Civ3 Commodities/Resources

[sedge9]

I thought of a way resources could be transported from continent to continent. I already know cities need harbors to send resources to other cities of the same civ. This is my first post on your forum, so my idea may have been previously thought of, if so I guess ignore it.

It would be nice if, in order to send a resource to another continent civs would first need to construct some kind of trade boat unit. One boat carries just one resource. The player then should have to establish a shipping lane by way of a certain route that the trade boat can follow to go from continent to continent. The trade boat would automatically follow this shipping lane between the two continents, stopping wherever it happens to be on the map when the player ends his turn. The AI would then have a chance to attack the trade boat during its turn. As long as the trade boat survives so will the needful continent's access to the resource its transporting. If the boat is destroyed then the player should have to build a new boat to transport the resource.

This concept would make large areas of ocean worth defending, especially along shipping lanes. This would also bring put more activity on the screen. One thing I remember about civ2 was that my strategy to win never really involved a large navy...maybe this could change that.

[Ilkuul]

I like your idea of making sea routes worth defending, and therefore forcing the player to build up sea power in the earlier part of the game.

My impression from what Firaxis has said, though, is that the presence of roads & harbours will automatically make resources available to all cities linked by them - i.e., so that those cities can build units/improvements that require those resources. If you are additionally required to transport the resources to those cities - which is what your concept of trade boats implies - would this not slow the game down immensely? And if you require specially-built units (trade boats) to transport the resources by sea, shouldn't you logically also require specially-built units to transport them by land - i.e., caravans/freights?

I rather shudder at the thought of having to be constantly building & defending caravans and trade boats, just so I can keep on producing military & naval units to defend my caravans & boats, so that I can keep on producing... you get the picture!

However it would be good if you had to somehow establish a sea route (like a road on land), which could then be blocked by the enemy, or destroyed (if one of the terminal harbours were destroyed). That would be equivalent to pillaging a road - the line of communication would be broken, and you would then lose the automatic availability of resources between previously-linked cities.

Just a thought.

[Il principe]

Hi,

Ilkuul I think your idea of destroying the sea route is a good one. In my opinion the best solution is that your navy should be able to block enemy harbors (as in EU). This would introduce the concept of domination of the seas for economic reasons in the game (like it actually happened in reality in the age of mercantilism and the centuries thereafter).

[sedge9]

Replies! I didn’t think anyone would reply because I’m just a lowly “settler”….oooooh –joking. I’ve neglected my own topic. I’ve been staying away from the internet. Not wanting my girlfriend to break up with me until after the game is released

I understand your points. Maybe actual trade units will make the resource system a little tedious. But I don’t completely agree so I’ll defend it. It would be nice if players could disrupt continent to continent resource routes. I think that’s the most important thing regardless of how its accomplished. It would reflect a realistic aspect of warfare.

My fear is that it would be too easy to disrupt these resource routes/ shipping lanes between continents if a kind of CTP-style trade route was the means for showing resource routes. (you know, the thin blue line that indicated a trade route in CTP.) These would be hard to defend as they could be plundered at any point along their length.

Maybe resource routes of enemy civs would only become visible as lines on the map if that info was extracted by a spy-but that’s getting too deep and this is already too wordy. Point is, if an automated unit transported resources along shipping lanes that were invisible to enemy players, there would still remain the possibility that enemy sea units would blunder into a square where the automated trade boat ended its turn……thereby destroying it and simultaneously realizing that this must be a point along the other civs resource shipping lane.

But I like the idea of blocking harbors too, except those cities could build those buildings that automatically bombard your ship every turn. I agree that if there were automated sea trade units then there should likewise be land trade units but that makes my head hurt so I’ll leave that for somebody else.

---For all practical purposes, is it too late to be discussing game topics like these?