New exploit ruling: Settler at pop 1

[Più Freddo]

Shall we rule it an exploit to abandon a city into a Settler at population 1?

Getting a Settler for a population cost of only one population point breaks the rule that the population cost for a Settler is two population points so that population growth is required between founding a city and building a Settler in it.

The fact that no population growth at all must be awaited before a new Settler is built in a city can be used to clear Jungle or Forest fast and for money by repeatedly settling and abandoning, always re-using the same Settler, as it were. If we allow it, this must become the preferred method of clearing Jungle.

 

[templar_x]

i hardly doubt the conclusion in the 3rd paragraphe, as it is totally neglecting the fact of the costs of that strategy. i had thought about that long ago. but early on you won´t have the money to do that, and later on you won´t have the jungle. i highly doubt that the opportunity costs would justify this strategy under any circumstances... and even if they did in a very rare occasion, I would rather call it knowledge of the game than an exploit.
t_x

 

[Lanzelot]

...can be used to clear Jungle or Forest fast and for money by repeatedly settling and abandoning, always re-using the same Settler, as it were. If we allow it, this must become the preferred method of clearing Jungle.

I had already thought about this years ago and had come to the conclusion that it is not worth it. 116 gold just to clear one tile of jungle? Come on, ridiculous. Even if it is a bunch of "important" tiles right in your core, you will not have the necessary amount of cash anyway to do it on a larger scale early in the game, when it would really matter. I think using this mechanism will hurt more than it will help. I much prefer to have a band of 6-8 workers, who do it in 3-4 turns (and can already improve the tile too, while they are on it) for the cost of 24x2 = 48 gold. (If I'm already over the max number of units. Otherwise they do it for free...)

My opinion is: don't make a rule for something as unimportant as this. First of all, it's not even an exploit and secondly, the opportunities for using it are so seldom, that even I can't remember when I last had the chance to use it.
And consider: in order to abandon a town, you need to set food to 0fpt, otherwise you can't do it. So you are forced to waste food, which otherwise you might even be able to grow the town to 2 before the settler completes! This extra pop point is just a fair "payback" for the food that the game forces you to waste...

Edit: I answered Più's post before reading templar's... Looks like we again agree completely on strategy matters -- like always...

 

[AlanH]

Exploits worth banning - and therefore policing and informing new players about and so on - should only be those that produce major material gain relative to their cost. I don't see that as being the case here.

And Civ3 GOTM has survived without this ban in place for well over a decade. I can't see much point in adding new limitations to the rules at this late stage in its lifecycle.

However, it's your game, not mine, so I'm not voting

 

[templar_x]

thinking about it for another second, it seems clear that no rules have to be changed but simply the pedia entry, into (like):
building a settler USUALLY costs 2 Pop Points, except when disbanding a town into a settler, which is possible form either size 1 or size 2 under the correct circumstances.

or sth like this. a misformulation in the pedia does not make an exploit.

t_x

 

[Più Freddo]

The result of the poll is a strong majority NOT to introduce a new rule concerning the possibility to create a Settler from only one citizen under certain circumstances.