Topic: Building plots

Archaon_Ever_Salty wrote:

it would be nice if there was a different overlay that simply showed you the maximum plots on the map without you needing to capture the land first or to check if you have a large plot under one of your buildings you missed because it was a medium plot on your border

+1

It frustrates me that one sometimes needs to demolish a medium or small building to check whether it is taking up or blocking a large plot. I can see the land so I should be able to know the underlying geography.

Thinking...
I do not think we should be told the maximum plots for the entire map, but for land that we have explored.

I can understand the game should not show land plots sizes outside the explored area, but should do so for land that is or has been visible. Perhaps use a coloured '?' for the plots near the limits of visibility where there has been insufficient exploration to be sure what the space is, instead of the coloured flag. Areas that have been explored but are not visible should still show the plot sizes because we have explored them so we do know the geography.
Scouts: land explored by a scout should also have these plot size flags. That would usefully enhance the value of scouts, even if much of the initial exploration just showed coloured '?' markers.
Ships: Ditto for ships that sail round an island and give us an idea of what can be built on the coastline. And port plots should be highlighted too; these currently disappear when the exploring ship sails away.
'Lost people': people that wander around lost when buildings / roads are destroyed. I think they should not be gathering this intelligence as the run around panicking, although they still expand what has been seen. That prevents using that as a cheap scouting technique, while still providing their current "I think I saw a building and some woods" level of knowledge.

When the fog of war is turned off in the game settings, then the plot size icons would be shown for the entire map from the start, since the entire map is visible.

Not being able to determine the plot size of a piece of land we can see, without demolishing buildings, removing roads or wastefully clearing it of resources, 'feels' wrong.

Suggestion...
A key or display option that:
- turns off the normal flags that show what can be built in the current circumstances (just as the SPACE key does), and
- puts a coloured flag everywhere that a building could be erected if the land was cleared, with a coloured '?' if there is insufficient explored data to be sure that nothing larger could be built, and
- display these markers OVER existing buildings.
- Unexplored areas would have no icon displayed on them.
- Mountain areas could either have nothing, or a marker to say where a mine could have been built.

Implementation idea...
Perhaps pressing SPACE could go through all three states in a cycle:
1. turn off all flags
2. turn on build site size icons
3. turn off build size icons and turn back on the What You Can Really Build Now flags
4. cycles back to 1.

Using the SPACE key for this would mean not require adding another keyboard shortcut to learn, and SPACE already means "Show me the flags" so feels like the right place for this function anyway.

Upsides and Downsides...
↑ Reduced frustration. ↓ Changes to how we play now because more information is readily available.
↑ Knowing where to attack based on what land is worth fighting for. ↓ Defenders may be slightly more vulnerable because someone wanting their land can see what the most valuable patches are and what military buildings they could build on your land.
↑ Scouts become more valuable over time as they fill out more of the map and so will be used more. ↓ Defenders may realise an attack is coming because foreign scouts will start appearing.
↑ Towers (buildings that see further than they conquer) will become more valuable. ↓ Planning secure expansion will get more fiddly; do I want visibility or strength?
↑ Being able to choose between visibility or strength or the cost of doing both will add to the strategic gameplay. ↓ More micromanagement of soldier development and movement.
↑ Increasing visibility increases the economic and defensive aspects of the game. ↓ "But I wanna play a war game!"
↑ Expansion will be more targeted and efficient and therefore faster. ↓ Gameplay will change as opponents will be expanding faster.
↑ Site use will be more efficient and easier. ↓ More micromanagement?
↑ More fun and in-depth engagement from planning how the economy is going to grow and expand over time. ↓ Harder for newbies to defend against smart experienced players.
↑ Defeating the AI will be easier. ↓ Trying to adapt the AI to also utilise this extra information would be a huge task.

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