[IMPROVEMENT SUGGESTION] - Razing cities temporarily adds them to your empire.

[Onionsoilder]

So I was playing a game earlier were Arabia had been one of my old trade partners, but then out of nowhere decided to be hostile to me. I invaded, captured several cities and installed puppets in them, then sued for peace when my happiness got so low I couldn't capture any more cities without having a significantly adverse impact. We do some minor trading, but nothing really beneficial, then 40 turns later they decide to go hostile again. I still don't have much extra happiness for capturing cities, but I figure it might be best just to eliminate them once and for all, so I declare war and invade again...

After capturing and two cities and setting them to be razed, I suddenly notice I have a lot more unhappiness and am paying a lot more in maintenance. After snooping around for a while I figured out why; Even though I opted to raze those two cities, they hadn't been completely destroyed yet, and counted as part of my empire; I was paying for them in upkeep and happiness. What is worse is that because I opted to raze them, they were inactive so I wasn't getting science, production or culture from them.

In what world does pillaging and burning cost you money? Civilization V, I guess. This has to be a bug, no way this could be a conscious design decision - I get waiting several turns to raze cities to give your enemy time to recapture them, but you shouldn't pay maintenance and happiness for them!

 

[UNIT 666]

Wouldn't treating it normally just be considered "keeping control" of the city while you're razing everything?

 

[Onionsoilder]

I don't really see how. Sure there is some control involved, but surely the military unit that captured the city could take control of that? Even if they can't, the cost shouldn't nearly be as high, considering you have to pay full maintenance. Why should you pay the building maintenance(which I generally take to mean operation costs, building repair, etc.) when you're burning them down? The unhappiness hit also really hurts if you're low on happiness. I just don't see how this could be intended.

 

[Auncien]

This is working as intended I think. It takes several turns to burn it down. What puzzles me is why the game forces you to choose production for the city while it burns. That seems silly.

 

[ainwood]

I don't think this is a bug, but I'll add the thing about not choosing buildings for a city being razed as an improvement suggestion.

 

[MAntoninus]

While razing Ottoman cities last night (Happiness of puppets was too much to bear in my happiness on the edge state) I got into a weird state.

The UI forced me to build something in the city being razed.

All the units that were available had a price of ?????????????.

Has anyone else seen this?

 

[The_J]

Moderator Action: Moved to bug reports.

Savegame and screenshot please .

 

[ainwood]

Yes - this does happen. Recorded in the "Suggested improvements" list.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=381725

Moderator Action: Threads merged.

 

[Clammo]

I'm in my first full game now, and I've razed 3 cities and it's happened with all of them so I thought it was normal. Apparently not.

 

[Bleser]

I noticed that every time I choose to raze a city I then have to choose what it is going to produce?? And every item just has "??" as the build time. Kind of odd to tell a burning city to build a library.

 

[EwIck]

does it actually produce anything? if not then yeah we shouldn't be bothered with it. If it does then it's not entirely useless since you have the option to stop razing the city.

 

[pirsq]

It never produces anything in practice, though in theory, if you decided to raze a city large enough that it took longer to raze than the unrest lasts, it might build something. Having a city razing also prevents you from building any national wonders, which is an actual consequence (having to pick a building is just an inconvenience). Also, cancelling the raze automatically annexes the city with no option to puppet (though this does kind of make sense).

I feel the UI should just not let you control of a city while it's in unrest, and not count it towards national wonders.