Ideas for the food system

[rem123456]

Here are a few ideas that came to my mind. I hope the team finds some of them useful.
1. Regions should have different levels of fertility which remain constant over the years. In Attila the goat/cattle/wheat buildings were cool but all regions started with high fertility and ended with low fertility so it never made sense to go for the wheat, making the mechanic pointless. Here it would make sense to raise goats in low fertility regions and wheat in high fertility regions, like in real life. This would also contribute to the geopolitics, as in order to expand his cities the player would need to take some fertile regions to feed his empire.

2. Stockpiling food is a must, specially if we are going to have seasons. It doesn't make sense to have a huge food surplus in summer and a famine in winter. Is this possible?

3. End the Attila mechanic where regions starve with food deficits even if you have a huge surplus in your whole empire. From a historic point of view this doesn't make sense, as many regions, like Rome and Athens, imported food and many others, like Egypt and Sicily, exported it. From a gameplay point of view I prefered Rome II system where I could specialize regions as military centers, money making centers of food growing centers. Given that you only have 10 slots per province it sucks buiding farms all over the empire.

4. I'm not sure if this remains in Attila but in Rome II if a region was starving and you stopped taxing them the problem was solved, they didn't consume food anymore. Eliminating taxes should raise happiness and growth but not affect very much the food consumption.

5. Add edicts or other system for being able to buy or sell food in exchange for money. This is realistic as nations with food deficits but lots of money were able to simply import it. Assuming you cannot stockpile it this would also make a huge food surplus useful as you can turn it into an extra income. When I suggested this in DEI it was ABH2 who came with the idea about how to implement it so I imagine he will probably do the same in Attila.

6. If you can sell food why not sell the surplus of the other resources. I think in Attila if you don't have enough trade partners your resources surplus will go to waste. They should give you at least some money. It would also be cool to increase the resource consumption for creating and mantaining elite units and high tier buildings. Right now resources are not relevant enough in Attila. If the AI cannot handle it then she could get a free pass but the human player would still need to go around the map getting the necessary resources.

7. I have noticed that if you build a goat farm in a region then you cannot build another goat farm in the same region. You can either build a cattle or wheat farm in that same region or build the goat farm in another region from the same province. I think this should be removed, specially if we get low or high fertility provinces where you want to specialize in one type of farming.

8. IMHO the food consumption by armies should be raised, together with the penalties of famines for armies and cities.

9. This is not food related but I would like to have slaves back, and being able to sell them, like in the modded Rome II. The slavery mechanic is much cooler than the migration mechanic, especially because you can control it, how many slaves you take and how many you sell.

[Petellius]

Here are a few ideas that came to my mind. I hope the team finds some of them useful.
1. Regions should have different levels of fertility which remain constant over the years. In Attila the goat/cattle/wheat buildings were cool but all regions started with high fertility and ended with low fertility so it never made sense to go for the wheat, making the mechanic pointless. Here it would make sense to raise goats in low fertility regions and wheat in high fertility regions, like in real life. This would also contribute to the geopolitics, as in order to expand his cities the player would need to take some fertile regions to feed his empire.

2. Stockpiling food is a must, specially if we are going to have seasons. It doesn't make sense to have a huge food surplus in summer and a famine in winter. Is this possible?

3. End the Attila mechanic where regions starve with food deficits even if you have a huge surplus in your whole empire. From a historic point of view this doesn't make sense, as many regions, like Rome and Athens, imported food and many others, like Egypt and Sicily, exported it. From a gameplay point of view I prefered Rome II system where I could specialize regions as military centers, money making centers of food growing centers. Given that you only have 10 slots per province it sucks buiding farms all over the empire.

4. I'm not sure if this remains in Attila but in Rome II if a region was starving and you stopped taxing them the problem was solved, they didn't consume food anymore. Eliminating taxes should raise happiness and growth but not affect very much the food consumption.

5. Add edicts or other system for being able to buy or sell food in exchange for money. This is realistic as nations with food deficits but lots of money were able to simply import it. Assuming you cannot stockpile it this would also make a huge food surplus useful as you can turn it into an extra income. When I suggested this in DEI it was ABH2 who came with the idea about how to implement it so I imagine he will probably do the same in Attila.

6. If you can sell food why not sell the surplus of the other resources. I think in Attila if you don't have enough trade partners your resources surplus will go to waste. They should give you at least some money. It would also be cool to increase the resource consumption for creating and mantaining elite units and high tier buildings. Right now resources are not relevant enough in Attila. If the AI cannot handle it then she could get a free pass but the human player would still need to go around the map getting the necessary resources.

7. I have noticed that if you build a goat farm in a region then you cannot build another goat farm in the same region. You can either build a cattle or wheat farm in that same region or build the goat farm in another region from the same province. I think this should be removed, specially if we get low or high fertility provinces where you want to specialize in one type of farming.

8. IMHO the food consumption by armies should be raised, together with the penalties of famines for armies and cities.

9. This is not food related but I would like to have slaves back, and being able to sell them, like in the modded Rome II. The slavery mechanic is much cooler than the migration mechanic, especially because you can control it, how many slaves you take and how many you sell.

Okay here goes...

1. Good idea, this will likely be a thing and work well alongside our regional effects.

2. I don't think this is possible no, sorry.

3. I both agree and disagree with this. One of my major problems with the mechanic in Rome 2 was that if you cut off a provinces supply lines, it seemed fine. Blockading and besieging would not stop the province from needing more food and so starving.

4. I agree, but I'm not sure either havent actually played vanilla attila more than a couple of hours.

5. Yeah this is in our Rome 2 mod and will be in our Attila mod also.

6. I agree, I like the idea of needing certain areas for certain troops/techs it makes a lot of sense and makes those border disputes all the more important.

7. Yep makes sense, don't forget we'll be creating building chains from scratch so that might fix the issue anyway.

8. Yeah we already have a pretty dynamic food taking effect in Rome 2 and I guess we could increase it too. We'll see when it comes to balancing.

9. Erm, we'll see. I'd like it too but I'm not sure if we can.

[Alfonzo over Innsmouths]

In regards to this...thinking of the new DLCs from Attila, could we have a system where if grain is traded, you can get food, IF the faction possess a grain, fish or livestock building? Like, if you have a grain building, add a 'Gives +5% trade tariffs / grants bigger agricultural dsh, Grants 1 food to every faction trading with owner'. With increasing tiers, you give more food to trade partners, with livestock and food giving lower food bonuses. That way if trade agreements fail in some cases, it has a bigger effect on those trade partners.

[Petellius]

Not a bad idea at all, might even see if we can get trade to affect the chances of plague.

[rem123456]

Not a bad idea at all, might even see if we can get trade to affect the chances of plague.

That's not in vanilla already? I had read that it was so I always conquer trade partners with low sanitation.

[Augustusng]

Yes, you can already spread plagues through trade routes in vanilla. You just don't see it often because the AI has so many bonuses against disease.

[Petellius]

Yes, you can already spread plagues through trade routes in vanilla. You just don't see it often because the AI has so many bonuses against disease.

I've not put enough hours into vanilla to notice :/ Can't stand the battles.

[rem123456]

I've not put enough hours into vanilla to notice :/ Can't stand the battles.

Maybe I'm being selfish but I'm happy that you enjoy modding Attila more than playing Attila.

[Alfonzo over Innsmouths]

Yes, you can already spread plagues through trade routes in vanilla. You just don't see it often because the AI has so many bonuses against disease.

That....explains SO much. I kept getting random diseases despite having oodles of sanitation. Once I ended up getting dragged into a war against a trade partner and discovered they had the same disease I had. Didn't know you could do that.

[Totalknight]

Idea... So can the diplomacy be changed to add in regular tribute option like ROME1? How about adding an option for food instead of money? That would be great to emphasize the food demands of the empire. Because although i trade with Egypt, i dont get any food from them unless i own their lands.