[Vanilla] Amenity Guide

[apku]

This is really ridiculous. I just started with Trajan, had two cities up, two luxury resources and was down amenities less than 50 turns into the game.
Couldn't even trade because no other leaders had ANY luxury resources yet.
Hit with a surprise war and now housing too low.
I'm playing on the easiest level, and I can't even advance without cities on the verge of rioting.
I need to progress towards an entertainment district yet have to pump out troops for defense whilst the cities are complaining of a lack of amenities I can't acquire.
I shudder to think what the more difficult levels are like.
I'm on the verge of just giving this game up.

 

[Ryika]

This is really ridiculous. I just started with Trajan, had two cities up, two luxury resources and was down amenities less than 50 turns into the game.
Couldn't even trade because no other leaders had ANY luxury resources yet.
Hit with a surprise war and now housing too low.
I'm playing on the easiest level, and I can't even advance without cities on the verge of rioting.
I need to progress towards an entertainment district yet have to pump out troops for defense whilst the cities are complaining of a lack of amenities I can't acquire.
I shudder to think what the more difficult levels are like.
I'm on the verge of just giving this game up.

Everybody can play a few games to understand the basics, or read about them on the internet, but giving up, that's for people with courage.
I strongly suggest to stick with your plan and uninstall the game to signalboost that Civ games are just too complex and have too many things that need to be considered.

 

[SharTeel]

2 luxes means that your capital can get to size 8 and the other city to size 6, a bath would allow them to go 10/8 respectively...on the other hand you could get 2 more cities up without penalty. expand more!

 

[Unmnemonic]

I have only two cities. I have set up a camp on Ivory. I see its amenity in my capital (along with one other), but not my second city. Is this a bug, or do the cities need to be connected somehow?

 

[Browd]

No need to connect cities. If you go to your second city, and open the City Details panel (it will appear on the left-hand side of the screen), what does in say in the Amenities section for that city?

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

Glad to see the extra amenities business finally confirmed, however I still disagree with the implementation.

Maybe extra copies should have diminishing returns? So the second copy effects 3 cities, the third copy 2 cities and all additional copies only effect 1 city.

 

[playshogi]

In Civ5, each lux was worth 4 global happiness and nobody complained that extra copies did nothing. In Civ6, each lux provides 1 amenity for 4 cities. What's the big difference?

Another source of amenity not mentioned is if any city-state you are suzerain of that has hooked up a lux from its terrain, also goes to the player.

 

[Iron Angel]

Guide update:

The guide has gone through an overhaul and some clarifications has been added where needed.
I will continue to update the guide whenever it is needed. If you see something is missing, please do point it out.

 

[fadeh]

I don't dislike the fact that a luxury ressource is only sufficient for 4 cities but do find it hard to understand how those ressources/corresponding amenities are dispatched among my cities.
In my current game I have 6 cities, ranging from size 4 to 12 for my capital.
I have 3 different luxuries, 1 of them with 2 exemplaries.
My city 4 size got +3 amenities and therefore was happy, but my capital only had 1 amenity and was unhappy !
My other cities had also 2 or 3 amenities and were happy or not depending on that figure and their size.
In another term it is a big mess !
Do you know if there is a way to allocate your luxuries ?
And based on all of that it's difficult to figure out if you can afford to sell 1 of your multiple exemplary luxury to another civ.
So in the end the way it was in CivV is easier and I would prefer back to 1 luxury for all city.

As you have been told, there's actually no way to allocate amenities among cities yourself.

Anyway, to me, the way the game allocated amenties for your particular case makes total sense.
Here's why: when a city is unhappy because it lacks amenities, what happens is that it grows slowly, some food get lost in the process. If you consider this and the fact that there's another cap to grow, which is housing, it's immediatly clear why the game would favour distributing amenities to small cities instead of big one. This way you can grow small cities faster, where you usually have enough housing (or you can generate it relatively easy).

 

[Gbest]

Is there any way to see which luxuries you get as part of the trade deals? They are not listed in the resources report overview, and it can be confusing when trading as you can get duplicates.

 

[Iron Angel]

For Aztecs, luxuries will provide amenities to 6 cities instead of the usual 4.

Noted and added. Thanks!

 

[Iron Angel]

Is there any way to see which luxuries you get as part of the trade deals? They are not listed in the resources report overview, and it can be confusing when trading as you can get duplicates.

No, there isn't any overview as of now. This was also asked and answered here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/how-to-know-which-luxuries-im-trading-for.602899/

 

[10KEyeCandy]

Here are some examples I'd like to discuss to see if I'm understanding it correctly. And I think a clear confirmation would help others too.

Say I have 4 empty, non-capital cities with the population of 9, 8, 7, 5, requiring 4, 3, 3, 2 minimum amenity.
And I have 4 different kind of luxury and no other things affecting amenity, positively or negetively.
The current amenity of my 4 cities would be: 0 for 9 pop city, +1 for 8 and 7 pop cities, and +2 for 5 pop city. Right?

Then, if I magically spawn an empty, non-capital city with 3 pop (requiring 1 amenity), its current amenity would be -1?
To change that -1 to 0, my empire would need to acquire a 5th kind of luxury resource? Assuming that the game decides to give the new luxury to the 3 pop city instead of the 4 old cities.
And if I did that by magically spawn the 5th luxury and its improvement, the first 4 cities' current amenity would still be the same. Correct?

Of course, for simplicity's sake, this is all assuming that I played a Civ that doesn't affect its amenity in any way.

EDIT: I forgot to express my gratitude for all your hard work. Without reading through them I wouldn't even be asking these questions. Thank you!

 

[Iron Angel]

The current amenity of my 4 cities would be: 0 for 9 pop city, +1 for 8 and 7 pop cities, and +2 for 5 pop city. Right?

Yes, that would be correct.

Then, if I magically spawn an empty, non-capital city with 3 pop (requiring 1 amenity), its current amenity would be -1?

No, that is not correct. It would take away from the 5 pop city. The game tries to balance all of your cities out so that they are equal in their status.
If you only had 1 luxury resource, the 5th city would not had gotten any amenity from it.

To change that -1 to 0, my empire would need to acquire a 5th kind of luxury resource?

Just for clarification: The game will try to even out the status among all your cities, but it is limited to only use each luxury to 4 different cities. It does however not have to use all the different luxuries to all of your cities, like in this scenario. It would have to take away one of the 4 luxuries from your 5 pop city. This is because this city is above the Content status, it will however never do so that your city goes into -Amenity.

EDIT: I forgot to express my gratitude for all your hard work. Without reading through them I wouldn't even be asking these questions. Thank you!

You are very welcome, glad that it could be of use.

EDIT: Did that make any sense?

 

[10KEyeCandy]

EDIT: Did that make any sense?

Ah, it's more clear now thanks to your clarification on how the game handles luxury resources distribution.

So if other conditions remain the same, but the initial 4 cities all have 9 pop, the 5th city would indeed have -1 current amenity. Or at least one of the 5 cities would.
After acquiring the 5th luxury, the city with -1 goes to 0 and 3 other cities goes from 0 to +1.

And if the initial 4 cities all have 5 pop, the 5th city would make one of them's current amenity goes from +2 to +1. Thus meeting its own minimum and no 5th luxury needed.

I think that's more like it, right?

The amenity a luxury resouce can give doesn't have to be linked to specific cities. Which I believe is where my error lies.
I was imagining luxury resources as something like citizens and got appointed to cities, while in reality they work more like reserves and just go where they are mostly needed.

 

[Iron Angel]

So if other conditions remain the same, but the initial 4 cities all have 9 pop, the 5th city would indeed have -1 current amenity. Or at least one of the 5 cities would.
After acquiring the 5th luxury, the city with -1 goes to 0 and 3 other cities goes from 0 to +1.

Correct.

And if the initial 4 cities all have 5 pop, the 5th city would make one of them's current amenity goes from +2 to +1. Thus meeting its own minimum and no 5th luxury needed.

Also correct.

The amenity a luxury resouce can give doesn't have to be linked to specific cities. Which I believe is where my error lies.

Now you are getting the hang of it.

In theory, you could with 4 different luxuries, sustain content status in 16 cities with 3 pop each.

 

[kaltorak]

How quickly folks forget how limiting luxuries were in Civ V. In Civ VI, luxuries are positively ... luxurious!

We (or at least, me), are not asking for more copies to grant bonus to another 4 cities bc of balancing. I agree, luxuries aren't a problem, mostly because housing limits your growth much more.

But it just doesn't make sense. Not only from a real life point of view, but also even from a game mechanic point of view.

1 resource only beeing useful for 1 city, makes sense. It's like u just get 1 and use it up in that city
1 resource beeing usefull for all your cities makes sense. It's like having access to that resource mine or field. You can supply all your cities
1 resource beeing enough to X cities, but another resource of the same type beeing again available for another X cities makes sense. Your resource is only enough to supply X cities, but ofc, another copy lasts another X cities

But 1 resource beeing useful for 4 cities, and another copy not doing anything, just doesn't make any sense at all.

 

[Iron Angel]

But 1 resource beeing useful for 4 cities, and another copy not doing anything, just doesn't make any sense at all.

Well. It does open up for trading, where you could trade it for another resource which you don't yet have.
Not sure why so many are putting so much into this.

Not only from a real life point of view, but also even from a game mechanic point of view.

This would depend on how you look at it. The civilizations in the game are not that advanced to begin with. It could make sense if, when you advance to more modern day (and machinery) that it would open up for the luxuries to satisfy more cities.

But. In my opinion the system is fine as it is.

 

[Bletchley_Geek]

Well. It does open up for trading, where you could trade it for another resource which you don't yet have.
Not sure why so many are putting so much into this.
...
But. In my opinion the system is fine as it is.

Thanks for putting together this guide Iron Angel, it both reads well and is informative . I find the AI to be quite hard ass when it comes to trade luxury resources, especially if they don't like you much.

Amenities were quite of a head scratcher for me before reading this. Now I find this system to be quite subtle and I kind of appreciate it. Say whacko Pedro of Brazil asks you 17 gold for 30 turns in exchange for getting your paws on marble. That's 510 gold in exchange for the ability to push up to four cities towards the "content" column. Not a bargain, but reasonable.

Repeats can also used to gain favour with AIs if gifted... can't they? How big is the effect?

 

[remconius]

Question

I had founded a city on remote continent (with direct water connection) which had two additional ammenities (Gems and Coffee). Unfortunately these 2 only benefited that city and not all the others. Even after building harbors etc.

Somehow it seems ammenities are only shared on the same continent. Can anyone confirm this?