It seems horses are a resource that works similarly to metal or crystal - you harvest a tile with "wild horses" on it and if you lose the city with the tile, you can't make mounted units. But there's no reason that, once you tame some horses, you can't take them elsewhere to breed and raise horses in other cities.In real history, when cultures came into contact each would start to adopt the domesticated animals and plants the other used. In this way, species would spread far beyond where they were naturally found as humans bring them with them. This was the case with horses - they were first domesticated in Asia, and spread throughout the "old world" because its cultures were in mutual contact. But in the Americas, horses were unknown in many places until the Europeans introduced them - and having horses gave them a huge advantage in wars with Native Americans.This is the difference betwen ore and "renewable resources" like horses, wheat, and honey bees (all examples which are in the game now). Once you discover them, you don't depend on one place for a supply, but the first to find them still has an advantage.
So I suggest that these work a little differently in the game. Once you first find a tile with a "living resource" like this, you build a structure (stables in the case if horses) to harvest it. But once you have one such building, you can then build it in other cities which don't have a special resource tile. Thus, once you have one wheat farm on a tile with wild wheat, for example, you could export seeds and build wheat farms in other cities. If you lose the city with the wild wheat, you can still build wheat farms so long as you have at least one city with one. Same with horses, honey bees etc.This would be subject to the same rules that other resources work with - for example, if a city is under siege it can't import resources unless it has a native source, so a city without a wild horses tile can't build stables, even if you stables, if it's under siege. Likewise if your only city with stables is besieged, it can't export its resources so your other cities can't build stables.These resources can be introduced from one kingdom to another through the trade system - if one civ has stables it could make a deal in which it gives a breeding stock of horses to another civ so they could build stables in their cities. You could also conquer a city with the appropriate building (stables, wheat farm, apiary) to gain access to a resource like this.
On the side, it would be very appropriate if stables were a food consuming building, just like housing. This represents the way that feeding and raising horses for mounted armies is a major logistical/economic concern since the animals eat more than the people do. It adds some strategic decision-making, so players won't necessarily build a stable in every city, and adding cavalry to their armies is an undertaking in itself that requires specific resources (food surplus).
These things would also apply to other kinds of creature you can tame, if the game has them. I don't know if the game will have warriors riding fantastic monsters, but mounts or war beasts that aren't horses don't have to be imaginary creatures - wouldn't it be cool to have ELEPHANTS in the game?
I like this.
Do you mean this in terms of "if i'm getting x resource from one city then all my other citys can have access to it" or "if i haev built a wheat farm then i can build it everywhere". The first is already in effect, if you build a wheat farm, or horses, it's added to your global resource pool, to quote an example thats currently in the game, you build a mine thats at city A, and you can use the iron to make weapons at cities b,c and d.If you mean the second, where by having the resource you should be able to multiply it, that takes away any stratagy of where to build cities, and where to bunker down and hold instead of giving up because it just doesn't matter. Personally i'm looking foward to having some epic battles over a tiny resource tile^^.I daresay we'll end up with some magical means to create the tile in question though, frogboy has already hinted at being able to expend more essense to make a tile go from live to fertile. The idea is good in terms of realism based on the world we live in, but elemental is hardly that, what with that 112 combat rated bone orge sitting next to my village scaring my little people:P
I understand where the OP is coming from as I too have thought it annoying in TBS games where you trade with someone to get say Horses and build a few Calvery units only to have them later cancel the deal. Then it becomes how come I can't make my horses breed so i can keep building Calvary?
I think the problem becomes that in making the availability more realistic you then have to make all the other stuff more realisitic. For example not all plants and animals do well in all types of environments. And it's not something simple as plains/grasslands vs hills/mountains when it comes to growing them. So you'd really need a much more sophisticated weather setup that effects yields of different crops. Or at least a lot more variety in the types of terrain. Also a lot of domesticated animals had fairly high upkeep cost which would also need to be represented as well as population growth for the animals since a few horses doesn't mean you can suddenly build legions of horse riders.
Also you wanna talk about the spread of resources then what about the black market? After all lots of times when an empire didn't have the natural resources for something, especially weapons, they would make deals with traders to purchase them. And things like a lack of trade treaties didn't stop them from trading. Even going so far as to make something illegal didn't stop it's trade just like in today's world with drugs. It only ends up driving the price up because of good old supply & demand. It kinda goes back to the old saying, "You can get anything if you have the money.".
ok how about this trade off. if you get a horse tile, it should be like materials and gildar. you start to gain horses every turn.
1 horse tile = 2 horses a turn.
after 20 turns you have 40 horses. with this you can make 40 cav units. this way if you loose the horse resource you may still have 50 or so horses in the stables.
they could have it set up to where you gain each turn horses equal to 2% of the total horses you have. this would simulate birthing. also you could use horses as a resource in diplomacy. you could trade some of your horses for other stuff. maybe even sale some to another kingdom for gildar.
Personally I think that this is a little outside the scope of the game. I mean sure, things like staple crops and herds changed, but usually over a period of hundreds of years (unless it was being exterminated... that could happen pretty quickly), and modelling this is probably not something that is worth the time to do. Not when there are so many other things that should get modelled first (like NPC development and dungeon exploration).
I might have given the wrong impression.
It's not about having more realism or scope. Just because we change the way this one thing works, doesn't mean we also have to model environment and weather, the black market etc. It's a game, you can choose the level of abstraction for different things.
What I'm saying is that we can represent this in the game system we already have. Making buildings that give resources is part of the game, just have an option to make more stables once you already have one from wild horses.
Or take Stmorpheus's suggestion and make horses a resource like materials or gold, produced by a stables building. Just add the option to build stables without a wild horses tile, only with an additional build cost in horses for your breeding population. That way there's a decision in how you use your resources, short-term benefit vs. long-term investment. And wild horses are still important, both as the first source, and even after you have horses, they save you some when you build new stables. The resource mechanics are already in place, likewise the mechanics for having buildings that consume food (housing) and having the same thing for stables.
That could work. As you said though, they should cost food to build though. And personally I think the resources we start the game with, barring uses of essence to improve them (or destroy them), should be the ones we end the game with.
How about for each horse resource tile you have, the faster you can build stables and horse mounted units.
They'll act like a granary type building giving you a percentage bonus for faster build/recruit times. Something like 50% faster for each horse resource you control or trade for.
Maybe through either a magic spell or civilization tech allow players to retool a fertile land tile into a horse resource tile (and vice versa). Players have the option to either feed their people or increase their armies. The same can be done with wheat and other resources. So you might not have access to horse resource tile at first, but once you trade for one with another nation, you can retool a fertile land into one.
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