Food from trade routes

[sputnik323]

apparently giving extra resources extra hammers and food for each city is difficult to code because I suggested something like this eariler and everyone mentioned the only way to easily do this is to make corporations: which is done in the orbi mod.
Probalby the easiest way to do this would be a food slider... any extra food can be sent to the slider - you can turn down the slider to export food for money, and turn it up for national growth. any more then this could result in a lot of micromanagement.
conquest negates the slider since it turns food into unit produciton.

 

[nealhunt]

Food from trade routes would require major remodeling of balance, imho. A Trade economy is already a valid strategy (or at least a major component). Food is a lot more valuable than commerce so if you add food you get a very large boost for trade routes.

That said, it sounds like the Corporations from vanilla would be pretty close to what you're discussing. Some sort of "food guild" corporation that would convert X resources (reagents, ice mana, whatever) into food supplies in the cities.

 

[Nor'easter]

Well, in the BtS Final Frontier scenario one of the factions gets +1 food from trade routes. That was probably relatively easy to code, though, since it's hard-coded for one faction and doesn't have any tech or resource or civics requirements.

This could all end up being more trouble than it's worth. We'll probably have to wait until Civ 5 for cities to be able to consume food that they don't grow themselves.

 

[JFred]

Just as the +1 from those hypothetical Great Merchants, I think that the implementation of the food thingy into the trade thingy shall be very scarce, for flavor's and balance's sake. But nevertheless seems to be a nice idea !

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

FF has a Mazatl-specific civic that makes trade routes yield food and hammers. so, it definitely CAN be done

 

[sputnik323]

I forgot about that... good memory gekko! maybe it should be extended to Malakim>?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

well it would be pretty good and help them sustain desert cities... but I think they should get a general bonus for trade route yield, and that gaining food from trade routes should be an option available to all civs ( I really like the "food slider" idea )

 

[Darksaber1]

Yeah, the Mazat have it, so a version of this can't be to hard to implement.
Also, having diffrent Mana affect things lie food output would be good, but sun mama wouldn't do anything, since Erebus dosn't have photosythesis.(I'm pretty sure)

 

[Tasunke]

The great Sun mama of the sky .... yes indeed.
nature and earth could help out cities on a hill, (or in hilly terrain) while nature and water could help cities in the desert.

In any case, I think the Malakim should be able to build regular improvements in desert/ burning sands. Like cottages, workshops, the rare watermill, the rare windmill, and hopefully could avoid removing scrub in the process.

Edit: OH CRAP!! I didnt mean to be a necromancer, I just linked to this and started commenting without looking at the dates :/

 

[WarKirby]

over in the FF thread about this subject, we've come up with a pretty easy way of implementing it using new FF command mechanics and no python.

 

[civ_king]

Air Mana should count too, replacing the oxygen in the Air with Nitrogen is how they make food stay fresh

 

[fish_sticks]

How many cities actually have a food problem?

Having trade routes or resources give food does not make a whole lot of sense because it will normally be moved from one location to another. Having spices does not make more food, it just preserves the food you have. Having X more food in one location means X less food in another.

I really only see a few ways that someone could use the concept:

1) Take the micromanagement hit and allow food to be moved from one city to another.

2) Having access to different bonuses increases the overflow of population growth (like granary or smokehouse). Or just makes those builds more effective.

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On a side note I am not certain how helpful this will be in the long run but one could implement a unit that, while living, costs the city it was built it one food, and in any city it can cast a spell to give one food.

 

[Pazyryk]

Just wanted to point out that the Orbis modmod implements Corporations (does FF do this?), which can provide food from surplus bonuses. I use this in my Elohim ModModMod so that really remote cities (say in the arctic) can have some growth.

(This is really just a plug for Orbis and my Orbis Elohim modmodmod...)