Building Civ Centers: Introduce Settlers

[dolomiti]

In 0ad it's possible to build a civ center with standard units on any free territory. You do not have to plan how to move your ressources beforehand. It is more realistic if ressources such as stone and wood need to be moved to the new location before you start building. I suggest implementing this with a special settler unit, that carries some ressources, and maybe a flag. Ideally a part of the ressource cost needs to be payed when recruiting the settler. I imagine the settler to be slower than other units and requiring some protection from standard units. Building can happen as it is right now. If the resources are lost should the settler be killed is up to debate.

This introduces a new gameplay mechanic, where it is helpful to spot the enemies settlers and avoid the building of a civ center by targetting them. This way it's not only construction time defining difficulty of building a new civ center. IMHO currently it is to easy to build a civ center when you have the resources.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

It could potentially be interesting to have civil centers build themselves like forts in AoE3. That would make it impossible to build a civil center unless you already had one though.

[alpha123]

This introduces a new gameplay mechanic, where it is helpful to spot the enemies settlers and avoid the building of a civ center by targetting them.

We basically already have that mechanic, in that it's already possible -- and frequently done -- to spot enemy units moving to build a new civ center and taking them out. Reading your opponent is an important part of any strategy game. Currently it's not particularly difficult to tell when your opponent is moving to build a new CC, especially since foundations aren't hidden before building is started.

IMHO currently it is to easy to build a civ center when you have the resources.

Especially when you're playing against the AI which doesn't try to stop you.