blue circle

[bryanwallace]

can someone tell me whether the blue circle is a good guide to follow when locating cities?
some of them seem to be recommended in very strange locations...

 

[DSYoungEsq]

The blue circles take into account resources you cannot yet see. So if you want to know where things like oil and uranium will pop, put cities where the circles are.

But that doesn't mean the algorithm is perfect. Far from, in my opinion.

 

[bryanwallace]

they seem to be often just outside big x borders for current viewable resources and often on the coast..
are they a good guide to follow?

 

[God-Emperor]

They are almost always good places to settle. They are not necessarily the best places.

The method it uses to pick is not perfect. For example, it is much too willing to suggest settling 1 tile away from the coast, instead of on the coast, which has problems from the lack of access to the ocean: it is unable to build the lighthouse (so the coastal ocean tiles in the city's BFC are stuck at 1 food), harbor, and other such buildings. It also likes to pack cities pretty close together, often seeming to want to steal a food resource tile from an existing city.

 

[Sisiutil]

I'm not sure that the blue circles take into account hidden resources; I seem to recall that being disproven, but I'm not an authority on the game's XML code.

The blue circles are worth considering. They are the AI's recommended city sites; in other words, if an AI civ was to plunk down a city in that vicinity, the blue circle is where it would go. You should at least have a look and figure out why the AI is recommending a location over a nearby one you had in mind. There may be an extra resource that site snags, or a fresh water bonus (the AI values this highly, perhaps a little too much so), or coastal access, etc.

However, to my knowledge the game's AI does not consider things like city specialization or the location of other cities nearby. It just considers the best spot for that specific city, not for your empire overall.

 

[bryanwallace]

thanks
i have found it wants to put them far too close..
it also often chooses 1 square away from the coast

is being on the coast not a huge benefit??

ps currently workingthru sisuitils articles!
great stuff

 

[IAM]

thanks
i have found it wants to put them far too close..
it also often chooses 1 square away from the coast

is being on the coast not a huge benefit??

ps currently workingthru sisuitils articles!
great stuff

One tile off the coast cities as said before create problems. I don't settle cities one off the coast and will raze cities I capture like that and refound.

 

[kosiosko 1]

with workers it seems to offer the worst choice next, with scouts it shows goody huts, would have missed lots without them

 

[LeHam]

If you're first starting out as a civ player, you should generally follow the blue circle instructions, unless, as said previously, they will make you settle one tile off the coast, which is a very poor decision.

Players who play on Noble and above probably want to use the blue circles more as a guide and make their own decisions about where to place their cities. I am just beginning to get better at Noble and I have found blue circle spots aren't always the best.

Also @ IAm:

That quote is awesome!

 

[Bushface]

Sometimes for Settlers the blue circles do at least draw your attention to a good location you haven't noticed, but those appearing for Workers are often just silly. Why does the AI ever suggest that I send a worker to an irrigated farm with wheat, or to a hill with a properly-connected iron mine on it ?

 

[Junuxx]

Sometimes for Settlers the blue circles do at least draw your attention to a good location you haven't noticed, but those appearing for Workers are often just silly. Why does the AI ever suggest that I send a worker to an irrigated farm with wheat, or to a hill with a properly-connected iron mine on it ?

Because cottages and windmills are also pretty awesome!

 

[Sisiutil]

Sometimes for Settlers the blue circles do at least draw your attention to a good location you haven't noticed, but those appearing for Workers are often just silly. Why does the AI ever suggest that I send a worker to an irrigated farm with wheat, or to a hill with a properly-connected iron mine on it ?

Listen, buddy, your workers are all unionized. If you don't find work for them, that means layoffs, which is a clear violation of Section 4, sub-section 12, Paragraph 9(b) of the collective agreement. Read the fine print and weep.

 

[Wlauzon]

Blue circles are often the best spot just considering resources, but quite often there are also strategic reasons to place a city elsewhere. The most obvious example is when you want to block a land route at a choke point, but there are others.

Somewhere a while back I saw a writeup on how the AI decides how to choose the location of the blue circles, but can't seem to find it now.

 

[Wlauzon]

Sometimes for Settlers the blue circles do at least draw your attention to a good location you haven't noticed, but those appearing for Workers are often just silly. Why does the AI ever suggest that I send a worker to an irrigated farm with wheat, or to a hill with a properly-connected iron mine on it ?

The AI does not recognize unusable resources for workers. That is why it often wants you to farm locations with resources you cannot use yet, such as wine.

 

[kornuletz]

Actually the AI does recognize if you can't work a specific tile, in my experience only tiles that can be worked will be highlighted. But that's a bit off-topic.

 

[Willem]

The blue circles take into account resources you cannot yet see. So if you want to know where things like oil and uranium will pop, put cities where the circles are.

That is simply not true. No one in the game has any knowledge of hidden resources, not the player, not the AI. The blue circles are only based on what is currently visible at the time.

 

[Bushface]

Sisiutil - my workers are always busy until they've finished laying rails everywhere useful. Then I send them to rest camps, preferably on a sandy beach, whence they can be reassigned if there's more to do.
Wlauzon - there's a big difference between being recommended to go to a site that can't yet be developed and to one which is already fully developed.
Junuxx - would you build a cottage on a wheatfield, or a windmill on an iron resource ? Would you really ? Do you by any chance automate your workers without telling them to leave existing improvements ?

 

[Deckhand]

The blue circles are only based on what is currently visible at the time.

You are saying the blue circles take into account neither a) resources not revealed due to tech (e.g. iron) nor b) resources in the fog (e.g. corn).

... - would you build a cottage on a wheatfield, or a windmill on an iron resource ?

The AI never does this.
Maybe it puts a blue circle there so your worker will be ready to rebuild the mine after it collapses or is sabotaged.

 

[Rainman498]

I ignore them for the settlers but use them for the workers, except when they are prompting a worker to alter an already improved tile.

 

[Willem]

You are saying the blue circles take into account neither a) resources not revealed due to tech (e.g. iron) nor b) resources in the fog (e.g. corn).

I don't know for sure about the fog part, though I suspect they don't. But they certainly don't consider resources that are hidden due to techs. This has been proven on several occasions. Dig deep enough and you'll find a thread about it somewhere.