Man, out of all the conplex decisions in civ4, whether or not a specific tile is a good city location is one of the easiest.
Also, with our current tile set up, we would gain 13 base commerce per turn from the Colossus, and that includes starving Starfall. When we settle our Southern tundra region, we'll probably grab some more coastal tiles, too (and 2/0/4 tiles aren't that bad with this game's reasonable population-based maintenance costs, IMO). So, the Colossus is nowhere near as good as TGL, but I think that it would still be a large boost if we have the production to spare.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Apolyton built the Colossus just a little while back.
Anyway, I view the Colossus as a trap wonder. It makes for a boost in commerce, but only by working otherwise marginal tiles that can't be improved further. It is obsoleted by the very important Astronomy, so either you destroy a large part of your research power, or you delay galleons and other advanced naval units.
OTOH, it's cheap and gives useful GPP.
Furthermore, I consider that forum views should be fluid in width
(April 14th, 2013, 05:42)kjn Wrote: Apolyton built the Colossus just a little while back.
Anyway, I view the Colossus as a trap wonder. It makes for a boost in commerce, but only by working otherwise marginal tiles that can't be improved further. It is obsoleted by the very important Astronomy, so either you destroy a large part of your research power, or you delay galleons and other advanced naval units.
OTOH, it's cheap and gives useful GPP.
Oh.
Also, I don't think Astronomy is that important on our current map, but I agree that the Colossus can cause problems.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(April 14th, 2013, 04:35)Sullla Wrote: Our trade route number went up quite a bit with the addition of Great Lighthouse routes. We're still almost last there, which is what always happens when you're a large civ. We get 92 commerce, but pay out 118 commerce, so we have a net of -26. Note that the 118 commerce is what all other teams combined get from us, and we have 6 trading partners, so we give out an average of 20 commerce per civ. That's not trivial, but we're obviously cleaning up enormously on our own end, making the Open Borders more than worthwhile.
IIRC we are near the start of the player order, which means the game will prioritize our routes in rival cities over other players' routes of equal value. (The key phrase there is "equal value" - the rule only applies when it doesn't matter which trade route gets used.) This same mechanic is why, for example, we are only getting small amounts from CFC and CivPlayers - they come after our other trading partners in the player order.
In other words, the imports-exports numbers are pretty useless; players early in the player order will typically have large negative numbers, and players late in the order will have large positive numbers, but it doesn't reflect any actual difference in how useful routes are for other players.
I thought play order was randomized each turn in pitboss? Or, am I mistaken? Or, is this anything to do with the apt mod? In PBEM where the turn order is set from the beginning, the trade imbalance is a permanent "feature" (not bug, right?). I thought pitboss was different.
(April 14th, 2013, 07:12)novice Wrote: Player order is static, play order is randomized. The trade route oddities apply to sequential and simultaneous turns equally.
well this completely clears it up
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
