Before we get carried away with the era 2 tech tree, let's get into what's up with the mechanics in a post-Flintlock world. CXE has enabled some things I've long desired, but it takes a little discipline to put gameplay first and not go overboard with adding resources and mechanics. The early game is going to revolve around the classic civ dilemma of expansion vs development, and the choice between settlers and workers, unit, buildings, and wonders. Citizen food cost is three. Grassland gives two food plus one with irrigation, while plains gives one food and two more with irrigation, with no shields. Hills and forest both give 1 food and 1 shield. Irrigation is available from the sea right at the beginning, and is still limited to plains and grassland. The mine graphic is replaced by the town graphic (maybe called municipality so the M command makes sense), and can be built on plains, grass, hills, and forest. Coast and sea also have reduced food yields, so you can't just indefinitely grow by exploiting coastal towns. Mountains, jungle, and swamps cannot be improved, but can host bonus resources.
The process is designed to slow the rate of growth, lower shield thresholds, and increase the importance of resources and improvements. Slower growth combined with higher costs for settlers and workers means you are going to have to balance growth with expansion. The relative cost of units and buildings are lower at the start, making them attractive alternatives. Grain and livestock are crucial early strategic resources. They allow the construction of granaries and slaughterhouses, respectively, which generate foodstuffs and produce. These provide food, and will be a necessary staple to get those additional food items to expand city population. "Food" as it is in normal Civ 3, is called Growth, with appropriate graphics changes. This is because improvements like aqueducts and hospitals also provide Growth, as this becomes something of a combination between classic civ Food and Civ 4 Health. Fish might also be added to this also. Each of these improvements will have other benefits, and perhaps light perfume, to ensure the AI greatly values them also. Securing your food supply will be essential to increasing city size!
Similarly, shields will now also be produced by improvements. I wanted to get away from the old Civ model where production comes from miners groaning as they haul rocks out of the earth. Production comes from towns and cities, and so it shall be in Worldwide. The clown is renamed as the Craftsman, and now produces 2 happy faces and 1 shield, as these craftsman produce the necessities of city life such as furniture, clothing, and daily essentials. This will also assist dingbat with his luxury slider issues. The merchant and scholar also get additional bonuses. I haven't decided on the civil servant and engineer yet, since the AI can't use them, and that's a problem to tackle when I hit era 3. The shield percentage bonus will be generated by buildings that assist productivity, such as watermills (require river), windmills (no river like an aqueduct), sawmills (requires timber), and foundries (generates cannon and allows building of cannon units). These go obsolete later in the industrial age, as factories, power plants, and steel mills take your production way up so you can afford the staggering costs of industrialization. By reducing shields and costs in the first era, we set the stage for a longer gradient to the late game. Tanks, aircraft, and artillery will require heavy industry buildings, costing hundreds of shields, while the units themselves will be hundreds more. When we get into units, we'll look at how tech advantages are real, but the cost for high tech military hardware (which now include serious gold-per-turn sustainment thanks to Flintlock) will be a major economic investment.
Improvements that add the tax, luxury, and science bonuses will look familiar, although there will be some tweaking here. This isn't fully worked out yet, but the marketplace for example increases tax because more goods are being sold and taxed. Later in medieval times, the Town Hall gives the tax percentage bonus, as this is the bureaucracy expanding to be more efficient in the collection of taxes. And so on. All of these effects will be detailed in the civilopedia.
City specialization replaces the old attribute system, although there are similarities. Each specialization adds a +25%, +50%, or +75% shield bonus in increments, in order to help allow our little ai buddy since the computer is programmed to treat these as power plants. There will be basic specializations like the Guild (tax) or monastery (science) available anywhere, and then further specializations based on resources in the city radius, religious or cultural groups, or civ-specific. The Silk Farm, for example, is available to East Asian civs and generates a silk luxury for each one built, although they are pricey. Similar specializations will allow access to luxuries early or even not available to other civs. In era 2, the plantation system becomes available. There is a colonial resource (currently tropics, that may change) that only spawns in jungle. But roads can't be built on jungle, and workers and settlers can't cross. So, with the Mercantilism tech you can build the Foreign Ministry small wonder in your capital, which adds tropics to your trade net. Then with the Colonization tech, you can make a plantation specialization in any city with tropics in the city radius. This can then be upgraded to tobacco, tea, coffee, or sugar plantations, and later cotton and rubber. Keep them for yourself, or make extras to trade with your friends. Playtesting has shown that this is working pretty well without too many luxuries in the market. In era 3, electronics and automotives are luxury resources produced by buildings which are also required for complex modern units.
I've been playing civ for 30-odd years and I've always been a builder first. I find the war and conquest tiresome; much better to grow and cultivate a city and try to maximize the bonuses and potential. With CXE this is finally a reality, and I hope that players who try the game will enjoy these aspects as well. Or, if you prefer to blow everybody to hell, we'll talk about how you can do that when we discuss units.
Love this mod, the having to carry luxuries is my only big issue as of yet. But Just wanted to let you know that the Low Countries can't upgrade a trebuchet or make dutch cannons.
Thanks, Ba'al, I'm glad it's working out OK. I agree 100% on the luxury boxes and they have gone away in the new version under development. As for the upgrade errors, best bet is to sell them off and rebuild, since the old version isn't being worked on anymore.
