Industrial Districts - How to use them?

[steveg700]

I think they should bring back the IZ AoE stacking.

But also give them AoE negative appeal that stacks.

And give a city amenities (neg or pos) based on the hex appeal it's on.

So you can have your massive production cities, but they've got to be chock full of entertainment districts and Pairidaezas to get people to live there!

In general, I think appeal should be tied in more closely to both districts and amenities, rather than being rear-loaded into neighborhoods and national parks.

 

[Victoria]

I retried my culture test on easy levels.... its an interesting game that makes you think differently

1 City Challenge - play as Pericles on Settler and win a CV with only 1 city - quite hard
2 City Challenge - play as Pericles on Chieftain and with a CV with only 2 cities - not too hard but not easy. Maybe try this first.

I played 3 & 4 on levels 3 &4 also but they are easier. The thing is.... in none of my scenarios did I build an IZ.
Maybe try with an IZ and see if its easier... I suspect not

 

[bbbt]

In general, I think appeal should be tied in more closely to both districts and amenities, rather than being rear-loaded into neighborhoods and national parks.

Yeah, they've added an interesting and pretty comprehensive mechanic, but then aren't actually using it for that much. They might have more plans for it in expansions though.

 

[Disgustipated]

I certainly don't build them every city like some of you guys. Seems like overkill. I find myself needing to build more important things anyways like still getting commercial and harbor districts up. I do the tile counting thing, anything beyond 6 tiles I work for planning another IZ. Yeah it kind of hurts until you get factories, but I often beeline factories anyways.

 

[Victoria]

The nice thing about getting lots of gold instead is you can just buy directly, there is no turn delay... Omg I need 2 universities for a eureka?.... buy them in

 

[DouLou]

Ive given up on IZs as a 1st or 2nd district as they just delay my 3rd district which is typically my win condition district. My quickest SV is 227 from a comm into science district. My cap/spaceport city will grab a IZ third but once im building ruhr valley thats my sign to prepare endgame and all my cities start running campus projects. Wheres the time for IZ in any other cities? (apart from one more to boost my cap production with an overlap). In a game based around min maxing I cant see it. I guess if youre playing for fun or long turn game go ahead however... this is just my opinion and perhaps I'm wrong.

Germany is an exception to this however.

 

[agonistes]

I retried my culture test on easy levels.... its an interesting game that makes you think differently

1 City Challenge - play as Pericles on Settler and win a CV with only 1 city - quite hard
2 City Challenge - play as Pericles on Chieftain and with a CV with only 2 cities - not too hard but not easy. Maybe try this first.

I played 3 & 4 on levels 3 &4 also but they are easier. The thing is.... in none of my scenarios did I build an IZ.
Maybe try with an IZ and see if its easier... I suspect not

I'll start a one city deity... see how that goes. Will try for cultural. Won't be building an iz.

edit: haven't done this since III... wish me luck...

 

[Victoria]

edit: haven't done this since III... wish me luck...

... 1 city deity CV? You need more than luck
Try a 1 city prince if you want to try the impossible... deity.... lol

regardless, may the winds of finer things in life fill your sails with joy (good luck)

 

[agonistes]

... 1 city deity CV? You need more than luck
Try a 1 city prince if you want to try the impossible... deity.... lol

regardless, may the winds of finer things in life fill your sails with joy (good luck)

Tank u tank u.

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

Hansa or Harbor is the first thing I build once available. Always.
It makes the rest of the districts much easier for me.
Encampment is usually number 2 for inland cities.
I also try for a lot of commercial districts for the trade route.
If there are mtn tiles, then a campus or maybe, just maybe a holy site.
(if far from my main areas, I tend to drop them more for healing my units. I like my extra production, and CS are always asking for conversions or trade routes, soo, a free envoy is a free envoy)

 

[UWHabs]

I think in most cases they are highly ovrerrated. Someone above me posted a decent list of when to use them.

Remember, a good mine or mill is going to get you about the same increase in production if the city is covered by another industrial zone.

1st question you should ask is, 'what will be my return on this investment?'

I factor in whether or not I will be slotting citizens there.

Their value goes up for a science victory.

As mentioned elsewhere several times, if you get a double tap on that great engineer, they are worth building in almost every city through mid-game because the factory ends up being another +4 even if already covered by another zone. So +6 with workshop, + adjacency, + citizens.

I've built them just for engineer points.

Another factor is if you are getting the % bonus to production from faith.

It could be considered counter-intuitive, but the more dom you go, the less value they have. Imo of course. And the further into a game you are, assuming victory conditions are involved, the less value they have.

But I think most would agree that you want at least a couple well-placed ones in most games.

One thing to remember though is that the adjacency bonus you get from an IZ is "free", in that the citizen who could be working that tile can work a different one instead. So if you have extra mines lying around, I don't worry about swapping one out. But I have had cases where my city is starved for tiles, and I decide that it's not worth putting the IZ down when its best adjacency would wipe out my only river forest tile, for example.

But otherwise, I've started building more encampments to boost production. If the city is already covered by a factory, then keep in mind that Barracks+armory+mil acadamy gives +6 production and +2 housing, whereas IZ+workshop may not yield as much. The exceptions:
-IZ+Workshop will be cheaper in production than encampment+buildings, so if you get a decent IZ bonus it can still be worth it
-If I have a lot of industrial city-states, then the extra production you get from that can actually be pretty decent. If you have 6 envoys at 3 different industrial city-states, then even just an IZ with no adjacency gives +12 production to buildings.
-However, if my city is a bit starved for housing, the encampment might be a better choice if it can save me from building a neighbourhood.
-If going dom, getting a late great general really isn't a bad thing, especially if I can get one that lines up with my siege units.

 

[steveg700]

Definitely believe regional bonuses should work a bit differently, allowing for some kind of cumulative benefit. Maybe instead they just work like amenities, providing benefits to the closest four cities who don't currently have the bennies.

Or they could come with a late-game system whereby building up a district to a certain point (like an IZ having factories) allows citizens from neighboring cities to come work there. That would be one way to grant production bonuses specifically to cities that have no IZ's to call their own.

 

[agonistes]

How much do people *want* overlap? Or zones of influence? Would it be more fun to have a plant and factory only affect one city? Maybe give a % boost to production?

Anyways, I agree that encampments are usually a much superior district.

Shame, really. If they are going to remove overlap, they should buff factories and powerplants.

As is, the best place for an iz is in a looooow production city, on a tile that reaches as many of your mega producers as possible (and hopefully is flat snow or desert). Then your mega producers build the encampments.

 

[Wulfram G.T.]

Am I actually right that it is pointless to build factories and power plants in a city that is already covered by one? (except for the GPPs).
Even then, I would build IZs almost everywhere. Just the IZ + a workshop is a few valuable points of production that do not need the tile to be worked and is not thaat much of an investment.

Expecially as Germany I would build IZs + CHs everywhere. Even better a triangle of IZ+CH+Harbour (but unfortunately you get only one trade route like that).

 

[agonistes]

Am I actually right that it is pointless to build factories and power plants in a city that is already covered by one? (except for the GPPs).
Even then, I would build IZs almost everywhere. Just the IZ + a workshop is a few valuable points of production that do not need the tile to be worked and is not thaat much of an investment.

Expecially as Germany I would build IZs + CHs everywhere. Even better a triangle of IZ+CH+Harbour (but unfortunately you get only one trade route like that).

Except... non- district land is a valuable commodity. And it becomes ever more scarce. So is the +4 production (or so) worth it?

 

[Victoria]

For science I will always consider them just for the GE points

 

[Wulfram G.T.]

Except... non- district land is a valuable commodity. And it becomes ever more scarce. So is the +4 production (or so) worth it?

What does make non-district land so valuable? I can anyway never work all of it. I try to keep a chunk of 3 to 6 flat tiles for a farm cluster, hopefully there are some mines and ressources and that's it.

 

[UWHabs]

What does make non-district land so valuable? I can anyway never work all of it. I try to keep a chunk of 3 to 6 flat tiles for a farm cluster, hopefully there are some mines and ressources and that's it.

I think it depends a lot on how you plant your cities, and how big they grow. If your cities tend to stick to being around size-10, then land is cheap and you're better to plant the district. But if you want size-20 cities, and/or you plant them close to each other (or have lots of water and mountains), then yes, land can be scarce. Most of the time I try to plan it so that I can pile my districts together in an area without anything else needed there - desert being the ideal location for them. It just gets awkward when my "ideal" district locations don't work with how I want to lay out my farms or mines, and then I end up with the tougher choice.

 

[Karmah]

Tundra is the perfect place to stack districts (unless maybe if i'm russia)

 

[MisterBoomBoom]

What would be a nice touch is if the game showed a superimposed range for those industrial/workshop influences (like great generals). I hate counting hexes. I have to count a lot of hexes in this game.