I haven't posted to this forum in a couple years,but I thought i;d become active again.I used to make a few resources for civ 3 and post them here and there.Unfortunatly doing this for civ 4 seems to be a bit more complicated.Therefore until I get the hang of civ 4 modding and release something I thought i'd contribute ideas instead of mods.Here is my first,don't know if it's been suggested as of yet,but here goes...How about consolidation buildings/wonders...for instance you have 3 buildings you can build "police station,firestation,hospital" each of these buildings would have their own bonuses and of course maintenance costs,but upon completion they would open up a "911 call center" for that city which upon completion would obsolete the previous 3 buildings and begin the bonuses for the 911 building/wonder thus consolidating the maintenance cost.You'd be paying more at first,but then less in the long run saving money and getting some bonuses for the building(s).It could be done in a variety of ways,I just thought a 911 center would be best to use as an example.A rough draft i know,but I thought it might be a good idea and maybe someone would like it and refine it to be added to a mod or something.

There is no maintenance cost for buildings in CivIV the city maintenance is only calculated from number of cities and distance from capital...

As ori pointed out, in Civ IV it's unnecessary from a maintenance cost perspective.

However, the idea of "building upgrades" is intriguing. Several buildings in Civ IV become obsolete. What if they could be upgraded, either at the point of obsolecence, or later on, like military units? For example, what if, for X amount of gold, you could upgrade that obsolete monastery to a laboratory? You'd lose the ability to create its missionaries, but regain and increase a tech boost.

Several other buildings have this potential. Stables could become a more advanced military barracks that either add XPs or increase military unit production time. Monuments could become temples. Castles and walls, which are pretty much obsolete with gunpowder, could be upgraded later to Bunkers (the upgrade would be cheaper if you built both, more expensive with just 1).

By the way, DarkAngel75, a better place for this discussion might be the Creation and Customization forum. Maybe one of the mods should even move the thread over there somewhere.

Ok,I didn't think about the no maintenance aspect of civ iv,had a bit of a brain fart there.However i am glad to see at least the idea sparked some sort of conversation.As for a better area for this discussion how would I go about moving the thread?

Ok,I didn't think about the no maintenance aspect of civ iv,had a bit of a brain fart there.However i am glad to see at least the idea sparked some sort of conversation.As for a better area for this discussion how would I go about moving the thread?
PM one of the mods and ask nicely?

Thread is now in appropiate location,now maybe the discussion can continue :D

ok,guess i'll start.I'll throw out another idea.I'm not sure if this would even be possible,but i was thinking about territory expansion when a city grows.Instead of expanding like a cross which can be annoying at times causing to make you overlap cities or build a city just to get that missed resource how about when you expand you get allocated so many tiles and you get to choose where to place them,as long as they are connected to the city.Even better you could make it so this only becomes available after getting a "zoning" tech or constructing a certain building.Any comments?

ok,guess i'll start.I'll throw out another idea.I'm not sure if this would even be possible,but i was thinking about territory expansion when a city grows.Instead of expanding like a cross which can be annoying at times causing to make you overlap cities or build a city just to get that missed resource how about when you expand you get allocated so many tiles and you get to choose where to place them,as long as they are connected to the city.Even better you could make it so this only becomes available after getting a "zoning" tech or constructing a certain building.Any comments?
Interesting idea. I think there would have to be limitations on this, and a cost. You could redirect the "fat cross", but not to ridiculous extremes, like 21 tiles stretched out from one pole to the other! And if you choose to work a tile outside the "fat cross", it should increase the city's maintenance costs.

Also,how about when you build another city right next to a already thriving city.One that the culture/territory is just going to assimilate anyway.How about instead of builing an entire city you can build a "suburb" a smaller version of a city,but with less buildings/bonuses available,something with more limits on it(like population limits),but still acting as a small city.

Dark angel, you can builds towns and cottages already... Its great you are coming up with ideas...its realy great to see so many fresh ideas.. i think those of us who have played civ 4 get stuck into a mindset and loose all originality.....

I understand you can build towns and cottages already,but you can't use them like a city,build buildings and grow them as such.I was thinking like a city,but smaller and with limitations and of course only available to the larger of cities.If you can already do this with towns and cottages i apologize then as i haven't noticed that.Thanks for the compliment on the ideas,i'm just trying to keep the game fresh,maybe add something new or inventive.Something to compensate my own inability to mod on a large scale by provinding an idea or two to those that can.

Geez,anyone post anymore?My ideas that bad?Well,i'll give it another shot...this one's a unit(i think)...how about mines?you have a unit called "mine layer" that's produced by a building called "mine factory",he goes out and lays mines on a tile of terrain wich after so many turns turns that terrain into a mine field,any troops or units crossing it loses(or a chance to lose)so many hit points,kinda like bombardment works i guess...this would allow you to set up a perimeter with out having to keep troops out there that could be better suited somewhere else.

Geez,anyone post anymore?My ideas that bad?Well,i'll give it another shot...this one's a unit(i think)...how about mines?you have a unit called "mine layer" that's produced by a building called "mine factory",he goes out and lays mines on a tile of terrain wich after so many turns turns that terrain into a mine field,any troops or units crossing it loses(or a chance to lose)so many hit points,kinda like bombardment works i guess...this would allow you to set up a perimeter with out having to keep troops out there that could be better suited somewhere else.
Interesting idea. To make it realistic (and balanced with a downside), those tiles would become unworkable--i.e. they replace existing tile improvements. In addition, the same type of unit or a similar one must slowly work the tile to remove the mines before the tile can have Workers improve it again.

Some people have asked about naval blockades and such. I think a similar option of mine-laying and mine-sweeping ships would be interesting.

If you want more responses, I would suggest starting a new thread for each idea with a descriptive title of the idea. It's worth a shot. I know I often skip threads that have a lot of responses, assuming that the question has been answered or the topic adequately covered, and that it will take too much time to read through the whole thread to catch up.

Thanks,i'll try that,if i don't get see any activity in this thread i'll just start the ideas over with threads of thier own.

I posted individual threads for each of the 3 ideas I have posted,if you've replied to this thread and would like your post read in relation to the idea please re-post in appropiate thread plz,ty