I'm not sure I understand what you mean by exploitation. First off, you don't need to amass vassal cities to benefit from foreign connectedness, just open borders and well built trade routes. Second, I seriously doubt anyone other than you considers the impacts of what will happen to TR when they declare war. It's just too complicated to consider, and too random. I'm not very worried about that.
They do, for two of the wonders. Petra and Marco Pollo's embassy are based on Foreign Capitals, which is an easy proxy for being connected to their "nation".
I guess I don't care. Perhaps you aren't explaining your problem very well because I don't see any reason I would care about the tiny details of TR mechanics and warfare. I know I have never considered that factor when deciding when to declare war.
I'm sorry people don't worry about it. Indeed when people play civ to have fun, they probably play in a difficulty lesser then their sweat mark, and they normally become the master of the world soon (or for players in smaller maps it doesn't make much difference anyway). When you are the best undoubtly at least since the time of
Navigation, you don't have to worry with TRs. Actually you don't have to worry at all with anything.
But when you play on a difficulty harder then your sweat mark, details matter a lot because you're trying to best something hard for you. In this situation it makes much difference who you'll declare war based on the economic perspective. If I declare war on a guy that supports 800
in TRs with me, and all the others give me less then 100 (while I give myself 1500), this war will be costy (I may at least lose 400
/turn with this). If you are struggling to keep in tech with the best players, losing 400
is a lot. If you are the supreme leader of techs, maybe it won't make much difference anyways (as you'll probably conquer new land soon enough to fill the gap).
And this is realistic. And not complex, before someone comes here again saying that playability > realism. The more partners available, less economic impact on decisions, it seems straitforward to me.
And sorry I didn't check the Wonder effects. Indeed you found the way
. But I think more buildings should have this property.
By exploitation I mean using the info to its best result, with a not so nice way of doing it. Former TRs were hard as hell to manage and get benefits. With MAX X
that is related to a MAX N° of cities connected (be foreign or not), it becomes incredibly easy to use the mechanic to its most by playing the game appropriately. If Vassals are considered foreign, then here is the exploitation taking form: Just amass a number of vassals that make all your cities have MAX bonuses by connectedness, and then you don't have to worry with this feature of the game anymore. It's solved for you, and you're free from it to do whatever you like, while former TRs never let you do that.
Another example of Exploitation on CIV is the Shield Exploit. The AI considers an unpassable terrain by land (like coast or peak before mountaineering) the same of an enemy unit on land. The exploit is done when you make a shield of troops around your cities. If you have this shield of at least a single troop in all tiles making a "circle" around all your cities, the AI thinks it is incapable of reaching you by land, so it'll try someone else to bother or will get ships to attack you. Guess why the AI never attacked you by land on that penninsula with a single tile entrance? Well if you put a garrison on that tile here is your answer. Although this is possible to do it's not intended to happen and let you be free from early wars unscathed. There are some flaws on the Shield Exploit, but that's another topic already.
BTW one last thing: Don't you think bonuses should be:
- Fractions, like they were in TRs
- Unlimited (but with a function to cap it somewhere)
Instead of saying 1
per connected city, it'll be a fraction (to have a bigger range of values without increasing the absolute values too much), and it may not be the same value for every connected city. It could be a bonus that decreases the more cities you add to the list. This way we still have a cap for the
gain, we kill the exploitation because more cities will always mean more commerce (even if a slight one) and we bring back the economic recession issue of declaring war on foreign nations. It won't be random as former TRs. With a proper advisor you'll be able to see everything you need.
on Hypermarket! That's a lot!
