Why aren't there any ports near the Caspian Sea?

[PiriReis]

Why aren't there any seaports in provinces located near the Caspian Sea?

I know you wont have much use when it comes to ships, however building a port in a province brings +25% income (if I am not wrong). Also if you have COT (Astrakhan) near the Caspian Sea, you will not get the colonist bonus.

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AND there were actually ports in the Caspian Sea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Sea

(off topic: by the way a sea canal in the Kalmykia province would have been great for a link with the Black Sea)

 

[AndrewT]

... building a port in a province brings +25% income (if I am not wrong). Also if you have COT (Astrakhan) near the Caspian Sea, you will not get the colonist bonus.

Having a port on a landlocked sea would not bring the trade benefits of a port on the Med or Atlantic, so why should you get the bonuses? The reason you get those bonuses is because long-range travel is now easier for merchants, sending a cargo ship the length of the Caspian hard counts.

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

Then you end up with AI building the bulk of its fleet in the Caspian Sea.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Having a port on a landlocked sea would not bring the trade benefits of a port on the Med or Atlantic, so why should you get the bonuses? The reason you get those bonuses is because long-range travel is now easier for merchants, sending a cargo ship the length of the Caspian hard counts.

I think it is still big enough to greatly cut land distances. The main issue, I think, would be as others have pointed out - The A.I. would've spammed their navy there (this also happens to A.I.'s in Civilization 4 where gigantic navies would've been built in tiny lakes.

 

[Ruanek]

I think it is still big enough to greatly cut land distances. The main issue, I think, would be as others have pointed out - The A.I. would've spammed their navy there (this also happens to A.I.'s in Civilization 4 where gigantic navies would've been built in tiny lakes.

It would cut distances/travel times. But not nearly as much as trans-Mediterranean shipping routes.

 

[unmerged(204522)]

surely the economic benefits are the same as those gained from lakes/rivers which are covered by the "canal" province improvement?

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

I think it is still big enough to greatly cut land distances. The main issue, I think, would be as others have pointed out - The A.I. would've spammed their navy there (this also happens to A.I.'s in Civilization 4 where gigantic navies would've been built in tiny lakes.

This was a big issue in Victoria 2 for awhile as well. The British Navy would build dreadnoughts in Lake Winnipeg. D:

 

[unmerged(389675)]

Then you end up with AI building the bulk of its fleet in the Caspian Sea.

That would be hilarious. But probably not desirable.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

surely the economic benefits are the same as those gained from lakes/rivers which are covered by the "canal" province improvement?

Problem is Caspian sea is a pretty big lake. If it's Aral sea, then that's different.

 

[Memento Mori]

Well, honestly a few times I would want to build transports in there. And for the AI, adding a few lines sounding like "IF province XXXX THEN NOT BUILD NAVY", where the province would be a C-sea port would do the trick.

 

[BritNavFan]

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[George LeS]

The real reason there are no ports on the Caspian Sea or on the Great Lakes is that the game is hard coded so that all sea regions (that can have ports on them) have to be connected to each other, or Bad Things Happen. You'd need to change the .exe to change this, and the developers apparently don't think that's the highest priority use of their time, which seems pretty justifiable to me.

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Another problem with the idea is that, if you start at a later date, pirates will show up in the lake before you can build anything.

 

[PiriReis]

Andrew I still think that there should be ports there, the Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. Memento Mori pointed out the ships thing can be fixed too.

 

[Grubnessul]

Ports would be nice there, but yea. The AI would mass its ships there with no way out. IIRC that was the original explanation given either here, the Collectors Edition forum or the manual.

 

[Fishman786]

On topic: Andrew I still think that there should be ports there, the Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. Memento Mori pointed out the ships thing can be fixed too.

Geologically, the Caspian is generally regarded as a a landlocked sea since it contains trapped oceanic features like continental shelves and also probably oceanic crust. Moreover, it's a trapped remnant of the Paratethys sea, an ancient seaway which was closed by tectonic forces a few million years ago.



As for ports: yes, in theory the Caspian should have them. However, ports in landlocked seas mess up colonial range, and as such they are not included in the game.

 

[Asterion]

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OP--the AI can't really handle its oceanic ports all that well, so I don't see how it could handle landlocked ones.

 

[AndrewT]

Andrew I still think that there should be ports there, the Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. Memento Mori pointed out the ships thing can be fixed too.

Feel free to post this suggestion in the 5.2 beta forum, but I am not going to report it as a bug. It just doesn't matter, does not help the game as an enjoyable historical simulation experience, and creates more problems than it solves.

 

[unmerged(204522)]

you could suggest it on the victoria forums, since Russia actually used the caspian sea for an amphibious invasion in the 1850`s