Anyone else frustrated by where stations are placed?

It annoys me how a station sometimes take up a spot just outside your city which has many resources. Look at this picture: (I'm playing as the Chinese nation)



I was going to find a city right where that station is, Band Musa. Instead it takes up a critical spot within the center of all the cities. I then quit the game due to this.

Not as frustrated as the AI get I imagine!

Seriously though it can be annoying. You can do what the AI does (usually late game) when they covet those lands, and take them out military-wise. Or build close enough to it and buy tiles towards those with the resources you would like.

I've had it happen several times. The last time the station plopped down as my settler was heading there. It had a ton of oil and titanium. Then BAM!

As Victus 75 said--build as close as you can and buy as many tiles towards those resources as you can.

If you are afraid of stations taking your desired territory (and you should be!) it can be a good idea to place your free propserity settler 8-10 tiles away from your capital. This way you block a huge area of land from stations (since current settings are MIN_STATION_RANGE_TO_CITY of 6 and MIN_STATION_RANGE_TO_OUTPOST of 5), while still allowing you to place additional cities inbetween.

And yes - random station popup is one of the most annoying things in the game, considering that they don't even use the territory like CIV5 city states.

Hum, and this thread is even after the first patch increased minimum distance for stations spawning from your cities. (Those numbers were considerably lower on initial CD release)

GAGA Extrem said:

If you are afraid of stations taking your desired territory (and you should be!) it can be a good idea to place your free propserity settler 8-10 tiles away from your capital. This way you block a huge area of land from stations (since current settings are MIN_STATION_RANGE_TO_CITY of 6 and MIN_STATION_RANGE_TO_OUTPOST of 5), while still allowing you to place additional cities inbetween.

And yes - random station popup is one of the most annoying things in the game, considering that they don't even use the territory like CIV5 city states.

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Could you place a soldier exactly where you want your next city to be and a station won't spawn near the soldier?

Build 2 rangers and a soldier and take out the station. Problem solved.

Wouldn't have done you much good anyway. Ayaan is already pretty close to that station's spot.

Leathaface said:

Could you place a soldier exactly where you want your next city to be and a station won't spawn near the soldier?

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No, that doesn't help.

I got station that spawn in 1 tile land, and it blocked the whole trade route. The only way to attack it is head-on against 1 tile land in front of it since it surrounded by coast and canyon. I just hope they are using pre-designated spawn point like in Civ 5. Station in BE look. . .less useful than in Civ 5 since they not expand their territory, and their bonus didn't level to the mid and late game.

Leathaface said:

Anyone else frustrated by where stations are placed?

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Yes - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=13572495&postcount=36

It's only a problem when it's a +food station Then it must die.

LORD ORION said:

It's only a problem when it's a +food station Then it must die.

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I've decided that I hate the first "Authorization" for a station because it's still entirely possible I will get something I hate and it will eat up an expansion site.

Option 3
Do not approve either station

I just gave up a game after my third and fourth expansion sites were gobbled up by stations. One station alone, blocked me from two of the five petroleum resources in my territory, along with copper and fruit resources.

Nearby was one of three "titanium" sites in my territory, on a peninsula, which would have been absorbed by natural city growth. The other two titanium sites in my territory bordered on other civs' territories and occupying either would have led to an early war.

I waited for the dust to settle around and the reviews to come in on BE, so am still learning the quirks of the game. I have not found any early game military advantages such as "Iron Working" in Civ 5, so consider it counter productive to expend precious resources on building up a large army right away.

It does however appear to be a deliberate strategy of the AI to consume the best sites - but it does nothing to enhance play, when strategic resources are swept off the table. From what I am able to observe so far - occupying prime expansion sites seems to be the principal effect of stations.

I am still not satisfied that I gain greater benefit from establishing my first trade route with a station, than I do from creating my own internal trade route. I think my next move is to start taking them out.

Also, if you don't want to take them out militarily, just wait, if none trades with them for a while they shut down, and while it won't work for the OP it does most of the time

You can also make them spawn further away by increasing the MIN_STATION_RANGE_TO_CITY value in the GlobalDefines.xml - 8 seems about right, doesn't block a close expansion and leaves stations enough legal space to land inbetween..

The only solution is to have stations be awarded to players as special settlers who can settle where they wish.

lilgamefreek said:

The only solution is to have stations be awarded to players as special settlers who can settle where they wish.

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Great idea!

lilgamefreek said:

The only solution is to have stations be awarded to players as special settlers who can settle where they wish.

Click to expand...

Doesn't work for those stations you don't have a choice of selecting which one you want in the neighbourhood. Granted those are usually quite a way out, and have more chance later on to be destroyed by an AI.

I think things would be much better if:

1) Stations spawned 8 tiles from cities instead of only 6. (9 just starts to be a bit too much and would start to push them off the map.)

2) Stations only blocked settlements within a 2-tile radius around themselves instead of 3. (They already do only 2 tiles between other stations. Also, aesthetically, having only a 1-tile radius would look strange.)

3) Perhaps the abandonment turn timer can be decreased a little bit more if nobody trades with them. (If I remember correctly, I think it's 45... maybe make it 30?)

and most importantly...

4) Make their presence worthwhile; make trading with them a very good idea.

- - - - -

Here's a little diagram. You get an average spacing distance of 4 tiles between your capital and expansion cities, with some flexibility to nudge it a tile further or closer. Plus, unlike city-states, stations don't control any other tiles, so an expansion city would only be losing that single, bare tile that it's on.