Island cities and maps versus district system

[Krajzen]

How do you think the problem of "you obviously can't build city districts on water tiles" be solved or balanced? Or are there any clues regarding this issue?

In civ5 few-tile-island-cities had production problem but could still function with trade routes and fact all buildings were created on city center tile. In civ6 it looks as such cities were unable to do anything other than gathering sea resources and few
city-center-district buildings. For example on Earth maps Britain, Japan, Rome and Indonesia would be screwed.

It gets even worse when you realize wonders also require free land tiles (probably there will be few water tile wonders but that's it).

Thoughts?

 

[joncnunn]

UK would be in decent shape as long as the Celts aren't in the same game: There's about 20 land hexes that London would have for districts between England & Wales.

Japan would be somewhat limited, but as long as Korea isn't in the same game it could also work Korea for an additional land hex.

Rome would be in better shape than Japan but not as good as UK. It's main problem is how surrounded by other civs capitals it is.

Indonesia actually has a bunch of island chains nearby; so as long as there's not a prohibition against a district being on a different landmass than the main city, it will have few tiles.

Now if Polynesia's capital is Honolulu in Civ VI on a real map; they'd have issues.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

We don't know how useful water tiles are in Civilization VI and the land you have can be used for districts.

 

[Jaybe]

No archipelago maps in Civ6. That would solve it to some extent.

 

[AriochIV]

It may be that the map generator just doesn't create islands smaller than a certain number of tiles. I don't think we've seen any single-tile islands thus far in any of the screenshots or videos.

 

[Human Crouton]

It may be that the map generator just doesn't create islands smaller than a certain number of tiles. I don't think we've seen any single-tile islands thus far in any of the screenshots or videos.

That was my thought as well. Maybe the minimum island size is 4 tiles or something.

 

[Cerilis]

I wonder if they are (at one point) going to make a civ that will be able to build districts on lake/coastal water tiles.

Like, Polynesia or maybe even the Aztecs.

 

[Krajzen]

I wonder if they are (at one point) going to make a civ that will be able to build districts on lake/coastal water tiles.

Like, Polynesia or maybe even the Aztecs.

One of the known wonders is Mont Saint-Michel, and IRL it is a monastery located on an island at the mouth of the Couesnon River. I think its terrain requirements will be "coastal or lake tile".

 

[wilcoxchar]

It looks like the Colossus, Great Lighthouse, and the harbor district will also require coastal tiles based on the screenshots we've seen.

 

[Socrates99]

Is the Harbor built on land or coastal water tiles?

Anyway, island cities on landmasses of 4 or less tiles never grew that huge in CiV without a trade route feeding them or a lucky cluster of fish. I'd imagine VI will be the same.

I have a feeling the archipelago map generator in VI will compensate for districts anyway.

 

[historix69]

Size of islands will depend on overall size of map ... if you have a map with 1-tile islands and can enlarge it with factor 6 horizontally and vertically, everything is fine ...

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

In a Gamespot article from a few weeks ago Ed mentioned that they had to modify to the Archepelago map to work with the district system. So I would imagine they have fewer 1 tile islands than previously.

 

[Galbias]

That's a good point. There will probably be at least some water districts but hopefully map scripts will be designed to give islands at least a couple tiles. Though it's not like 1 tile islands were very good in Civ 5 (and also not like that stopped AIs from settling crappy cities on them).

 

[Krajzen]

In a Gamespot article from a few weeks ago Ed mentioned that they had to modify to the Archepelago map to work with the district system. So I would imagine they have fewer 1 tile islands than previously.

I was seeking info like that, thanks.

I like that change too, as I never liked those swarms of 1 tile islands in civ5 - too small to be worth settling, and in the same time sight of AIs of the entire world founding useless cities on random 1 tile islands all over the world was so annoying

 

[TPangolin]

One of the known wonders is Mont Saint-Michel, and IRL it is a monastery located on an island at the mouth of the Couesnon River. I think its terrain requirements will be "coastal or lake tile".

Floodplains and Marsh

 

[JtW]

I can imagine one-tile-island cities being somewhat useful as trade or military hubs. They won't grow past a certain size but with the global happiness system gone, I don't see a reason not to build them. Of course, this only works for peripheral cities. You still need a larger landmass for your capital.

 

[Human Crouton]

I wonder if they are (at one point) going to make a civ that will be able to build districts on lake/coastal water tiles.

Like, Polynesia or maybe even the Aztecs.

They mentioned during G&K that they wanted to give The Netherlands an ability to reclaim sea tiles, but the engine wouldn't allow for that. So I'm looking at that as a long shot idea that might happen.

 

[Hail]

Thoughts?

unstacking the cities screwed island cities and archipelago maps.
imo the biggest issue with island cities, contrary to the popular opinion (lack of tiles), is the lack of housing capacity.

if there is a science penalty for new cities as Dennis Shirk seems to imply, than island cities are even worse than useless.

 

[King Jason]

Considering that you can only build one type of district in a city, then a "specialized" city literally only needs 1 tile for a district. Obviously there are considerations for growth concerns, but those same considerations and limitations existed in regards to tiny islands in every other civ game ever. It goes without saying that less workable land = less potential growth and productivity.

However, the main point i'm making is that a city with 1 tile and a city with 36 tiles would still have the exact same capacity to complete the entire campus district, for example. Now, science is tied to population and tile bonuses so that 36 tiled city would likely generate more science than the 1 tile city, since it'd probably be able to find some mountains but I don't think tiny islands are just outright worthless. When you add in the considerations of pop cap limiting district growth, a city of population 10 for example, would only be able to make 3 districts.

So again, going on the extreme, provided there are sea resources and the ability to encourage growth, a tiny island that had the capacity to reach 10 population only really needs 3 tiles to work with. Even so, this city could get one extra district because all islands will be able to place a harbor. So if it reach the proper pop cap it could have 4 districts with only 3 tiles. That's about a population of 12 with the capacity to support 16 buildings... That doesn't exactly sound like a "useless" city to me.

 

[Socrates99]

Considering that you can only build one type of district in a city, then a "specialized" city literally only needs 1 tile for a district. Obviously there are considerations for growth concerns, but those same considerations and limitations existed in regards to tiny islands in every other civ game ever. It goes without saying that less workable land = less potential growth and productivity.

Wait, only one type in any city? Or am I misunderstanding? I thought we've seen cities with multiple types.

Anyway, I get what you're saying. The cities will still function. They'll just be small, just like they've always been.