Elemental Forums
Is it meant to work? It seems to be set up to allow it, with the nice yields right by forests and rivers., and you can snake out and build logging camps and piers, until you save/load then you can no longer build these improvements. There's a bug somewhere here.
I to find I can snake (pre loading a save game) and build pier/logging camp, but not after I load a save.
It highlights 2 points:
1. Ability to snake and build these improvements makes the game much better in my opinion (a previously much discussed point on these forums)
2. I cannot understate just how annoying it is that a loaded-up saved game is not actually the same game that was saved. Combined with save game corruption, wariness of loading up saves from in-game, and weird moves when loaded (I think the engine runs through a whole turn on load) we have a game where save/load is simply not reliable. This has got to be close to one of the first things a computer game needs to get right!
there's an option in the game that allows you to manually place buildings instead of the default auto placement. with this option, you can extend the reach of your city borders considerably by building, for example, towards a resource node or towards other cities. this technique is commonly referred to as "snaking"
It is also called snaking because you can place 2 cities, build them into a straight line until they touch and "teleport" troops through your city in the shape of an L or an I.
Likewise, you could use it to settle 2 or 3 squares away from a river or forest and still build those improvements if you "touch" them. You can also absorb outposts, and in older versions, swallow enemy outposts.
In the sandbox game, you are not supposed to be able to do this. I'm not sure about whether or not you're supposed to be able to do it in the campaign, though.
I personally like snaking my cities for map control and protecting resource nodes. The faster travel thing I don't really care about - if you want to do it, fine, but I'm not going to go out of my way to make it happen.
However, I also feel that the game mechanics should be consistent between the campaign and the sandbox game. If it isn't possible in the sandbox, it shouldn't be possible in the campaign, and if it's supposed to be possible in the campaign it should also be possible in the sandbox.
Part of the argument which was raised against snaking was that it made cities "ugly" and "unrealistic" and was abusive to the AI, so they removed the ability to snake cities to forests and rivers, but it's a single-player game - if I don't like how the cities I build look, then I ought to change how I build them, and if I don't like the way AI cities look I'll raze them (or I would, if it wouldn't salt the earth on which they stood and I don't currently have whatever spell makes tiles fertile). Plus, I would hope that I'm able to restrain myself from doing something that I consider so abusive to the AI that I no longer find the game fun if I do whatever action that was.
hmm yeah it should be consistent between sandbox and campaign. i used snaking for a while and stopped using it mostly because i couldn't stand the ugly "tentacle cities". i think the reason why they no longer allow snaking to unlock forest/river buildings is so people who don't want to do it (and also AI which is probably not capable of doing it efficiently) aren't at a big disadvantage. as it is now, it's a small bonus to use it (can save you a few connecting outposts and unlock a few nearby resources sooner without building monuments/townhalls). if it actually opens access to forest/river specials, it's a pretty big disadvantage if you don't use it.
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