Horse Stud [Modular]

Horse Stud

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_breeding



Version 0.1

Requires:
- Technology: Horse Breeding

Costs:
- 160

Provides:
- 1x Horse Resource
- +1

Restrictions:
- National Wonder (1 per civ)

Building graphics are White Rabbits Stable with Horse
Button is currently the Bedouin Tent (see History above for why).
Inspiration was playing lots of maps with Revolution turned on and 0-2 starting AI Civs. Because the Civ number was low to start, the number of strategic resources was low. This spurred me on (hee har) to think that breeding beasts of burden was actually VERY common.


Plans:
~ a better button
~ balance thinking (does it need to be national wonder? does it need higher costs? other tech pre-reqs?)

Future ideas
~ other animal-providers (cow-pen (spammable), fur-farm (unhappy?), even sea resource substitutes...)

Good idea. I wonder if other wonders could be made to provide rare resources too.

Afforess said:

Good idea. I wonder if other wonders could be made to provide rare resources too.

Click to expand...

well, some of the resources are currently more rare than they should be. For instance, olive and apple trees. Granted, in the ancient times their availability was limited, but for modern ages, the game should allow for their wider availabitlity - perhaps through designated national wonders, as you suggested Affores?

Any thoughts?

The only problem with creating new occurrences of standard (RoM) resources, even by wonders, is that it breaks the trade system. I am currently finding that in the mid to late game the Farmers and Miners(?) Mods have given me all the basic resources so that I no longer need to trade for them. This plethora of resources also affects the corporation game mechanics.

Having said that Sarkyn

You're right, of course, but there are a few, rare resources I think it would be benificial to make easier access to. For instance, in plain RoM, stone is very hard to come by. Securing it can make or break your country, because you need it for your road system. Yet, it seems that it should be very easy to get access to. I'm thinking I could make a regular building, A minepit in the city that adds unhealthiness but gives access to stone.

One thing to keep in mind about resources is that they don't represent the only places that they can be found, just places that a given resource can be found in such abundance that they can become a significant part of a national economy. Any costal city is able to catch fish, else they wouldn't be able to obtain any food from the water tiles in the city's radius. The fish resource just shows a place where fish are so abundant that they can be developed into a city's signature comodity, and that they catch enough fish to preserve and export them to other locations.

Additionally, resources help add variety and specialization to each of your cities, as well as between different nations. If you can just start 'spamming' resources to be produced in each city, why is there any need to trade one limited resource for another. It's also a game attempt to model the scarcity of given resources and model competitive advantage. While as a min/maxer I might like to find ways to 'make' resources that I don't have, I don't see that it really adds to the game.

Then again, this is just one person's opinion. No reason to stop making a modmod. I'm just giving my reasoning for choosing not to incorporate such a component into my games.

Nightguard said:

One thing to keep in mind about resources is that they don't represent the only places that they can be found, just places that a given resource can be found in such abundance that they can become a significant part of a national economy. Any costal city is able to catch fish, else they wouldn't be able to obtain any food from the water tiles in the city's radius. The fish resource just shows a place where fish are so abundant that they can be developed into a city's signature comodity, and that they catch enough fish to preserve and export them to other locations.

Click to expand...

I agree. You're right. My addon that I'm making will allow specialized buildings that create more of a resource, but only if it is in the city radius. So you have to have the resource to get more of it.

I like the concept of your addon, Afforess, and with a few specific animal resources, components like this one make sense, too. Even if a given region only has a small natural population of wild pigs/goats/whatever, it is possible to husband them to the point where you can export them, as long as the environment isn't too inhospitable. Other resources, like most mined resources, should work much more like your mod.

For myself, I think that I wanted to do it only with bottle-neck resources that have a huge impact in their absence.

These are most often strategic resources, that for some reason, are rarer in the game than they should be, or which the absence of so radically changes the game as to be an instant loss/win switch.

For me, the motivating factor behind this modmod was:

1. All of the most powerful and versatile unit class (Cavalry) is unavailable if you happen to not be able to access it. This has a potentially huge unbalancing effect on the mid-game.

2. It's unrealistic to not be able to access horses after a certain period in civilisation development, when domestication of horse became a global norm.

Regarding balance - because it's national and provides only 1 resource, I didn't imagine it would affect trade balance too much. You're never going to trade your only horse away, so would only trade it if you had horses *normally* as well. And even then, since it has little purpose once the modern era obsoletes the entire cavalry line, any effect on trade would be restricted to the "Cavalry Eras".

By making horse available (at a cost of a national wonder slot), I offer an alternative to civs that don't and won't ever get access to it. Allowing them to actually play in the mid-game.

As a note of explanation - I found it rarer than "normal games" because I play with the following settings:

~ large maps
~ barbciv/revolution settings
~ fewer starting civs (usually 2-4)

Fewer starting civs means that the map generator places fewer strategic resources. They're counted per-player. So if I set a map up and ask for 3 opponents at 6000 BC, then we get 4 horses on a map that eventually is home to 15 civilisations due to other civs forming naturally from Revolution/BarbCiv settings.

This affects horse, uranium, iron, several others.

For me, modding in national wonders to replace food resources (like cow, pig, deer) is probably not a great idea. It would undermine other aspects of the game as mentioned above. I'd have to give it some serious thought before venturing down that path.



Thank you for your thoughts I appreciate a lively discussion.

Afforess said:

You're right, of course, but there are a few, rare resources I think it would be benificial to make easier access to. For instance, in plain RoM, stone is very hard to come by. Securing it can make or break your country, because you need it for your road system. Yet, it seems that it should be very easy to get access to. I'm thinking I could make a regular building, A minepit in the city that adds unhealthiness but gives access to stone.

Click to expand...

I have a small modmod that "fixes" stone distribution.

Would you like a copy?

Now uploaded:
Stone [ModMod]
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=329212