I think workers should get a new improvement - the canal improvement. It could be unlocked at a later technology (engineering, for example), and I think it's a very necessary addition.
Think about it. You're playing on a map and you want quick access to both sea sides of the land. But the only way to do that is if you build a city on the 1 hex of land between the sea. You waste a settler in the process. You give up on improving necessary resources, in favour of placing a city on the single land hex rather than near the resource you want to improve. You add to unnecessary increased culture cost of new policies, you increase unhappiness and it potentially causes tactical placement of future cities to change, thanks to the "no new city in between 4-hexes of another" rule.
With the canal improvement, you can build it on that 1 land hex, saving you from the repercussions of placing a city just for that purpose. Of course, if placing a city on the 1-land hex tile is beneficial to you and your empire, then great. Otherwise, it just seems as a tragic waste to me.
The canal improvement could only be placed on a single piece of land with 2 sides of coast adjacent to it. Since it provides a good tactical movement, you would need a significant amount of turns to finish it. Also, foreign Civs can use the canal with open border treaties. I was also thinking of 2 possible ways to use it: 1) No movement penalty with embarked/naval units and you just pass straight through 2) Embarked/Naval units expend all their movement when passing through a canal (which means all your movement will end on the actual canal improvement, even if you have more to spare), and you can move again the next round. If 2) is implemented, only one unit of each civ can remain in the canal.
Please post your thoughts in the comments, and leave suggestions
Think about it. You're playing on a map and you want quick access to both sea sides of the land. But the only way to do that is if you build a city on the 1 hex of land between the sea. You waste a settler in the process. You give up on improving necessary resources, in favour of placing a city on the single land hex rather than near the resource you want to improve. You add to unnecessary increased culture cost of new policies, you increase unhappiness and it potentially causes tactical placement of future cities to change, thanks to the "no new city in between 4-hexes of another" rule.
With the canal improvement, you can build it on that 1 land hex, saving you from the repercussions of placing a city just for that purpose. Of course, if placing a city on the 1-land hex tile is beneficial to you and your empire, then great. Otherwise, it just seems as a tragic waste to me.
The canal improvement could only be placed on a single piece of land with 2 sides of coast adjacent to it. Since it provides a good tactical movement, you would need a significant amount of turns to finish it. Also, foreign Civs can use the canal with open border treaties. I was also thinking of 2 possible ways to use it: 1) No movement penalty with embarked/naval units and you just pass straight through 2) Embarked/Naval units expend all their movement when passing through a canal (which means all your movement will end on the actual canal improvement, even if you have more to spare), and you can move again the next round. If 2) is implemented, only one unit of each civ can remain in the canal.
Please post your thoughts in the comments, and leave suggestions
