Cities and Towns General Discussion

[Evolena]

It sounds... AWESOME ! They hid this during all that time, "the most important change in this iteration", glad to hear (well, read ) that.

It was mentioned in the very first Gameplay showcase, and again in the Antiquity stream. But of course, there was a bigger elephant in the room.

 

[Evolena]

I'm quite sure that I have seen the information that it means choice of the specialization type is permanent, but you can switch between grwoing and specialized output.

Correct (Antiquity stream, 48:45')

 

[Archanist]

Transcribing again.

Town Focus
Towns without a Growing Town Focus send all their Food to Connected Cities

- Growing Town: Increases Town's Growth by 50%.
- Fort Town: +5 Healing to Units and +25 Health to Walls in this Town.
- Urban Center: +1 Culture and Science on Quarters in this Town.
- Farming Town: +1 Food on Farms, Pastures, Plantations and Fishing Boats.
- Mining Town: +1 Production on Camps, Woodcutters, Clay Pits, Mines, and Quarries.
- Trade Outpost: +2 Happiness to each Resource tile in the Town and +5 Trade Route range.

Buildings (I'm pretty sure gold costs scale somewhere)
Altar
+2 Happiness
180 Gold

Ancient Walls
120 Gold

Brickyard (Ageless)
+2 Production
108 Gold

Granary (Ageless)
+1 Food
108 Gold

Saw Pit (Ageless)
+2 Production
108 Gold

Potkop (Ageless)
??? (no values visible but effects are in the game guide)

Amphitheater
+5 Culture
388 Gold

Arena
+5 Happiness
388 Gold

Barracks
+2 Production
180 Gold

Bath
+4 Food
260 Gold

Blacksmith
+3 Production
260 Gold

Garden
+3 Food
180 Gold

Library
+2 Science
180 Gold

Units
Scout
2 Movement
40 Gold

Army Commander
2 Movement
280 Gold

Settler
3 Movement
240 Gold

Spearman
2 Movement
80 Gold

 

[CivKirk64]

Urban centre sounds like you could make university towns which is thematically fun.
It seems that trade outpost specialization will highly benefit making a crossroads.
I'm very excited for towns, my wishlist item for any "Future Civ" was that towns would spontaneously pop up based on surrounding map features and the like, my big example was wherever 2 roads crossed there would be a chance a town could form and grow into a city, or at the site of a river crossing. A university town might pop up between an area surrounded by high science cities. A mining town might pop up at a gold resource site just outside your empire, and it could glomb into your empire if you get close enough or send military too it.

Its nice to see we can just make a small town to grab a recourse or take advantage of a singular map feature or requirement and not have to worry about feeding it or growing it so that it is fully productive and happy.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Some screenshots:

 

[thecrazyscot]

I really like the different focuses - the Fort and Trade ones are particularly interesting to me.

 

[chaosprophet]

I’m disappointed that it seems like towns cannot grow in population if they’re specialized.

That is likely the case (albeit you can change back to growing), but still the text there sounds strange. Why Growing Town increases the Town Growth, if it doesn't growth at all when in a specialization? I guess maybe it just means it produces 50% extra food, and the food that isn't part of that extra 50% is likely sent to the cities too, so a growing town also has uses for the cities.

 

[stealth_nsk]

In the earlier video we've seen what towns send a copy of their food, not the food itself, so they still grow.

 

[thecrazyscot]

What's the 7th yield we can see in those screenshots?

Food, Prod, Gold, Science, Culture, Happiness, and... influence?

Yes - used for diplomatic actions etc.

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

Why is the Potkop purchasable? I thought that was a unique tile improvement, not a building. I suppose it could be an earlier build?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Why is the Potkop purchasable? I thought that was a unique tile improvement, not a building. I suppose it could be an earlier build?

Obviously tile improvements can be purchased in towns. If you put down a town to access some sweet sweet iron, you must be able to have a mine there. And since towns don't have build queues, logically improvements must be purchased.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Why is the Potkop purchasable? I thought that was a unique tile improvement, not a building. I suppose it could be an earlier build?

Obviously tile improvements can be purchased in towns. If you put down a town to access some sweet sweet iron, you must be able to have a mine there. And since towns don't have build queues, logically improvements must be purchased.

Normal improvements can't be purchased. They are assigned to the land when settlement grows.

But unique improvements are built on top of regular improvements and they are built in the same way as buildings.

 

[Krikkit1]

Wasn't expecting to be so prominent in the UI tbh... Is it really going to be as important as food, gold, or happiness? I kind of assumed that it would be a niche thing on the side, but this suggests the devs want us to think of it as a central aspect. Interesting.

And, if this doesn't take the thread too far off topic, do we know how happiness works? It's clearly global, but do we have a clear idea of the sources and sinks for it? The benefits for being over / under?

Everything dealing with other civs or IPs would use it.
Diplomacy can
-give you direct economic bonuses or penalties
-affect your/your enemy’s war weariness (the happiness of the empire in war)
-get you access to resources

 

[pokiehl]

In the earlier video we've seen what towns send a copy of their food, not the food itself, so they still grow.

Is that right?? I’m hoping you’re correct. If that’s the case, then the descriptive text is quite misleading.

Although I guess what your saying does make some sort of sense…Population still requires food to grow right? So if a town gave up all its food, the citizens would starve.

 

[Krikkit1]

Is that right?? I’m hoping you’re correct. If that’s the case, then the descriptive text is quite misleading.

Although I guess what your saying does make some sort of sense…Population still requires food to grow right? So if a town gave up all its food, the citizens would starve.

I would imagine they stop growing and send the Excess food.
so
Growing Town: Your Growth food is boosted by 50% (over what a city would have)
Other Town: you get bonuses to output but all the excess is sent to the cities (you don't grow anymore)

 

[Black Gate]

Is that right?? I’m hoping you’re correct. If that’s the case, then the descriptive text is quite misleading.

Although I guess what your saying does make some sort of sense…Population still requires food to grow right? So if a town gave up all its food, the citizens would starve.

It's like trading. When you trade a resource, your empire isn't deprived of it, an extra copy is created out of thin air and sent to the tradee. These are essentially internal trade routes, copying their food. Otherwise, as you said, the towns would starve and quickly become useless.

 

[Atlas627]

When it was shown in the stream, specialization was permanent for that Age.

No, it was shown that you were not allowed to swap to any of the other specializations, but you were allowed to swap to Growth again (and they said so as well, if memory serves).

 

[Krikkit1]

No, it was shown that you were not allowed to swap to any of the other specializations, but you were allowed to swap to Growth again (and they said so as well, if memory serves).

So once you choose say Mining, then you eliminate all the other possibilities besides Growth and Mining. For the rest of the age... that makes sense.

so No Growth ->Mining->Growth->Food->Growth->Urban, etc.

 

[stealth_nsk]

So once you choose say Mining, then you eliminate all the other possibilities besides Growth and Mining. For the rest of the age... that makes sense.

so No Growth ->Mining->Growth->Food->Growth->Urban, etc.

I really hope so. I want my planning, not juggling.

 

[Krikkit1]

I really hope so. I want my planning, not juggling.

But that still allows Growth->Mining->Growth->Mining juggling.. which makes sense if the non Growth focuses just Don't Grow. (all excess food sent to the cities)*

*How that is divided up will be interesting.... I would guess it is all in one big pot and then divided equally among all cities.