Village, Town, City, Metropolis

Recurve · July 10, 2001, 14:05

There is no thread for this precise topic.

I don't see why every settlement you build should become a metropolis by 2001. What about a bit of variety? It would be nice if you could designate your settlement as say 1/Village (1 square), 2/Town (9 squares), 3/City (as is now), 4/Metropolis (30+ squares).

There is a logic to this - if your settler comes across a mountain-range you could build a village in the 1 fertile square available. It would grow to a max population of 30,000 and not have the option of city walls, barracks or advanced improvements (no need for a bank). That way, you could acquire the territory somewhat less painfully.

On the other hand, there are always squares caught between cities that are not utilised. You could designate "Metropolis" and annex those squares to a city, up to a certain limit.

Dauphin · July 10, 2001, 14:17

I think we want to get away from ICS.

I agree with you to an extent though.

In addition I fell that less emphasis should be placed on the zones of control of a city, and more on its "place", in all senses of the word, within your empire, when it comes to calculating its size and power.

Gramphos · July 10, 2001, 18:05

You've played to mush Sim City

Dr Strangelove · July 10, 2001, 18:22

Actually, if you think about it, since Civ 3 will institute national boundaries and since computers today are so much more powerful than those of Civ 1's day why bother with city boundaries at all. You could have settlers building cities, then improving the country side, and perhaps coming back to the city to expand it from town to city to metropolis and on to supermetropolis. Territory of the nation could be divided into provinces which feed the cities within the province. The growth of city and province would be a function of the agricultural production of the area modified by the overall wealth and pollution and further modified by agri-trade. This would require a more sophisticated alogrithim to calculate the various characteristics of the tiles (food production, industrial production, population) and also would open the way for more realistic graphics. Heck, you could even do away with the tiles altogether!

Eternal · July 10, 2001, 19:58

Also, you should win things by playing

H Tower · July 10, 2001, 20:21

strangelove:how would you factor in the production modifiers of supermarkets and other buildings?

Dr Strangelove · July 10, 2001, 20:49

I would consider the supermarket to represent the chain retail store and let it increase the trade value of the whole province or nation. I would add an "agricultural science" civ improvement as the prerequisite to allowing the building of "farmland".
Other buildings also would benefit the local province or the whols e civilization.

Sabre2th · July 10, 2001, 21:33

These are some nice ideas, but some of them change the basic idea behind civ.

Dr Strangelove · July 10, 2001, 23:14

***

Dr Strangelove · July 11, 2001, 10:57

If they're going to produce a brand new version of the game for a brand new game price then they ought to include some major changes to keep the concept fresh.