Culture Squares (purple squares) on Expanding City

[PvtFreddy]

Hiya all,

Got Civ 5 the other day in UK and cannot spot playing it. Started right from the beginning again as some points I just cannot remember which does which.

Anyway, expanding cities. I get that you need food, culture and people to expand cities. When you look at a city map and you see all the hexes, some are purple in colour. I'm guessing these/this is/are the hex/es which shall expand onto next. Yet, say some instance it is going to expand to the north where these is Coin x2 and Food x1 but you have that iron mine in the west you want it to expand on...is there a way of changing the direction it moves in for expansion, apart from buying the square.

Saying hello to all you fanatics still out there,

Cathy (Sophia) of Russia

Thank you

 

[Johan de Witt]

Unfortunately, there is no other way in directing hex growth other than buying.

 

[Kid R]

I'm willing to bet that before long somebody will figure out a way to "nudge" the purple hexagon. And that's *even if* the devs specifically coded it so there was supposed to be no way! The collective ingenuity of the world's Civ players is infinite

 

[kaltorak]

I don't understand why we can't change the next tile to get with culture. Doesn't make much sense.

On the game I am playing now, I founded my first city after capital to grab some luxury resources. That was in the first turns of the game and now I am on turn 260, with rifles and artillery and I still don't have that gold. Granted it is 3 tiles away, but I already got other 3 tiles away which don't have anything.

 

[Semiautomagick]

I recall reading a while back that the expansion hex is determined by circumstances in the game. I remember interpreting that to mean you could influence it by things like social policies, and that it would be affected by rival civs close by. I haven't seen any evidence of that yet, but I also haven't been playing particularly close attention.

 

[Kid R]

It seems as if the culture expands onto the cheapest-to-buy tile, and that makes sense - the price of purchasing a tile should depend on how much of an "artificial" expansion it would make. Sending a long snaky culture tendril out on one side to get gold or something is "unnatural" compared to the city's natural tendency to expand in a smooth hexagonal way.

On the other hand there always seems to be several hexes equal on the lowest price, and the logic it uses to autochoose then is not clear - perhaps it's just random. More study required!

 

[Finklius Munkum]

hehehe, I just have to use my first post to repeat this . . .

long snaky culture tendril

(Lovin' Civ5 so far, looking forward to patches).

 

[Kid R]

Glad to delurk somebody

The new culture just reminds me of single-celled organisms oozing out to engulf the landscape. Looking at the minimap you'd think the game was called "Amoeba wars" or something.

 

[Nebular]

This has been a problem for me, too. Instead of grabbing a near-by tile that has resources I actually want/need and is within the workable area, it instead decides that expanding to the desert tile with nothing on it is the best option. Too bad I was so short on cash I couldn't afford the 240 gold to just buy it. This has happened to me in every game I've played so far. It'd be nice if they actually let you choose your next growth tile.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Resource tiles are very often cheap, but not always.

Hills are more expensive than the average tile. (smells like a warmonger nerf)

Flat expanses are typically cheap.

The purple tile is always among the cheapest in my experience.

Costs raise as either the city grows or more tiles are obtained. I'm not sure which of the two it is.

 

[Lord Chambers]

The game is trying to simulate the spread of influence and culture. Historically speaking, hilly areas and mountainous areas were the last area to recieve the benefits of civilization/come under rule. This is represented by flatlands being cheapest, resources or not, and rivers, hills, and mountains increasing the expense.

Thus, you'll find your city reaching feelers out along flatland areas 3 tiles away to access resources, but it won't assimilate a helpful resource tile on a hill or across a river 2 tiles away until much later.

 

[Magil]

Most of the time, it seems to favor resources, then open grassland/flood plains tiles. It seems to not favor hills or forests, and avoids those if other options are available. That's my experience, anyway. I've never seen it expand to some desert tile instead of a resource. In fact, in one game I had a city with really odd-shaped borders because it was in the middle of a half-circle of sea resources, and it expanded to those first, ending up with a city radius that sort of looked like a big "C" with a fat back (where the city was). It sometimes takes some tile purchasing to "nudge" it towards distant resources, however.

 

[Pragmatic]

Generally, I use cash to buy the cheap tiles (i.e., the ones under 100 gold). Then, when the city is ready to expand, it has nowhere else to go but the expensive tiles.

Granted, I play at Chieftain level...

 

[Gufnork]

Haven't tested enough to be sure, but improving the square you want the city to expand to next seems to help. Build a road or cut forest/jungle and you're likelier to expand that way. It pretty much always goes for a resource if there is one in an adjacent square. I've also never expanded into a desert square, those reports sounds weird.

 

[feelotraveller]

Most of the time, it seems to favor resources, then open grassland/flood plains tiles. It seems to not favor hills or forests, and avoids those if other options are available.

It definitely favours flatlands. One game I had two deer tundra tiles next to each other in the second ring, one with forest and one without - the AI choose the one without forest! It was about three expansions later that it took the forested deer tundra.

 

[PibbZ]

Sending a long snaky culture tendril

Off topic, but this made my day

 

[Invero]

The game is trying to simulate the spread of influence and culture. Historically speaking, hilly areas and mountainous areas were the last area to recieve the benefits of civilization/come under rule. This is represented by flatlands being cheapest, resources or not, and rivers, hills, and mountains increasing the expense.

Thus, you'll find your city reaching feelers out along flatland areas 3 tiles away to access resources, but it won't assimilate a helpful resource tile on a hill or across a river 2 tiles away until much later.

I agree. Cities usually grow kind fo organically. People just settle or build where is easiest. So I think is a very good virtualization of what happens in real life. If you want to build on a hill, well, spend some money