Ticking Clock Improvements

[Milaga]

I've kept my silence for long enough. Ticking clock improvements. There is terrain in FfF (and even more in FF) that will eventually have less improvement options (or none at all.)

You can build a lumbermill on any forested tile. But as soon as those forests become ancient forests you can no longer build a lumbermill. I understand that ancient forest/lumbermill is an incredibly powerful combination. I consider the grassland/ancient forest/lumbermill/riverside tile (321) to be the ideal tile. I don't think the current method to limit those is the right way to go.

This problem also presents itself with the two lizardman races in FF. Marshes will eventually turn into swamps. Since a swamp is an improvement no other improvement can be put on it. Once your marsh becomes a swamp you've got to settle on the fact that it will be a food producer. I can't even count the number of times I've had swamps appear while I was trying to make a cottage or workshop. Swamps are nice but for food production they aren't as nice as the farm/agrarianism/sanitation combo. Since marshes on a river are identical to a lizard as a grassland, it stinks that I might not be able to build a farm or cottage there.

One of the reasons I like FF is that since you can build lumbermills from turn 1 ... which makes my FoL strats all the more powerful. I still like the lumbermill at archery but that's a topic for another topic. But there is something about the fact that you have to improve a tile before it changes that really doesn't sit well with me, gameplay wise.

It's late and in the last few days I've been thinking about this I haven't thought of another way to accomplish the same thing without this limitation.

 

[WarKirby]

I think a forest with a lumbermill in it, should eiother never become ancient, or the lumbermill would be destroyed by angry treants when it changes. Perhaps allowing luymbermills in AF's in general would be good, but it would create a 3% chance per turn for a treant to spawn in the tile, and pillage the lumbermill.

Swamps are another annoyance. I don't think lizardmen should be allowed to build farms at all, since swamps are more fitting. But they really shouldn't appear on tiles that you're currently trying to improve,

There's also one more in this category you've failed to mention, bedouin villages on floodplains.
When vehem imported changes fro,m malakim+, the duration between scorching a riverside plain, and a floodplain appearing there, was MASSIVELY increased. Still don't have an explanation for this change, but I personally don't like it.
moreover, it creates a problem. Bedouin villages are not supposed to be possible to build on floodplains, but if you build a sit on a riverside desert before the floodplain appears, a floodplain will appear around the new improvement, and make it a super tile.

Removing the delay for floodplains to appear, would be the best solution to this.

 

[Milaga]

There's also one more in this category you've failed to mention, bedouin villages on floodplains.

I can't believe I forgot them! I was only spoiled in my attempt to make a riverside bedouin village once, which was when I realized how futile it was. They turn into floodplains pretty quickly. But if you could ... yeah, a bedouin village on a floodplain, that's a super-tile. If you had enough workers, it would be trivial to do that to all your riverside tiles. That is certainly an exploit.

I think the fundamentals of tile-changing might need to be looked at. I understand there's still a problem with Illians turning their cities to snow while Deepening is in effect. This all sounds very CPU intensive to handle, but maybe there's an easier way ...

Also regarding the floodplains -- if you scorch a riverside desert tile it might turn into a scrub/desert tile, in which case it may never turn into a floodplain. Worse still, the smoke from burning the woods carries over to the scrub, which could erupt into flame. This leaves you with a riverside desert tile! Yikes!

Removing the delay for floodplains to appear, would be the best solution to this.

Better yet ... the arrival of a floodplain washes away any improvements. And perhaps any units located therein. Now that I think about it, the transformation of a riverside plains tile to a flood plain is a pretty substantial tile improvement. Especially since it can be done on turn 1. Perhaps this type of improvement demands the sacrifice of the unit ... swept away in the torrential river ...

 

[Breez]

This problem also presents itself with the two lizardman races in FF. Marshes will eventually turn into swamps. Since a swamp is an improvement no other improvement can be put on it. Once your marsh becomes a swamp you've got to settle on the fact that it will be a food producer. I can't even count the number of times I've had swamps appear while I was trying to make a cottage or workshop. Swamps are nice but for food production they aren't as nice as the farm/agrarianism/sanitation combo. Since marshes on a river are identical to a lizard as a grassland, it stinks that I might not be able to build a farm or cottage there.

Can't you just burn the marsh back to grassland and avoid this?

 

[Iskar Jarak]

not if your the Cualli, or at least not until you get adept w/ the right mana

 

[Milaga]

not if your the Cualli, or at least not until you get adept w/ the right mana

And if you do, you lose the jungle on top of it.

 

[WarKirby]

no you don't. Jungle can exist on grassland, and usually does.

 

[Breez]

not if your the Cualli, or at least not until you get adept w/ the right mana

Ahh I never play them, only Matz

 

[Milaga]

no you don't. Jungle can exist on grassland, and usually does.

My mistake. I meant to say "And if you do, you lose all your Jungle in a massive Junglefire that would make Acheron proud!"

 

[Breez]

My mistake. I meant to say "And if you do, you lose all your Jungle in a massive Junglefire that would make Acheron proud!"

no, not fire... blaze.

I mean scorch (doesnt' burn the square) but will chance marsh to grassland, then to plains, then to desert if you stand there adn cast it enough times.

 

[Valkrionn]

Scorch used to have a chance to cause fire in Malakim+. Been removed in the most recent version, but it can still spawn defenders.