Leapfrogging Technique?

[depner72]

Question: how relevant is this new leap-frogging technique? Should anyone pay attention to this?

 

[Uberfrog]

Heh, this looks and sounds like an alternate account for AussieDrongo, the Age of Empires 4 YouTuber.

It's an interesting idea, I'd like to see some comparisons at X turns to see what the cost-benefit is. You are effectively spending Gold or Production to move a citizen to a new tile (and losing a rural tile in the process). But I think it could make sense in some situations to prioritise a particular tile

 

[ggmoyang]

If you have access to the target tile you don't even have to spend gold - just start a building on a rural tile to make it urban, and a pop is relocated. And you can build something else after that, too. Just keep in mind if you have an empty urban tile, you can't make new urban tile until you fill one.

 

[Leyrann]

That seemed like an elementary and incredibly intuitive concept to me? I've been applying this all the time. If I settle a new town I get one citizen (two if I have the right Expansionist attribute), if that citizen can't get the resource I want, I'll put the Granary on the tile in between, rather than in the city center, and stuff like that.

Am I just underestimating how much passive strategy game knowledge I have that I'm drawing from?

 

[Uberfrog]

That seemed like an elementary and incredibly intuitive concept to me? I've been applying this all the time. If I settle a new town I get one citizen (two if I have the right Expansionist attribute), if that citizen can't get the resource I want, I'll put the Granary on the tile in between, rather than in the city center, and stuff like that.

Am I just underestimating how much passive strategy game knowledge I have that I'm drawing from?

It is intuitive that you open up resource tiles by placing a quarter between. But the leapfrog technique is deliberately placing a suboptimal farm one turn and immediately replacing it with a building to reassign the farmer to a tile that was previously out of your borders. Not exactly rocket science, but I wouldn’t say it was elementary. The game certainly doesn’t explain that replacing a rural tile with an urban one immediately frees up that citizen for a new placement.

 

[Leyrann]

But the leapfrog technique is deliberately placing a suboptimal farm one turn and immediately replacing it with a building to reassign the farmer to a tile that was previously out of your borders.

You can also place the building before growing, if you do it in the same turn.

The game certainly doesn’t explain that replacing a rural tile with an urban one immediately frees up that citizen for a new placement.

That is true. However, if you pay any attention at all you should notice you get a 'grow city' action every time you build over an improvement. It's not even as if there's a delay in the feedback, as this particular notification tends to jump the queue.

 

[Cymsdale]

That seemed like an elementary and incredibly intuitive concept to me? I've been applying this all the time. If I settle a new town I get one citizen (two if I have the right Expansionist attribute), if that citizen can't get the resource I want, I'll put the Granary on the tile in between, rather than in the city center, and stuff like that.

Am I just underestimating how much passive strategy game knowledge I have that I'm drawing from?

Yeah it seemed pretty obvious to me. I was doing this technique long before learning a youtuber "invented" it.

 

[Uberfrog]

That is true. However, if you pay any attention at all you should notice you get a 'grow city' action every time you build over an improvement. It's not even as if there's a delay in the feedback, as this particular notification tends to jump the queue.

I am willing to concede that I am dumb, but along with the 1000 other notifications vying for my attention every turn, I did not make the link!

 

[Evolena]

It's less intuitive at the very start of a new game, when you only have your Capital, no Gold, and must build the Building instead of insta-buy it, as then the culture-bomb effect only occurs after the completion of the Building, not when you place it.

 

[kaspergm]

So much for reducing micromanagement. But I guess I'm coloured by the fact that I've hated the coupling of citizen placement and border growth from the minute it was first announced.

 

[Uberfrog]

I actually quite like it. The specialist UI obviously needs more work - I think specialists should be visible somehow on the map - but I think there is something elegant about an improvement relating to a citizen. Much better than infinite pastures standing idle!

 

[depner72]

Call me dumb but I do not understand this concept. So I need to build a rural tile first, then replace it with an urban tile -- read: build a building -- then the citizen moves? But how do I control the movement of the citizen? Or is this just another thing that I have to guess about this game?

 

[Evolena]

But how do I control the movement of the citizen? Or is this just another thing that I have to guess about this game?

You get a new Growth event (the big + action in the bottom right wheel).

 

[Cymsdale]

Call me dumb but I do not understand this concept. So I need to build a rural tile first, then replace it with an urban tile -- read: build a building -- then the citizen moves? But how do I control the movement of the citizen? Or is this just another thing that I have to guess about this game?

I think the video kind of overexplains a simple concept.

- Creating a new urban district with a building can help expand borders.
- Creating a new urban district on top of a improved rural tile will allow you to "move" that rural tile somewhere else.

So if you have a growth available you can optionally purchase a building in order to expand where you can put that new rural tile.
Likewise, you can build or purchase a building at any time in order to 're-do' placement of a rural tile if you put that building on top of an improved tile.

 

[Evolena]

Also keep in mind that the building you place for that technique, most of the time an Ageless Warehouse building, will be here forever, which means only one slot left for a good adjacency spot, and no Wonder later.

 

[depner72]

You get a new Growth event (the big + action in the bottom right wheel).

Okay, but how do I know the future location of the citizen and more importantly, how can I control the citizen in the future, a mechanic, which has been available in all the other games I have played before? This is just such a perfect example of why I loathe this game. Why mess with something that has worked for years, decades? What is the upside of this new system? How does it make the game more enjoyable, especially, if you consider, as others have pointed out that, that the sh**ty graphics make it difficult to differentiate between the different tiles? Why is there no way of knowing which citizen works which tile? Any help is appreciated.

 

[StargazingDog]

The game certainly doesn’t explain that replacing a rural tile with an urban one immediately frees up that citizen for a new placement.

It does in the tutorials, doesn't it?

edit: I started a new game to see if this is explicitly mentioned. This the closest I could find. I suppose it depends on your interpretation of "replace the improvement". The citizen lives on, but the improvement is replaced.

Call me dumb but I do not understand this concept. So I need to build a rural tile first, then replace it with an urban tile -- read: build a building -- then the citizen moves? But how do I control the movement of the citizen? Or is this just another thing that I have to guess about this game?

There is no guessing. You will be overbuilding rural workers with urban districts constantly in this game. The game then prompts you to place the rural worker in a new location.

 

[Cymsdale]

Okay, but how do I know the future location of the citizen and more importantly, how can I control the citizen in the future, a mechanic, which has been available in all the other games I have played before? This is just such a perfect example of why I loathe this game. Why mess with something that has worked for years, decades? What is the upside of this new system? How does it make the game more enjoyable, especially, if you consider, as others have pointed out that, that the sh**ty graphics make it difficult to differentiate between the different tiles? Why is there no way of knowing which citizen works which tile? Any help is appreciated.

It's really quite simple. If by creating an urban tile you lose a rural tile, you immediately get a new rural tile (growth event).

 

[Atlas627]

Okay, but how do I know the future location of the citizen and more importantly, how can I control the citizen in the future, a mechanic, which has been available in all the other games I have played before? This is just such a perfect example of why I loathe this game. Why mess with something that has worked for years, decades? What is the upside of this new system? How does it make the game more enjoyable, especially, if you consider, as others have pointed out that, that the sh**ty graphics make it difficult to differentiate between the different tiles? Why is there no way of knowing which citizen works which tile? Any help is appreciated.

You place the citizen yourself, just like all the others.

You don't move citizens around anymore. Most people didn't anyways. You don't need to know which citizen works which tile.

The system is cleaner than before and it allows them to tie population growth to border growth, as both are permanent.

 

[depner72]

It does in the tutorials, doesn't it?


There is no guessing. You will be overbuilding rural workers with urban districts constantly in this game. The game then prompts you to place the rural worker in a new location.

??? Do I control the citizen or not?