Do we have canals as Civ4 mods yet?

[egaonogenki]

Canals were pivotal in history, so it's nonsense to have a civ history game without one. Do we have canal mods yet?

I don't care if canals cost 1,000 gold per tile (as they were also expensive IRL), but it would help. Considerably help.

(Oh, and if you're thinking of limiting them to something like 3 tiles in length, please don't, since that's also non-realistic. The Erie Canal spanned between Lake Erie and the Atlantic Ocean and was 363 miles (584 km) long. Also, have you ever heard of the "Grand Canal" in China? It's over 1,000 miles (1609 km) long! In real life, we made canals as long as we liked just so long as we had the money for them.)

 

[TAfirehawk]

Genetic Era Team has developed Sea Tunnels....those may work or at least give you a good start to adapting to your specific need.

 

[egaonogenki]

Will Sea Tunnels allow ships to pass through land like canals otherwise would?

If not, we have a canal mod by now, do we?

 

[ArneHD]

I think that canals in CIV IV is represented by cities.

 

[egaonogenki]

But when I make cities, I make them in a pattern, evenly spaced between a set number of tiles.

Besides, there really isn't a city in the Panama Canal; it's pretty rural all the way through. If rural canals are possible in RL, so should they be in Civ4.

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

Fall from Heaven II has a "pirate grove" improvement that basically functions like a canal.

 

[Davidicus]

I think that canals in CIV IV is represented by cities.

I understand where the OP is coming from. The city as a canal works fine for an Isthmus like Panama or even the Suez canal. But technologically speaking, it would be possible to build canals much longer than a city radius.

This could be a revenue creator for a civilization as well, everytime a vessel from another civ passes through the canal owner's canal, the canal owner earns a certain amount of money.

 

[Yakk]

So, an idea:

You sacrafice a worker to build a "canal project" in a square. Canals cannot be build on a hill, and remove forest/jungle.

The "canal project" improvement is a zilch improvement. To finish the canal, the city has to work the square.

After X turns of being worked, the canal is complete. The improvement becomes +2 trade, -50% defence, and allows naval vessels to enter it.

 

[Davidicus]

So, an idea:

You sacrafice a worker to build a "canal project" in a square. Canals cannot be build on a hill, and remove forest/jungle.

The "canal project" improvement is a zilch improvement. To finish the canal, the city has to work the square.

After X turns of being worked, the canal is complete. The improvement becomes +2 trade, -50% defence, and allows naval vessels to enter it.

sounds like a good idea to me

 

[LunarMongoose]

You guys really need to keep in mind that, as with all changes or additions that affect gameplay mechanics, you'll have to teach the AI how to use them intelligently (or stick to MP games with all human players) or it invariably gives the humans an unfair advantage.

In this case it seems to me like the teaching would be especially difficult... You could code a simple "size/significance of two bodies of water scaled by their un-canaled distance versus yields lost by not putting farms/workshops/towns/etc in the proposed canal location", but then you'd want to add logic that factors in "can I keep the canal entirely in my own borders, or else do I trust the player I'd be sharing it with to not pillage his section of it on me", and finally the most important and difficult part, "okay so I can link two large distant bodies of water with a short canal, but how much does that actually benefit me, and how much might it potentially benefit me in the future?"

Has FfH2 tackled this sort of thing at all with its pirate groves do you know? Just curious.