Resource Required unit should not prevent the option to build its predecessor unit

[Kougar7]

For example, when I unlocked battleships I could no longer build Frigates. Which is a huge problem when there is zero coal on the map. This problem is made worse because Ironclads AND battleships require coal, which means I built for a naval empire that couldn't build a navy! The replacement to battleships is a very late game unit!!

I went navy and because it was the Island Plates map there was almost zero coal anywhere. Not even any of the city-states had any, and none was located in places I could found a city on to get some. None of the AI seemed to have a surplus, I presume they already traded it off or never mined what was in their territory (since AI often take multiple eras to develop land). As soon as I built the the Venetian Arsenal I couldn't built a navy because I was only allowed to build ironclads and battleships which was impossible without coal.

At least give the people the option to build Frigates and Caravels if the required resource is not within the empire, same for all unit types etc. But having ironclads and battleships both require coal is very unbalanced.

 

[Steev42]

Agreed. I've never yet had a map spawn with Iron or Nitre anywhere near me. Not being able to build Catapults instead of Bombards or Warriors instead of Swordsmen is rough.

 

[CoconutTank]

I think I wouldn't mind this. Create a tab for obsolete units and have that tab be minimized by default. Whenever a unit gets obsoleted, it goes into that tab. It's not clogging up the UI unless you want to see obsolete units.

The problem I guess would be with game balance. Would it be too powerful to let players build weak units at low hammer costs and upgrade them?

 

[Kougar7]

Upgrading is expensive without the policy card for it. I don't think ALL older units need to be available... only the predecessor unit for any strategic resource required unit. Firaxis can even program the game to revert to the current schema if the required resource is made available I suppose.

All I know is that the current situation is untenable. It takes hundreds of turns to build a naval empire and once started one is pretty well committed to it because coastal cities generally have awful production values. Ranged naval ships are critical and having two entire eras without the capability to build a ranged naval ship is game breaking.

Literally I was 1 turn away from completing a Frigate when I unlocked battleships. I lost that production completely because I couldn't build the successor unit.

 

[Gentoo]

I had not realized that this was the case, and yes, it is silly and should change. And it seems an easy fix.