Boris Gudenuf
Deity
I said I wasn't going to post on the same subject again, and I've posted how I think Districts should work, but here it goes again . . .
1. IF Districts are supposed to be 'secondary cities' then they should look like separate cities or towns.
2. Egregious City Sprawl is completely appropriate, accurate and realistic, but only after powered transportation becomes available in the late 19th century (very late Industrial, beginning of Modern Age) when cities began to expand dramatically. Remember Wall Street in lower Manhatten? It used to be the City Wall of the city - the outer limit of New York City! Remember Athens? You can walk most of the circuit of the classical city's walls in a single afternoon - today the city of Athens extends from one side of the Attic plain to the other - 26 + miles away (the distance to Marathon, by no coincidence)
3. Cities are connected. If it's not connected, it's a separate city. Period.
So, here are the Boris Rules for Cities and Districts.
Districts come in two kinds: Districts of a City, and separate Settlements. They are graphically Different, because the Districts are part of a larger entity and Settlements Stand Alone.
The first District in any City is the City Center. ALL other Districts in the city must be adjacent to that District or another District(s) connected to it. That rule does NOT apply to Settlements.
Every District has room for 6 Buildings or Structures in it. A City Center must start with an Administrative Center as the first Building. In the case of the capital, this is the Palace. Settlements do not have this requirement - they aren't important enough to require an Administrative Center or Palace.
At the start, a city can be no bigger than 7 Districts: the Center and a 1 tile ring around it. Later, when you have some kind of River/Coastal Transport, a city can extend one more ring/District on either side of any River or one tile/District along the Coast.
ONLY with the discovery of Steam Railroads and Internal Combustion can cities expand to a 2nd and 3rd ring of Districts around the city center regardless of terrain (in other words, late Industrial, early Modern Eras)
IF a Settlement falls within the allowed distance from a City Center, it can be incorporated into the city and changes its graphic 'look' from Separate Settlement to District.
ALL Adjacency bonuses come from the Buildings in Districts/Settlements, not from the Districts themselves and only very, very rarely from the terrain in the tile or adjacent tiles. In other words, it doesn't matter that your University is or isn't next to a Mountain, what matters is that it's next to an Observatory, Technical School or Research Center in the same or adjacent Districts for Adjacency Bonuses.
The result of these is to expand the footprint of individual cities but keep them graphically distinct on the map, and add the ability to exploit more territory with Settlements. They also put a hard limit on the ungainly Adjacency Sprawl of Civ VI's Districts, while also hard limiting the excessive City Sprawl of HK until it is appropriate in the late game.
1. IF Districts are supposed to be 'secondary cities' then they should look like separate cities or towns.
2. Egregious City Sprawl is completely appropriate, accurate and realistic, but only after powered transportation becomes available in the late 19th century (very late Industrial, beginning of Modern Age) when cities began to expand dramatically. Remember Wall Street in lower Manhatten? It used to be the City Wall of the city - the outer limit of New York City! Remember Athens? You can walk most of the circuit of the classical city's walls in a single afternoon - today the city of Athens extends from one side of the Attic plain to the other - 26 + miles away (the distance to Marathon, by no coincidence)
3. Cities are connected. If it's not connected, it's a separate city. Period.
So, here are the Boris Rules for Cities and Districts.
Districts come in two kinds: Districts of a City, and separate Settlements. They are graphically Different, because the Districts are part of a larger entity and Settlements Stand Alone.
The first District in any City is the City Center. ALL other Districts in the city must be adjacent to that District or another District(s) connected to it. That rule does NOT apply to Settlements.
Every District has room for 6 Buildings or Structures in it. A City Center must start with an Administrative Center as the first Building. In the case of the capital, this is the Palace. Settlements do not have this requirement - they aren't important enough to require an Administrative Center or Palace.
At the start, a city can be no bigger than 7 Districts: the Center and a 1 tile ring around it. Later, when you have some kind of River/Coastal Transport, a city can extend one more ring/District on either side of any River or one tile/District along the Coast.
ONLY with the discovery of Steam Railroads and Internal Combustion can cities expand to a 2nd and 3rd ring of Districts around the city center regardless of terrain (in other words, late Industrial, early Modern Eras)
IF a Settlement falls within the allowed distance from a City Center, it can be incorporated into the city and changes its graphic 'look' from Separate Settlement to District.
ALL Adjacency bonuses come from the Buildings in Districts/Settlements, not from the Districts themselves and only very, very rarely from the terrain in the tile or adjacent tiles. In other words, it doesn't matter that your University is or isn't next to a Mountain, what matters is that it's next to an Observatory, Technical School or Research Center in the same or adjacent Districts for Adjacency Bonuses.
The result of these is to expand the footprint of individual cities but keep them graphically distinct on the map, and add the ability to exploit more territory with Settlements. They also put a hard limit on the ungainly Adjacency Sprawl of Civ VI's Districts, while also hard limiting the excessive City Sprawl of HK until it is appropriate in the late game.