Colony question

ajbera · October 26, 2001, 16:00

My civilization is on a continent. On a small island outside my civ's borders, is a vein of gold I want, and I want to build a colony to access the gold. Now, since a resource has to be connected to your civ via road, harbor or airport, how do I access the gold? I can't build a road, and as far as I know, harbors are city improvements and can't be built in a colony. How does a civ exploit resources overseas without having to build a city, or must there be two cities with harbours? In other words, can I not just create colonies overseas to utilize the resources there, but must I also build a city with a harbor?

PS: I just realized yesterday that the cruise I'm going on leaves Nov.1. I'll be unable to play Civ3 until I get back the following week. OTOH, I expect tons of reviews from my fellow civvers.

albiedamned · October 26, 2001, 16:17

That's a pretty good question. My guess is that you can't access resources on an island even if you build a colony on the resource, unless you can also build a city on the island and put a harbor in the city.

Hopefully the map generator is smart enough to not put resources on single square islands.

Mars · October 26, 2001, 17:08

I believe that colonies automatically have a seaport (as long as you have the advance for them; likewise for airports) Of coarse i could be mistaken

Faboba · October 26, 2001, 17:08

We have a winner.

From what I've read you need to connect it by road to a city which has a harbour which has a visible sea passage to another city with a harbour ( assuming it does not exceed the depth which your ships can currently travel at your tech level ) which is either your capital or is connected to your capital by road.

When you get airports all you need is to put an airport in your capital and then connect any colony/city by road to another city with an airport. Therefore if resources are limited all you need is a regional capital, with an airport, per continent.

BLackraven42 · October 26, 2001, 19:12

It depends on the city closest to the vein. If it's borders can eventually reach the vein by raising culture, then your OK, otherwise, you probably will have to build a city on the small island.

dainbramaged13 · October 26, 2001, 22:44

Quote:

Originally posted by ajbera
My civilization is on a continent. On a small island outside my civ's borders, is a vein of gold I want, and I want to build a colony to access the gold. Now, since a resource has to be connected to your civ via road, harbor or airport, how do I access the gold? I can't build a road, and as far as I know, harbors are city improvements and can't be built in a colony. How does a civ exploit resources overseas without having to build a city, or must there be two cities with harbours? In other words, can I not just create colonies overseas to utilize the resources there, but must I also build a city with a harbor?

PS: I just realized yesterday that the cruise I'm going on leaves Nov.1. I'll be unable to play Civ3 until I get back the following week. OTOH, I expect tons of reviews from my fellow civvers.

If the island is really small enough nt to warrant building a city there without the gold, then it shoudl be easy enough to get the resource while skipping the colony step altogether, saving a pop point that u can maybe use to add to the city and produce culture faster to envelop the resource.

i doubt u can skip[ the city step, however

jadlakha · October 26, 2001, 23:54

Quote:

Originally posted by ajbera
PS: I just realized yesterday that the cruise I'm going on leaves Nov.1. I'll be unable to play Civ3 until I get back the following week. OTOH, I expect tons of reviews from my fellow civvers.

If I were u I would just screw the cruise and play Civ3.

VetteroX · October 27, 2001, 00:13

me too... no joke. or, id somehow get a laptop so I could play during the cruise

albiedamned · October 27, 2001, 10:58

I just re-read the Civ3 FAQ about resources. Having a resource within your borders is not enough to access it, you also have to connect it to your city with a road. So if a resource is on an island, there would be no way to access it unless you could also build a city on that island. And then only the city on the island with the resource would have access to it until you build a harbor in the island city and a harbor in a mainland city (and a traversable, explored path exists between the harbors).

I said earlier that I hope the map generator is smart enough not to put resources on tiny islands. But I think I've changed my mind. Actually, it could add some interesting strategy. You might decide to build some cities on tiny islands where you would never normally consider a city, just to access the resource. You would stick a harbor in the city but not much else. But of course you would have to defend the city, probably with a strong navy.

Mars · October 27, 2001, 11:17

Cities on one square islands can easily be defended though. Think about, you have to bombard the city until noone is there or you can use marines but that's about all you can attack it with. Then if you put say a harbot and an offshore oil platform the city can be very productive as its size increases, i put cities on little islands all the time as you might guess from my commenting

Solver · October 27, 2001, 11:18

AFAIK, you must build a colony on the island, a city on the island, connect a colony, and connect the city by a Harbor.

jdd2007 · October 27, 2001, 11:27

Quote:

AFAIK, you must build a colony on the island, a city on the island, connect a colony, and connect the city by a Harbor.

whats the point of doing this??? if theres enough room for a city and a colony, whats the point of building both? why not just build a city to get the gold?

Solver · October 27, 2001, 11:31

If you do only have a city, you need the resource within its borders.

albiedamned · October 27, 2001, 11:36

Quote:

Originally posted by Solver
If you do only have a city, you need the resource within its borders.

Since we're discussing tiny islands (I think), the resource will be within the city borders. So yes, in this example, there wouldn't be much point to the colony.

HalfLotus · October 27, 2001, 12:16

Fighting for a small island with precious resources would be great fun.

Rakki · October 27, 2001, 15:30

maybe they'll only put bananas as a resource on small islands

jdd2007 · October 28, 2001, 11:44

and coconuts

Akron · October 28, 2001, 12:15

If gold was in your city radius but on a little island, you'd be able to use it since it's a bonus resource, not a strategic resource. But if you had oil or uranium on that tiny island, then you'd have to build that city for it.

Akron · October 28, 2001, 12:35

Looking through some screenshots, I found an example of a civ building a city on an island for the sole purpose of exploiting a resource.

ajbera · October 28, 2001, 12:46

Thanks for the great response, gang. The question occurred to me when I considered a Civ3 revision of the Age of Discovery scenario (one of my faves), and I was curious as to whether or not I could just establish a multitude of colonies in the New World. I now realize I will have to establish a city first (Jamestown!) and then cover the land in colonies, but I can live with that.

Thanks for info, speculation, opinions and screenshots.