OTHER (ver1.0): Hosted by JT

[JT]

Very, very cool. Perfect for a peaceful country. Probably 40 HP, so it will decrease the amount of time you spend on destroying it when you get new weapons.

[Trachmyr]

I posted this before, but it was not picked up, nor was there any feedback. So I'll post it again.

Base Support Structures... a new city improvement

This Improvement includes ALL of the critical structures of past ages (Ancient, Bronze, Iron, ect.) under a single name and structure.

This would include stuff like: Granaries, Aqueducts, Markets, ect. But NOT barracks and other more specailized or optional structures.

This structure will give all the advantages of included buildings (and replaces those buildings), but at reduced upkeep cost

This structure will AUTO upgrade when you enter a new AGE if you have built all included structures of the previous age. Otherwise you may pay for the diffrence, or build the upgrade (labor required depends on how many structures have been completed).

This structure builds much faster than if building all of the componets. And you can RUSH BUY at no penalty.

The result is, that in the middle and especially the late game, you don't have to fumble about building arhaic structures. You will be able to found and develop a thriving city, without the need for that city to have been there from the beginning. Personally I hate building Granaries in the 1900's.

Tell me what you think...

[JT]

Hmmmm......intresting........but then, why include the other buildings in the game at all?

[This message has been edited by JT (edited May 19, 1999).]

[Trachmyr]

You must still build building of the current AGE if you want to stay ahead of the game... and waiting for the AGE to advance to take advantage of the upgraded BASE SUPPORT STRUCTURES, will leave you waiting a long time (longer if you don't build Science upgrades).

Also this way you can have more advanced/modern buildings of a former type.
University>Schoolhouse>Modern University
Harbor>Port>Port Facility

So if you don't build stuctures of your AGE, you WILL fall behind. And not all structures are automatically included.

[MBD]

Maybe the proposed list of city improvements and/or terrain improvements could be another whole topic.

[the Octopus]

The game should provide more recognition for "interesting" things that happen in the normal course of the game. For example, if a particular unit happens to fight in a series of very succussful battles and seems to be extremely lucky, it's home city should throw a "we love our troops" parade for a year or two, like the "we love the president day" parades.

[Widowmaker]

There should be the ability (either by the human players, or automatically by the computer) to name significant geographical locations. Large seas, mountain ranges, lakes, ....etc. I think this was present in the SMAC world (I only played the demo). It would really help in identifying with regions of the planet. A lot of times later in the games, it starts to get a little confusing if your empire is large.

"The Ural Mountains", "The Baltic Sea"...etc.

Would be very cool.

[the Octopus]

When the map generator is creating the map and placing Widowmaker's place names, it should take the starting positions of the Civ's into account, so we're likely to get a Nile River in Egypt, or the Andes Mountains near the Incas.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I like PW as a concept, but I don't think it was implemented very well. I know it was very frustrating trying to build a road between two widely separated cities. I think PW and borders should be combined, so you can build PW anywhere inside your borders. In unclaimed territory, maybe use CTP's system of building only next to an estabilshed PW. And you shouldn't be able to build in hostile territory.

[JT]

Yeah, that's pretty good. I think the PW system should be in CIV3.

[JT]

Same here.

[kmj]

the Octopus and Widowmaker have two great ideas: the recognition of special events, and the ability to name regions. Though, I think that whoever is the first to discover a region should be the one to name it, not the map-generator. I would really like to see both of these, especially the region-naming, in CivIII.

about your post EnochF:
I want Dana Scully to be my science advisor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sigh.
That would definitely make CivIII the coolest game ever.

[kmj]

Here's something that I guess goes in "other".

The idea of national flags. Instead of using colored shields, it would really be cool to see a flag to differentiate nations. And when you create a new game you should be able to customize your flag and edit it throughout the game. It would be a pretty easy thing to add, and it wouldn't get in the way of gameplay. What do people think of it? I think it would go a long way towards individualizing each game experience.

[JT]

Sounds good to me. A simple program like "Paint" could probably handle it, unless it went into 3-D effects and stuff. Otherwise, good idea, and easy to include.

[MBrazier]

Interlace Public Works with Regions -- each region, not each city, has its queue of Public Works projects to be done. And put a size/population limit on the size of a region, which depends on the current government model.

This way, when the game starts and you're in Despotism (or the equivalent) the largest region possible is one city; as your government gets more effective, the possible size of a region goes up, and you can concentrate the tax funds from many cities into one project. The burden of micro-management becomes a disadvantage of early governmental forms, to be relieved by technical advances.