Late game ICS is going to be viable if not optimal

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

ICS is about packing as many cities as possible in a given area.

This is likely not going to be something you want to do in the early game why?
*Cities are expensive and building them up take long time
*Most of these cities will not have fresh water
*You have better ways to develop your economy then building poor cities
*You want your early cities in good locations

But everything change in the mid-late game why?
*Factory provide area of effect production so more cities in a area the more production your empire produce.
*Each city can only build a certain number of district so super large cities are not interest or efficient while many but smaller cities can have many more districts
*Food production is much better
*Entertainment district have area of effect buildings so it will be easy to keep a group of cities happy.
*Housing is not as dependent on fresh water because you have access to the neighbourhood

My guess is the late game is going to look like an urban sprawl, most people will work in the districts with some large farm areas to support the cities. Production will come from factories who do stack with each other while entertainment complex will keep people happy.
These late game empires will be able to support a massive amout of trade routes, some which may be needed to help their own cities while others will bring in a massive amount of wealth from foregine trade.

 

[Sansa_Stark]

You have a lot of time today, don't you

 

[Biz_]

My guess is the late game is going to look like an urban sprawl, most people will work in the districts with some large farm areas to support the cities. Production will come from factories who do stack with each other while entertainment complex will keep people happy.
These late game empires will be able to support a massive amout of trade routes, some which may be needed to help their own cities while others will bring in a massive amount of wealth from foregine trade.

is this a complaint about civ or a commentary on modern society?

 

[Furycrab]

I think some civs will be rewarded with more tightly packed cities (Japan for one), but I don't think ICS, in it's strictest definition, is what's going on here. Early game you can't spam em too close or you'll run out of usable housing or amenities. Later game you can, but by that point, you'll also have options to super grow cities instead and have more districts in them instead.

 

[Louis XXIV]

The city space minimum hurts the ability to do ICS. Plus, you need to have an industrial district in each of them, which isn't entirely easy. Plus, if we're talking late game, you have to clear up the space, which isn't that easy to do.

 

[joncnunn]

Plus, if we're talking late game, you have to clear up the space, which isn't that easy to do.

Unless you built your cities way too loose to begin with; so loose that in fact a barbarian camp formed in fog of war in the large hole between the city eating several trade units because you also didn't place a cheap unit to keep out fog of war there.
Personally while I might well "back-fill" after forward settling at a choke point; I'll fill them fairly quickly rather than waiting until anywhere near factories to found.

 

[MadDjinn]

Not sure 'ICS' is what's going to happen, but you could easily suggest a mid-late game expansion phase (which is totally different from civV):

Pre-factories: settle 'large' city locations -- multidistrict types. Only settle small city locations if really required (so that super awesome campus location or a harbour city so that you can trade off landmass, etc)

Post-factories: start filler city locations within 6 hexes of a factory, and have 1-2 very specific districts (give or take UD) needed. No need to grow the cities much.

Post-late game amenity boosters: the small cities can afford to grow.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Minimal space between cities is 3 tiles, range of Factories / Zoos / Colosseum is 6 tiles. You almost always catch all cities around this one even if loosely packed. You almost never catch the second ring of the cities, even if tightly packed. The word "almost" is used here because those things are not built in city center, so you could technically reach more in one direction at he cost of the other one.