Food

[woodelf]

The single most important aspect of this mod is food. I think originally too much is generated early on and expansion is too fast. (This was because of the He-3 for food concept which should be scrapped IMO). What should be done about it now?

Options, not every possible one:

1 - food from buildings like the mushroom farm, but not too many early food generating buildings after that one
2 - The hothouse improvement. I like this one, but we need it to be less producing at first or it should require upkeep via the cottage improvement maybe?
3 - Specialists. We didn't use them well before. What can we do with them now?

Thoughts?

 

[MayNilad Man]

Make the farms use the cottage system to simulate the systematic growth of the bio-domes. However, further expansion to the next tiers cannot happen until certain techs are discovered and only then will the counter start.

 

[woodelf]

Would they expand graphically as well?

 

[GeoModder]

An agronomist specialist could be used to let base facilities which have the potential to give food produce food. But only when this agronomist is active so to speak.

 

[woodelf]

My biggest concern is too much food at first. We were planning on immigration until the Isolation event, but who knows now.

 

[GeoModder]

Well, simply remove all, but I mean ALL food yield from a basic tile.
Perhaps even from the citytile.

Didn't Belizan include an Isolation "event" (no tech, but a real event) somewhere in the last updates?

 

[woodelf]

I still can't "read" python.

Didn't we try to remove all food and failed? Of course this was a year ago and maybe someone has done that by now.

 

[GeoModder]

Nah, the coders didn't want to go for the idea at the time. AFAIK food can easily be removed from tiles. Look at what we're planning on the SMAC mod.

"reading" python is easy enough, understanding tho...
(I do seem to remember Belizan was testing a python event for Isolation? Or was that only to gift stuff to the factions prior to Isolation?)

 

[woodelf]

I'd like zero food for all tiles myself. Let's go that route.

 

[joelwest]

I'd like zero food for all tiles myself. Let's go that route.

this ties in with the starting Disaster World concept currently on the table as the new starting era for the game.

however this obviously would be a MAJOR game change in that the current mod revolves soley around food and the relative plenty thereof if the corrects techs are researched after the Isolation Event.

I would vote we table discussion of food availability until at least the new era framework has been agreed upon.

 

[woodelf]

The current mod revolves around food because we're trading He-3 for food with Earth until Isolation. Once you build Glasshouses you can force the tiles to produce food, but by themselves the tiles should be barren. I don't think this will effect the current mod too much, but it's debatable for sure.

 

[joelwest]

The current mod revolves around food because we're trading He-3 for food with Earth until Isolation. Once you build Glasshouses you can force the tiles to produce food, but by themselves the tiles should be barren. I don't think this will effect the current mod too much, but it's debatable for sure.

the AI civs are in love with glasshouses, and for your own the civ the game continues to suggest you build them with blue circles.

however I only build one or at most two of them to jumpstart the food production in a new city, but one of my finished cities has ZERO glasshouses in it.

Spoiler :

rather almost every single tile is worked by the engineering specialist provided by the Genetic Screening emergency civic - which does not currently have a penalty from continuing to use it, even from turn one. the Genetic Screening civic is available from the start and gives an unlimited engineer specialists, each of which contribute two hammers to the cause.

the only exception is that I do build a few custom outhouses to generate cash once that tech becomes available.

the solar outpost is a tech in the tech tree, but they cannot currently be built even after researching the prerequisite tech to building them.

the key to city improvement in this mod is getting the correct technologies in order to literally create food out of thin air.

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once all the food techs have been discovered and you are fortunate enough to also get the "Fungus Amongus" Wonder giving you another two free food, you can start a new city on a 21 grid of BARE ROCK (absolutely zero resources in any of the tiles) and still get the total food up to 20 - meaning a city of size ten.

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I originally went hog wild with glasshouses, but soon came to realize that custom outposts are a better long term improvement. (I had to systematically replace all the useless glasshouses in the mature cities of my empire.)

one glasshouse at most is usually enough to help keep a city growing as it builds its food improvements. a glasshouse is preferably built on a polar tile since it also produces a hammer to aid in the effort to get the food production improvements built.

I found that only cities started on an island in a dust sea are so food poor that multiple Glasshouse are necessary.

in any case, once a city reaches or nears its pop limit Glasshouses serve no useful purpose and need to be replaced with customs outposts.

the only rationale to keep Glasshouses is that the game rewards your score based upon population in your cities. however I found it better myself to have smaller cities producing more income from customs houses. this enables more coin to be able to either found new cities or zip through the tech tree.

the only caveat with custom houses is that it is possible to build more than your food capacity can support in your 21 tile city grid. to avoid overbuilding custom houses, one strategy would be to only keep one ahead of the number you know you need.

it might also be strategic to keep one extra customs house on hand in case an invasion destroys one of the other ones.

BTW, the AI never figured any of this this out. Glasshouses still remained in its mature cities. most cities had few if any custom houses.

the game itself continually made blue circles indicating custom houses "should" be replaced.

 

[woodelf]

Geo - Can you tell me how to see the terrain to 0 /tile?

 

[GeoModder]

Not out of hand. Have to check the xml files for that.

 

[woodelf]

If you can figure it out I'd love to tinker with that for the next test version.

 

[GeoModder]

I'm on it. (I can still finish the BtS write-up tomorrow )

 

[woodelf]

I think you have time for the BtS part.

Anything else you want to work on for this version, just let me know.

 

[GeoModder]

I think I found it.

The CIV4TerrainInfos.xml file, under Assets/XML/Terrain

Btw, if you haven't changed this file during your session with Kael, I'm pretty confident I can change it and uplink it to you. (I don't have your python-fixed version)

 

[woodelf]

Upload away. I'll test it.

 

[GeoModder]

It's only one type of Maria Basalt that has +1 food. The rest of the basic food income is from resource types like water ice, nutrients and stuff.
Any reason to hold on different types of the same terrain?

Okay, I adapt the food some resources give too. Should be two files.