Rivers/Fresh water -> Wells.

[Naokaukodem]

I reinstalled Civ5 VANILLA with Steam the other day (i don't bought the extensions, because multiplayer was prety bad and i bought the game only for multiplayer in the first place, i'm an old fashion gamer, not ideal customer) and I was surprised there were no trade routes but gold on rivers instead. It's funny, because I remember having suggested to implement trade routes instead of gold on rivers for the player to be less river-dependant, but now with Civ6 we are pretty much river or at least fresh water dependant for housing/growth purposes. Funnier thing yet, the trade routes are still there ! Is this an habit taken by devs, or is it just to balance things out ? (like, if you don't start near fresh water it's a concern, but if gold was dependant on rivers, it would become a drama)

What do you think about the importance of rivers ? Should they be more crucial for your people's development ? Less ? Should we change rivers themselves ? (more numerous and of various sizes)

Can't we just dig wells ?

Couldn't the people in the game create automatically "routes" towards fresh water if they don't have it or don't know how to dig wells ?

Couldn't we send trade routes to fresh water ?

I mean, sure wells are not ideal for crops irrigation. Can they be of any use for that purpose however ? If so, why bother for other sources of fresh water ? Because they can't be built anywhere ? Because they are too irregular in terms of water providers ? Too weak ?

Why isn't there wells in Civ ?

 

[pineappledan]

An often overlooked thing about rivers in civ 5 was that even after implementing trade routes, cities on rivers still had an automatic +25% gold on TRs.

India's unique improvement in civ 6 was a well.

 

[9gkj548hkm20vk79dj689bnj4]

I think Civ 4 and 5 were too punishing in that cities not on rivers were pretty much deserts (I should add, unless you had lots of bonus resources). Civ 6 at least has an aqueduct district, where you could gain fresh water from a mountain, lake or river 2 tiles away...that's sort-of like a well.

Humankind the game also made rivers as tiles, instead of borders, which I liked. You can travel a little faster up and down them despite having a negative defensive modifier.

 

[Naokaukodem]

An often overlooked thing about rivers in civ 5 was that even after implementing trade routes, cities on rivers still had an automatic +25% gold on TRs.

I didn't know that.

India's unique improvement in civ 6 was a well.

I picked up India only once and it was in multiplayer. My neighbour was Rome and with elephants I beat the crap out of it eventhough it had Legions. But I don't remember having built a well. Most of those unique improvements are useless anyway, except on flat desert in a Petra city... the only one that have any kind of value on "normal" tiles to me is the spanish one, for now. (not counting terrace farms)

Civ 6 at least has an aqueduct district, where you could gain fresh water from a mountain, lake or river 2 tiles away...that's sort-of like a well.

Wait what ? It's not 2 tiles away, it's directly adjacent. And it's where it hurts. In Civ4 when you built an aqueduct it could go several tiles away, and it was so good.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I picked up India only once and it was in multiplayer. My neighbour was Rome and with elephants I beat the crap out of it eventhough it had Legions. But I don't remember having built a well. Most of those unique improvements are useless anyway, except on flat desert in a Petra city... the only one that have any kind of value on "normal" tiles to me is the spanish one, for now. (not counting terrace farms)

I mean the Stepwell helps with the whole housing/population problem of not having to settle on rivers, which is the point of this thread. You could use that idea as a general improvement for Civ 7 instead of it being unique to India.

Wait what ? It's not 2 tiles away, it's directly adjacent. And it's where it hurts. In Civ4 when you built an aqueduct it could go several tiles away, and it was so good.

The mountain/river/lake needs to be two tiles away, not the aqueduct.

 

[Naokaukodem]

You could use that idea as a general improvement for Civ 7 instead of it being unique to India.

Oh yeah ! That would be nice. But I would like it being a bit more complex, like having different layers of "something", like a groundwater layer and such...

The mountain/river/lake needs to be two tiles away, not the aqueduct.

Oh heck it's true, lol. But I mean, I would have liked if we could link mountains/fresh water sources from a bit farer without costing more space. (like you could still only build an aqueduct right next to your city, but it could go kind of "above" of other tiles, like farms or districts.)

 

[pineappledan]

Considering most wells were inside the city, I would think it would be more properly represented as an early building. Devoting an entire tile to a well is a bit much, unless it’s an especially large, elaborate well like an Indian Vaav or an Iranian Qanat.

Even then, taking up the same space as a farm or plantation with one is a bit silly

 

[Naokaukodem]

Considering most wells were inside the city, I would think it would be more properly represented as an early building.

Yeah maybe. Or a "wells network". That said, they were useful for irrigation of crops too no ?

Devoting an entire tile to a well is a bit much, unless it’s an especially large, elaborate well like an Indian Vaav or an Iranian Qanat.

Even then, taking up the same space as a farm or plantation with one is a bit silly

Yes I feel alike too. Generally, I feel the districts/whatever can be worked by citizens choice too much of a breaking heart thing. I wish we could build a district somewhere AND a farm, camp, mine, quarry, plantation, unique improvement or whatever in the same tile. At least, that should for sure be a thing for wells/farms/districts/whatever.
EDIT : as to know how many... I thought about 2 here. And about what combinations possible. (I thought districts/wells with any other)