bad_leprechaun
Chieftain
I had this idea yesterday and I'm gonna suggest it to Firaxis for their next patch (though that might be quite a while away now....) I'm posting it here first to see what you guys think and in case you have any suggestions to add to or modify the concept to make it even better. Here goes:
This would be a new Worker Action called "build canal." It would understandably be a pretty long task, but it would allow ships to pass through land squares. Land units could also pass because of bridges or whatnot. At first I thought it should only be allowed on squares bordered by water on two sides, but then I thought why not allow workers to make longer canals where they'll have to "build canal" on 4 squares, for example? Do you think it should be restricted to 1 square long canals or allowed to be longer? Why not just build a city there instead of a canal, you might ask? I've done that before to get ships through quickly rather than going around the whole continent. Here's why:
1. This way you don't have to bother managing a city there if it's crappy land or whatever.
2. (Main Reason) This could more accurately recreate some real-world situations and increase the power of alliances. With a city, you're the only one allowed to pass through. With a canal, you could negotiate agreements with other civs to allow them to pass through your canal. This could either be included in regular Right of Passage or maybe even a whole new type of separate agreement. This way you could have stuff like Suez Canal and Panama Canal situations that happened in real life.
The canal would be made so that you can fortify units there to protect it, but enemy civs can capture it.
There's only one problem I see: If allied ships are allowed to pass through, how exactly does it work when you've already got units in that square, or some of your ships? How can they get through?
Finally, what tech do you think would be needed for canal-building? I'd say atleast engineering since they have to build bridges and also plan out this whole digging operation.
This would be a new Worker Action called "build canal." It would understandably be a pretty long task, but it would allow ships to pass through land squares. Land units could also pass because of bridges or whatnot. At first I thought it should only be allowed on squares bordered by water on two sides, but then I thought why not allow workers to make longer canals where they'll have to "build canal" on 4 squares, for example? Do you think it should be restricted to 1 square long canals or allowed to be longer? Why not just build a city there instead of a canal, you might ask? I've done that before to get ships through quickly rather than going around the whole continent. Here's why:
1. This way you don't have to bother managing a city there if it's crappy land or whatever.
2. (Main Reason) This could more accurately recreate some real-world situations and increase the power of alliances. With a city, you're the only one allowed to pass through. With a canal, you could negotiate agreements with other civs to allow them to pass through your canal. This could either be included in regular Right of Passage or maybe even a whole new type of separate agreement. This way you could have stuff like Suez Canal and Panama Canal situations that happened in real life.
The canal would be made so that you can fortify units there to protect it, but enemy civs can capture it.
There's only one problem I see: If allied ships are allowed to pass through, how exactly does it work when you've already got units in that square, or some of your ships? How can they get through?
Finally, what tech do you think would be needed for canal-building? I'd say atleast engineering since they have to build bridges and also plan out this whole digging operation.
