My worst start ever

[futurehermit]

^^^one forumer posted a start like that where they were cutoff from the mainland by peaks. they had settled in place thinking they were ok, but found out they had settled 1 tile away from the coast. so they couldn't build workboats, galleys, etc. and they couldn't settle by land either. they were totally screwed

 

[Navarre]

Yeah, I remember that one, he couldn't settle another city because there was no tile more than 2 tiles away from his capital. The worst thing was that he knew before settling he was one tile away of the coast, but he decides to settle in place anyway instead of going coastal.

 

[Clam Spammer]

I'm surprised that the game could throw up a situation like this, even if it is avoidable by a human player. Seems like a big oversight in game design to me. No player (including AI) should ever be "totally screwed" like this.

 

[Lord Chambers]

I'm surprised that the game could throw up a situation like this, even if it is avoidable by a human player. Seems like a big oversight in game design to me. No player (including AI) should ever be "totally screwed" like this.

How many times have you rolled a start like this? The generator is quite good, all things considered, such as the Civ3, Civ2, Civillization.

The only time I ever find the AI being so screwed in such a manor are the AIs in ALC, like the recent Ragnar game or the current game.

 

[Clam Spammer]

This reminds me of a screenie I saw in another thread where the player's starting settler was boxed in by mountains and couldn't move. IMHO it's not about how often it happens, it is the mere fact that it's possible that worries me. Sure, if it happens to you, you can just regenerate the map, or load up the 4000BC save and settle on the coast (in the first example). But if it happens to the AI, you won't know about it until later, possibly much later, and you effectively have one less rival than you should. And, of course, the AI doesn't know any better than to settle in place.

These problems could easily be solved btw:
- Allow passage through mountains (maybe only allow this after a worker has built a road through the mountains).
- Allow cities 1 or 2 tiles from the coast to build ships. Their BFC touches the coast, so why not?