Is anyone else tired of the city distance "minigame"?

[Elhoim]

When Civ 7 was announced, I thought the city building distance was going to be something similar to Old World, not tied to a particular range, so you can expand your cities to different sizes. But we have again the 3 tile distance, which in some regards is worse than before. Anything outside of it can never be reached (except if you play America), so you are stuck with stripes and holes in your empire. You still have to tile count, trying not to miss a resource spot, and then you have the AI forward settling leaving just a tiny strip of land in city distance.

I know it's a nitpick and probably just a pet peeve of mine, but after playing with a system like Old World's one I find this one extremely restrictive and prone to annoyances. Locking the "resource outpost" just to America also felt off, as I expected something like that to be a base mechanic. Anyway, I'm done ranting

 

[UWHabs]

I don't mind, for once at least the game generally benefits from you giving more space between your cities rather than cramming them in too close. But yeah, not being able to work outside the range is annoying - especially if you settle too far away, and leave like a one tile gap in your empire, you invariably will get some resource stuck in there that you can never get.

 

[Elhoim]

Yeah, especially since the red tiles aren't a good indicative of the actual city work distance.

 

[Cymsdale]

if you settle too far away, and leave like a one tile gap in your empire, you invariably will get some resource stuck in there that you can never get.

Not if you play America!

 

[DocRock]

I do not mind the 3 tiles, but it should work more like V where you can't buy more than 3 but the borders are naturally growing further. Because I hate it so much when the AI settles in my empire.

 

[Disgustipated]

I mostly fill in the gaps in the modern age when the city cap rises to a decent level.

 

[queenpea]

I mostly fill in the gaps in the modern age when the city cap rises to a decent level.

I do the same and it works well actually because you can specialize the town rather quickly to have it become a feeder to adjacent cities.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

As posted, I expected the 'distant Outpost' to be a base mechanic for everybody. After all, the distance from which materials/products could be 'fed' to a city varied enormously - packed metal and luxury products from afar, food from a very short distance overland but much farther by river or sea. To have all of that dependent on founding new Settlements seems a bit restrictive.

I suggest, though, that 'claiming' a distant tile be expensive: say, any thing outside of the regular 3-tile distance requiring a combination of Influence and Gold and possibly an Upkeep/maintenance cost to keep your little workers Out There producing.

Settling 'beyond the limit' should not be Easy, but it should be Possible.

 

[4Xtra]

I wish you could buy tiles and swap them. There's so many individual little conveniences missing from Civ 7, but this is one of my biggest icks so far. I'm not too critical of city distance, but Independent Powers can be super annoying to deal with. There are a lot of times where I wanted to settled a port city in the New World, only to have to clear out the natives next to me when I wouldn't have otherwise.

 

[jammerculture]

Seems like the maps support this though and it’s not realistic. You have juicy areas and areas that are less inhabitable. To me this makes the maps more realistic.

 

[Elhoim]

As posted, I expected the 'distant Outpost' to be a base mechanic for everybody. After all, the distance from which materials/products could be 'fed' to a city varied enormously - packed metal and luxury products from afar, food from a very short distance overland but much farther by river or sea. To have all of that dependent on founding new Settlements seems a bit restrictive.

I suggest, though, that 'claiming' a distant tile be expensive: say, any thing outside of the regular 3-tile distance requiring a combination of Influence and Gold and possibly an Upkeep/maintenance cost to keep your little workers Out There producing.

Settling 'beyond the limit' should not be Easy, but it should be Possible.

Yeah, I was really bummed when I say they kept it to just one Civ. Time to make a mod I guess jajajaja

I wish you could buy tiles and swap them. There's so many individual little conveniences missing from Civ 7, but this is one of my biggest icks so far. I'm not too critical of city distance, but Independent Powers can be super annoying to deal with. There are a lot of times where I wanted to settled a port city in the New World, only to have to clear out the natives next to me when I wouldn't have otherwise.

Definitely, especially when the tile is claimed but has no improvement. And I'd say that rural ones should be passed between cities (moving the pop between them). It's really annoying when you are developing a city and you didn't notice that taking a tile with a town blocked several of the potential city ones.

 

[MasterPaw]

Yeah, I think towns are a missed opportunity, I was thinking about having a third option being outpost that is just here to claim 1 ring, resources and strategic chokepoint (like millenia I guess).

Could be built by a civilian unit but I am not sure what best for how it should work. Can it be built anywhere? Close to your borders?
And especially if allows to claim resources, should it automatically work them or use some growth/buy option?
Maybe could work like prospectors but I haven't played them so not sure how it works exactly

 

[Yzman]

I haven't had this issue? Just place your cities so it's there or there is room for another city.

 

[Elhoim]

It's not an issue per se, but after playing games with more flexible borders the "Ring Tetris" and everything being so it clustered creates some annoyances and feels like a missed opportunity to improve it.

 

[sonicmyst]

Yeah, I think towns are a missed opportunity, I was thinking about having a third option being outpost that is just here to claim 1 ring, resources and strategic chokepoint (like millenia I guess).

Could be built by a civilian unit but I am not sure what best for how it should work. Can it be built anywhere? Close to your borders?
And especially if allows to claim resources, should it automatically work them or use some growth/buy option?
Maybe could work like prospectors but I haven't played them so not sure how it works exactly

Scouts should be able to make an outpost. Hopefully the devs implement it.

 

[Taefin]

For me, so often there is one resource just outside the range of each settlement, that never makes sense to create a new settlement for. On islands, where only one resource will be out of range. I guess America needs something to make it special.

 

[UWHabs]

As posted, I expected the 'distant Outpost' to be a base mechanic for everybody. After all, the distance from which materials/products could be 'fed' to a city varied enormously - packed metal and luxury products from afar, food from a very short distance overland but much farther by river or sea. To have all of that dependent on founding new Settlements seems a bit restrictive.

I suggest, though, that 'claiming' a distant tile be expensive: say, any thing outside of the regular 3-tile distance requiring a combination of Influence and Gold and possibly an Upkeep/maintenance cost to keep your little workers Out There producing.

Settling 'beyond the limit' should not be Easy, but it should be Possible.

I'd want it probably limited to the trade route range so you can't just claim anything. But if you could send, say, a merchant to a tile, place an Outpost on it that cost like 2 gold and 2 influence per turn, but it let you claim the resource, that would be a useful ability. You would still be liable for someone else founding a city and sniping it, definitely a lot of times I would love to get a resource but don't want to use a settlement on it.

 

[Elhoim]

I'd want it probably limited to the trade route range so you can't just claim anything. But if you could send, say, a merchant to a tile, place an Outpost on it that cost like 2 gold and 2 influence per turn, but it let you claim the resource, that would be a useful ability. You would still be liable for someone else founding a city and sniping it, definitely a lot of times I would love to get a resource but don't want to use a settlement on it.

Yeah, definitely it should be tied to ranges, like 6 tiles from the nearest city should be more than enough. Resource hunting is one of the best parts of the game, I really like the system.

 

[Shurdus]

Yeah, especially since the red tiles aren't a good indicative of the actual city work distance.

Counting to three is hard.

Moderator Action: Trolling - Methos

 

[Elhoim]

Counting to three is hard.

Moderator Action: Trolling - Methos

Do I really need to read this? Anyway, I can count to three, that's what I just did before answering, but it's something that I don't particularly enjoy with the tiles, especially as the red tiles are not a good indicative of the other cities range with resources being red as well. Plus it was there in previous Civ iterations (like Civ 4). The Civ 6 lense mod has it and it's quite useful when moving the settling location around different spots.

If you enjoy the manual counting, good for you, but no need to be abrasive about it.