The parts of Mesopotamia that are desert in RFC are desert in SoI too (excepting the occasional marsh which is too detailed to be portrayed here).
The balance part still holds anyway.
And yet in SoI Floodplains only give +2
. The supercities in Egypt and Mesopotamia are sustained by an abundance of Food Resources (in SoI and in reality). Which is the reason I proposed this idea in the first place.
Premise 1: Egypt and Mesopotamia's prosperity is based on agriculture. Which in DoC is represented by Farms.
Premise 2: The inability to build anything other than Cottages in Floodplains makes the game more predictable and less fun.
Conclusion 1: Farms should be allowed on Floodplains.
Conclusion 2: Therefore, Floodplain base
needs to be reduced by 1.
------------------------
Now after this point, there are several different ways to boost Floodplains after the loss of 1
. A few options have been rejected, but not all.
(1) Reduced
for Floodplains.
Rejected for balance. I agree on this.
(2) Plain Floodplains.
Rejected for realism. I still think more tiles along the Tigris should be Plains instead of Deserts. East coast of Egypt could be Plain Hills instead of Desert Hills. Nile Delta could be Grassland/Plain Floodplains.
(3) Boost Floodplain
base Commerce. +2
along Rivers.
(4)
Extra Food Resources in Egypt and Mesopotamia. This is SoI's solution. I also recall that in Synthesis a Rice spawns in the Nile Delta.
(5) Farms
yield +2 on Floodplains, but (possibly) don't get the further increase from Biology. Effectively invisible extra Food Resources.