Rental Land

[TGLS]

Maybe, as a measure to stop AI companies from sitting on land, land would be rentable to players. However, until a period of times passes (1 year?) since a building has been on it, the owner would have exclusive building rights. Rent should be defined as a percentage of land value (5%?). Even still, players should be able to rent land at their own option.

[Kristo]

I like the idea...

Also - leasing the land - like for 10 years... and then it'll become yours.

[Esoteric Rogue]

That all sounds pretty complex to me. I'd hate to be the one to program an AI to consider all the nuances to decided where to build, such as maybe you wont pick the best spot because you don't want to pay rent to your biggest competitor.

I don't understand how turning land into direct income via collecting rent would solve the proposed problem of "AI companies sitting on land", I do believe it rather encourages buying land for the purpose of renting.

As an aside, I haven't seen that "AI companies sitting on land" has been a problem in my games, but that might be because my games have mostly been short (10-15y), although I have run a few tests over 50 years. If you wish to further explain the situation to me, could you share a save game illustrating that problem? Thanks.