Hi ya Fullerene.
Glad you are enjoying the design sheet, it still needs a lot of work, but I felt it got to the point where people could at least get the gist of ancient to modern for ideas.
To be honest I haven't looked at it almost since I made it! I think the one available here is the most up to date one I made but who knows!
I still have the old version of the mod on an out of date M:C build, with all of the yields and yield graphics implemented, though it still needed some work to get the yield icons paired up right.
I won't do anymore work on the actual build until M:C gets done with what it is doing, but there are some great thoughts and happenings with M:C at the moment.
From my perspective I don't think I will ever get rid of the trade screen concept, but in the M:C forums we have been talking a lot about them and things that could maybe be done with them.
Stuff Like:
Dynamically generated screens.
Mutiple screens that are generated in game from a set of rules, limiting available goods, etc.
Trade Screen Events.
Leading to fluctuations in price on a trade screen.
Greater Fluctuation in trade prices.
I completely agree that the map needs to be circular and I think it is not difficult to do (I can't remember but I think I already did it in my WHM tests.)
Changes I would make to trade screens are things like:
Making their access points small, like 3x3 squares, etc.
Or
Centre them on top of a city as a trade hub, potentially adding the ability to gain full control of it in one way or another so you can deny access to it for other players, this will lead to a lot of contesting and pirating and banditry around these areas as you try to stop people capitalising on trade hubs.
So every continent would have a trade hub, this could even become several with the possibility of dynamic generation, each with a much smaller roster of trade goods, and specific 'bargins' to capitalise on.
Making a trade empire a very viable strategy, moving product around the world, but one that will require a great deal of work to implement, requiring shipping and security to keep it safe.
Opening and closing Trade Hubs.
I would also like to see certain areas of trade shift, or become obselete, perhaps wth techs, or wonders, etc.
We also talked about the idea of 'moving' trade screens, so a concept like a travelling fair that pops up in a city for X turns, then disappears to pop up again some where else.
I like the trade screens, and I think they would would not be out of place in the game, there have always been centres of commerce throughout the world, nations or cities that survived and thrived by becoming a trade hub.
Nations and areas of the world have often had an abundance of particular specialists, usually because they have grasped some fundamental element that other nations haven't at that time. Again making Trade Hubs a sensible idea for these people to congregate and seek employment.
We have also been talking a lot about inter-nation trading at the city level, with automated traders acquiring and selling goods for the best prices.
As for the concept of 'unlimited trade' the way I view it is that in game, an era can never really produce more than it needs, that there is never 'no-demand' for something somewhere, and these trade hubs make a name for themselves facilitating between the haves and have nots. you can flood a market and drive prices down, you can also make them 'unprofitable' especially in an inter-trade system(moving from one hub to the next) but you can never out produce the world need.
The flip side being that no nation can ever out consume production in a given era, you can always find what you need somewhere, you just might not be willing or able to pay the price for it.
With every 'upgrade' to M:C, we get more and more cool ways of doing things, and I am always thinking how an M:C concept can be altered or expanded for WHM.
It is very much still a dream to make this a reality, and I think there are enough people around to make it a reality, especially from working from and with the M:C build.
(Even if it is only us guys that end up playing it, anyone who doesn't would just be STEWPID!
)
Long Live the Civ4 Mod Community!
