Dividing up unsettled territory

[Horus Kol]

perhaps each city could have an indicator to see the cultural make up of it, which could show when another civ's culture is starting to take hold - like how the three religions interact in Medieval:TW...

That way you can see if you are starting to lose hold, and then take preventative action.

 

[stormbind]

I don't like the idea behind this thread, but I would like something similar...

I think "Explorer units" should be able to claim land that is unsettled - just stick a flag in the ground and go away

This respects the history of many empires quite well. If the "Explorer unit" is in the Colonial-era then it would work effectively.

If civs ignore your claim then they risk war. The flag could rot away over 100 years, so if you don't settle there people can ignore your claim without war.

Different AI could be more aggressive in use of Explorers than other AI, which would increase respect for history.

 

[Ramalhão]

Several good points here. I agree with Aussie_Lurker's idea 1 and 2. As Horus Kol wrote, forts must cost something to avoid abuse. Maybe requiring a resource as stone, a technology (masonry or construction) and several turns to finish. Also, colonies aren't useful because they don't create any border. Anyone can send a settler near and get that resource. Maybe colonies could create a small border (1 square) after 10 turns and become cities after 20 turns. What do you think?

I don't think that claiming territories would work. It can work well with human players, but it's hard to make AIs use it well. Several civs will claim the same amount of land, even in "undiscovered" areas. So, there will be a lot of war quickly and most civs will stay weak.

All previews about Civ4 are saying that AI will respect your borders and won't pass it until a RoP or something like it. So, if you have a lot of land and an AI is in a restricted area, without any place to go, it will possibly do 2 things: research a technology to get ships quickly or create a huge amount of units, preparing for war to get a "passage".

 

[Broom_89]

Internationally, Rivers and other geographcal features are often Borders Between countries. Eg. Rio Grande between mexico and america and the pyrenees between france and spain, perhaps borders should be based more around geography than just "painting" your borders anywhere.