Where the heck are the canals in this game?

[EgonSpengler]

Yesterday I was listening to a radio program about the history of the Erie canal, the impact of which was staggering, on our economy and the growth of the Midwest. It can be argued that Chicago and Detroit wouldn't have become the cities they are/were without it. Later, Canada's Welland Canal was simply huge, as well.

The Suez Canal, the Grand Canal, and the Panama Canal should be World Wonders in Civ, not just local waterways. Cargo ships are designed based on their ability to traverse the Panama Canal (the size limit is called "Panamax" colloquially). When Marco Polo visited China he remarked on the volume of traffic on the canals. He said there were so many boats and barges you could walk across the canal without using a bridge. The Grand Canal (1,800km/1,100 miles!) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site today.

What's going on Civ? Where's my "build canal" button?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

The way Ed Beach hinted about it last summer, they know it's a desirable function. It would not surprise me if they appeared in an expansion in some form. Perhaps as a district.

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

Perhaps as a district.

That would be nice. Some additional limitations from realism perspective could be that it is only buildable on flat land and penalizes movement of land units to some degree.

 

[PYITE]

Perhaps in a New World expansion!!!

If it was a district, what buildings would it have?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Perhaps in a New World expansion!!!

If it was a district, what buildings would it have?

It doesn't really need buildings. The aqueduct doesn't have any.

 

[dragon653]

Perhaps in a New World expansion!!!

If it was a district, what buildings would it have?

it doesn't need to have buildings the aqueduct doesn't have buildings.
#ninjad

 

[Victoria]

Well... we do have aqueducts which are canals.
To be honest canals were just a way to get water to cities and shift goods around.
Ones army marched the roads rather than bobbed on a longboat
One could argue trade routes include canals and are automated.
One may also consider than on the TSL earth map one can place a city which automatically creates both the Panama and Suez canals.
However what would one suggest the benefit of such channels would be beyond wonderment?
Considering one lives near such a rat and mosquito breeding edifice that is used merely as a flood dampeners of vague sorts now.

Last night one was ruing the passing of the police station in civ... I think many things come an go... I remember the thread on power stations.
Its nice to remember these nice features but many get hit by the 30/70 version rule or whatever it is.

 

[steveg700]

However what would one suggest the benefit of such channels would be beyond wonderment?

Presumably, the major appeal is having a passage for ships that doesn't require settling a city on a spot that will be disadvantage for having all that useless water around it (like the one settled by Norway in that official video).

In general, improved control over terrain would be a neat carrot for anticipation of the late game. It would be a lovely turning of tables to suddenly be able to move across a continent rather than around it, or to get the jump on an enemy no longer protected by a wall of mountains.

 

[Victoria]

disadvantage for having all that useless water around it

It's not so bad late game when every bit of shallow water pulls decent gold as well as OK food.
Even early with a lighthouse every square is 2 food , 1 gold so it's not useless.
Adapt

 

[steveg700]

It doesn't really need buildings. The aqueduct doesn't have any.

I wonder if a canal would be apropos as a unique district/TI for some new civ?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I wonder if a canal would be apropos as a unique district/TI for some new civ?

Venice? Or a Venice equivalent?

 

[steveg700]

See, with Venice, it's small canals. It's basically their version of streets. I'm thinking lanes for merchant marines. Gondolas, not so much.

 

[Disgustipated]

I always plop a city down in the Panama canal on Earth maps if I can, and Suez as well (available on the Greatest Earth map mod as a single hex). Not the most productive city, but I don't need it to be.

 

[xISOADIx]

I always plop a city down in the Panama canal on Earth maps if I can, and Suez as well (available on the Greatest Earth map mod as a single hex). Not the most productive city, but I don't need it to be.

Yes I do the same been doing it since 5. Canals could work the same way the Great Wall works for china. However I would prefer if they acted as roads and provided gold and food boost rather than allow the oassage of battleships and destroyers TBH

 

[bbbt]

I suspect we'll see them in an expansion, given how much they've become a civ 'meme'.

I'd root for a 'civil engineer' unit that can do canals as well a few other such improvements, possibilities such as: bridges/causeways over single sea tiles, tunnels through mountains, possible even dykes to reclaim coast/floodplains

 

[God of Kings]

There really needs to be canals in Civ VI. Military engineers could construct them.

Military engineers can have four charges, but some actions use up more charges than others. Roads take up one charge. Forts, missile silos, and airstrips take up two charges. Canals and tunnels take up four charges.

 

[Manifold]

It doesn't really need buildings. The aqueduct doesn't have any.

Ditch, Rafting station, Trip hammer, Inland port, Hydropower station, ...Channel fee.

old thread here

This is my current game.
Can we have a feature called canal so that I can cut through to make a shorter path possible?
I need a passage from Osaka through the canal North East of Imperial Capital into the Sea where Mysore is adjacent so that my Imperial Navy can attack the city.

 

[Progressor]

My variation
UNIQUE IMPROVEMENT: The Suez Canal
is built by a great engineer (by default 2 charges)
Within its borders, on an even surface near the sea,
Gives 1 production and 2 gold,
The trade route (and foreign ones as well) passing through the channel receives a bonus +1 gold (as from the trade post)
Sea ships get the opportunity to pass through a cells with canals both by sea.
Can be looted (Coastal raid), repaired by an ordinary builder.
The cells of the earth adjacent to the channel get the effect of rocks; Unit on board it is impossible to get out of the cells with the channel to the ground only if there is an increase in commandos

Examples of options for building channels in the picture
blue water
Green - earth
Red channels
Orange - a city 1 for example is located that without a channel it is possible to pass sea vessels

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Well... we do have aqueducts which are canals.
To be honest canals were just a way to get water to cities and shift goods around.
Ones army marched the roads rather than bobbed on a longboat
One could argue trade routes include canals and are automated.
One may also consider than on the TSL earth map one can place a city which automatically creates both the Panama and Suez canals.
However what would one suggest the benefit of such channels would be beyond wonderment?.

While the building of 'modern' Canals like Suez, Panama, and the Kiel Canal in Germany were all partly to move navies, their major function was trade, and that was also true of the ancient Corinth and 'Red Sea' Canals attempted in Ancient/Classical Eras. By shortening Trade Routes and speeding up delivery, they had a big, big impact on the amount and profitability of Trade Routes.
Therefore, I would argue that the suggestion of using a Great Engineer to build a canal is a good one, but before a certain Tech they can only be built on Plains or Grassland or Desert, flat tiles, while along about the early Industrial Era it becomes possible to build Locks and build them over Hill tiles as well.
Then link the Gold input from Trade Routes to Length of Route, and the Trade Effect of canals should become automatic.

Second point, but requires a much, much more complete Overhaul of the game, is that ALL transport of goods by water was and is cheaper and more efficient than by land. A wagon or cart carrying su-plies can go about 50 - 100 miles before the draft animals eat up the equivalent of the load and you have a Net Zero total effect. In contrast to the 1/2 to 1 ton cart/wagon load, even a Bronze Age (1500 BCE) ship could carry up to 30 tons with a 6 - 8 man crew, and carry it several hundred miles a day. That same ship could also travel up rivers or - canals.
Supply of armies was always done by water wherever possible: one reason Holland/Belgium became known as the 'Cockpit of Europe' was that they were criss-crossed by canal and rivers, so armies could be supplied there with relative ease, and were, and fought over the area almost constantly from 1575 to 1945. Siege Trains also regularly moved b canal/river in the 17th and 18th centuries.

This, however, requires a Supply Line Mechanic which Gedemon is working on, but so far as I now has never been mentioned by anybody at Firaxis...

 

[Victoria]

Supply Line Mechanic

That'll mess up the AI even more