Ports, anchorages and towns.

[magian]

These are really two distinct wishes, but I've chosen to lump them together.

Firstly, I'm not a big fan of the way ships are upgraded right now. It is fiddly and feels quite game-y to me. I would split ports into two types; anchorages, and (uhhh) ports. Anchorages would be identified by little anchors on some coastal areas and would function much like our current ports (I suppose you could just use the same wharf graphic too). Ports would be coastal settlements with piers jutting out into the water. They could provide some income, but their major role would be shipbuilding. The number of ports controlled by a player would correspond to a specific ship type. So, if you control no ports, you get the crappy default ship, if you control many ports you get a much better ship. This has the advantage that a map-creator can decide how naval-y inclined each side is when designing a map (by giving that side access to more ports).

My second wish is towns. It would be nice to have a gold site that could be fortified and also serve as a vector point (perhaps only 1 or 2 vectors). It could be called a town, or a keep or whatever.

[LPhillips]

Towns sounds kinda neat. Maybe call them "Keeps"? I'd like to see the option to raze/destroy gold sites more than anything else related to them.

The port/anchorage thing sounds like a learning curve issue. It's also a major pain to balance, as right now you can freely combat someone's sea unit production by purchasing better ships for your powerful units.

[magian]

I think there is already a fairly steep learning curve with the current shipbuilding system. I actually didn't even realize you could improve ships for several games (until i coincidentally ended a unit's move on a port). I think my ports idea would at least be more visible (since there would be a port structure on the map). Clicking on a port could open a window informing players of its function.

I am actually still a bit confused by the current ships. Does the middle ship cost 2 to move on the open ocean and only 1 on shore?