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This is taken from an e-mail I sent Mark yesterday, we decided to post it on the forum so everybody could express their views.
Settlement: How can players settle/claim other territories? First, some historic examples so you´ll know what I´m talking about. The most obvious way is a combination of conquest and diplomatic amalgation, such as when the Romans expanded throughout the Italian peninsula. This should pose no problems in gameplay. But what about the Greek city expansion throughout the Mediterrean world (Syracuse, Marseille, Odessa, Cadiz, etc)? How can players form new cities? Do they build Settler units like in Civ? One idea is to claim the territory (square) by placin a military unit there. Once the square is secure players can choose the square (by clicking on it or whatever) and have the option to Form City. They then must choose wherefrom the people should come (probably chosen on province basis), the minimum requirement should be ca. 5-10 thousand. The city building should take ca. 5 years, if the building is interrupted (by enemy presence) then no city is built (but the pop is not lost). This is a simple way to form cities, whether it is Alexandria or St.Petersburg or Los Angeles. Some further notes: apart from the pop needed the city construction should cost a considerable amount of money/material. However, players can allow the private sector to invest in the city, although this would mean that they gain some pol.power in the new city (i.e. if the player builds a city on his own he has more or less total control over the city (depending on the ruling class(es)), if the private sector pays for half the city they get ca. half the political power (the LC/UC), further modifications are possible, such as a military outpost (like the ones by the Romans along the Rhine/Danube front, which grew quickly into cities, in outposts the MC woud have some power) or even a city constructed around a shrine or some holy place, giving the RC power. The advantages for the player in these cases would be better protection (the outpost) and faster expansion (the shrine). One more, thing the players should be allowed to choose excactly which pop to form the new city with, so they could ‘ship’ a minority culture to the new city to separate them from the other cultures.
Peaceful expansion of this kind should also be allowed over larger tracts of land without the neccessity of building a lot of cities. So I propose players can also form provinces. To form a province it´s not necessary to build a city therein, although when building a city it would be wise to form a province also with some adjacent squares so ensure enough food supply. Forming a province would usually cost considerably less than a city, the cost would be based on the size of the new province (squares) and the total population therein. In time (a generation or two) the new province can sprout a city of itself, if sufficiently populous.
Finally, the most important, the above suggestions is only usable in areas with low population where no organized government exists. This of course puts severe limits on its usage and that’s the whole idea. This rule is intended to reflect for example the spread of Russia in Siberia and the settlement of North America by the US. Possibly this can be tied up with colonization, it would be very conveniant but I´m unsure at the moment how this would be handled, possibly there would be an option for players to Form Colony or Form Trade-Post. Anyway, that pretty much is it at the moment. What do you think?
Settlement: How can players settle/claim other territories? First, some historic examples so you´ll know what I´m talking about. The most obvious way is a combination of conquest and diplomatic amalgation, such as when the Romans expanded throughout the Italian peninsula. This should pose no problems in gameplay. But what about the Greek city expansion throughout the Mediterrean world (Syracuse, Marseille, Odessa, Cadiz, etc)? How can players form new cities? Do they build Settler units like in Civ? One idea is to claim the territory (square) by placin a military unit there. Once the square is secure players can choose the square (by clicking on it or whatever) and have the option to Form City. They then must choose wherefrom the people should come (probably chosen on province basis), the minimum requirement should be ca. 5-10 thousand. The city building should take ca. 5 years, if the building is interrupted (by enemy presence) then no city is built (but the pop is not lost). This is a simple way to form cities, whether it is Alexandria or St.Petersburg or Los Angeles. Some further notes: apart from the pop needed the city construction should cost a considerable amount of money/material. However, players can allow the private sector to invest in the city, although this would mean that they gain some pol.power in the new city (i.e. if the player builds a city on his own he has more or less total control over the city (depending on the ruling class(es)), if the private sector pays for half the city they get ca. half the political power (the LC/UC), further modifications are possible, such as a military outpost (like the ones by the Romans along the Rhine/Danube front, which grew quickly into cities, in outposts the MC woud have some power) or even a city constructed around a shrine or some holy place, giving the RC power. The advantages for the player in these cases would be better protection (the outpost) and faster expansion (the shrine). One more, thing the players should be allowed to choose excactly which pop to form the new city with, so they could ‘ship’ a minority culture to the new city to separate them from the other cultures.
Peaceful expansion of this kind should also be allowed over larger tracts of land without the neccessity of building a lot of cities. So I propose players can also form provinces. To form a province it´s not necessary to build a city therein, although when building a city it would be wise to form a province also with some adjacent squares so ensure enough food supply. Forming a province would usually cost considerably less than a city, the cost would be based on the size of the new province (squares) and the total population therein. In time (a generation or two) the new province can sprout a city of itself, if sufficiently populous.
Finally, the most important, the above suggestions is only usable in areas with low population where no organized government exists. This of course puts severe limits on its usage and that’s the whole idea. This rule is intended to reflect for example the spread of Russia in Siberia and the settlement of North America by the US. Possibly this can be tied up with colonization, it would be very conveniant but I´m unsure at the moment how this would be handled, possibly there would be an option for players to Form Colony or Form Trade-Post. Anyway, that pretty much is it at the moment. What do you think?
. I certainly don't let that fear stop me too often
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