National Parks

[LuckyArt]

What is a valid Nat'l Park tile? Is there a civilpededia reference? tia! I've received the info I've needed from previous questions asked and I truly appreciate it

 

[empresskiova]

To the best of my knoweledge...

Valid national parks require:
A vertical 4-tile diamond
All tiles to be on land (mountains are legal)
All tiles to be owned by one city
All tiles to be Breathtaking (losing appeal does not cancel the national park)
You cannot use the Naturalist on a Natural Wonder, though they may be adjacent to it

 

[bite]

But at least one tile can't be a mountain

 

[Plumfairy]

To the best of my knoweledge...

Valid national parks require:
A vertical 4-tile diamond
All tiles to be on land (mountains are legal)
All tiles to be owned by one city
All tiles to be Breathtaking (losing appeal does not cancel the national park)
You cannot use the Naturalist on a Natural Wonder, though they may be adjacent to it

In addition, there can't be any improvements on any of the 4 national park tiles. (Roads don't count as improvements. Note that you can simply remove any tile improvement by spending a builder action.)

But at least one tile can't be a mountain

To put this another way:

At least one tile must be a non-mountain.

 

[unpossible251]

charming is ok, i think. doesnt require 4x breathtaking.

the civlopedia entry is duplicated, and pretty comprehensive. just remember it has to be a vertical diamond.

also, holy, theatre and entertainment districts increase appeal, but mines &izones decrease appeal. consider where u put your zones, they are permanent and might make or break your NP.

 

[Sherlock]

Or to put it another way.... hell will freeze over before you find a place to put a national park.

 

[qadams]

Or to put it another way.... hell will freeze over before you find a place to put a national park.

Yeah, that seems to the case. I like the concept well enough, but the execution by Firaxis leaves something to be desired. As noted in other threads, there seems no valid game reason why the diamond can't be horizontal, for example. Nice idea, still needs some work.

 

[Plumfairy]

Or to put it another way.... hell will freeze over before you find a place to put a national park.

It's not actually all *that* hard; I usually find one or two National Park sites per game. The easiest tile configuration is 3 mountain tiles & one non-mountain tile; all those mountains ensure that all 4 tiles have a high enough appeal.

The problem is that it's a lot of bother to actually create a National Park. You often have to found a city pretty close to the mountains, which means that that city has many fewer tiles to work compared to a "normal" city. Then you usually have to tile-buy one or two of the mountain tiles, which can be fairloy expensive. And on top of all that, the fairh cost for the unit for the Naturalist is absurdly high; I'd almost always prefer to spend that faith on something else: additional missionaries/apostles, or rush-buying a great person, or buying military troops, (under theocracy).

And even after you *do* go to all the bother of creating a Park, it doesn't seem to have much effect. As I understand it, it doesn't provide all that much tourism compared to relics, artifacts, or seaside resorts. If it were possible to build several Parks then they might be viable, but the super-high cost of Naturalists makes that nigh-impossible.

 

[Bosque]

I have had 3 or 4 National Parks in several of my games. If they are established early enough they can be huge tourist draws by late game. And they don't have to be in mountain areas. Natural wonders make great N.P. sites. I have even had N.P.'s in old growth tundra forest tiles along an Arctic coast or river. Building the Eiffel Tower gives you a lot more opportunities for parks.

The main downside is that you DO need to have a high faith output in order to purchase the naturalists.

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

This is yet another reason to not neglect faith regardless of the VC you are shooting for.

I find the Civilopedia entry to be very tedious at best. Your explanation here is much better.

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

You CAN use a naturalist on a wonder (or used to).
That 4 tile marsh one if it comes up in the right config.
(that's the only one I know of)

That may have been removed/changed in a patch tho.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

But at least one tile can't be a mountain

it determines this based on tiles the naturalist can path to, so all be mountains can if you mod mountains to be pathable :^D

 

[Vandlys]

In addition, there can't be any improvements on any of the 4 national park tiles. (Roads don't count as improvements. Note that you can simply remove any tile improvement by spending a builder action.)

Removing an improvement doesn't cost a builder charge : )

 

[steveg700]

Basically, whenever you find that perfect mountain-surrounded spot for a campus, you're probably also looking at a perfect spot where you might later drop a naturalist, so turn on the Appeal view for a minute and give it some thought first.

 

[UWHabs]

Basically, whenever you find that perfect mountain-surrounded spot for a campus, you're probably also looking at a perfect spot where you might later drop a naturalist, so turn on the Appeal view for a minute and give it some thought first.

Yeah, I had that in my last game. Beautiful mountain spot would have given me a +4 campus, but I ended up putting it in a different spot for a +3 instead, and then later used the other spot for a NP. Of course, I had placed my campus in that other spot partly because I hadn't chopped the tree in the other spot - I was thinking about throwing a holy site up there later, but got caught up in other stuff and so it was free for me when the NP came online.

The other case that works decently for national parks is forested coastal/cliff terrain. Cliffs add appeal, and there's the civic later that unchopped trees increase the appeal of nearby tiles. In the same game, I saw another spot where I didn't have breathtaking tiles, but they were all charming+, and since I had enough other tiles to use in the city just left the trees and it worked as a park for me as well.

 

[Victoria]

Or to put it another way.... hell will freeze over before you find a place to put a national park

Eiffel Tower changes that somewhat as does building trees.... you can turn a whole continent into a national park with enough faith... I believe someone did.

 

[agonistes]

Eiffel Tower changes that somewhat as does building trees.... you can turn a whole continent into a national park with enough faith... I believe someone did.

Well, I have a nice Russia game going atm with lots of tundra and an impenetrable border wall from norway to japan on the giant earth map. Maybe perfect for a 4 park macro park. Kinda neat.

I'll settle 4 cities just to do that.

 

[zyx]

It would be really nice, if you could swap tiles between cities in times of peace - in times of war a mechanic like this could be very gamey - beyond the third ring of a city. Because the requirement of all four tiles belonging to one city is most often not met.

 

[Victoria]

if you could swap tiles between cities in times of peace

You can

 

[bite]

Also I like that they combine to make a mega park if you can get them next to each other