City Placement Planning Mode

[AbuHab]

I'd like to see a Planning Mode tool to assist obsessive/compulsive players in choosing the perfect locations for their cities.

I suggest something like this. You enter Planning Mode by clicking on a button. That displays a clean map--something like the Ctrl-Shift-M map with no units or terrain improvements. You can now experiment with what the map would look like if you destroyed existing cities, built new cities, etc. Once you have the perfect plan in place, you can save it and recall it at any time without exiting the game.

Later on, as you discover more territory, your planning map will automatically be updated with the new territory you discover.

That would be THIS obsessive/compulsive player's perfect feature!

 

[Civrules]

I think that would be a good feature after the game comes out, as a utility tool or something.
The reason that I don't want it in the game is because there will be no strategy in planning where you place your cities. And taking away strategy and planning and just looking at something made for you automatically isn't very fun.

But on the other hand, if you do the placements by yourself, hat would be something different.

Just my take on it.

 

[AbuHab]

I think that would be a good feature after the game comes out, as a utility tool or something.
The reason that I don't want it in the game is because there will be no strategy in planning where you place your cities. And taking away strategy and planning and just looking at something made for you automatically isn't very fun.

But on the other hand, if you do the placements by yourself, hat would be something different.

Just my take on it.

No, my suggested City Placement Planning Tool would not automatically select the best city sites for you; you would do that yourself. The tool would just help you visualize. It would be sort of like allowing you plan city placement by putting dots on your computer screen where you want your cities to go, and then saving that plan for later reference.

Having the best site automatically selected by the computer would suck for two reasons: (1) as you point out, it wouldn't be any fun, and (2), the computer isn't as good as a human at selecting optimal city sites anyway.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

That would be THIS obsessive/compulsive player's perfect feature!

It would also destroy the immersion of creating a civilization. It would be like the 'check if there's a place to put the card'-feature in Patience/Solitaire(or whatever the cardgame's name is), of course you would check it.

No, I say let the obsessive players work their obsession, and let the rest of us put our cities where the grass is green and the cows roam free.

 

[Dr. Broom]

It would be nice if you didn't have to place your cities perfectly, if they could still be just as powerful even though they don't have 1 or 2 squares in their radius.

 

[AbuHab]

It would be nice if you didn't have to place your cities perfectly, if they could still be just as powerful even though they don't have 1 or 2 squares in their radius.

I enjoy the challenge of city placement in Civ III, which is why I don't believe the process should be automated in any way that takes the decision-making responsibility away from the player.

I played Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for a while, but I didn't enjoy it as much because the power of terraformers and the ability to transfer food and resources makes city placement not as critical as in Civ III.

 

[AbuHab]

It would be like the 'check if there's a place to put the card'-feature in Patience/Solitaire(or whatever the cardgame's name is), of course you would check it.

I'm not sure if we're communicating. I don't really understand your Solitare reference, but it doesn't sound like what I'm proposing. The tool I'm proposing would never suggest a spot to place a city. All city placement ideas would still come from the player, and all city placement decisions would still be made by the player.

 

[mitsho]

A visualizing help? Of course, that'd be great.
But not in the initial version. Why? Because that is something perfectly suited for a) modder or b) an expansion pack.

mfG mitsho

 

[Loppan Torkel]

I'm not sure if we're communicating. I don't really understand your Solitare reference, but it doesn't sound like what I'm proposing. The tool I'm proposing would never suggest a spot to place a city. All city placement ideas would still come from the player, and all city placement decisions would still be made by the player.

Ahh. ok, sorry, misunderstood your post completely. A visual aid might be good, but not important for me.