Provinces/States (New Idea?)

[Infantry#14]

This idea replaces the concept of cities as the basis of the civilization empire. Instead of having each city that builds their own things, you can now have multiple cities in a province that can build different projects or work together to build one project. In order to have a province/state, cities must be overlapping each other in their fat crosses (maximum distance of 3 tiles away [vertical, horiztonal, diagonal and any combinations of them]). The benefit of having a province/state is:

- Can build projects together (much faster)
- Cities in same province can share food
- City specializations (manufactoring, farming, commerce cities)
- More efficient land usages
- The effects of buildings can be shared among cities in the same province (so you only need to build one in a province/state)
- +1 intra-province/state trade route for all cities inside the same province

Disadvantages:
-A new type of maintenance: Province/State maintenance (number of provinces and proximity to capital)
-More land is spreaded among cities (less available tiles for each city)
-Building wonder penalty (balance issue)

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Province can only be built if cities are connected by land tiles (maximum distance of 3 tiles away from each other), have a least one connecting land route among them, and the civ empire needs the prerequisite monarchy tech. Also, you can assign cities to whichever provinices you want that satisfy the 3 above conditions.

Note that cities dont have to be assign to any province/state, but joining one will give a lot of benefits.

Regarding warfare, the province/state system adds another element of strategy as one city in a province can be more important than another, and pillage trade routes can disconnect cities in a province/state.


Edit: If I do my math correctly, the maximum number of cities you can have in one province is 4 (square).

 

[Camikaze]

I agree with the idea of provinces and more administrative centres, but I think the advantages you have suggested, and how you have suggested provinces be composed, would just lead to cities being built really close together, which might just cause a more squashed map, affecting such things as culture and maintenance costs.

Perhaps provinces could be arbitrarily established by the player, to make what they deem to be the best and most advantageous combination of cities.

 

[Infantry#14]

I agree with the idea of provinces and more administrative centres, but I think the advantages you have suggested, and how you have suggested provinces be composed, would just lead to cities being built really close together, which might just cause a more squashed map, affecting such things as culture and maintenance costs.

Perhaps provinces could be arbitrarily established by the player, to make what they deem to be the best and most advantageous combination of cities.

the closes distance cities allow to build is at least 1 tile of separation. Therefore it would be to the player's advantage to build cities 2 tiles of separation that also satisfy the province conditions. This wont change much of city placement in normal game (except maybe spend more time on city planning, but that is trivial) as the player would slightly overlap their cities anyway. This idea just give a slight advantage to backfill any unused tiles inside your empire.

Regarding your question on culture, the cities do not share culture inside the same province. Cultural building only affects the city that builds it (but you can have cities in the same province work together to help a city to build a cultural building.)

As for maintenance, just slap on an additional "province" maintenance, the calculation is trivial as the computer calculates it for you.

 

[CivMyWay]

My thoughts for provinces are much simpler. Have cities as they are, and then you can build towns (perhaps built by expending a worker or something), which have a max radius of 1. You can therefore have a province made up of a city + multiple towns. Towns have no function other than to access land etc. There is no 'town screen' or anything like that - no buildings - nothing. It just widens the collection areas of a city. Perhaps towns can provide a defensive bonus on the tile, and can be destroyed by a (costly) [I've got a mental blank] "destroy" (in the same way you can do it to train tracks etc).

 

[Infantry#14]

this could be confused with the "town" improvement

 

[Onionsoilder]

I like your idea, but I think that cities in provinces should be like overseas cities - the more you have, the higher maintenance. So 3 provinces with 3 cities each would cost about the same as 1 province with 6 cities. This way people can't combine their entire empire into one-mega province. Maybe State Property would reduce province maintenance as well - actually let it compete with corporations.

 

[Camikaze]

the closes distance cities allow to build is at least 1 tile of separation. Therefore it would be to the player's advantage to build cities 2 tiles of separation that also satisfy the province conditions. This wont change much of city placement in normal game (except maybe spend more time on city planning, but that is trivial) as the player would slightly overlap their cities anyway. This idea just give a slight advantage to backfill any unused tiles inside your empire.

Regarding your question on culture, the cities do not share culture inside the same province. Cultural building only affects the city that builds it (but you can have cities in the same province work together to help a city to build a cultural building.)

What I was meaning more was the following. Culture, and the affect it has on borders, is probably done with the intention of them having some proportion to the distance between cities. So, when a city first expands, all of its BFC will be covered, with the idea that no other city should be within that BFC. If cities are put closer together, then the effect of culture will be greater, perhaps giving it a disproportionate effect on the game. Or something like that.

I like your idea, but I think that cities in provinces should be like overseas cities - the more you have, the higher maintenance. So 3 provinces with 3 cities each would cost about the same as 1 province with 6 cities. This way people can't combine their entire empire into one-mega province. Maybe State Property would reduce province maintenance as well - actually let it compete with corporations.

I would go for the opposite of this. The less provinces, or administrative divisions, you have, the less upkeep cost there is. This is due to the fact that there would be less government and bureaucracy to upkeep. I also think that larger and more prosperous provinces should provide greater benefits to the cities in that province than smaller and poorer, or less collectively productive provinces.

 

[Infantry#14]

I like your idea, but I think that cities in provinces should be like overseas cities - the more you have, the higher maintenance. So 3 provinces with 3 cities each would cost about the same as 1 province with 6 cities. This way people can't combine their entire empire into one-mega province. Maybe State Property would reduce province maintenance as well - actually let it compete with corporations.

I think the max # of cities (according to my proposal) is 4. So, you cant have 1 giant empire province, or else that defeats the purpose of having provinces.

 

[Infantry#14]

What I was meaning more was the following. Culture, and the affect it has on borders, is probably done with the intention of them having some proportion to the distance between cities. So, when a city first expands, all of its BFC will be covered, with the idea that no other city should be within that BFC. If cities are put closer together, then the effect of culture will be greater, perhaps giving it a disproportionate effect on the game. Or something like that.

you have a good point. However, in the long run, the effect is minimal b/c a city can only utilize lands after the first cultural expansion. Subsequent expansions dont give any advantage to the city.

 

[exhile]

The province/state concept is an intriguing idea and would add to the culture/cities/town system already in place. A province could be a vassal state with a govenor/premier who pays tribute to the prime ministe/president and makes available the (province/state)'s territory, resources and production to the country itself. Many minor vassals woulds be like many provinces/states. They can be left autonomous to run on their own just as a country allows a colony to branch off to become a self independent country as in "colonization".