Hi
Im planning a medieval city/castle builder in the vains of stronghold, anno and banished.
Water is needed for civilian houses and some processes (brewing ale etc). Farms need fertile soil to boost productivity. How are these connected? Im thinking water will work like this (to have two sources of it):
1. Build wells. Habitants fetch water from it. It must be replenished so 1000 guys cannot get their water from the same well.
2. Get water from fresh water (streams, lakes). Is it strange to demand a "water-station" building or should the habitants just get water from the waterline? A water-station building could work like a bottomless well, making coding it easier but it seems a bit odd.
Soil fertility
Fertility come in approx. 5 levels from none to excellent. Higher fertility means higher yield (more output of food/goods per year). Is fertility always higher close to surface (fresh) water?
Question: Should there also be a "heatmap" for water availability? So that wells are better in some areas? Would such a parameter always correlate to the heatmap (fertility) for farms? Im not sure it's realistic but it could be a good gameplay choice: do i use this "good" land for farms or a residential area?
I do feel fertility for farms is a must for the game i'm planning, but may skip it for wells to simplify things. How is this visualized? It's a 2d game with simple top-down graphics. Maybe fertility can be shown by density of grass or grass color? I would prefer to not use a modern "heatmap overlay" like many modern city builders do (like sim city or cities skylines) as they doesnt feel very medieval.
Any comments? Examples of how games solves similar issues?
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