I like the idea of being able to construct settlements and upgrade/degrade
them by construction, public works, pillaging, whatever. As far as limiting
the number of cities is concerned, I would prefer to see a fixed _ratio_
between cities and smaller supporting population centers; something in line
with Central Place Theory etc. Of course, that means you need to consider
the size of the population, size of the local economy, migration of
population, and all of those factors; it also means that you can't easily
create cities, but only provide inducements for people to move in.
You also need to consider the timescale. Over the course of an open-ended
game like Olympia it should be possible for people to create cities, but
breeding the people to fill them takes a lot longer than building the
structures.
And, one final note: if you put these factors in you really have to put in
a variable availability of peasants. You would have more to choose from
the larger the settlement was.
-- Carl Burke cburke@mitre.org