Game Mechanic: Building Promximity

[DarkSchneider]

Another game mechanic I thought would be realistic and easy to code in would be building to proximity. I got to thinking, when I was building a power plant in every city, why can't cities close by use the power as well. This got me to thinking that every building should provide some reduced benefit to nearby cities provided they haven't already built that building. For example, if a town does not have a forge, they could still ship raw materials to another city for forging, thus giving the city a small percentage boost in productivity.

 

[Tennyson]

Well, for power, that's the whole point of Three Gorges Dam. I don't see how a blacksmith's forge travels that far, though.

Personally, I would simply like to see a return of disbanding units for hammers or using settlers as pilgrims.

 

[DarkSchneider]

Maybe Forges, was a bad example, but I was thinking about it for all buildings to some extent. Why couldn't people travel to another town to use their bank, or library... that sort of thing. The benefit would be related to the benefit of the building and a factor based on the distance away from the target city. So a far off library might still provide +10% research to a far away town until that town was able to build their own library.

 

[Hunter Noventa]

Well, for power, that's the whole point of Three Gorges Dam. I don't see how a blacksmith's forge travels that far, though.

Personally, I would simply like to see a return of disbanding units for hammers or using settlers as pilgrims.

As nice as that might be, it's open to abuse by the player. You're a couple techs away from a really awesome wonder, and you start stacking up as many units as you can in the city you plan to build it in with the intention of disbanding them. You get the tech and BAM! you're halfway through the wonder in a turn. it would turn every unit into a very very very very tiny GE.

What might be better is something like what they had in SMAC, the supply convoy. In SMAC the supply convoy could work a square anywhere like a citizen could and return the benefits to it's home city. If that could be modded it would be awesome.

Also of use might be if the supply convoy was the only unit that could be disbanded for hammers. One city builds it up and sends it to another city where it disbands. You don't get the full hammer amount but it would be a good boost.