To Whom it May Concern,

I have played this game since it was first produced on four disks. I have loved every moment of it. There is but one question that I have for those that will be developing this game; will my engineers, workers, or whom ever I have doing manual labor for me, be able to build a canal...ever? Sometimes the random map generator will give you a nice piece of land only to discover that you have to circumvent a small point of land…etc…I just want to be able to do what we humans have been able to do, make canals. :confused:

Thanks,

Ross

I totally agree, I've allways wanted to be able to make canals (or in other words raise and lower the land like in SMAC) and it does get so annoying sometimes.

I totally agree, I've allways wanted to be able to make canals (or in other words raise and lower the land like in SMAC) and it does get so annoying sometimes.

Well I like the "Canals" improvement idea. Any land tile that has water on opposite sides should be able to have a canal built.

I think with enough tech you should be able to build even longer canals. At least 2-3 squares. But even being able to build one-square canals would be wonderful.

I quote from Wikipedia: "The oldest-known canals were built in Mesopotamia, c. 4000 BC. Ancient canals in the West were dwarfed by the Grand Canal of China, the longest canal built in ancient times. In Europe and then in the young United States, inland canals preceded the development of railroads during the earliest phase of the Industrial Revolution; some canals were later drained and used as railroad rights-of-way. Navigable canals reached into previously isolated areas and brought them in touch with the world economy. The Erie Canal, for instance, opened up a connection to the fertile Great Plains."

I like canals too, but the most common canals are the natural ones, eg rivers. It's even more important, imo, that ships be able to traverse major rivers.

And do you all think that your battleships could go through any canal or river? :lol:
Canals have always been made for commercial purposes, not for military logistic.

The Panama Canal could easily accomodate all but the largest warships of the day back in WW2. That's why it was on the list of targets for the Japanese should the war have gone well for them--if they destroyed it, it would take much longer for American ships to reach that theater of the war from the Atlantic. If I recall correctly, the reason the Japanese superbattleships were so large-- 70,000 tons ---was because they figured Americans would never build a battleship of equal size, out of necessity to allow it to use the Canal.

So I'm pretty sure you should be allowed to drive ships up and down your canals.

The Panama Canal is not your average canal. England was and to some extent still is riddled with small canals suitable only for narrow boats, which were originally pulled along by horses. There's a good description of them in the first two chapters of "Hornblower and the Atropos" (CS Forester).

They were used for freight and passengers. No military significance at all, though I suppose if England had been invaded at the time some use might have been made of them.

They were used for freight and passengers. No military significance at all, though I suppose if England had been invaded at the time some use might have been made of them.A trade upgrade for roads perhaps?

But they should definitly let you modify the terrian, maybe it might take you awile (not when you get to gunpowder though for mountains! :p) they even did terrain changes like this in the anchient ages (think Alexanders causeway on Tyre, which took something in the realm of 3 years).