At first I thought UIs are rubbish

[Bibor]

... but then I realised how powerful they can be. Ziggurat: 2 science 1 culture. A very fine replacement for a district if there are no mountains nearby.

I was under the false impression from previous civ iterations that somehow food and production are paramount, but realistically, farms provide only 1 food and mines up to 2 prod (which is really good), but unique tile improvements, at least most of them, can be a really powerful to have your citizens work something other than a barren plains tile.

It also makese a lot of sense to have floodplains house these improvements, as tiles don't lose their base yield, as is the case with districts.

In any case, newfound love for unique improvements. <3

 

[Disgustipated]

I used to think that way too. That growing was always paramount. I haven't really tried too many civs with UI's with GS yet. Flood plains can get you a net gain in food and still provide their benefits to UI's. In the past I was always worried about being food negative (by putting them on plains).

 

[Bradypus]

I love UI's. They are fun and add flavor to the different civs. I haven't play CIVs with UI's a lot so far, but with Inca I had fun planning my terrace farms.

 

[iammaxhailme]

UIs are lots of fun, almost all of my favorite civ have UIs. It's just so satisfying when you finally get all your infrastructure up

 

[Atwork]

I'm a big fan of the Cree's UI, the Mekewap.

 

[Aristos]

Ay, Bibor Bibor... when reading your thread title, I entered expecting to find an argument in favor of the User Interface, which was already surprising to me... so I entered.

 

[Sagax]

They got better with expansions, and now it’s more like “good UI with a few bad ones in the mix”. But in Vanilla it was more of the opposite, “bad UI with a few good ones”. Ziggurat and maaaaybe Mission are fine. The rest - not so much. *shudders in Chateau*

 

[Socrates99]

Yeah, I've kind of realized this a little slowly too. I'll only drop farms where I can at bare minimum get a triangle of them otherwise farms kinda suck.

Gotta give props to CSs with UIs too. In my current game I have Armagh which is great for tundra and desert. I also have La Venta and I've been dropping heads next to every woods and rainforest tile. I think I'm about to suzeraine Rapa Nui too, trying to find spots for those heads too....Obviously I'm playing Matthias and I'm claiming every damn CS on the map

 

[Bibor]

Gotta give props to CSs with UIs too. In my current game I have Armagh which is great for tundra and desert. I also have La Venta and I've been dropping heads next to every woods and rainforest tile. I think I'm about to suzeraine Rapa Nui too, trying to find spots for those heads too....Obviously I'm playing Matthias and I'm claiming every damn CS on the map

Yup. Nazca lines with Petra are huge too, especially with flat desert salt or oil.

Ay, Bibor Bibor... when reading your thread title, I entered expecting to find an argument in favor of the User Interface, which was already surprising to me... so I entered.

Civ5 and 6... i have zero complaints on the graphics: the UI is the best looking one yet, but functionally... don't get me started

 

[Aristos]

Civ5 and 6... i have zero complaints on the graphics: the UI is the best looking one yet, but functionally... don't get me started

UI == functionality. Period. Graphics are another thing.

Yes, please get started.

 

[Disgustipated]

speaking of city-states, I'm in love with Cahokia mounds. That sounds kinda weird. Oh well. Definitely worth getting 1 or 2 (with natural history) in a city. I haven't had the opportunity to work with Nasca lines yet.

 

[CPWimmer]

When I read this title, I thought it was someone about to offer some insights into finding some good points about the User Interface. I must admit, I did not expect a conversation about Unique Improvements.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Ay, Bibor Bibor... when reading your thread title, I entered expecting to find an argument in favor of the User Interface, which was already surprising to me... so I entered.

If you mouse over a title in a modern browser you do get to see part of the first post, which made me realize we're talking about something in the game that actually functions. Interesting too, as I've only used them here or there compared to just smashing everything with military.

UI == functionality. Period. Graphics are another thing.

I'm not sure I'd go that far. If you make graphics bad enough in the wrong ways it can directly degrade functionality, beyond the usual raw #inputs, lying information, or lack of information on a screen where you need it. Examples would be poor terrain contrast, city centers bleeding into the GUI to the point where it's annoying to spot them, rows of buttons that look very similar, bad lighting, or really similar-looking units of different types. Civ 6 *mostly* avoids that particular UI flaw despite its many others, but it *can* matter. We are at least spared the pixel hunt.

 

[Pietato]

Some of them really suck, though e.g sphinx and chateau.

 

[Halcyan2]

Some of them really suck, though e.g sphinx and chateau.

Great Wall is easily the worst unique improvement....

 

[Leucarum]

I've gotten some absurd yields with Nazca lines in petra cities

 

[Naeshar]

I was under the false impression from previous civ iterations that somehow food and production are paramount, but realistically, farms provide only 1 food and mines up to 2 prod (which is really good), but unique tile improvements, at least most of them, can be a really powerful to have your citizens work something other than a barren plains tile.

That's where you are wrong, as farms produce 1 food by default and later get adjacency bonuses for other farms, while mines start at 1 and get another 1 at apprenticeship and 1 at industrialization and count for IZ adjacency.
Some UIs are more powerful, like Ziggurats, Stepwells, Mekewaps and Kampungs, while some are not: Sphinx, Chateaux or the Scythian stone rings... and rather situational. Anything is better than unimproved tile.

 

[acluewithout]

The faith improvements seem particularly good to me.

Faith can be very powerful particularly early. But I often don't want to build Holy Sites and don't want to spend my Pantheon on faith. Being able to get faith from a UI is quite handy.

I might be wrong, but very few UIs seem bad to me. They're mostly all good, it's just that some are properly "wow".

The ones that don't seem great to me are those that come late and just aren't that powerful - Cheteau and Mission in particular.

I really don't get the hate for the Sphinx. Circles feel like they could use another gold, but otherwise looks okay.

 

[Disgustipated]

Cheteaus wouldn't be so bad except for the river requirement. But with increased yields on rivers, they can be food positive, assuming they can be built on flood plains. I can't recall. Still, I would rather have farms and later a dam.

 

[Tech Osen]

Great Wall is easily the worst unique improvement....

I find it great fun to fool around with though. Problem of course is that it's not an actual wall that blocks anything.