a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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I can't say I'm a fan of the current soil system, both due to aesthetics and game mechanics. I think we already have enough wandering around looking for resource spots and could use more mechanics for strategic long term management of seemingly abundant local resources of a new settlement. To that end, I'd like to see replacement of fertile soil pits with slash and burn fertilization mechanics.
Namely, you'd cut down a tree and set the whole chopped tree on fire. After it burns out it grants fertility to tiles in a small radius. Fertility would be a tile property that you could see on mouseover on tilled soil. Each harvest from a tile would deplete fertility a bit, and crop yield would decrease with fertility until nothing can grow after about seven or eight harvests. To restore fertility you'd need to plant a tree, wait a generation or two for it to grow and then cut it down and burn it. Compost could be a quicker, but a lot more resource and labor intensive alternative.
The actual tree growth speed could be influenced by the fertility of the tile they're planted on, and maybe totally depleted tiles wouldn't let trees grow at all so you'd have to use compost to restore a badly damaged area.
In addition to slash an burn crop rotation could be used to extend the lifetime of fields somewhat. Some crops like beans could restore fertility, but to put a limit on it there'd be a cap on how much they can restore that drops with the number of harvests on the field, so you eventually have to grow trees again.
The idea is to make crop maintenance more of a multi-generational endeavor. It'd be hard to plan properly for future growth, so many civilizations would wind up with depleted soil and depleted forests. Competing for timber with other industries would be an easy point of failure. And with the slow growth of trees communities would need to claim larger chunks of land, leading to potential for conflict with neighboring communities.
As far as soil tilling is concerned, I think it's a bit too easy now. It's kinda silly how you can skip fire and get straight to farming if you run into a clay bowl or water skin. IMO farming should require a bit higher tech level, so I think you should need at least a shovel to till those fertile tiles. Of course, requiring metal industry for farming (you need axe to begin with) is a bit too much, so I think stone axe and wood shovel should be able to do the job. Maybe lower grade tools would instantly deplete a couple of points of hunger when used. Heck, even metal shovel should use some hunger for tilling, so you'd need a bull and a plow to efficiently farm on large scale. To make this really relevant, all crops should untill soil on harvest, so you have to retill for each planting.
Besides making for IMO more interesting mechanics, this would be a lot more historically accurate and we could realistically recreate historic ecological disasters.
Southern European Mediterranean climates have favored evergreen and deciduous forests. With slash-and-burn agriculture, this type of forest was less able to regenerate than those north of the Alps. Although in northern Europe one crop was usually harvested before grass was allowed to grow, in southern Europe it was more common to exhaust the soil by farming it for several years.
Classical authors mentioned large forests,[11] with Homer writing about "wooded Samothrace," Zakynthos, Sicily, and other woodlands.[12] These authors indicated that the Mediterranean area once had more forest; much had already been lost, and the remainder was primarily in the mountains.[13]
Although parts of Europe aside from the north remained wooded, by the Roman Iron and early Viking Ages, forests were drastically reduced and settlements regularly moved.
Last edited by Potjeh (2018-03-10 00:55:08)
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Interestingly, slash-and-burn farming are still in use today, and have been used, in parts of northern Europe at least, pretty much throughout the ages, so even though some societies may evolve to crop rotation and Haber-Bosch, it is not unhistorical that others may continue the old tradition.
Last edited by Gauteamus (2018-03-09 20:50:46)
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Yeah cool idea for sure ... but the whole game works cause while being very in depth, it also keeps game mechanics very simplistic due to the limited amount of time you have to figure things out.
So I like the idea but if adapted to the actual tile system ... I don't think adding new mehanics such as radius or areas would be beneficial for the game in the long term ... it needs to stay simplistic as it is.
P.S. Also idk if even doable on the coding aspect.
Last edited by sMartins (2018-03-09 21:07:06)
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