The difference of using the fort is that, like a ship, it can be "placed" on the 3d sailing map. You don't have to add any graphics to existing locations, and you don't have to create anything that does not already exist in the game. Beaches do not have to be converted - you don't even need current locations. It is, like the ships, a self-contained unit. It can be placed anywhere.
There's a logical value to that as well - if starting a colony, you would start with a fort. It makes sense. Then, the town would need time and money to add on - i.e. add new "doors" as more pre-fab "rooms" (farms, factories, housing areas) are added. Unnecessary access - i.e. touring a wheat farm - could be dropped until whenever somebody feels like adding it. The weakness of this model is that your bases have no logical route of foot access to the rest of the island. But I would think the ability to place them anywhere, and as many as you want, would more than pay for that.
There's also the bonus that it is already programmed to exist in the 3d sailing world, complete with defensive capabilities and anchor points.
I'm trying to cut corners here. Don't design a whole world if somebody already has a pre-fab you can just drop in. Don't add a major plot line to explain something, when a few lines of conversation and "plop" they build you a castle. Or twenty castles, and start your own nation, if you have the money and your economic management is good enough to keep them running.
I discussed this idea a little more, but I started a new thread for it, as one - new towns and new areas in towns, yours or otherwise - did not, from a programming standpoint, seem to be exactly the same idea as dropping pre-fab forts along coastlines.
We can keep both ideas going until somebody gets one or the other (or both) worked out. It's not an either/or option.
Ron
There's a logical value to that as well - if starting a colony, you would start with a fort. It makes sense. Then, the town would need time and money to add on - i.e. add new "doors" as more pre-fab "rooms" (farms, factories, housing areas) are added. Unnecessary access - i.e. touring a wheat farm - could be dropped until whenever somebody feels like adding it. The weakness of this model is that your bases have no logical route of foot access to the rest of the island. But I would think the ability to place them anywhere, and as many as you want, would more than pay for that.
There's also the bonus that it is already programmed to exist in the 3d sailing world, complete with defensive capabilities and anchor points.
I'm trying to cut corners here. Don't design a whole world if somebody already has a pre-fab you can just drop in. Don't add a major plot line to explain something, when a few lines of conversation and "plop" they build you a castle. Or twenty castles, and start your own nation, if you have the money and your economic management is good enough to keep them running.
I discussed this idea a little more, but I started a new thread for it, as one - new towns and new areas in towns, yours or otherwise - did not, from a programming standpoint, seem to be exactly the same idea as dropping pre-fab forts along coastlines.
We can keep both ideas going until somebody gets one or the other (or both) worked out. It's not an either/or option.
Ron
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