City Improvements

[Theios]

I've been reading through some of the tips and strategies, and I'm coming up with some good ideas on improving my game. I'd like to see some information on which city improvements are worth it in any given situation.

I understand that far off conquered cities are probably only worth a temple to expand it's border and a marketplace to keep it happier. It would probably be a waste to build anything more than that. Cities closer to your core in prime location should probably get just about everything built?

What about cities in non-prime location? What might a cutoff point be for a city in shields as to whether or not a factory would be worth the cost? How about some of the other more expensive building? Should everyone get banks, stock exchanges, research labs, etc? Should I ignore civil defense and sam missle batteries? How about coastal fortress and comercial docks.


I suspect my "just build it all" strategy is way to wasteful for me to move up in difficulty level and I'm trying to sort it all out. I'm used to just listening to my adviser about these things, but I don't think he has my best interests at heart.

 

[Shabbaman]

It depends...

of course!

For improvements like banks and harbors you could weight if you'd make a profit out of them, or break even. I think that only completely corrupt cities are out for those options.
Just look at the upkeep cost of the improvement, and check if it's that beneficiary to you.
That's not the only point of attention though, since it also takes shields to produce it. As an example, the coastal fortress has no upkeep cost, so you can easily afford it. On the other hand, it doesn't do anything, so it's a complete waste.

One more thing about sam sites: fighters are cheaper, and you can move them.

I could expand endlessly about this with examples, but I won't (for now). It's also very conditional. Come up with examples and there's always someone here for advice!

 

[Hawkster]

A lot depends - some improvements I will always build - eg markets/banks and maybe stock exch for the income - plus temples and harbours in costal cities.

In non-optimal but still good locations a build all strategy is ok (at least for me) it is a case of prioratising - if shield production is reasonable then a factory is worth building just maybe not immediately.

I think it is a case of looking at each city and considering what it's purpose is....a unit factory / a settler factory or a placeholder for resources, then build accordingly. Also bear in mind that you can speed up building a particular item in a city by transferring units to that city and disbanding them - a good trick to speed up corthouses / markets/banks and factories in non-optimal cities if you have a fully improved city elsewhere capable of building units for disbanding elsewhere (even if it means wasting some shield value).

 

[Beanzy]

Originally posted by Theios
I understand that far off conquered cities are probably only worth a temple to expand it's border and a marketplace to keep it happier.

That's true, except marketplaces don't make people happy. They increase tax revenue and lead to more money. Temples keep people happy (cathedrals, colosseums, and wonders do too), so a temple is more than enough in a city you really don't need. However, you might as well build a courthouse to try and abolish some of that corruption and then maybe you could make some other improvements.

For me, I build everything (not including Coastal Fortresses or SAMs) in my core cities and if a conquered city is on my continent, I rush temple, courthouse, and sometimes even a cathedral to keep it happy and to try and increase it's productivity. However, overseas cities that you capture are only good, IMHO, for an airport rush to ferry in more troops.

 

[Rubberjello]

Just a small, specific note:

For your far-flung, corrupt cities, Temples are not the only solution for getting the minimum culture expansion boundaries. If you are Scientific, Libraries are cheaper and add to your culture total 50% more.

As others have said, you can rarely go wrong with marketplaces/banks/stock exchanges in your core and marginal cities. The combo of Courthouses and Police Stations and Democracy and Commercial Civ ability can take your marginal cities and "almost" get them into the core status.

The Factory question is a very good one in the case of marginal cities. You have to evaluate each one and determine if the shield increase (minus corruption) is worth the minus 3 gpt. In many cases, it isn't.

 

[Darkness]

@beanzy: Marketplaces DO make people happy, but only if the city is connected to luxuries. Then marketplaces add to the effect of the luxuries...

 

[Beanzy]

True, but I just assumed, since he was talking about far off newly-conquered cities, that they wouldn't be hooked up to any luxuries, and since marketplaces don't produce happy faces like temples do, you wouldn't need a marketplace at that point. However, if that city did have a few luxuries, a marketplace would help.

 

[Theios]

Yes, it was the markets affect on luxuries that I was refering to. I typically make it a priority to get all my cities connected in my empire.


Thanks for all the input so far. I think I'm going to play a few games today, and see if I can come up with more specific examples. (btw, I'm a she... not a he. )

 

[Shabbaman]

Ah...

Now, that'll make your questions very popular As I said before, if you've got questions about specific circumstances, fire away! If you've got small questions about the game or about the abilities of improvements you could best post them in the newbie thread (although it seems as if that has a different name nowadays)

I couldn't help noticing your registration date: you did download the latest patch in the meanwhile I hope...