Ability to manually micromanage amenities

[Danzo_87]

Do you guys think you want this to be a feature? Or it will be too much of a hassle to move around all those amenities?

 

[Promethian]

I like the way it works now. Turns are already long enough in the late game. Adding another layer of micro would detract at this point.

Also with entertainment districts providing regional amenities we dont need to micro luxury distribution to max the bonuses.

 

[footslogger]

Horrible idea, no thanks.

 

[anandus]

In one of the dev-streams they said it was automatic.

 

[gunnergoz]

Not interested, just want to understand how to make it work for me based on how the game algorithm plays it.

 

[GauntZero]

I think I wouldnt want to micro manage it on a global scale.

But I would like to have the ability to "cut off" a city from luxuries by capping its amenities.

In this ways, I could shift the focus from my amenity farming colonies to my proud core cities

 

[stealth_nsk]

1. If done properly, that's less micromanagement than placing tiles. By done properly I mean automatic distribution by default; ability to set priorities - cities with higher and lower priority; ability to manually lock some cities; notifications on amenities change if it affects locked cities.

2. Developers already said that's automatic, so it's more an idea for a mod.

3. Overall, while the developer goal with the system is clear, it looks like a bad game design decision.

 

[Atlas627]

I don't want to manually control it directly, but I do want to know which city "needs it most" and why, so I can prepare my strategy around it.

In other words, I want it to be automatic, but I want to control the factors that go into the equation.

 

[Jabulani]

In other words, I want it to be automatic, but I want to control the factors that go into the equation.

That would be perfect but I fear that with 20+ cities, 60-70 districts etc etc accross the globe, the micromanagement of cities will be quite an heavy waste of time.

 

[Promethian]

I don't want to manually control it directly, but I do want to know which city "needs it most" and why, so I can prepare my strategy around it.

In other words, I want it to be automatic, but I want to control the factors that go into the equation.

Its pretty obvious how it is working. It will always try to have all cities at a number of needed amenities to get to no penalty or better. A city can only get an amenity from a luxury type once. A single unit of a luxury provides for up to 4 cities.

 

[Jabulani]

A single unit of a luxury provides for up to 4 cities.

Could you pls elaborate it further ? Thx

 

[Promethian]

Could you pls elaborate it further ? Thx

So say you have 1 chocolate and 4 cities. All 4 cities get +1 amenity. Build another city and now that 1 chocolate doesnt provide for all 5 cities. The game will distribute those 4 +1 amenity bonuses among your 5 cities as needed to avoid penalties as much as possible. If you get another chocolate you now have enough chocolate to +1 amenity up to 8 cities. The chocolate cannot double up to give +2 amenity though. You need a different type of luxury to stack the amenity bonus up.

A good thing to note is if you have a diversity of luxuries an amenity boost in one city will result in luxuries getting shuffled around so other cities benefit. In this way a city that is less than ideal for an entertainment district can still benefit from the district getting built far away.

 

[Haggbart]

I certainly wouldn't hate it if it was manual, but I do think it's intentional so that you can't add fringe cities without it hurting your core cities as well.

 

[Atlas627]

Its pretty obvious how it is working. It will always try to have all cities at a number of needed amenities to get to no penalty or better. A city can only get an amenity from a luxury type once. A single unit of a luxury provides for up to 4 cities.

And which city does it pick if there are ties? Does it calculate the spread of luxuries before or after taking other amenities into account? If all cities are already positive, how does it distribute them?

This assumes that your "obvious" suggestion is correct. All the devs have said is that it goes where its needed most. That could mean whatever city gets the greatest yield increase from the amenity, rather than whichever city is numerically the most lacking in amenities.

 

[Jabulani]

So say you have 1 chocolate and 4 cities. All 4 cities get +1 amenity. Build another city and now that 1 chocolate doesnt provide for all 5 cities. The game will distribute those 4 +1 amenity bonuses among your 5 cities as needed to avoid penalties as much as possible. If you get another chocolate you now have enough chocolate to +1 amenity up to 8 cities. The chocolate cannot double up to give +2 amenity though. You need a different type of luxury to stack the amenity bonus up.

A good thing to note is if you have a diversity of luxuries an amenity boost in one city will result in luxuries getting shuffled around so other cities benefit. In this way a city that is less than ideal for an entertainment district can still benefit from the district getting built far away.

Thanks a lot for the explanation, I just didn't get why you spoke about 4 cities always and not 3 or 5.
Is it a matter of city distance from the resource that equals to 4 maximum cities ?

 

[Estelil]

If you get another chocolate you now have enough chocolate to +1 amenity up to 8 cities. The chocolate cannot double up to give +2 amenity though. You need a different type of luxury to stack the amenity bonus up.

Has this been tried and confirmed by a reviewer?
For what I saw from civilopedia pages about luxury and amenities it's still not clear.

The +1 amenities to 4 cities is an arbitrary number chosen by the devs because in civ5 a luxury would grant +4 global happiness.

 

[Promethian]

Thanks a lot for the explanation, I just didn't get why you spoke about 4 cities always and not 3 or 5.
Is it a matter of city distance from the resource that equals to 4 maximum cities ?

Distance isnt a factor. It is just a straight count of cities.

And which city does it pick if there are ties? Does it calculate the spread of luxuries before or after taking other amenities into account? If all cities are already positive, how does it distribute them?

This assumes that your "obvious" suggestion is correct. All the devs have said is that it goes where its needed most. That could mean whatever city gets the greatest yield increase from the amenity, rather than whichever city is numerically the most lacking in amenities.

If you are over the amount needed to not be penalized you can get bonuses and it shifts things to attempt to keep it all even.

 

[GauntZero]

But doesnt that de facto mean that Global Happiness is somehow still the case ?

If it always tries to spread amenities in a way to equalize the average amenity level in your cities, thats nothing else than exactly that: global happiness in a hidden variant...

 

[elitetroops]

But doesnt that de facto mean that Global Happiness is somehow still the case ?

If it always tries to spread amenities in a way to equalize the average amenity level in your cities, thats nothing else than exactly that: global happiness in a hidden variant...

In a way, yes. If a city is at -1 amenities and you build something there for +1 amenities, it is likely it will then send one of the luxuries somewhere else and you don't see any local effect of the +1 amenities you just built in that city. In the early game, for as long as every city requires luxuries to reach the average happiness level (and assuming you don't have enough copies of every luxury you own to supply all your cities), whatever you do for +amenities will effectively add to a global pool of amenities that is distributed evenly across your empire.

However, I think the distribution of amenities only applies to luxuries. In the later game, once you get Zoos and Stadiums with regional effects, those will be directed at specific cities and won't be redistributed. With those it shouldn't be too hard to get your core cities to +3 amenities for ecstatic boost even without any luxuries distributed to those cities at all.

 

[Ryika]

Not that there's anything wrong with the concept of "global happiness" as a gameplay mechanic anyway. As long as the system creates problems for the player that they can actively work against instead of just hardcapping them it's perfectly fine. Seems to be doing exactly that, so fine with me. Time will tell whether greater levels of optimization will run into problems, but I think the system is very much built around the idea of being able to respond by investing instead of forced stagnation.