Yes, current colonies are underused (too weak, too short life), so adding them some different features can be a good idea.

hi ,

colonies should stay , as long as they are not in city limits , when they do , they are gone , ....

however , they should stay as long as they are outside the city limit , but inside the cultural border's , .....

have a nice day

[Inverse Icarus]

when i get the new patch, me and my friends are setting it up so you may only colonize grassland, plains, hills, and flood plains.

this way, colonies will serve much more of a purpose, as large deserts will have no cultural borders in the middle, and large-scaled heavily-defended colony / road networks will emerge in the "unclaimed" land.

it will also force you to chop down forests and jungles before you colonize too, making it much more of an investiment to start a large overseas empire.

the only problems with this plan are these:

1. The AI not being able to handle this. Dan / Mike confirmed that the AI will not settle land you tell them not to, but didn't clarify if they would wander deserts and tundras aimlessly looking for a city spot. they also never said anything about the AI clearing jungle outside of their borders in order to build cities. we shall see when the patch is released.

2. Starting in a large jungle/forest/desert/tundra. yea. that'll suck, and you'll have to deal

[Spiffor]

Perhaps these "food colonies" or "shield colonies" should only exist within one's borders. This way, it avoids tiles being left unused.
Maybe a given tech should be required to build these, to avoid ancient cities to become too strong.

[GeneralTacticus]

*BUMP*

2. Starting in a large jungle/forest/desert/tundra. yea. that'll suck, and you'll have to deal

From my experience, it may not be possible to start on a square which yo can't settle. I have never before started on a mountain, perhaps it isn't allowed? Also, it seems the starts are set up so that the first city will always be able to grow to at least size 3.

[Nubclear]

Re: Kick Ass Idea for PtW: Supply Crawlers

Originally posted by FrantzX
Two big problems in Civ III are that more, less developed cities always beats out fewer, better cities and that workers become near useless in the end game. This idea fixes both problems with the inclusion of three new unit abilities that can be given to workers; harvest food, trade, and production (working names).

Just like the supply crawlers in SMAC, these three abilities would allow for workers to send either food, trade or production to a city off one tile. Any thoughts so far?

The only problem with this would be building cities simply to transport the shield or trade to your main city. It would allow for super cities early in the game, and for and more super cities in the endgame.