Arrr
the calm atmosphere of rationality has descended ... which will now allow us to discuss generic rules for a great expansion to game play ...
And now back to the game where our various teams vie against the others in the spirit of fair gameplay ... and also the thrill of annihilating all trace of the rivals from the face of
Meleet's World ...
>>>>>>>>>>>
Renaming ...
I don't see how swapping an inventory of cities with the first diplomatic meeting will work ... it is giving away too much info to another team ...
As far as I am aware there is no way bar map swapping for a rival to know exactly how many cities another team has built ... one can estimate on the available intelegence but you cannot be absolutely sure ... so I'm against automatic swapping ...
I think that this discussion requires a list of the ways of seeing a city ... this will enable all methods to be addressed ... even if some are dismissed ...
Without Contact
F-11 the Top 5 Cities ... which change positions and can jump on and off the list ... gives you the name of a city in a civilization and also provides population intel, but not the physical location.
Sneak and Peak ... which allows the name and physical location of the city to be viewed by a unit with movement greater than 1 which jumps in and out of the rival's view area ... and therefore it is possible for the rival not to be aware that this information has been observed.
Goody Hut Map ... it is possible for a city to be viewed and named when a map is given by a friendly tribe ... again the other team has no knowledge that this information has been obtained.
With Contact
F-6 Wonder Building ... lists a city that is building the wonder, requires contact, but not necessarily a knowledge of the physical location nor the name of the city
Build Embassy ... give the location of the Capital, requires contact with the other team (and if renaming is allowed, then no prior knowledge of the name is necessarily available)
Espionage Screen ... requires an embassy to have been built and will allow Map stealing which will give you all civilization's city names and locations.
Wandering Tourist ... where a unit physically views a city's location and hence name ... this will lead to contact.
So in order to ensure that all the above are covered either have no renaming or a convention which is followed until everyone has met which could be as we suggest
NEW NAME (OLD NAME) ...
Also I would say that swapping names or rebirthing an old name can lead to confusion and therefore should not be allowed ...
The reason I originally brought this up was the clause about renaming in order to decieve during trade ...
Team A may have viewed or monitored city X possibly without the knowledge of Team B and are eager to have it ... and then trade for it and discover that they get another city ... however I think it has gone beyond that now ...
I want the ability to rename captured cities