Fishing Boats

[Strategist83]

Are these a tad too expensive? Many other early buildings have had their costs sliced down, more than halved the case of the Granary. In fact, the Granary now costs only slightly more than a Fishing Boat. However, while the Granary yields impressive benefits (+2 food base AND extras from resources), the Boat provides, if memory serves correctly, a weak +1 food +1 commerce on Fish. Granted, this receives a nice boost to commerce with Harbors, but those aren't available until late medieval, after all.

The 'problem' I seem to run into in most games is that I simply never get the boats in the water for the above mentioned reason - there's too many other higher priority things to construct. That seems wrong - fishing boats are 'simple' and should be one of the first things a brand new city gets if fish are available.

What do you think of the Boats production costs?

 

[Optional]

I hadn't noticed yet the granary had come down. Checked the game, Fishing boat 50 , granary 60 .
I think the granary is a bit cheap now. Fishing Boat only gives +1 food initially, but is maintenance free. For hooking up a lux I would still get a Fishing Boat out as a priority, but for just a fish maybe not.

What is perhaps strange is that a Fishing Boat doesn't have any radius at all, gets fixed into place instead. That's not a Fishing Boat, that's a Fishing Net. For a Fishing Net I think 50 is a lot.
For a Fishing Boat I'm okay with 50 but in my opinion it would be better if the boat would have a radius of 1 tile.

 

[Becephalus]

I agree the boat price is a bit steep. Take it down to 40 hammers.

 

[Poomermon]

I think fishing boats are a bit too expensive too but you have to take into account that usually you can just buy fishing boats and next turn settle them on luxury. Then you can immediately sell the luxury making that fishing boat essentially free. Then again you now get less money from luxuries so maybe fishing boats cost could come down a bit.

 

[chazzycat]

The whole naval tile output thing has been slightly bugging me for a while and the patch didn't help. Fishing boats & seaports are both underpowered for their cost.

Currently we have:

lighthouse +2 food per fish, +1 per normal sea tile
fishing boat +1 food & +1 gold per fish
harbor +1 production per fish, faster naval producion, forms trade route
seaport +1 production per fish

I think I would prefer

Lighthouse: +1 food for all water tiles, +1 gold per resource
fishing boats: +2 food per resource
harbor: +1 production per resource, +1 gold per resource, forms trade route
seaport: +1 production (flat), +1 production per resource, faster production of naval units

The gist of it is that fishing boats should improve the food yield more than any buildings, and for the cost & time to research navigation, seaports should boost production more.

 

[civnoob13]

I think that everyone is understating the expense of work boats. Compare them to workers, which are 70 hammers. Workers are far, far, far superior as they can be used infinitely whilst work boats can only be used once - many times for a lower yield than the worker. When compared to workers, work boats should be about 30 hammers. I barely ever build work boats due to their expense and relative useless outcome, unless I really need the luxury resources.

 

[turtlefang]

I usually use fishing boats on every resource. While the initial cost 70 hammers for the worker vs. 50 hammers for fishing boat, you also have to pay maintenance for the worker every turn. And, as the game goes on, the fishing boats look better and better versus a worker for producing gold versus the hammers spent on production.

So the rule I follow is - build boats when you can or if you need to generate cash, and the later in the game, the more boats you should build.

For example, in 100 turns:

- Fishing boat will generate 100 food and 100 gold (over and above the base amount)
- Worker can improve about 15 tiles in 100 turns (this is an assumption)

While the output of those tiles will vary, let's assume that each tile improved will generate, on average:

- 1/2 Gold
- 1 Food
- 1/2 hammer

In 100 turns, this means the worker will generate the following:

- 371.5 Gold LESS 100 in maintenance in early game netting 271.5 -- midgame, at 2 Gold per turn maintenance, worker will generate 171.5 net -- late game, worker will generate a MINUS 228.8 gold
- 743 food
- 371.5 hammers

So, again, if you want to generate cash, the fishing boats actually represent a good investment starting somewhere in the mid game when the unit maintenance starts going up. Prior to that, build fishing boats if you don't need to build a worker.

 

[KaiserKevin]

I thought it would be a good idea for an embarked worker to become a work boat, that would allow you to place it once he has connected roads, or if you captured too many enemy workers etc. Don't know if this would solve the original problem but wish they had a mod maybe to do it. Would also potentially eliminate an unneeded unit.

 

[civnoob13]

I thought it would be a good idea for an embarked worker to become a work boat, that would allow you to place it once he has connected roads, or if you captured too many enemy workers etc. Don't know if this would solve the original problem but wish they had a mod maybe to do it. Would also potentially eliminate an unneeded unit.

I really like that idea. Maybe not get rid of the ability to build fishing boats but other than that, great idea.