I Want Caravan Back

[akillias]

Its was a lot more fun with caravans

 

[Cedrick]

Only in that you could stack a huge amount of them and rush build a WOW when it became available. Otherwise, it took forever to establish trade lines.
Kinda cheapened the WOW since it didn't feel like a major effort to build one.

 

[yoshi74]

Yes, now the trill to get a wonder and praying every round the lower the turn to completion are longer prayer...

And establish trade lanes was just a pain in the ass. I like the way its done now.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

Yea, Caravans sucked for trade, and were overpowered for wonders. I just had like 20 ready when the next wonder was avaiable. Got all the wonders that way.

 

[Hygro]

I actually liked the trade lines from caravans, but not the wonders. Personally, I wish there could be a mix between civ2 and civ3's system.

 

[Chieftess]

I remember that exploit. It got to the point where I could have every wonder. (I can still hear the sound effect in my head, I did it so much...)

 

[Trade-peror]

I agree with Hygro--the increase of trade between cities offered by caravan trade routes was quite nice. I would rather not have to move so many units around, though, and the wonder rushing does seem like an exploit, especially since some of the Civ2 wonders were quite powerful (such as Leonardo's Workshop). Therefore some kind of mix between Civ3's "free flow" and the manual moving of Civ2 would fit well into the game.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I hated Caravans/Freight.

 

[Redvane the Fox]

What would be nice IMHO is a caravan-type thing but which moves food about; it would be very handy to grow cities established in marginal land (deserts, jungle, etc) by diverting excess food from "grain basket" cities.

Perhaps such an ability could only come after railroads and maybe a "refrigeration" science advance?

 

[kokoras]

A rather good system for traiding with caravans had Call To Power.You sould built a number of these in order to trade a good,example:need 5 caravans to trade x with Persians.Still these weren't units that had a movement on their one.
Anyway i like the current system of traiding in CIV3,however as Hygro said a mix of these systems would be nice.

 

[Sukenis]

I miss the supply crawlers from SMAC. I loved not having to worry about spacing cities perfectly apart. It was much easier when "open space" could still be used by a city.

 

[Pook]

I prefer the current system to Civ II method because:

1) It took so long for the caravans to travel overseas. Marco Polo's journey only took three years. Columbus' first voyage took a few months, and trans-Atlantic trade routes were in place within a few years. However, my Civ II caravans wouldn't arrive until hundreds of years after I made contact with a civilization. To me, this isn't as realistic as saying "We've made contact with a new civilization. Merchants, have at it."

2) Q "Just what are those 8 caravans of flea-bitten camels doing outside the city?"
A "Some guy named Leonardo has an idea for a workshop. When our scientists discover Invention, we're going to bring all the loot into the city and build it."

The current system of not allowing wonders to be rushed (except by leaders) makes them truly Wonders of the World ("I wonder if it'll ever get finished", etc.) The old system made them too cheap.

However, I do like the idea of sending food from one city to another. Perhaps that could be a Civ IV feature.

 

[bru]

I liked some of the features of caravans and would like to see them in C3C. The ability to build wonders was too powerful as stated above and would have to be altered or eliminated IMHO.

 

[Endureth]

Perhaps drawing trade routes on the map from city to city. Once route is chosen a caravan travels from city to city one time to establish route. After that there is no need to send caravans. The route is opened.

The route is only shown to players involved but if an enemy troop stands on the route they will be notified which trade routes pass through that square. They may then choose an option to disrupt one or all. Effectively negating the entire route auntil the caravan makes the trip again to establish the route.

Could use some refining but you get the general idea.

-E

 

[Naokaukodem]

I didn't like caravans either, at first. Looked useless and annoying, kind of "sheeesh bahh"! But when i discovered what amount of gold it could pay, i began to be very interested to it. But strangely, i don't remember to have use it that massively, when i didn't play that often since i beat Divinity by far and rushed the sky at the score... Anyway caravan trade was quite hard to set: it needed a long peace, and it was many efforts (production, prospecting, escorting, ingeneering, treaties, etc...) what were not always rewarded. In civ3 trades are broken when they have to and this is the rule... war goes ahead of trade. I for now expect a reputation hit when i betray one major trade like 120 gold per turn against one knowledge and then declare war (in the same turn of course, talk about such a straight rapt) but i usually don't pay attention to more common luxury trades or exchanges when it comes to declare war, neither do the AI, and it seems to be quite good like that.