Aussie_Lurker
Deity
When I read Rcoutme's complaint about the power of bombardment against cities-especially against high population cities-it got me to thinking that maybe the entire population system of civ 3 needs a reworking. Do other people agree with this and, if so, how would you go about improving it?
For my own part, I can see two ways that it could be done:
1. Retain the population point system, but have the food needed to generate a new 'pop head' roughly analogous to the number of people the head 'represents'. For instance, if you have 25 food boxes for a population 2 city, and if population 2=1000 people and population 3=5000 people, then each food box might represent 140 people. Under this system, bombardment and plagues won't eliminate an ENTIRE population head, but will instead reduce your food boxes accordingly. So, as an example, a cannon unit might destroy 2 food boxes if it hits the population, wheras a catapult might only destroy 1. This way, you get much finer gradations in population loss than is currently the case. Also, in this system, you could give certain units a 'food cost' to represent the cost in manpower to produce them. In addition, pop-rushing' would result in destroying 'food boxes' in order to generate shields for an important project. Again, in both of these cases, the gradations are a great deal smoother.
2. Sort of the same as 1. Still have population points, but each population head is comprised of X 'sub-heads'. For instance, pop head 1 might contain 5 'sub heads', wheras pop-head 2 might contain 10 'sub-heads', pop-head 3 might contain 20 and so on! Each 'sub head requires y food boxes to produce. In the city screen, these sub heads are invisible, but you can click on a head to see how many 'subs' it has. Like 1 above, this gives a much finer gradation in population, with the added advantage of being able to turn 'subheads' into specialists-giving much finer control over specialisation.
Whichever method is used, I definitely feel that there should be a difference between city SIZE and city population. A city's size increases as you achieve certain tech milestones, or when you build certain improvements/wonders. Your population keeps growing according to availability of food and water, in conjunction with your nations 'social agenda'. The point is that your population can outgrow your city size, leading to an increased chance of crime, unhappiness, disease and emigration. Wheras population number might go up and down over time, city size stays more steady (unless bomdardment leads to destruction of relevent infrastructure!)
Anyway, just some thoughts, but it would be great to hear what ideas other people have!
Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.
For my own part, I can see two ways that it could be done:
1. Retain the population point system, but have the food needed to generate a new 'pop head' roughly analogous to the number of people the head 'represents'. For instance, if you have 25 food boxes for a population 2 city, and if population 2=1000 people and population 3=5000 people, then each food box might represent 140 people. Under this system, bombardment and plagues won't eliminate an ENTIRE population head, but will instead reduce your food boxes accordingly. So, as an example, a cannon unit might destroy 2 food boxes if it hits the population, wheras a catapult might only destroy 1. This way, you get much finer gradations in population loss than is currently the case. Also, in this system, you could give certain units a 'food cost' to represent the cost in manpower to produce them. In addition, pop-rushing' would result in destroying 'food boxes' in order to generate shields for an important project. Again, in both of these cases, the gradations are a great deal smoother.
2. Sort of the same as 1. Still have population points, but each population head is comprised of X 'sub-heads'. For instance, pop head 1 might contain 5 'sub heads', wheras pop-head 2 might contain 10 'sub-heads', pop-head 3 might contain 20 and so on! Each 'sub head requires y food boxes to produce. In the city screen, these sub heads are invisible, but you can click on a head to see how many 'subs' it has. Like 1 above, this gives a much finer gradation in population, with the added advantage of being able to turn 'subheads' into specialists-giving much finer control over specialisation.
Whichever method is used, I definitely feel that there should be a difference between city SIZE and city population. A city's size increases as you achieve certain tech milestones, or when you build certain improvements/wonders. Your population keeps growing according to availability of food and water, in conjunction with your nations 'social agenda'. The point is that your population can outgrow your city size, leading to an increased chance of crime, unhappiness, disease and emigration. Wheras population number might go up and down over time, city size stays more steady (unless bomdardment leads to destruction of relevent infrastructure!)
Anyway, just some thoughts, but it would be great to hear what ideas other people have!
Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.
