Are moveable cities possible to create?

[Gurra09]

I should start working on a nomadic people mod/scenario but before I can do that I have to get one question answered (the conclusive one).

Is it possible to create a city that can move like a unit and can build units and buildings like a normal city?


Gurra09

 

[davidlallen]

There are units today that produce other units and are moveable; for example the mongol camp in the genghis khan scenario and the barbarian camp in the barbarian scenario. Both of those are in warlords. This is a type of city, but it doesn't have buildings. The mongol camp randomly generates one unit every few turns. The barbarian camp is the spawn point for whatever units you purchase. If the buildings are not critical for you, that would be the easiest.

I have never done it, but I am sure that you could make a copy of a full city using python. You might have to loop over all the buildings in a city and recreate them in the new city, then delete the old city. I am not sure how you would deal with the production queue. If you want the city to move every turn, and you want to keep the production queue intact, it might be possible but I am not sure how.

 

[Roads]

This would be terrific if applied to a Native American scenario. Perhaps the tepees (cities) would not need traditional buildings since growth potential of the cities could be based on roving surrounding resources such as bison. Resources such as berries would probably need to be seasonal which would also require city movement. I think it would be a fun break from the vigilance ever required in the quest of new technology.

 

[davidlallen]

I agree there is a lot of potential. I bet the mongol camp could be just recycled from the warlords scenario. If *buildings* are required inside the city, then it does not seem so much like a moving camp.

 

[Gurra09]

With buildings I thought to have houses (that looks like the other "houses" in the moveable city - the houses will look like huts) that gives bonuses or are required to create some units.


Gurra09

 

[davidlallen]

As far as I can tell, this is possible, but it will require programming in python. I have recently learned how to access the production queue (city.pushOrder and its relatives). So you could copy the city each time it moves. Using the mongol camp would be an easy way to get started.

 

[Gurra09]

The first version will include a Mongol camp but I'll edit it so other units appear.


Gurra09

 

[Master Kodama]

This is not exactly a new idea, but it sure has been neglected. Glad someone's pursuing interesting things. I've always wanted an option to have nomadic civs -- and possibly have Civics that enable this, such as a Pastoralism or Nomadism (Legal?) Civic that would make your cities nomadic campsites, with reduced production and growth and such, but with the ability to move and take advantage of terrain and resources in different areas as it moved. Much harder to capture a city if it keeps moving on away from your attacking force every turn.

I think that everytime you moved a city it should reduce the hammers, beakers, gold, etc. output by that city. Picking up and moving your whole settlement can get in the way of such things. Perhaps there'd be Civics or City Improvements to alleviate this.

As to "buildings," I think it's the word itself that doesn't quite fit. You could still have city improvements like a "barracks" or "palace" that might move with the "moving city" but these things should probably have more appropriate names. The "city" would be a "camp" or the more generic "settlement" while the "palace" would be the "command tent" or "chieftains yurt" or somesuch thing, depending on context.

 

[Bubblewrap]

For nomadic civs, you could also increase base tile yields but have them diminish over time if they are worked, giving a real incentive to move around.

 

[Master Kodama]

For nomadic civs, you could also increase base tile yields but have them diminish over time if they are worked, giving a real incentive to move around.

An interesting idea. Starting with higher tile yields doesn't seem realistic to me, but I like the thought that tile yields would diminish over time for a nomadic city. This would certainly make sense before the discovery of Agriculture -- perhaps all pre-agricultural civs would start as Nomadic, but you'd have the option to settle into an agrarian existence once the Agriculture tech was discovered.

Another idea: maybe you'd have the option to have some cities that were nomadic and others that were sedentary. This might call for a new Nomadic/Sedentary CivicOption; so the base nomadic/sedentary civic would allow you to settle cities or keep them nomadic, while the Agrarian civic would allow only settled cities, and Nomadism and/or Pastoralism might allow only nomadic cities.

 

[Yakk]

It is quite possible, but it would be tricky.

Cities aren't tied strongly to their plot. You might have some issues with some on-map improvements like aquaducts, but I'm not sure.

There are also issues with "can you build a boat?" "can you build a levee?" "can you build a hydrodam" -- some of that logic might not expect the city to move. Once you have a hydrodam, it doesn't expect your city to be elsewhere.

Another problem is storing the planned movement of the city. A city moving 1 square per turn seems ... a bit fast. But a city moving slower has to store the "I moved X turns ago" or "I plan on moving" data somewhere, and there isn't an existing place for that data.

 

[NikNaks]

The Mongol Camp mod component might be a nice starting point for this idea. Fierabras took the code from the Genghis Khan scenario and made it part of the epic game.