Anyone Else Miss Food Caravans?

[Sultan Bhargash]

I don't mind the change in how trade works, but missing from the game is the food caravan. It simply isn't realistic that when I have one city overproducing food in the modern era, another city might go hungry.

Maybe the caravan as a unit isn't viable but how about a tech advance like "refrigeration" that would evenly distribute food connected to your own trade network so that all cities got the same amount? Sure you want to grow cities differentially at times, but in a fully modernized country like America we plop down megamillion population cities in deserts like Las Vegas and Los Angeles with no reference to supportability - because we can.

Then again, by the time you reach the era in which you would be doing refrigeration, the game is almost over and you are too buisy building spaceship parts or nuclear weapons to worry about things like feeding your population or researching longevity... right?

 

[Tweedledum]

I'm not sure about automatically re-distributing it, but some method of opting to pass on a city's surplus food production either to a general pool or to another specified city would be VERY handy...

 

[Becka]

I miss caravans in general.

I don't think I ever used the food caravan in Civ2.

 

[BCLG100]

i think the bit about redistbruting it would work whenn say the city had reached a size where they couldnt work any more tiles

 

[Scientia]

Originally posted by Becka
I miss caravans in general.

I don't think I ever used the food caravan in Civ2.

Especially on wonder building . . .

 

[Wild Weasel]

I never played Civ II, but as a matter of interest did the caravan allow you trade surplus food with other Civs also ? Might be an interesting addition if it didn't.

 

[BCLG100]

yeh it did that was actually the whole point of it because they didint use roads

 

[Zouave]

Originally posted by Becka
I miss caravans in general.

I don't think I ever used the food caravan in Civ2.

I seriously miss caravans and freight, along with spies and diplomats, and how you needed to DELIVER them often by sea - a risky and dramatic maneuver. In Civ 3 it is all abstracted to a boring level of tedium.

I RARELY used food caravans in Civ 2.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Yes, caravans, freight, diplomats and spies were a lot of fun. Stockpiling freight trucks for wonder building, and sending a spy all over the enemy railroad to scout out each city and try and bribe them, very memorable.

Food caravans used to increase population when they arrived, and the biggest score I ever saw in Civ2 (posted either here or on Appolyton, I can't remember) was a world of all giant cities, no defenders, all of them producing a food truck every turn and feeding each other. It was actually a pretty suspicious game...

 

[sabo]

I used food caravans in Civ II very rarely, but they were nice to have if I wanted to get a city in the mounains past 2 population...

 

[AAGamer]

I used to use the food caravans quite often.. As for the diplomats and spies they were a nice change to outright aggression.. The idea of supporting a city with outside food production would be nice..

 

[Sargon of Akkad]

I like the idea of the food caravan. It might even be interesting to set up things like "agricultural colonies." Colonies that take care of food to allow your core cities to worry about production.

 

[Beard Rinker]

In Civ II, units required shield support from their home city. This required rebalancing your forces periodically so no one city supported too many units - very tedious.

The Civ III approach of units costing your empire, not an individual city, is much easier to manage. A similar approach with food and population growth would be an improvement.

 

[Portuguese]

I miss the concept. I want some thing that allows me to replace it, transporting food drom a city to another. It hasn't to be a caravan, but something... Maybe a special screen for that. Or a special ability of the domestic advisor...

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Caravans were far too open to abuse where wonder building was concerned And for spaceship construction/tech researching/Shadowdaleing(refer to the HOF)/treasury pumping they were also far too powerful.

I prefer the C3 system, though modern units called "Trade Missions", or something that functioned in a similar manner to caravans, might be interesting.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Yeah for food like I said you could have an advance that distributed the food or a city based improvement like a supermarket that randomly plucked extra food off of other cities.

For the trade caravans obviously this isn't necessary. But I would like to know more from my trade advisor - we should be able to know who is trading what with who if we have an embassy. That way I know whose uranium mine to pillage...

 

[Sodak]

I miss it! Especially with the new bonus resources. One city has a surplus of 11 wheatsheaves, the next city has a surplus of only 1 - but they can't share.

I didn't use them much in CivII, but the food imbalance was much less.

 

[jpowers]

Caravaning was one of the things that made Civ II too predictable. Civ II: "Teamsters Built the Apollo Program" and "Natasha Buys Frostbite Falls"

 

[Lab Monkey]

I don't miss the caravans, they were far too clunky - I miss the trade routes in CTP, and the piracy with privateers and subs. Would this really be to much to add in the XP? It's just a few lines drawn on the map...

(OK, I know it's more than just that)

 

[Reboot]

I miss the caravans. They provide money, wonder-building, and food. While the system is unweildy (pushing my caravans from one city to another far, far away is always tedious) it does have its advantages, and should be improved upon instead of being axed. I would love a deep and comprehensive trade interface where resources (including food) can be traded not across Civilizations but between Cities... in fact, I suggested it in one of those CivIII development forums... too bad it was never heard.

The need to transport food surpluses is a must... I can transport wine half a globe away but a few tonnes of wheat is a problem? It simply should not be.