FOCUS Paradigm

[benstandby]

I had been putting off writing this for nearly a year, and I finally decided to share this. It's rather long, so get comfortable.

This is all part of a once thought to be long-lost strategy guide from Alpha Centauri (SMAC) which was recently uneathed by Babbler (see below). It turns out that it was written by JChamberlin and Velociryx. Their guide is far more comprehensive and tackles a much broader suite of gameplay aspects than the following, but I have adapted some of the economic aspects of it for Civ 3.

The concept that the "Settler Factory" is derived from is called FOCUS. Here is how it works:

THEORY

- At base, there are 3 resources in the game: Food, Shields, and Commerce (energy in SMAC).

- The way one FOCUSes a city is to build improvements around it that jive with the city's FOCUS, you dig?

- Each Resource has multiple functions, but these are just specializations and therefore not part of the FOCUS concept in theory. (In application however, specialization is what makes a city a "______ factory").

- Every city in your empire should be placed so that it fits a specific FOCUS (ie. food, shields, or commerce).

- FOCUS does not mean that a city will produce only one kind of resource. All it means is that your primary concern for city X is that it produces primarily X resource and that all improvements in the city are tailored for that city's FOCUS.

- The overall goal is to cut down on those pesky expenses incurred by an over-built, under-developed civilization.

APPLICATION

Food:

Typical buildings: Granary, Temple, Harbor, Courthouse, Cathedral

Drawbacks: Food-FOCUSed cities tend to be temporary fixtures on the map (at least in their focus) and they tend to cause problems in terms of happiness and riots.

- "Settler Factories" are the most useful and obvious kind of food focus in the game, and I'm sure you've all read the numerous articles and posts concerning its creation and use. Enough Said.

- "Worker Factories" are slightly different. There are many places on the map that for some reason or other they have one decent square (like a forest with game) and are otherwise surrounded by tundra (or what have you). These little crap-hole cities are the perfect place to build workers out of. The city grows in 5, and it'll make a worker in the same number of turns. I tend to have at least one of these going almost the entire game (depending on demand [remember the AI will pay you good money for slaves, and you can always micromanage an exodus/migration into an important city that grows slowly on its own (don't make me tell you all the great things you can do with workers]).

- "Population Centers" are key for comercial civs to get the extra cash off the city square that is only recieved in cities sized 7 and above. These don't need any serious production while they build their size. But a "Pop Factory" will need to switch FOCUS once maximum size is reached.

Shields:

Typical buildings: see below

Drawbacks: Due to the nature of production cities, they tend to take flexibility away from your empire. If your major production cities are on one end of your empire, and a war breaks out on the other side, it is harder to react with the full might of your empire when your "might" is concentrated 2000 miles away. (Think of Russia trying to fight Japan)

- Troop Factory: (baracks, temple) High production values, Strategic locations, and (most importantly) a stagnation point. These cities are so incredibly important that they CANNOT go into revolt- especially during a war. So what you need to do is cut the city off at some acceptable size based on the production needed to produce units in 1-2 turns and based on the number of people you can reliably keep content or happy. EXTREMELY USEFUL!!

- Cultural Center: (temple, cathedral, library etc.) High production allows you to quickly build many cultural improvements which can help push your border and flip that AI city on the border.

- Naval Base: (Harbor, Temple) Same deal as above, but the commerce recieved off the ocean can make this city a hybrid Commerce/Shield city [see below].

- Wonder Factory: (Temple, Courthouse, Cathedral) These cities should be the cream of the crop in production AND population. They are hard to produce, but if you have one hell of a well-balanced city in your empire, use that one. Primary concerns are: NO RIOTS, HIGH POPULATION, and HIGH PRODUCTION.

Commerce:

Typical buildings: Marketplace, Bank, Library, University, Courthouse

Drawbacks: These cities contribute to the overall growth and power of your empire's economy, they provide the fuel for you to power through the tech tree and buy allies, BUT if you have too many of these cities, you forfiet your initiative to your neigbors. Commerce cities make your empire a juicy target and a soft one at that. They are also the most expensive to maintain- as they require constant upgrading throughout the tech tree with each building costing more and more in maintenance. They tend to make up for this though.

- There are ways to specialize this category of Focus, but in reality, these cities should be BOTH Cash and Science factories at the same time. Specialization will be determined simply by which buildings are built first.

SOME NOTES ABOUT FOCUS THEORY:

- Cities can change focus at varying costs (depending on terrain limitations).

- Food cities change to either shield or commerce cities rather easily. Sell the granary and build buildings based on the new FOCUS. Food cities are usually temporary anyway, due to the fact that they can only reach a certain size before stagnating (until aqueducts and hospitals).

- Commerce cities tend to be rather difficult to switch over to either production or food because of a) the number of improvements that a commerce city requires b) the economic power you loose in the transition. These cities are best left as commerce cities or changed to hybrid cities [below].

- Production cities are easy to switch over because they can build the needed imporvements in a short period of time while the terrain is improved to fit the change.

HYBRIDIZATION

- Engaging in hybridization is not easy. The biggest concern is when to begin. This question can be answered most effectively by categorizing the ways in which hybridization presents itself as an option.

COMMERCE/SHIELD HYBRIDS
+ The first situation that will present itself is at the time the city is built. If a city is on a river or on a coast and has some hills within its radius, it looks like a good candidate for commerce/shield hybridization. The drawbacks here are that it is difficult to decide which buildings to build and which tiles to focus on improving. If you start hybridization too early, you aren't focusing at all, and you may end up just building all sorts of useless buildings and improving lots of tiles before the city's population can make use of them

+ The next feasable time to start the process of hybridization is when one focus has been fully realized. One example is when all the tiles next to the river have been roaded and the population is large enough that you are starting to use the hills and forests. This is a good time to A) build the barracks and/or harbor and start churning out troops or boats, or B) start building a host of cultural improvements to push your borders.

FOOD HYBRIDS (both commerce and production)

+ These are obvious. Once a food-focused city reaches its population cap, start switching over its food production until it reaches "zero growth". Choose your focus by either mining the grassland tiles for shield focus, or roading and harvesting tiles like gold in the mountains or silk (wine, insense, etc.) on a forest or hills.


I have stolen and adapted all this information for CIV3 from some dude who wrote a strat guide for SMAC. I used it to kick serious AI butt for a year before sharing it here. Hope this is what you were looking for.

 

[lz14]

I just started to distinguish piorities recently. I used to just know big cities and small cities, rather than troop cities and commerce cities etc.
Also the worker factory is the best of them all.

 

[Lenvik]

I guess I already think the way you do about how to manage my cities, but this was a very useful categorisation. It could certainly be used to make strategies more, urmm, focused

 

[benstandby]

Originally posted by Lenvik
It could certainly be used to make strategies more, urmm, focused

nice

 

[ltcoljt]

I hope that in future remakes of Civ that there will be more specialized terrain that will lend itself to specialized cities. Also, I would like much more depth to the building improvement component of the game so that players will have to choose carefully how to develop there cities rather than the current linear model.

 

[Bacon King]

also, don't forget if you're FOCUSING on production, to build a Factory, and other shield increasing buildings.

 

[benstandby]

Originally posted by Bacon King
also, don't forget if you're FOCUSING on production, to build a Factory, and other shield increasing buildings.

There are a lot of imporvements I left out of this article both to save time, and because I wanted to stress importance of doing this as early as possible.

But you are correct in that there are numerous buildings that were left out of my description. I would hope that once you've moved through the first two eras FOCUSing you cities, it becomes second-nature to most players. For the next two eras just extend the same line of reasoning:
specialize your cities to avoid paying through the nose for buildings that serve no purpose.

Trust me, those building costs add up. If you have 5 cities at size 12 with granaries at the end of the ancient era, that's an extra 5 gold per turn for the rest of this era, the entire next era, AND the time it takes to research and build hospitals. Minimum, that's 500 gold.

That's just one building. Multiply that by the number of unused or inefficient buildings in your empire, and you are basically shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[Justus II]

Good article, but I think you should develop the "hybrid" cities more. I often find myself with core cities, which began as shield/troop factories, but which can also produce a significant amount of commerce. I try to take stock every so often (like at the end of a night of playing, or a key event like new techs or a governement change.) I try to make a list of which cities are beyond the "break-even" point for various improvements, and then prioritize the build order. So a troop city may now be generating enough commerce to merit a marketplace.

Another factor in determining the specialization for your commerce cities is your current tech strategy. At higher levels, if I am planning on buying/brokering techs, marketplaces rank above libraries and universities, whereas if I am doing my own research, it's the other way around. My toughest decision is usually between the Marketplace and Aqueduct. Decent cities usually get to the point where they are looking at the size 6 limit, but also making 10+ commerce, and even at 20-40% tax rate would break even or profit from the marketplace. In your terminology, I guess this would be a transition from Food-focus to Commerce, and it is usually a tough decision!

 

[scoutsout]

I'm just posting this to give it a bump. Some new player was asking about city specialization in S&T recently, and I couldn't remember where I read this. I think it might be useful to some, so I'm posting to make it easier to find.

 

[Ision]

I do not agree with some of your catagories and specific building reccomendations.

BUT,

BUT!

The central premise of your argument is RIGHT ON THE MONEY. It is the economic version of 'concentration of force' - your building is not piecemenal and haphazrd but focused and specialized. In both building and and war, this is one of the major things that separates us from the AIs in skill level - and that separates one human player from another in skill level. The ability to correctly asses the 'cost to benefit' ratio so-to-speak of anything you spend shields/commerce on producing.

good work!

Ision

 

[benstandby]

<self-serving bump>

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

 

[Babbler]

I have stolen and adapted all this information for CIV3 from some dude who wrote a strat guide for SMAC. I used it to kick serious AI butt for a year before sharing it here. Hope this is what you were looking for.

I think your thinking of this FAQ? If so, you should credit JChamberlin and Velociryx with the base idea.

I do not agree with some of your catagories and specific building reccomendations.

Could you reveal your objections?

The central premise of your argument is RIGHT ON THE MONEY. It is the economic version of 'concentration of force' - your building is not piecemenal and haphazrd but focused and specialized. In both building and and war, this is one of the major things that separates us from the AIs in skill level - and that separates one human player from another in skill level. The ability to correctly asses the 'cost to benefit' ratio so-to-speak of anything you spend shields/commerce on producing.

I sort figured that out after reading one of your articles. I was going to put it on a post sometime, but I was too lazy.

 

[benstandby]

thanks

First post edited

 

[Holy Despot]

Yes I always noticed some cities are better at doing something than others but is it possible to have Hybrids in all corners of your empire so that everything functions properly? I mean The cities near your capitol should be very rich but also very productive...So is the difference of all your mediocre cities greater than that of your Hybrid cities?Does your Civ really function better with Hybrids or with Equals? In the end I think Hybrids are a good solution because you know what improvements you must build and it reduces your general mainteinance cost to some improvements who don't produce a big deal.In other words put the RIGHT hat on the RIGHT head.

 

[benstandby]

Holy Despot: is it possible to have Hybrids in all corners of your empire so that everything functions properly?

Um... not exactly. The risk of hybridization is that your cities will not be able to push the limits of the game. a city that produces Cavalry in 1 turn paired with a city that produces 108 beakers and 85 gold is ALWAYS better than 2 cities each producing cav in 4 and 30-40 of each science and cash.

The bottom line is that you only have so many turns to make an individual city into a powerhouse. The longer it takes to get it to where you're happy with it, the less time you will have with it at full capacity.

Holy Despot: In the end I think Hybrids are a good solution because you know what improvements you must build and it reduces your general mainteinance cost to some improvements who don't produce a big deal.In other words put the RIGHT hat on the RIGHT head.

Yes, it is about putting the right hat on the right head, but it's also about making sure that the hats are on as early as possible. The longer a city has a focus, the better it becomes at that focus. When you micro manage any city, you absolutely have to make the kinds of choices that will lead to focus. If you don't, the city will not really be pushing the limits of the game.

Really, this is most important in multi-player. But even against the AI, you need to squeeze every single possible resource out of the civ you are running. If you don't, it's wasteful.

The basic premise behind choosing specialization v hybridization in a particular city is this: What can I do to make sure that this city contributes the greatest possible quantity of resources to my empire? You just have to be aware that the longer it takes for a city to get to that point determines exactly how long that city will be producing at it's greatest potential. So setting a goal to maximize all comerce in a city, focusing on raw cash makes it very easy for you to make choices as to what that city needs in terms of buildings, terrain improvements, and citizen placement. Everything else built there is just gravy.

I agree that a naval producer on the coast is a great candidate for some commerce specialization, but the importance of producing boats in 2-3 turns is far greater than the commerce from a couple of sea tiles being harvested. And building a bank there is out of the question unless you already have a cumbersome navy. Cities like this are only good shield/commerce hybrids if they can start out as population factories.

 

[Holy Despot]

Yes you are absolutely right.I think that the tendency of Hybrids appears at higher difficulties(emperor,deity) where the human player needs to squeeze everything he can out of his cities when the AI gets popped up like a chicken. The AI has a huge production capability and starts with great advantages(extra troops,settlers,workers) so you really have to produce as fast and most importantly as well as you can.The solution for this are cities with special tasks(hybrids) which work better than ''Equals''.The AI may receive huge advantages but he can't cut your head and he can't take your intelligence away.Terrain affects HUGELY cities but also the place they have in your empire(distance for capitol,cities overseas etc.)
I have always thought that the hardest job in Civ III is to manage your cities,harder than any war,diplomatic act,trade or military strategy.Managing your cities is crucial and beginners often forget this and see other pleasures of the game.(Remember an empire without cities doesn't exist ).Cities are the keys to the rooms filled of techs,units,wonders and VICTORY.
Thanks for the reply.