[GS] Firaxis Livestream: Hungary Nov 29 11AM PT, 2PM ET

[Turrdy]

Some question that we still have the chance to speculate upon - in a few hours we can't speculate anymore.

• Any guesses when canals will unlock?
• For which tech will the eureka be: build a canal?
• Will the achievement be to build a 7 tile canal? (we might not know that tonight)
• Will canal districts yield gold?
• Do they have any adjacency yield?
• Is there a movement penalty for moving onto/away from canal tiles?
• Do canals give adjacency to other districts?
• What's the bonus of the Panama Canal?
• Is it possible to conquer cities by canal?
• Era score for building canals?
• Faster movement along canals?
• Can canals be plundered? (can dams be plundered seems more interesting)
• Is it possible to build a canal on a hill tile?

Do canals need a "district slot" i.e. do they require 3 more population since the last district?

 

[SammyKhalifa]

If canals have no other benefit than letting ships cross, I don't think the AI will build a lot (nor will human players).

I'd hope they make some kind of trade benefit, as that's what most of them have been for in real life (most won't even fit a war ship sized vessel).

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

It's interesting they would pick Hungary to explain canals. Hungary doesn't really look like a naval power

Hungary do however have alot of horsepower

I don't really think it matters which civ they use to show Canals because it is not like it is a unique district.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Hungary do however have alot of horsepower

I don't really think it matters which civ they use to show Canals because it is not like it is a unique district.

Maybe there's just not that much to say about them . . .

 

[Siptah]

Do canals need a "district slot" i.e. do they require 3 more population since the last district?

It wouldn‘t make much sense if it were that way imho. You would turn cities into trash for canals if 2 districts slots go to a canal. Except if the yield is really, really good. I guess it‘s like neighborhoods and aquaeducts. I could imagine dams being full districts that take up a slot though.

Also - it might be possible to build buildings inside (=next to but on the same tile) canals. Looking forward to see if there‘s some more to this district after all.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Maybe there's just not that much to say about them . . .

I expected canals to be the equivalent of railroads. I'm very surprised to see that they take up the whole tile as a district.

I expect they'll be treated like neighbourhoods, i.e. not count against the city district limit.

I'll be disappointed if they do anything other than allow ships to travel on them. I mean, that's all real canals do. They should probably come with a maintenance cost, too, but I could see dropping that in light of the up front production costs. The Panama Canal Wonder would obviously provide benefits. But a normal canal? Providing any positives other than the shortened movement for ships is likely to seem cheesy.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I expected canals to be the equivalent of railroads. I'm very surprised to see that they take up the whole tile as a district.

I expect they'll be treated like neighbourhoods, i.e. not count against the city district limit.

I'll be disappointed if they do anything other than allow ships to travel on them. I mean, that's all real canals do. They should probably come with a maintenance cost, too, but I could see dropping that in light of the up front production costs. The Panama Canal Wonder would obviously provide benefits. But a normal canal? Providing any positives other than the shortened movement for ships is likely to seem cheesy.

They could probably generate Gold, since real canals are good for commerce.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I expected canals to be the equivalent of railroads. I'm very surprised to see that they take up the whole tile as a district.

I expect they'll be treated like neighbourhoods, i.e. not count against the city district limit.

I'll be disappointed if they do anything other than allow ships to travel on them. I mean, that's all real canals do. They should probably come with a maintenance cost, too, but I could see dropping that in light of the up front production costs. The Panama Canal Wonder would obviously provide benefits. But a normal canal? Providing any positives other than the shortened movement for ships is likely to seem cheesy.

Yeah, I don't know. Fore example my neck of the woods they provided a way to get goods from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River (before Rail took over those duties). Those ones were not on a scale as you'd see in something like the Panama Canal obviously and would not appear on a civ map (other than maybe as a "road"), but they were way more common. I can see them extending TR range for that city or something like that.

I always thought the broad demand for canals in civ was pretty overblown; and I'm hoping it'll be either a feature you won't actually use that much in real games, or provide something interesting.

 

[Josephias]

They could probably generate Gold, since real canals are good for commerce.

I’d rather have this making the CH getting the river adjacency bonus also if next to a Canal (maybe make it additive, yo can get +2 for river and +2 for canal if adjacent to both)

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

They could probably generate Gold, since real canals are good for commerce.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they get, but I'd prefer (a) that sea trade routes generate more gold/food/production, and (b) that canals allow you to connect cities by sea routes that would otherwise be stuck with land routes.

Fore example my neck of the woods they provided a way to get goods from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River (before Rail took over those duties). Those ones were not on a scale as you'd see in something like the Panama Canal obviously and would not appear on a civ map (other than maybe as a "road"), but they were way more common. I can see them extending TR range for that city or something like that.

Per the above, I think differentiating between land trade routes and sea trade routes would give you this impact.

Railroads could easily shift the balance back so that land trade routes become better.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I hope that there is some limit to how long a canal can be. I'd hate for the AI or the human player for that matter to be able to spam say a 15 tile long canal across their continent. I think a canal should have a limit of 4 tiles.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I hope that there is some limit to how long a canal can be. I'd hate for the AI or the human player for that matter to be able to spam say a 15 tile long canal across their continent. I think a canal should have a limit of 4 tiles.

Going only by Ed Beach's comment in the announcement livestream, it sounds like either (a) there's a limit of two canals per city, or (b) a canal can only be connected directly to a city core district.

Guess we'll find out in a few hours.

 

[Myomoto]

They need to give a benefit for foreign trade routes traveling through your cities by default. Then if you set up a canal that the other civs want to use to send their trade routes through the continent, you could make some money.

 

[_ViKinG_]

so 4 hour to the stream ?

 

[acluewithout]

I find it deeply hilarious we’re getting canals.

There’s no gameplay need. There’s no real historical need to include them. And they are going to be of no use in the game at all.

Canal cities are just a quirk of how the city placement rules work. That, and people just wanting to do stuff, like Petra Cities or whatever.

...and, even so, I really like that so many people asked for them and saint Ed and his team said “sod it, why not?” and went all in.

I hope they don’t give these big useless things any yields or silly things like that. It really would just ruin the whole joke.

 

[RohirrimElf]

I`ll have to play tennis tonight at 20:00 CET. I expect a full report from you guys of course when i get back

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

I'm also aboard the 'not sure what the fuss is about' train rather than the 'I must have canals' boat but I'm still intrigued!

 

[DWilson]

I'm hyped for canals. I want to find some lakes and good spacing of cities to cross a continent, then if possible load it with ranged boats as a defensive line.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I'm hyped for canals. I want to find some lakes and good spacing of cities to cross a continent, then if possible load it with ranged boats as a defensive line.

I'd imagine that a warship locking through a canal would actually be super vulnerable.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I'd imagine that a warship locking through a canal would actually be super vulnerable.

In reality, yes. In the context of the land/naval and melee/ranged dichotomies, they are probably safe.