OK, I have considered a similar idea to what you are suggesting, but from a slightly different angle.
My thought was to have a more variable amount of shields and food being able to be produced from a hex-especially after a tile improvement is built there.
For instance, imagine that you have a grassland hex which produces 1 shield and 2 food. It should be possible to 'overexploit' this hex so that you could get 2 shields and/or 4 food (Though admittedly, in the case of grassland, you could probably only increase the output of food-not shields!) By the same token, you could decrease the food output to 1, or even zero-the same with shields.
If you 'overexploit' a hex, though, it will contribute to your city's pollution levels. Also, you increase the chance of 'degrading' the hex-thereby at least semi-permanantly reducing its output to zero!
Obviously a hex with a resource on it-be it bonus, luxury or strategic-will increase the amount to which you can 'overexploit' a hex-possibly by double the amount of a non-resourced hex of the same type. If you overexploit a hex with a resource on it, though, you can as much as double the chance that the resource will disappear-leaving just a standard hex-this hex will then be subject to the 'semi-permanent' degredation mentioned above.
Last of all, farms and or mines on that hex will double, again, the amount by which you could overexploit the hex. Again, though, such overexploitation can produce pollution for that city, cause unhappiness in that city AND lead to the degredation of the hex.
For instance, imagine a grassland hex with a bonus 'cow' resource. Imagine that it gives you 2 shields and 3 food when unimproved, and 3 shields and 4 hexes when you build a farm on it. This hex could be exploited for anywhere up to 6 shields (leathergoods
) and 8 food (beefsteaks and sausages
). This basically represents 'Intensive Farming' practices. As mentioned above, though, doing so will first increase pollution and increase the 'disappearance rate' of the cow. If you continue to 'overexploit' the now standard grassland hex, then there is a chance that you will also convert it to a totally non-productive hex! If this tile is left for X turns, then it will become productive again (though you may never get that cow back
)! The way it would work, in my model, is that you click on this hex, in your city screen, and it will pop up much in the same way as it does in Civ3-showing you what the hex is currently producing. If you are working that tile, though, there would be slide bars next to the food and shield icons. You can move these up or down by the maximum levels allowed!
The best part of my idea, IMHO, is that it still allows players the option to play the game EXACTLY as they have in the past (i.e. civ1,2 and 3!) However, it gives added flexibility for those players who really want to 'take things in hand' and Micromanage their resource use! It also allows you to simulate conservation of resources in the later game!
Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.
