Howdy y'all,

Just a quick one to ask if anyone had done any work in this area...

It always kind of buged me that hamlets/Villages/towns just acted as normal little improvements on the map, as if the 'people' living on those tiles didn't come into it at all. I was thinking about having something of a 'village loyalty' mod, something like a little flag over each h/v/t showing what civilization they identified with. Obviously, the villages loyal to you would yield you more gold (or perhaps happiness) in your cities, while foreign towns would be less inclined to participate in your rule.

I had a few more ieas on it, but I wanted to know if anyone had beat me to it first..!

~che

excellent idea... but i don't think anyone has done anything like this yet.

i think this can actually be connected to more realistic borders... what if the villages could "switch over" like the cities, somehow?

and maybe certain villages could help heal units faster (friendly villages) or lower your units health (hostile villages)...

excellent idea... but i don't think anyone has done anything like this yet.

i think this can actually be connected to more realistic borders... what if the villages could "switch over" like the cities, somehow?

and maybe certain villages could help heal units faster (friendly villages) or lower your units health (hostile villages)...

Thanks. I thought about the switching over idea, but I think I might go against that just because I like the idea of having potentially hostile villages within your own borders....but still, something to consider...

other ideas connected to the original premise:

(1) there should be 'neutrel' hamlets scattered around the map from the get go: It always miffed me that these vast streches of land are somehow 'uninhabited'. I think that people should be part of the landscape as well.

(2) Neutrel villages can be bought from a small price if you get there first, you can buy the loyalty of the people even if they exist outside your borders, staking out land that could be yours in the future...

(3) Enemy towns can be bought at a higher price, but with a smaller success rate If you take an enemy city, you can buy the allegience of the countryside, but they won't necessarily take the bribe. If you are in the process of attacking an enemy in thier territory, you could buy off his towns to support you and provide more defense for your garrisons.

(4) Friendly towns within your borders produce one extra commerce, neutrels the same, enemy one less: Basically, hostile towns won't participate in the economy as much, so they offer less to your cities.

(5) Pillaging neutrel/enemy towns can be difficult: Why is it that the citizenry of the countryside never defend themselves?! I would like to see the pillaging of a town work something like combat: a town has a certain 'defensive value' (say, 2) so that pillaging said town will result in a battle with the offending unit, damaging or even destroying it before the task is complete!

(6) Destroying enemy towns can bring on the wrath of enemy civs: Killing a german town might ruin relations with your german neighbour, inciting him to declare war on you.

That's what I got in a nutshell...

Excellent idea. This is somewhere along the lines what I was thinking.

My idea for the hamlet/village/town mod would go something like this.

Firstly it would be a cross between the existing Civ iv H/T/V and the colonies used in Civ iii to exploit distant resources. The idea sort of evolves from the Imperialism 1 & 2 (Frog city games) games where the local towns grow on their own over time once they are connected. As they grow they start producing on their own and forward their production to your resource pool. In civ iv this production could be a mixture of culture, food, gold and hammers forwared to the nearest city.

As these hamlets grow they start working the tiles in their immediate zones of control. Also the zones of control of these hamlets would immediately provide a cultural boundary for you. When they are fully matures (towns) they would be producing the resource yield of their entire workable zones of control including any available resource bonuses. In essence they act as a mini city that you don't control. Rather than constructing things the town forwards it's production.

These mini cities could fill in the gaps of your empire that your city crosses don't cover (I'm such a perfectionist at times with these and need to use every tile).

Excellent idea. This is somewhere along the lines what I was thinking.

My idea for the hamlet/village/town mod would go something like this.

Firstly it would be a cross between the existing Civ iv H/T/V and the colonies used in Civ iii to exploit distant resources. The idea sort of evolves from the Imperialism 1 & 2 (Frog city games) games where the local towns grow on their own over time once they are connected. As they grow they start producing on their own and forward their production to your resource pool. In civ iv this production could be a mixture of culture, food, gold and hammers forwared to the nearest city.

As these hamlets grow they start working the tiles in their immediate zones of control. Also the zones of control of these hamlets would immediately provide a cultural boundary for you. When they are fully matures (towns) they would be producing the resource yield of their entire workable zones of control including any available resource bonuses. In essence they act as a mini city that you don't control. Rather than constructing things the town forwards it's production.

These mini cities could fill in the gaps of your empire that your city crosses don't cover (I'm such a perfectionist at times with these and need to use every tile).

Interesting ideas. Having said that, I'm not totally sold on the working tiles/resource collection thought for a couple reasons:

(1) I like the current system of cultural borders, if nothing else than to show what area you control directly. The idea of spawning towns outside your borders would mean that they are not under your direct control merely outposts, and thus would not produce culture on thier own, or would be able to work tiles.

(2) I think it might end up making some difficult redundancies in teh map: for eg, if a village is working a tile, and I city is counded nearby, does the city then get to work those tiles? Would they be able to work the village? If a village is on top of a resource, do they 'collect' it? Does this change if it moves into city borders?

I still think things would work best if towns like this served as outposts. Stick a flag in a village outside your cultural borders, and your military can use it for defense and to heal faster. I think there is room for economic colonies, but I think it should be dealt with in another manner...

I was trying to remember why this sounded familiar.

Gal Civ 2 Dark Avatar: after building mining stations on asteroid squares, they can switch supplying the resources to a different civ depending on who has the stronger cultural influence.

Hmmmm....how about this: an 'outpost' improvement that could be built on top of villages or on top of resources with the corresponsind improvement on them (i.e. farm on corn, mine on iron. etc). This could have the effect of ensuring the loyalty of a town, or the collection of a resource if it is connected to your trade network. THe improvement on its own could also added a defensive/healing bonus...

this is starting to sound a bit complicated... we still have to remember that civ has to be simple enough that 10 year olds can enjoy it (im serious. i know an 8 year old kid who can play it well enough on cheiftain level)... i myself am a supporter of complexity, and think all the ideas offered here are excellent, but others, well, just want a simple game...

that's why it would be a mod. Simplicity is fine for the vanilla version, but I crave more complexity in the game...

Yes real great ideas :)
The same could be made for other improvments - you know sabotage and low work efficiency in mines etc