colonies and second capitals?

[johnny5000]

I just got BtS so I haven't gotten far enough in the game yet to find this out for myself, but I'm curious about it...


The info page says:
"In addition to the regular maintenance costs, you will now also incur a significant additional cost for cities that aren't on the same continent as your capital."

Will a second capital (Forbidden Palace or Versailles) in one of the overseas cities remove the need to turn the cities into colonies? Or does it need to be the one-and-only real capital?

And how does it work for an archipelago map?

 

[kazapp]

Cities on the continent of your capital will still have lower base costs.

FP or V will mitigate the higher costs for cities on other continents just as they will mitigate cost for cities on your home continent, but won't remove them altogether.

Whether you will find yourself financially compelled to spawn a colony depends on many factors, but I don't think building the FP or V is enough to make the sting of the new BtS costs go away for good.

Consider building the FP/V at the other end of your home continent, making a colony out of each city cluster placed on other continents, and you should stand to gain substantial amounts of money not spent on city maintenance!

 

[hoopsnerd]

Yeah... these costs get REALLY high also. I made a "super-city" (pop. 43) on a different continent from mine just to see what the costs would be... My corporation payments alone (Sid's Sushi, Mining, inc.) were over 300 gold PER TURN. Overall maintenance was costing me about 500 gold per turn... granted, I was running environmentalism.

 

[Legendre]

I was actually worried about this too, and I made a short post about it a while ago. The forbidden palace and verseilles don't remove the additional colony costs, but still make an overseas colony viable - at least from my own experience. Without one, the costs can get astronomical. I had a similar experience as hoopsnerd, I had already used both extra capitals in my primary empire on a terra map and when I went to colonize the new world, after 6 or so cities, I went from +400 gold a turn to -100 gold a turn. In a more recent game, I was playing as Pericles and only used up Verseilles in an early conquest and then spent a considerable time just developing defensively. I built a small 3 city colony in the New World and plopped the Forbidden palace there since I didn't have anywhere else to really put it. Costs were looking fine so I expanded and built a pretty large 7 city colony there that became very productive and turned out a nice profit while giving me more resources. I would say for any other miscellaneous colonies, just grant independence and use them as trading partners - I usually like merchantilism so having more vassals = more gold, but you can definitely hold onto 1 substantial colony.

 

[Pikkis]

Yeah... these costs get REALLY high also. I made a "super-city" (pop. 43) on a different continent from mine just to see what the costs would be... My corporation payments alone (Sid's Sushi, Mining, inc.) were over 300 gold PER TURN. Overall maintenance was costing me about 500 gold per turn... granted, I was running environmentalism.

Did you have Courthouse in that city? If you did, I think maintenance in that situation is too high and should be decreased in future patches.

 

[Infantry#14]

If your oversea empire is bigger and juicier than your home continent, you may considering relocating your palace on the other continent and build FP or Versaille on the original continent.

 

[Midknight]

I was playing the 1000AD scenario as Ragnar. I conquered or settled most of the new world and was getting eaten alive by maintenance costs. So I moved my capital to Tenochtitlan... my income went from -200g per turn to +1311g per turn.

 

[hoopsnerd]

Did you have Courthouse in that city? If you did, I think maintenance in that situation is too high and should be decreased in future patches.

Yeah, I had a courthouse. It was cutting down my maintenance significantly... I agree that it's too much, I mean... it would be cool if forming a colony wasn't the same as having a vassal, but since colony=happy vassal... it's broke.

 

[Black_Waltz]

There is a post on the forums detailing the specifics that affect the overseas maintenance. The main crux is that although Courthouse/Forbidden Palace will lower the distance maintenance it won't affect the new "Overseas" penality - which also increases exponetionally as you found new cities on your oversea continent until you finally get to the point where it will be more economical to let them break away as a colony.

 

[meatwad4289]

first game of BtS i played.. I took over Babylon on another continent, they WERE HUGE! and within a few turns... Former Babylon expanded... and I got hit with high maintenace costs.. I created a Colony believing it would allwo me mroe control than a vassal, then, I won diplo... by accident lol... Anyways, I continue and within 20 turns, The new colony broke away from me because they were 65% my size(like I said Babylon WAS HUGE! I had to repeat the effort and take the cities back, got them back... once again hit with the cost. i quit.

 

[Tetsuru]

You should have spawned two Colonies, one at each side of the continent.

 

[johnny5000]

Yeah... these costs get REALLY high also. I made a "super-city" (pop. 43) on a different continent from mine just to see what the costs would be... My corporation payments alone (Sid's Sushi, Mining, inc.) were over 300 gold PER TURN. Overall maintenance was costing me about 500 gold per turn... granted, I was running environmentalism.

Ridiculous maintenance costs were one of the things I hated about Civ 3 and were glad that Civ 4 didn't have that problem...

at least there's the option to create colonies now.