Barathor
Emperor
- Joined
- May 7, 2011
- Messages
- 1,202
Not only is a border expansion preview needed within the UI (when a city is selected), to see where a city's next plot will be gained and in how many turns, I think we actually need to take it even further in Civ 6.
With so much more importance now placed on planning district and improvement plots (and now even wonders!), I think we really need to be able to choose where are borders will be expanding to via culture. The automatic selection can't be relied upon -- it was very flawed in Civ 5 and I'm assuming it may very well be in Civ 6 too.
Even if it's improved much since then, it still can't predict our current strategies and build orders during a game. For example, even if the game was programmed to favor tiles next to mountains a little more than it used to in Civ 5, what if we already built our campus and holy site? What if we have no plans on building them yet in that city? What if we want that plain, old, undervalued coast plot for our harbor because it's adjacent to a bunch of resources? What if we actually want that barren desert plot, instead of another fertile river plot, because we're getting ready to construct the pyramids or to simply utilize it for a district, like an encampment perhaps, since the yields are irrelevant?
Yes, you could purchase them, but I don't think that should be the only answer. I think, much like other productions that can also be rushed with gold, you should have control over progression too. Strategies should be comprised of planning/timing long term acquisitions via culture AND instant acquisitions via gold.
Much like producing buildings/units, your city will ask you where you want to focus your border growth and you choose a plot. Just like the existing costs, the further the plot is from the city center, the longer it'll take to acquire it. Upon completion, a notification pops up, it zips you to the city with the new Cultural Borders button enabled (perhaps right beside the tile purchasing button if they aren't combined into one), and you choose a new plot (it'll also tell you how many turns it'll take to acquire it) -- fun!
Some may say a caveat to this is: what about the AI? Well, for one, the game should have an idea for each of the AI's cities, it's choosing its production after all. Decisions on border expansion could be based on and weighed with current production possibilities and soon-to-be-obtained productions, along with the existing plots (not only their terrain and features, but what's built upon them too! Very important!). For example, if a city is favoring science, and hasn't constructed the campus, then it'll weigh plots heavier next to mountains, rainforests, and other districts. The game knows what the AI wants to do -- it doesn't know what humans want to do.
This may be a lot, but it would greatly improve the AI and make them more competitive. On top of that, just like with everything else the AI does, give them a brute bonus of faster plot acquisition. This way, their choices may still not be as good as the human, but they can make up for it a bit by acquiring them quicker and lessening the impact of poor choices.
With so much more importance now placed on planning district and improvement plots (and now even wonders!), I think we really need to be able to choose where are borders will be expanding to via culture. The automatic selection can't be relied upon -- it was very flawed in Civ 5 and I'm assuming it may very well be in Civ 6 too.
Even if it's improved much since then, it still can't predict our current strategies and build orders during a game. For example, even if the game was programmed to favor tiles next to mountains a little more than it used to in Civ 5, what if we already built our campus and holy site? What if we have no plans on building them yet in that city? What if we want that plain, old, undervalued coast plot for our harbor because it's adjacent to a bunch of resources? What if we actually want that barren desert plot, instead of another fertile river plot, because we're getting ready to construct the pyramids or to simply utilize it for a district, like an encampment perhaps, since the yields are irrelevant?
Yes, you could purchase them, but I don't think that should be the only answer. I think, much like other productions that can also be rushed with gold, you should have control over progression too. Strategies should be comprised of planning/timing long term acquisitions via culture AND instant acquisitions via gold.
Much like producing buildings/units, your city will ask you where you want to focus your border growth and you choose a plot. Just like the existing costs, the further the plot is from the city center, the longer it'll take to acquire it. Upon completion, a notification pops up, it zips you to the city with the new Cultural Borders button enabled (perhaps right beside the tile purchasing button if they aren't combined into one), and you choose a new plot (it'll also tell you how many turns it'll take to acquire it) -- fun!
Some may say a caveat to this is: what about the AI? Well, for one, the game should have an idea for each of the AI's cities, it's choosing its production after all. Decisions on border expansion could be based on and weighed with current production possibilities and soon-to-be-obtained productions, along with the existing plots (not only their terrain and features, but what's built upon them too! Very important!). For example, if a city is favoring science, and hasn't constructed the campus, then it'll weigh plots heavier next to mountains, rainforests, and other districts. The game knows what the AI wants to do -- it doesn't know what humans want to do.
This may be a lot, but it would greatly improve the AI and make them more competitive. On top of that, just like with everything else the AI does, give them a brute bonus of faster plot acquisition. This way, their choices may still not be as good as the human, but they can make up for it a bit by acquiring them quicker and lessening the impact of poor choices.
