Moai Statues.... what the hell?!

Manfred Belheim

Moaner Lisa
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
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I'm new to BTS so these are new to me. So building a bunch of stone heads on the coastlines somehow manages to allow you to extract production from the sea... well okay, I could just about accept that as one of Civ's little oddities if it was an ancient World Wonder (which I thought it was when I built it), but to make it a NATIONAL wonder?!

This is a rather odd choice, seeing as in the real world they are a unique ancient wonder, like the Pyramids or Stonehenge or the Great Wall. So to see every nation with their own bunch of stone heads dotted all over the world is odd enough as it is. But coupled with the bizarre effect they have anyway, it just stretches credulity a little for for me. You can somehow accept the somewhat mystical effect they have if they were built in the ancient world (their presence inspiring the population or something), but as a national wonder you'll have people in no rush to build them and making them any time. In the game I'm playing at the moment I had my coastal city invaded, and now I find I'm rebuilding a load of stone heads in the 1930s in order to boost the productivity of my naval shipyard!

I'd probably really love them if they were a world wonder, but as a national wonder they just feel totally wrong.
 
Hey, it's just a game ;)

I thought double production from chopping would be good since that's the effect they had (no trees on Easter Island anymore).
 
They're often avoided anyway, they kind of suck without stone or IND.

They're also not alone in having ridiculous effects. They're not even close to the most ridiculous effect in the game.
 
Stonehenge - a stack of rocks makes every city culturally relevant, no matter how far they are from that stack?
Pyramids - I still can't figure out how having these allows someone to have US in 1500BCE.
Oracle - A crazy lady in a cave that teaches me Metal Casting in one turn...mmmkay.
Great Lighthouse - a single lighthouse (however great) allows extra trade routes in every coastal city? How?
And it's not just the ancient ones, either:
Kremlin - how this reduces costs is beyond me.
Three Gorges Dam (on large/huge maps) - Power 100 cities with a single dam. Not likely.
Cristo Redentor - Is it the big statue of Jesus that allows radical political shifts in Brazil, or is it that everyone is too busy watching girls on the beach?

And it's not the only national wonder that doesn't make sense:
National Park - Do areas around forest preserves really have more specially trained workers?
National Epic/Heroic Epic - Shouldn't these have an effect in every city with a library...you know, so people can read the epic?


There are probably as many that don't make sense in their effects as those that do, if you look closely. (this list was off the top of my head, as I haven't really thought about this since the time of civII)
 
I still haven't managed to figure out how mines help you build buildings, beyond providing the material.
 
The explanation for the extra hammer production in the ocean squares is as follows: Upon hearing of the "magical and religious properties" of the giant stone heads, the more rational and educated citizens of the city just get kind of pissed and endeavor to show that it's hard-ass work that brings results, not a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Through their motivation, extra-long hours, and passing up all vacation time, they really work the hell out of those ocean squares.

Whether it's the year 1000 or 1930 A.D, sometimes people just really feel they need to make a point.
 
What laughingvulcan said, sorta.

The way I think of it the Moai statues represent a tremendous productive effort. The island they reside on has nothing in the way of traditional productive means or resources. So all those extra :hammers: out in the water are just meant to represent the unseen human potential.
 
I still haven't managed to figure out how mines help you build buildings, beyond providing the material.

Um, well maybe if we can't work it out from a logical standpoint, a little research could tell us if there's a relationship between building materials and buildings. Check around and see if you can find evidence of building materials in your house or something.
 
I still haven't managed to figure out how mines help you build buildings, beyond providing the material.
All the buildings in Civ are actually made out of hammers. Quite literally. They all look like absurd Lincoln Log cabins.

There are two parts to a hammer, of course: the metal head, and the wooden handle. You see where I'm going with this? Obviously, it's often the case that you have too many heads and not enough handles, therefore chopping down a forest will quickly give you the handles you needed to complete whatever it was you were building.

Units, too: they are made of hammers. The view from the ground is as trippy as an old Pink Floyd video.
 
i always wondered myself who builds units and buildings if all the citizens are busy working the tiles. it's easy to understand how food and commerce may be accumulated to feed the population and finance economy and research. understanding how hammers contribute to production is difficult, the concept being much too abstract (shields in civ 3 was even worse). anyway, i got over the steep learning curve and learned how to play the game the day i stopped asking these questions.

on topic, i agree that moai statues should be a world wonder like the colossus.
 
Like TheWilltoAct said, I think its simply because such a small island put up stone monuments everywhere despite being so small and seemingly unproductive.
 
If they do make it a world wonder, I suggest that it applies to every water tile.
 
That seems a *little* ridiculous on Dutch Archipelago. Or any Archipelago.
 
Portuguese UB + Colossus :mischief:

(Usually though, the Colossus is obsolete by then.)

Oh wait, when would it go obsolete? Because if it obsoletes very early, you wont be able to use it with the Diké.
 
The collosus obsoltes on Astronomy. The Feitoria requires economics. So you could have both for a while, it is not that likely to be long though unless you avoid astronomy. (and I normally get astronomy before economics too).

Oh had not realised dikes could be built on costal cities. Man those are powerful on island maps.
 
Anyway, the wonders in cIV are there for a reason: to add flavour to the game. They are buildings which provide effects to your empire, buildings that you're supposed to plan into your strategies (ie: hmmm that's my future wallstreet city). IMO, it doesn't really matter if what they do doesn't exactly correspond to what they did in real-life, just that they add further depth to the game.
 
Well as I said, my main problem with them is that they are a national wonder rather than an ancient world wonder as would seem to make more sense. Granted, we have Scotland Yard and the Globe Theatre and Oxford University all as national wonders, when the real world only has one of them as well, but they basically represent a generic "great theatre" or "great university" which all civs could have.
 
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