Aren´t caravels too soon?

[Elhoim]

I personally find that caravels in the game appear too soon, if compared to history. What I mean is that you can discover America in, let´s say, 1100AD, and you can only start colonizing it 200 years later when you get galleons. The point is not the year, but the space between discovery and colonization.

 

[SilverKnight]

I usually have a different agenda, working on a few things already. If I want to, I can race for a single caravel and send it around the world for the +1 naval movement (even if I don't plan on being a naval power), but the AI generally doesn't at that time. I hardly ever get to that tech first, too, so the AI dawdles a bit.

When the AI circum-navs the world first, when do they typically do it? Does Spain go for it more than anyone else?

SilverKnight

 

[Arkaeyn]

I almost always see Spain do it, and usually around the 1400 marker. So yeah, it seems a bit early.

On the other hand, there's reasonable evidence that China made it to the New World around 1400, and even if they didn't, their Dragon Ships probably could have done it.

 

[dh_epic]

I'd agree that things are a bit early in this respect. But then, so is regular Civ 4.

 

[Elhoim]

Yeah, but the thing is that you must wait like 15 turns before you can start colonizing the new world, because of the research of astronomy... The main problem is that in history they didn´t know they could go trough the ocean and they wont fall off the world, so they sailed around the old world even tough they had the technology to go to the west. To reflect this perhaps it would be nice to add an option that caravel can only sail through coast tiles until the discovery of astronomy. It also makes much more sense as why would astronomy allow to have more transport capacity? It should allow to cross the seas, that´s the whole point of it. Right now, regarding this issue only, it should be called bigger hulls.

 

[dh_epic]

That's a really good point. In reality, superstition constrained our ability to cross the ocean... not technology.

 

[kairob]

From what I got told we didnt go over the atlantic to get to the new world we went to get to china, thus messing up the ottomans economy cos they were reliant on the newly redundant silk rout....
...just my two cence? cens? Oh I dont care its not mu currency anyways....
....I am very tired but the crossing sea's idea is very good but we should try to stop them going around africa, unless they can't already....
...OMG I am tired...
...gonna go to bed now........