New terrains and improvements

two new terrain ideas (really needed)

straits: connect two large bodies of water, allows ships to go through. plus 2 gold (its like a river, units can still cross, but takes all movement)

(real life examples: Bosphorus (black sea and mediterranean by istanbul) and Gibraltar (medit and atlantic by spain))

Isthmus: connects two land areas, allowing units to cross. has unique Canal improvement that allows ships to transverse. plus 1 production (or something like that) this is a land formation, so plains, grassland, desert can all be main terrain)

New improvements:
canal (obviously): plus 2 gold, allows boats to go through.
Rubber tapper camp (or something like that): improvement on jungles, adds production
underground mine: available on desert tiles without any previous bonuses: gives plus 1 production (not increased with chemistry)

Straits is an interesting idea. I don't believe I've seen it suggested before, but it does make a lot of sense! Would be nice to have this as terrain rather than having canals as an improvement.

I'm not sure the isthmus is necessary though. Maybe in Civ4, but no with hexes, I reckon. This would also mean that there'd be no real need for a canal.

They both seem good ideas, but i'm afraid that, if overused, they make the entire map crossable!!
Maybe, straits and istmuses might be quite rare in a map, only two-three of them, in right strategic places. It could be nice.

That nerdy kid said:

straits: connect two large bodies of water, allows ships to go through. plus 2 gold (its like a river, units can still cross, but takes all movement)

Click to expand...

I take it this is meant only for 1-tile barriers between two different bodies of water, right? In the same way as you can already do it now by putting a city there?
I think if you allow bigger crossings it would get a lot of abuse, they would appear for military (stop movement) and financial (your +2 gold) reasons, which wouldn't be right.
It could be interesting as a single-tile improvement. Perhaps call it 'Docks' instead of 'Straits', as docks would be easier to graphically represent. Still tricky to implement from a programming point of view, I guess.

Isthmus: connects two land areas, allowing units to cross. has unique Canal improvement that allows ships to transverse. plus 1 production (or something like that) this is a land formation, so plains, grassland, desert can all be main terrain).

Click to expand...

Isn't this a bridge, rather than a canal?

canals can be made on isthmus tiles (think panama canal). Isthmuses must have water on two sides. no more, no less. multiple can be place in a line (for long strips of land) they would be in areas where there is only a little bit of ocean/coast in between two large bodies of land (think of North and South America without panama) they would be extremely rare and building a canal might even have an achievement with it because you might get one in maybe ten games.

Straits can have bridges, but would still take 2 move points (or all) to cross. they allow ships to pass through. they enhance tile gold production (think tolls). they can only cross one tile (in between two, like a river).

What would you do to a ship that ended it's turn in a strait or canal, regarding combat?

Would you allow an embarked unit to pass through a strait or canal without disembarking?
If so what if it ended it's turn on the land tile and got attacked?

I really like the idea though.

Something like an Isthmus and a canal already exist in the game. If you settle a city on a tile that has water on it's opposite sides ships can automatically pass through it. I don't think embarked units can pass though. But I haven't settled a city in a location like that in awhile though so I'm not sure if this has been changed.

The point is that the current "isthmus" isn't really an isthmus. it is a one tile thick strip of land with no special properties. We don't truly need this, but i think it would add variety to the game. On the combat question, there are a few options. It wouldn't really affect defense, but maybe it would not be able to fire on enemies (hard to blast cannons when your in pretty much a man made river.)

A ferry or a channel tunnel also might be nice.