Rivers and Bridges

[finger]

Since we already have a river to the right side of the screen why not add a way to create a river that bisects your land at start and end points you choose.

Bridges could act as a way for troops to cross quickly and enemy troops would have to fight to gain passage.

Enemy troops crossing the river would be slowed and the river could act as impassible terrain for siege units.

Buildings would remain unaffected by the river except for an art change and possibly add a minus damage modifier for troops trying to attack through a river.

Just a thought, let me know what you think.

 

[Lissanne]

Or maybe someday the possibility to bridge that river that already exists, and conquer the territory on the other side. I like your thoughts on the tactical hindrance a river could create.

 

[David Pasquinel]

Rivers and bridges could be some buildable 1x1 eye candy that could double as moats and river passageways. But they should never be buildable in enough quantities that you can river-wall your entire settlement.

Water bodies could be digged by the enemy sappers so the terrain can be passable again. When reaching Industrial, to reflect the tactical changes of the period, the sapper would build a bridge over the enemy river, instead of digging over. This function should give another use to this unit that breaks a tick of wall and drop dead.

 

[Bones64]

Perhaps you can make it like roads, except you collect food from fishing and in order to get a bonus the river must be connected to the main river at the bottom, this way it provides a defensive bonus, by either forcing the enemy to risk being slowed by the river or risk losing men by taking the bridges, as well as an economic bonus, by giving another source of food so that you don't have to worry about food intake, while preventing people from abusing the river defense/food bonus since it has to be connected to the main river. After all, the rivers should be a minor annoyance that shouldn't completely destroy an enemy assault, but rather hinder it.

 

[finger]

This is great feedback so far! This has me thinking they should add more terrain obstacles in general.
My experience with the original Age of Empires games is that cliffs create a wonderful natural advantage to defenses on higher ground.
Adding more dimensions to the game only creates more depth and keeps the game from falling into stagnant "best layout" ruts that keep the game from being interesting!

Also I really like the idea of fishing. It ties in well with many ancient cultures and could be an additional resource possibly one that does not
require so many villagers to harvest. (giving you something to do when your villagers are mostly occupied.