Can you build too much of a good thing?

[alexandergreat]

I am surrounded by tons of hills inland and want to make this my production city. Is there a reason I shouldn't make each one of them a mine. Also, if there are some outside of my fat cross do they add to my production levels or are they wasted?

 

[Bhruic]

Well, the obvious answer is - if you can't work the tile, then it's useless. In order to make sure you can work all of the hills, you need enough food - so if you can't build some farms to make you extra food, you won't have enough to allow you to work all of the hills.

If you can't build farms, or enough farms, then you'll likely need to make some windmills to give you extra food.

Bh

 

[The Green Man]

Also, if there are some outside of my fat cross do they add to my production levels or are they wasted?

I wouldn't say the hills are wasted...you could potentially settle another city that could use them. However, a city can only get production from the tiles it can work: those within its fat cross. So if the hill isn't within the fat cross of any of your cities, then mining it will do nothing for you.

 

[Leeksoup]

I wouldn't say the hills are wasted...you could potentially settle another city that could use them. However, a city can only get production from the tiles it can work: those within its fat cross. So if the hill isn't within the fat cross of any of your cities, then mining it will do nothing for you.

Actually, mining those hills produces a 0.01% chance/turn it'll spawn a mined resource, gold, silver, iron or copper.

 

[Fuzzz]

Actually, mining those hills produces a 0.01% chance/turn it'll spawn a mined resource, gold, silver, iron or copper.

This number should be higher, I always mine hills which are whithin my cultural borders but not in my cities' fat crosses and I've never gotten an extra resource.

 

[johnny_rico]

This number should be higher, I always mine hills which are whithin my cultural borders but not in my cities' fat crosses and I've never gotten an extra resource.

The % chance of gaining a resource only occurs if you're working the tile. I'm not certain if the chance is cumulative, but you do have to be working the tile, to discover a resource in the mine.

 

[Fuzzz]

The % chance of gaining a resource only occurs if you're working the tile. I'm not certain if the chance is cumulative, but you do have to be working the tile, to discover a resource in the mine.

Do you mean keep a worker on top of that hill? I mine the hills and then use my worker for stn else or is that not good enough?

 

[oyzar]

you ahve to have a city workign the title...

 

[Fuzzz]

you ahve to have a city workign the title...

that explains a lot

 

[Quetzal513]

johnny rico and oyzar are right, you'll never pop a new resource from a mine that is outside of a city's fat cross or that is inside but is not being actively milked for hammers by the city's residents. The workers have nothing to do with it after the mine is built. It has to be one of the active terrain tiles that the city is working. Go to the city screen and tinker with the tiles, or turn on show tile yield (ctrl+y) and the // that are larger and bright represent those that are actively being worked by cities. Those are the only tiles that have a chance of revealing a new resource under a mine.

 

[Fuzzz]

Yes, now I understand why it's never happened, I just thought I'd found a use for the mountains which were in my cultural borders but not in my cities' fat crosses.

 

[Bradlius]

Yes, now I understand why it's never happened, I just thought I'd found a use for the mountains which were in my cultural borders but not in my cities' fat crosses.

Well, if the hills have a resource, but they are outside your fat cross, I think you can mine it and gain access to that resource (Iron, Copper, Gold, etc) provided you build a road or otherwise have access to it. So those tiles are not totally useless to you. It does seem to have to be within your cultural borders, if I remember right.

 

[Idlenessss]

You have to be careful about where u put your cities, thats all. its pretty common for no food but high hammer/commerce resources to be next to eachother, and u need to look around them and find decent food resource within a city production range, and can often work both with 2 different cities, properly situated. if one is not availible then the only way u could get a city to work both tiles is with the help of a merchant or two, which actually I find myself doing a lot.

 

[Fuzzz]

I always build cities near food resources or just on fertile places. Eventually your cities will become productive or gain a lot of income, but those are worries for later.
= + +

 

[Lord Sandwich]

You shouldn't just mine every hill in sight. You should consider windmills for the additional food and commerce. Also, there is the opportunity cost of not building roads, farms, forts, villages and workshops somewhere else or perhaps more importantly not building them somewhere else RIGHT NOW.

 

[clinton]

Quick question: Is that 0.01% modified by game speed, or are you much more likely to pop some free resource from hills in a marathon speed game?

 

[GinandTonic]

Quick question: Is that 0.01% modified by game speed, or are you much more likely to pop some free resource from hills in a marathon speed game?

I would love to know the answer to this one too.

If it is modified by game speed then, like barbs, it doesnt seem to be calibrated on marathon.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Quick question: Is that 0.01% modified by game speed, or are you much more likely to pop some free resource from hills in a marathon speed game?

Not modified by game speed - the relevant code is CvPlot::doImprovement. Probabilities are set by iDiscoverRand in CIV4ImprovementsInfo.xml (lower numbers make discovery more likely). CvPlot::doImprovement is only called when CvPlot::isBeingWorked returns true - in other words, a local city must be using the tile.

The odds are actually a bit higher than 0.01%/turn, because each minable resource that you know about gets checked independently. In other words, at the beginning of the game, the odds are really about 0.03%/turn, because there are three die rolls (one for each luxury metal) that might give you a resource. As you discover more reveal techs, you get more rolls per turn.

Likewise, the probabilities of popping a resource aren't quite equal, because the resources are checked in a predermined order, and the game does not permit popping two resources at the same time. Which also means that the 0.03% estimate for the beginning of the game is a touch high.

And of course all of these numbers assume that the pRNG is actually doing its job.

I think that covers everything.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

The % chance of gaining a resource only occurs if you're working the tile. I'm not certain if the chance is cumulative, but you do have to be working the tile, to discover a resource in the mine.

The only real benefit to mining hills outside of a city's fat cross is to cover future resource discoveries. Even though there may be nothing on that hill now, it may have Uranium you just can't see, so if your worker's idle, mine the hill now so you don't have to later ... just in case.

My 2c.

 

[alexandergreat]

some great insight, thanks