historix69
Emperor
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2008
- Messages
- 1,402
After maybe a year of not playing Civ5 I recently started a new game of Civ5BNW on the giant world map (marathon) with lots of free space to settle in africa ... and I noticed once again that from the look and feel of the map I would naturally place cities at a small distance of maybe 4 tiles : city - 3 tiles empty - city - 3 tiles empty - city
For small cities below size 10 in ancient and classic era, this would look realistic and fine, would give fast access to all resource tiles and would effectively block AI from settling inside your claim. However cities placed so close have a huge overlap of about 50% territory, have all the penaltes, double upkeep, low pop, etc. and therefore in the end are less profitable. So I went with the wider spacing with 5-7 free tiles inbetween depending on geography and resources. Since small cities in Civ5BNW usually have small culture production compared to the capital with palace, wonders, etc. it takes forever for the cities to claim their 36 tiles (especially on marathon) ... in classic era the map looks like an archipelago, most tiles between cities are not claimed. It looks unnatural. (For example in the game the cities without overlap at the north african coast are Tunis (Karthago) - Tripolis - Bengasi - Port Said (Suez-canal))
The 4-tiles-spacing would be ok if there would be no penalties (science, culture, happiness) for the additional cities. In the beginning they would claim and work the land quickly. Later when cities grow and buildings become more expensive, only every second city would continue to grow to a metropolis using all 36 tiles while the other cities would stay small with basic buildings, representing more a village or provincal town (or fortress town guarding the border). When necessary, tiles would be swapped from the small towns to the metropolis. (Kind of urbanization process.)
I would really appreciate it when Civ5 would remove the penalties for small cities.
Civ3 and Civ4 allowed spacing in 4-5 tiles distance without overlap. In Civ5 you need 7 tiles distance to avoid overlap.
Civ3 and Civ4 used a culture range around the city, so (if I remember correctly) usually already after around 10 turns(?) of culture production, a city had control of the 2nd ring / the full fat cross. In Civ5 a city starts with one ring (6 tiles of 36 tiles) and the other 30 tiles have to be acquired one-by-one with increasing costs (culture/cash) which may take a lot of time for non-capital cities.
What is your "Feel Good Distance between Cities" if there were no penalties?
For small cities below size 10 in ancient and classic era, this would look realistic and fine, would give fast access to all resource tiles and would effectively block AI from settling inside your claim. However cities placed so close have a huge overlap of about 50% territory, have all the penaltes, double upkeep, low pop, etc. and therefore in the end are less profitable. So I went with the wider spacing with 5-7 free tiles inbetween depending on geography and resources. Since small cities in Civ5BNW usually have small culture production compared to the capital with palace, wonders, etc. it takes forever for the cities to claim their 36 tiles (especially on marathon) ... in classic era the map looks like an archipelago, most tiles between cities are not claimed. It looks unnatural. (For example in the game the cities without overlap at the north african coast are Tunis (Karthago) - Tripolis - Bengasi - Port Said (Suez-canal))
The 4-tiles-spacing would be ok if there would be no penalties (science, culture, happiness) for the additional cities. In the beginning they would claim and work the land quickly. Later when cities grow and buildings become more expensive, only every second city would continue to grow to a metropolis using all 36 tiles while the other cities would stay small with basic buildings, representing more a village or provincal town (or fortress town guarding the border). When necessary, tiles would be swapped from the small towns to the metropolis. (Kind of urbanization process.)
I would really appreciate it when Civ5 would remove the penalties for small cities.
Civ3 and Civ4 allowed spacing in 4-5 tiles distance without overlap. In Civ5 you need 7 tiles distance to avoid overlap.
Civ3 and Civ4 used a culture range around the city, so (if I remember correctly) usually already after around 10 turns(?) of culture production, a city had control of the 2nd ring / the full fat cross. In Civ5 a city starts with one ring (6 tiles of 36 tiles) and the other 30 tiles have to be acquired one-by-one with increasing costs (culture/cash) which may take a lot of time for non-capital cities.
What is your "Feel Good Distance between Cities" if there were no penalties?