I don't like the current implementation. I'm not talking about the ingame setup, but rather the actual code. It's hardcoded and really restrictive to expansion. This mean long term plans should touch this part, but I don't think it's urgent.
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For the gameplay, I'm not feeling that I get the full potential from this feature. I get the impression that the best strategy is to build monasteries more or less exclusively. This will allow lots of research and you get ahead of everybody else.
I Agree with you on both accounts.
If we are to make cities to be less clones of each other, we can add more requirements to building xml. For a start, right now we have building requirements to build the next building in a chain. If we add a NOT require building list, we can make the player pick between multiple buildings and decide the type of city that way. Adding other requirements like terrain or river would also add to uniqueness and adds to planning of city placement.
I am having similar thoughts. Also, all Col players are familiar with the setup of building your city infrastructure from within the city and also using improvements outside the city. So we should stick with those concepts for now (plus there is the pedia pages for buildings and improvements which makes learning their abilities easy). The center building can determine which direction the player wants to take, with the center building having branches the player can choose from. Doing a little research I've come up with this...
Village Hall: all your settlements start with a village hall with upgrades from there.
But at some point they can choose between three final center administrative building types. Perhaps...
Guild Hall- Allows you to focus on trade and commerce
Cathedral- Allows you to focus on Religion and Research
Citadel- Allows you to focus on military and defense
Each Administrative building can unlock its own unique buildings the player can build as well. Also, you may can simply build over a center building to change the city's focus, however this would cause issues with the mentioned unlocked buildings which perhaps would become unusable.
I looked up the difference between a Citadel and a Castle and there is quite a big difference. A Citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city and it means "little city", while Castles where mostly homes for nobility. Citadels where not always homes of nobility and could also be used for public defense, so it fits here quite nicely. A change like this would mostly be XML code work so I think it could fit into next release, however we do need a fully thought out Administrative tree players can work through.
I'm thinking more in line of the fishing boat from RaR. IM:C seems to be friendly towards allowing cities to be placed everywhere to gather everything. RaR on the other hand have a tendency to place good bonuses on snowy hills with no food supply or lumber. Automated transports do wonders for such mining colonies, but I have also encountered vast mountain ranges of peaks, with rendered access to silver impossible.
We should make something, which makes "mineral fishing boats" interesting. Perhaps something like a bad effect from having too many cities. Something like corruption if you expand too quickly or... there are plenty of options. Maybe add a city level to tell how well developed it is with buildings and add penalties if too many/too many % are of too low level. Something like law and order level.
I like the idea of Corruption and it is why I added the Law yield, however it needs a focused expansion of its own to be done right, so it will have to come later. The thing about bonuses in M:C or Col for that matter is that they don't add much, like a +1, so there isn't a need to hunt them down at the moment. In Civ4 there was a huge need as they unlocked new techs and allowed you make deals. So what could be the reason to acquire these bonuses, or build these improvements?
To start with there could be 2 or 3 unique improvements that players can toy with: Monasteries, Outposts, and perhaps Castles.
Outposts: well these could simply be the first tier of the Stronghold improvements. They allow your troops to rest, add defense, as well as perhaps train your troops and do auto patrols for Bandits and wild animals.
Monasteries: could be super farms adding to in city production, but require a Bonus to be present in order to be built. Perhaps only built by Monks, which consumes the Monk, like a missionary in native villages. There should be extra added bonuses as well. Perhaps there could be a chance for a random unit to spawn at a Monastery from time to time. The unit could be a Benedict Monk, or a (special) Wagon load of some good(s) produced at the monastery, perhaps a Bonus to research, or perhaps discover a new Tech altogether. They could also help strengthen relations with the local tribesmen, depending on how susceptible the locals are to religion.
Castles: Building on the idea that Castles where homes of nobility, a Castle could require a Nobleman in order to be built, which consumes the Noble. They would offer strategic defense bonuses for starters, with yield bonuses similar to Strongholds. Offer better auto hunts. Then perhaps offer a chance at a random unit as well such as a Page, Squire, Noble, or even some Clergy man as many times extra siblings where sent off to monasteries as not to cause trouble with the first born son. They could also help to expand your borders, faster than you could by founding a village and attempting to build up the infrastructure. They could also help with local relations, or help keep the peace at least.
That's some ideas to start with...
Turns out that that screen adjusts horribly to different resolutions, or possibly just to different aspect radios. While there are some bad looking we could live with, the missing button needs to be fixed. To be fair, it does look good in some resolutions (the aspect radio Kailric used while writing it?).
Yes, this is true. I've learned a bunch about aspect ratio of late so perhaps my new found knowledge can benefit in this area.
) solution.
