Change "empty fields" to give bonus modifiers to cities.

This is an idea from the civilization series: Instead of having cities only in "empty fields" change some of those empty fields to new types that give certain bonuses (and maybe have drawbacks as well). As an example, a river square that gives you a discount off the 10% "transaction fee" in the marketplace or requires less people to move resources as rivers enhance trade. Another example would be a mountain square that gives your units a defense modifier when being attacked (but perhaps makes trading harder).


I think this would add an interesting twist on the game.

Cool suggestion. It would make more strategy to the placement of cities around the map. I like the idea, and it would give the old map a facelift too making it more interesting to look at.

And to add to it:
Heck, this could open the door for a new unit type too, a war ship unit and a merchant ship unit. By incorperating a river system that cities could utilize, people could place their cities along the river for that trade bonus, but could be subject to raids by war ships. And the use of merchant ship units, could be used as a money gathering unit by dispatching to other cities or forts along the river.
Likewise, the mountain local turns your normal city into a mountaintop stronghold. I like that idea of a defence bonus and would fit the bill for what it is, cause typically, in battle, the high ground is the most desired.

But you also have to take into consideration the fact that the servers are already started and cities have already been placed. It's hard to add something like this mid game simply because of that fact.

It would be different if players could move their cities for free but they can't. If I logged on and was in the middle of some swamp that made me move slower and didn't have coins to moved I'd be pretty upset and I imagine others would be as well.

Great idea would love to c it happen but like vayne said would b hard to put in the game!

Well, to counter that, all main cities would start default on normal ground.
It would be the sb cities that would benefit from the bonuses cause as you level up, you get to build new cities. So you could build your new branch city on the mountain or along the river.

This would also promote more interaction with city take over too. Example, if much of the prime realistate along the river is occupied, you are more likely gonna have to fight over a city to get a spot along the river. Since branch cities are what can be taken over, why not give a new purpose to take over someones branch city?? Making branches more viable other then just being an extention for resource storage.

Even still, branch cities are already in place.

Even with existing branch cities already in place, small rivers can be incerted where their are blank fields, and im sure it shouldn't be an issue cause everyone has new cities they can always build, just have to wait till you level up enough to make a new city. Coins shouldn't be a problem either, cause most high level players who built most if not all their cities, can move their city to such locations, while newer lower level players have plenty of new cities they can make and occupy them with, so no worries on the coin situation for them.

I'm sure the Haypi team has a map of where every player sits on the map, so they can map out the add on's without interfearing with people's existing city placements.

They could write the rules and code for the game add on, map the river/mountain locations based on the blank lands available, and then do a day long maintenance to fully incorporate the add on, and make any last minute adjustments during that time.

But you also have to take into consideration the fact that the servers are already started and cities have already been placed. It's hard to add something like this mid game simply because of that fact.

It would be different if players could move their cities for free but they can't. If I logged on and was in the middle of some swamp that made me move slower and didn't have coins to moved I'd be pretty upset and I imagine others would be as well.

There are ways around that- most if not all online games go through significant changes while people are playing them.

You could randomly assign the modified areas to cities that already exist (lame though because you should really have some choice in the matter). A better solution would be to put the new tile types on uninhabited empty field squares. New servers will have it from the start, and players on existing servers can either move their cities there, or just wait until they get new branch cities. If you already have all your cities... I say two things: it must be nice to be king!, and you are probably already comfortable with buying coins, so you can move your cities without a problem.

I think the ideal implementation of this would have each new square having a benefit/drawback so that it is more or less neutral, with no single square necessarily being more valuable than any other. They will just add a new dimension and allow you to give your cities certain advantages to fit your playing style.

The solution is adding a way to move cities without coins perhaps

You can't not have coins to move cities. Without the coins to help restrict constant movement, people would just bounce around the map all day long, creating a constant chaos as people teleport attack eachother.

But yeah, both kev and i agree, they could utilize the blank fields to do this. I'm sure they have a map of everyone, just a matter of filling in some of the blanks.

Other games have undergone intensive changes before as well and was worked around the existing user base.