Circumnavigation bonus by trading maps

[Junuxx]

I played an OCC game last night and actually never travelled quite far from my little home island at all. But when I got Astronomy, I traded maps with the Indians west of me, and with the Russians east of me. Suddenly, I was the first civilization to have a map that spanned the globe from east to west, connecting is some ocean both the Indians and Russians had explored. So without any seafaring on my part, I got the ship movement bonus.

Now while I really like the way the ship movement bonus is implemented in civ4 (much better than by the Lighthouse/Magellan wonders in previous games) I don't think I should get this bonus if I did none of the exploring!

What do you think? Should you get the bonus? Should this be patched?

 

[tegilbor]

Wow, that is scary - I just posted the exact same thing in the General Discussion forum. I'm not actually sure if this is a bug or a feature.

I think it's fine to get a bonus for being the first to discover a somewhat complete world map, and I think it's ok that it's a naval movement bonus, because that kind of knowledge may allow a culture to discover more ideal sea routes, etc. However, it shouldn't say that you "circumnavigated" the globe, because it does imply that you did it in a ship and not on a map.

 

[balearicrazy]

I think it should be kept. You aquired knowledge of the world one way or another first, the basic concept of Civ is that you can achieve results in many different ways. Also here's a senerio, you trade maps just like you did, and it reveals all but one square inbetween east and west, you send a ship to explore that and naturally get your navigation bonus, however the MAJORITY of the map was not explored by you. What I am getting at is, where do you stop if you are going to implement a no circumnavigation bonus rule in relation to trading maps?

 

[eldar]

You don't even need the map to be "connected up" - i.e. a continual east-west circum-global route.

I got the bonus last night by just getting my caravel (going west) to a point well north of the most easterly point on my map.

 

[balearicrazy]

well north of the most easterly point on my map.

In Civ, is the planet you inhabit an actual flattened sphere or is it more of a tube shape? In other words, if you went to one of the poles is the distance between east and west shorter than on the equator? Never really tested that out, it would be intresting to see.

If is actually a sphere then this is a bit draft as you could just go around the poles and you would have "Circumnavigated" the globe under Civ's rules, if not then I don't see anything wrong with it as you would actually be adding more turns to go north and south instead of just directly east and west.

 

[Junuxx]

Never Eat Shreded Wheat.... Never Eat Shreded Wheat.... Never Eat Shreded Wheat....

ok... I give up, how does that work then?

Like below, X is discovered and O is undiscovered. There is an X on every column, even though they don't connect to make a path around the world. Eldar is saying that in such a situation he got the 'circumnavigation' bonus nevertheless .

OOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOXXO
OOOOOOOOOOOXX
OOOOOOOOOOOOX
XXXXXXXXOOOOO
XXXXXXXXXXOOO
OOOOOOXXXXXXO
OOOOOOOOXXOOO

 

[tegilbor]

In Civ, is the planet you inhabit an actual flattened sphere or is it more of a tube shape? In other words, if you went to one of the poles is the distance between east and west shorter than on the equator? Never really tested that out, it would be intresting to see.

It's not a flattened sphere, but sort of an impossible geometric shape: A tube that connects at the ends without becoming a torus. The length of the "circumnavigation path" is the same no matter how close you are to the equator or the poles.

 

[balearicrazy]

Like below, X is discovered and O is undiscovered. There is an X on every column, even though they don't connect to make a path around the world. Eldar is saying that in such a situation he got the 'circumnavigation' bonus nevertheless .

OOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOXXO
OOOOOOOOOOOXX
OOOOOOOOOOOOX
XXXXXXXXOOOOO
XXXXXXXXXXOOO
OOOOOOXXXXXXO
OOOOOOOOXXOOO

awww, I didn't quite manage to edit my stupid comment out fast enough then. I got what he was saying in the end, just mis-read it at first

 

[eldar]

Nice diagram Junuxx

Pretty much accurate! I was surprised on two accounts: one that I got the bonus (though I was going for it - I'd only just worked out it existed!) the way I did, two that I'd got it at all; another Civ had had Optics for quite some time before I did.

 

[Maksim]

It's not a flattened sphere, but sort of an impossible geometric shape: A tube that connects at the ends without becoming a torus.

Well, to be pedantic, it's a cylinder, just like the previous games. Except that now it's got some fancy polar ice caps on both top and bottom.

I'm quite interested to see how movement under the ice caps works (apparently, submarines can move underneath them). Need to get a game going that will last until submarines...