Trading and shipping food

[Argive]

I wonder why food is a strictly local good in CiV. With the exception of maritime city-states, all the food consumed in a city is locally produced, down to the information era. While that is rather healthy given what we know now , it is not exactly how civilization developed. And trading food could make things fun.

I have 2 things in mind:

1. Civs should be able to ship food from a city with a food surplus to one without. That way, that city in the middle of a desert tile with oh-so-much oil, uranium, incense and gold is not a losing proposition.

I don't mean to say one item of food shipped away is one item of food received. Food is perishable, and the system should reflect that. So I would say some of it should deteriorate based on distance. If there is a road between cities, it should deteriorate less, and even less with a railroad. Naval connections should be more effective in preserving food, and merchant navy could make this connection even more efficient. If a civ has salt, that should lower the baseline rate of deterioration. Of course, this rate should go down considerably with refrigeration and plastics.

2. There should be food trade between civs. Deterioration sould apply in the same way, and the game could calculate the most effective trade route. Also, you should be able to demand food from weaker civs and in peace negotiations after a successful war.

 

[Juanholio]

+1 I really like this idea. Definitely the perishable aspect would add a bit of depth and strategy. I like the idea, too, of resources having influence on this.

 

[Bechhold]

Sounds great but too complicated for V target audience in trying to lasso first time players.

 

[LuCypher73]

I think it would sound good in conjunction with plague/pestilence disaster. Maybe rescue missions could be purchased with faith or something to purge plague in conjunction with food caravans

 

[Argive]

If first-time players is an issue, the whole thing could be optional--food transportation could be accessed in the advanced setup before launching a new game. I'm assuming a new expansion will eventually arrive, of course.

I like the plague thing; I hadn't thought of it. Is that already operational in a mod?

 

[ArnoldI]

Liked it, I have though about trading food for long time, but not in a level like you did. Sure an option to be inserted in CiV.

 

[phos_hilaron]

I had never thought of this idea to the extent you did. +1, I really like it.

Also, this has been mentioned elsewhere...why can't I trade fish, cattle or sheep, or wheat...

frustrating.

Maybe those resources should be trade"able"


As far as a critique goes (game mechanic wise) food is treated much like production, culture and beakers....you can't really trade science output per city to other cities...so maybe what you should be able to do is "trade away food resources" for +/pt in other cities since you can't trade other "raw" stuff like /pt or/pt as examples.

Does that make sense?

 

[ArnoldI]

Yes, the idea is that trading Bonus Resources to another civs would increase their growth rate.