Can they be disabled?

Why are they obsessed with the coast?

I hate them.

Yes, go into options and tick off Sid's Tips.

Reasons to settle on the coast are many, as are to settle in land... just make certain that you don't settle 1 tile off the coast, unless you have a good reason for it. It wastes the water tiles.

Than ks KOssin,

Yeah, I know there are trade reason etc, to settle on the coast, but the game sometimes try to send me there when it will take three moves. So, off I toddle to find a worse place than I set out from.


It's especially annoying if you are playing a civ that doesn't start with fishing - like the Chinese.

Even if you don't turn off the blue circles, just keep telling yourself "they are lying to me, ignore that circle." It might OCCASIONALY lead to a good spot, but like 80% of the time it's just not efficient. I think it takes into account being on a hill for extra protection and whatnot, which, for the AI, is probably important.

I have Sid's tips on? I could have sworn I had it off. I see the blue circles though.

I use them as a guide to where NOT to settle. If i am considering between two point and one has a blue circle then i settle the other one.

Be content knowing that you always have such a thoroughly incompetent staff, that it is necessary for you to continue holding power for about 6000 years.

I use them as a guide to where NOT to settle. If i am considering between two point and one has a blue circle then i settle the other one.

Is there any serious reason? (If you are serious at all)? :)

The option you need is "No unit action recommendations". I think Sid's Tips are the little bit of text under the tooltip for a unit, like "Use this unit to counter mounted units" for spearmen. And Advisor Popups are the prompts such as "Sire - our empire is ready to expand!" during a turn.

Is there any serious reason? (If you are serious at all)? :)

Either he's being facetious, or he's screwing himself over to avoid following the blue circles. I find that they usually suggest reasonable spots, given the information available at the time, and occasionally suggest really excellent spots that I might not have considered otherwise.

The sensible attitude to blue circles is to look at what they're suggesting, and weigh it up against the spot you already had picked. If you're any good at the game, your original choice will nearly always be the better one.

lately i've seen that blue circles fit my idea about where to place my cities, so while they're not importent, when you know how to place cities, they don't suck more than that

It has also been suggested that the blue circles for settlers, since they are the same logic used by the AI players, also know the location of resources you have not yet revealed. So you have the possibility that the site is suggested because there will be something like iron or oil available there in future.

The problem with Blue circles is they do not take into account other cities. Or the long term uses.

The problem with Blue circles is they do not take into account other cities. Or the long term uses.

Depends what you mean. The blue circles do update depending on where other cities are placed, so they do to an extent take into account other cities.

If I'm tossing up between two neighbouring locations for a city, and one has a blue circle, I'll settle the blue circle one at least 2/3rds of the time because it's likely to have been calculated by the computer to give higher yields.

Mostly I ignore the blue circles. But I leave them on because occasionally they take into account something I missed. Sometimes I don't see the silk in the forest or the bananas in the jungle.

Sometimes I don't see the silk in the forest or the bananas in the jungle.
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Yes, go into options and tick off Sid's Tips.

Reasons to settle on the coast are many, as are to settle in land... just make certain that you don't settle 1 tile off the coast, unless you have a good reason for it. It wastes the water tiles.It wastes the water tiles?:dubious: I always thought it was because it will never have those juice overseas trade routes that coastal cities will get later in the game, plus the fact you cannot build ships...

You also can't build Lighthouses, which means you're working a net loss on food if you work a coast tile. Compared to breaking even by moving one tile closer, plus all the other benefits of a coastal city, it's much better to settle on the coast.

From my observation of where the blue circles show up, it would appear that the algorithm is based on a distribution of food across the maximum number of cities. that is to say, we humans would want to dot-map and grab 3 or 4 high yield food pits in one city, while the blue circles want you to distribute those food pits across multiple cities.

In my limited experience, more often than not you're sent to a worse place.

Here's an example - I sent my scout to look at a suggested circle:
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4808/13024175hm2.jpg

Nothing showing, but I thought it can't be that bad.

I checked WB.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8589/16885857ma7.jpg

Horses!

No food at all, I can't even build a farm there.....

Err, I am pretty sure I've read it here more than once so I will tell you. You should search for it though to be sure.

Completely ignore the blue circles when starting the game(i.e. first settler)! For two reasons it seems. First they seem to only calculate the best location on the map you have currently explored! If it is true it is obvious that with so much unexplored map the blue dot location will normally be bs.
Second, your start location is generated by the map to be "above average". That is the reason your capital is normally very well developed and with many resources. So if you settle too far you might miss some hidden resources "hand" placed there, like iron or horses.

That is all based on my small knowledge of CIV though. You better check it around.

From what I've read (mostly regarding the Unofficial Patch's attempts to modify start locations), the blue circles do not take into account resources you haven't found yet, but your starting location does.

The blue circle isn't necessarily the best city location. It just fits in with the algorithm's overall city plan.

And it doesn't know horses are there.

The ai city placement algorithm is useful to pay attention to. I'm almost certain it adds up the total 'value' of all the tiles, and takes into account recources you havent revealed.
If the ai values a city that has desert/tundra over one with graslands/plains, its probobly because of hidden recources.
The biggest disadvantage to ai city placement is that it doesnt consider city specialization, just kinda settling every city so it's decent at everything.