Thanks, good points about Agriculture over Hunting and all units being the "tribe". What about coastal cities ? Were they possible before Agriculture ?
I'd like one of the unit to have the ability to "store"/convert a small amount of resources and to have the attribute "population" that would represent the tribe size.
We can't have mechanisms that require movement coding for AI unit (unless someone manage to unlock it before the DLL source is available), so having a separate population/stock attribute for each unit then merge them back is not really possible. And if all units have those attributes, it would look like controlling multiple "tribes", wouldn't it ?
In my idea, the "tribe" unit has that role of central place, and the "scout" represent the gatherer/hunters parties looking for food in the near area, but still being a part of the "tribe" with a return to it at the end of each turn.
Maybe we could have a "settlement"/"Encampment"/pre-settler unit, and hunter/gatherer as one or two units. Two units (three with the "central" unit) with different characteristics may be better for gameplay but raise the problem of coding the ability to make a choice if we allow units creation before cities.
Or as you propose, the gatherer is the "central" unit, that makes a lot of sense.
About distance, a "soft" limit bring again the problem of AI controlled units, that's why I propose a mandatory return to the central unit (or x turn. I'd like to limit the zone in which the whole tribe could move during that phase, maybe by continent or a radius around the starting plot (by putting invisible mountains at the limit of the zone) to maintain "true" (or at least "regional") starting location on corresponding maps.
I'm unsure about the possibility to code units with a vision of their tiles only, but if it is I'm fine with testing it.
Another important discussion : what to do during that phase, how long, for which effects ?
Some thoughts :
- What to do ?
- finding a perfect spot for the first city
- collecting resources to "growth" or "spawn" new units
- progressing in early techs by our actions (finding/collecting resources, fighting, ...)
- fighting other ("barbarians" or player) nearby tribes to steal their food/resources/population
- how long ?
- a fixed number of turn ? 5 ? 10 ? more ? less ? then "Agriculture" is discovered and every player can settle a city
- until researching "Agriculture", which could take a different amount of turns depending on our actions
- which effects ?
- bigger population or more units when settling the first city
- advancement in researching some techs
- a specific civilization "trait" depending of the actions during the pre-agriculture phase
edit: about nomadic civilization even after agriculture, that's a possibility, but with separate units spawning rules that would make them AI only (unless coding a whole new UI for the human players, something I can't do by myself, too much work)