civ2civ3: Maglev and land transformation
I think this is meant as a request to change civ2civ3 rules, so adjusting subject so that bard is more likely to notice this.
Also; retargeting to 3.1 on the assumption that such rule changes are not wanted to 3.0 at this point, after the final beta is already out - but I'm not sure there would be technical (i.e. savegame compatibility) reasons why it would be impossible.
Reply To cazfi
but I'm not sure there would be technical (i.e. savegame compatibility) reasons why it would be impossible.
It would be more of an issue to move those actions the other way - later in the tech tree - as then there could be units doing an activity in the savegame that are not allowed by the (new) rules. Even then, those activities should only get cancelled, probably with a warning message.
I have not made patches for this ruleset in a long time. I still continue the development of my own version of the rules, but there have been so many changes in these years since the fork, that I no longer feel confident to introduce changes to the official version, that I no longer use to play.
All I can say is that civ2civ3 was born as a ruleset that could be used to play historical scenarios, and I think early use of land transformations would spoil any kind of map based on the real world. Imagine you are playing a WW2 scenario, where players can transform to land the ocean between europe and great britain to avoid the need for disembarking; or can transform the Alps or the Hymalayas to hills and then to plains, or the whole Sahara to grassland. I think it is better if this kind of "science fiction" transformations are not possible until the end of the tech tree.
About maglev, my opinion is that the more movement available for your units, the less room for any kind of tactical battle or wargaming. I also like it being at the end of the tech tree.
2 interesting possibilities are Maglev and land transformation but with the actual rules they are useless because they are usable only with atomic fusion and superconductor. When these technologies are discovered the game is almost finished. Thus it would be interesting to be able to use a little earlier.