City mega-improvements?

from Elemental Forums

Hi Folks

On another thread, we were having an interesting discussion on how to makes seiges more interesting.  One suggestion I had (in way of suggesting tactics and counter-tactics) was to allow cities prone to sieges to build a mega-project (like in Civ) called "hidden tunnel" or something like that.  This would build a tunnel out of the city to a hidden enterance.  Benefits might be the continuation of trade, food, and raw materials during a seige (assuming a sieg would be detrimental to these variables).  It would also allow for armies or heros to move in and out of the city while maybe avoiding the seiging army.

Anyway, this has gotten me daydreeaming about other possible mega-projects.  A full list of mega-project would insure that cities were unique and nations could specialize in certain strategies.  Any other suggestions?  Perhaps the building of a moat (making normal seige engines useless?), or a very tall tower (better line of sight from the city?), or a zoo (better chance of finding, keeping and training unusual mounts?).  What else could we come up with?

39,638 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

To start replying with a bit of digression, the 'mega' thing tends to mark civ-unique or even globally unique projects, like a Hyperion Shrinker in GC2 or the Apollo Project in Civ. But it seems like some of what you're proposing is a list of improvements possible for most or all cities to build, and Siege Tunnels seems like a fine place to start with something like that. We haven't had a general city improvements thread yet, so why not dig into both sides of the question?

The first thing I think of after tunnels good enough to move troops and dry goods during a siege is a hardened water source of some sort, either a Hidden Aqueduct or an Artesian Well within the city walls, depending on local map details. Maybe river cities like Tar Valon would have yet another siege-prep option that prepared them to purify their water system in the event of things being deliberately fouled upstream.

On the unique and one-per-civ list, a Ranger's Academy might yield some bonuses for scout units and push back FoW a little (kind of a watchtower that helps everywhere--a restrained but more complex version of GC2's Eyes of the Universe).

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

*Cough* wonders of the world *cough*.

Oh hell, why not? They're always fun, give a focus for players to compete over. The only thing is there probably shouldn't be too many. I think the wonder inflation (deflation?) of Civ and Galciv expansions dilutes their interest.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Nights, reply 2
*Cough* wonders of the world *cough*.

Oh hell, why not? They're always fun, give a focus for players to compete over. The only thing is there probably shouldn't be too many. I think the wonder inflation (deflation?) of Civ and Galciv expansions dilutes their interest.
The only thing I didn't appreciate in the addition to Wonders in GalCiv2 expansions were the exclusive ones. Having a wonder of the world that only you can build to start with defeats the purpose of having it.

That being said, I believe that was a workaround, to apply civilization-wide bonuses and such.

I'd love mega projects, of which there can only be built one per planet (all mutually exclusive), Wonders of the World, of which there can only be one per game (per wonder), and Super Projects, of which there can only be one per civilization.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I guess to clarify or expand, I don't wish to limit the discussion-I was looking for ideas that could be major city-improvments, fraction improvements, or maybe continent improvments/changes.

Someone (I forgot who) in another thread mentioned the use of magic guardian statues.  I imagine this as a potential mega-project for a city.  If a city achived this project, they might have the ability to produce 1-3 magical statues that a hero could place anywhere on the map to see lift a small bit of the fog of war.  I can see this being very useful on a very large map.  Also might be very hard for the AI to use effectively but there might be a way around that.

 

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