Lets revisit specialist slots

[Victoria]

I remember a thread on slots where it was fairly unanimous that they were fairly useless.

Now the harbor produces sooo much food my cities have been growing to the point where they are easily working all the useful tiles and extra tiles are just sea tiles and I have a large amount of extra food and want my city to stop bloating. So I have been putting the citizens into slots.

My capital has been lately harbor/commercial/IZ/encampment as this gives +5 for those trade routes.

The IZ and encampment slots end up giving +9 production and +3 culture which is a nice extra little boost and those 6 people were otherwise floating in the sea admittedly getting me +12 GPT but I have enough damn gold.

anyone else slotting up at all lately?

 

[sa1vy]

Slots as in specialist slots or something else?
Useless? Guess I missed that one. I always used every one I could, and I just assumed others did as well. I guess Civ V still was in my mind. They seemed really powerful to me because of the GPP and a little bit extra science or culture for those victory types. I never build encampments or IZs anymore (except for one IZ in my cap), so can't really talk about those slots, but the science/culture/gold ones seem really good. Holy sites slots not so great because after you get a religion the GPP are useless. I haven't gotten an opportunity to play this patch enough yet to get a good feel for the harbor, but it seems pretty good.
Yeah the specialist slots seem really strong in general to me. They basically make those purple policy cards useless. Haven't used those since my second game. There's just so many better cards to put in instead.

Edit: Specialists don't actually give GPP.

 

[Victoria]

It's just I noticed I had excess food in cities and a lot of people standing on grass or floating in boats. I know slots are not a lot but are better than nothing

 

[Arent11]

Slots as in specialist slots or something else?
Useless? Guess I missed that one. I always used every one I could, and I just assumed others did as well. I guess Civ V still was in my mind. They seemed really powerful to me because of the GPP and a little bit extra science or culture for those victory types. I never build encampments or IZs anymore (except for one IZ in my cap), so can't really talk about those slots, but the science/culture/gold ones seem really good. Holy sites slots not so great because after you get a religion the GPP are useless. I haven't gotten an opportunity to play this patch enough yet to get a good feel for the harbor, but it seems pretty good.
Yeah the specialist slots seem really strong in general to me. They basically make those purple policy cards useless. Haven't used those since my second game. There's just so many better cards to put in instead.

As far as I know, slots do not generate great people points in civ 6? But maybe I'm misunderstanding something?`

Industrial Zone slots are sometimes useful +2 production.

 

[Victoria]

No they do not, just a couple of food, prod, culture , science or gold, quite dill and useless.
I would rather they shortened projects at least

 

[MyOtherName]

I remember a thread on slots where it was fairly unanimous that they were fairly useless.

I wouldn't read too much into that; popular opinion is about growing big cities, even when it's not a good idea, and using specialist slots is in direct opposition to doing so.

Specialist slots -- IMO, campus and theater especially -- become much more attractive once you move past the idea that growth is always of utmost importance and start being more interested in what the city can do for you in the short term.

 

[sa1vy]

Wow I feel dumb. I thought they contributed some GPP. They don't seem nearly as helpful to me now. I'll have to rethink their importance.

 

[Victoria]

No they are not very helpful but +2 science is better that growing 2 citizens sometimes if you think about it.

 

[DrCron]

I would change the title to "specialists" instead of "slots".

They are not completely useless in 6, but they are still WAY weaker than they were in 4-5. The fact that they don't add to great people generation is another one of the reasons why playing with a small number of cities is not viable on Deity.

 

[joncnunn]

Moderator Action: Thread title changed to Let's revisit specialist slots

 

[Hrothbern]

I see those slots as part of a high level focus regulation:
I you have enough high yielding food tiles AND enough buildings on prod/civ/science districts,
then you can use citizens on low yielding food tiles, like ocean, to grow your population further,
or use citizens on specialist slots to focus prod/civ/science
But in terms of birth control, coastal cities WITH a harbor can indeed be a nuisance IF you have not enough buildings on your other (prod/civ/science) districts
Especially if you like, as I do in many strategies, to build only the key focus buildings (their maintenance cost money !) and keep your base amenities in the plus for wars or the 5-10% extra yield.
Would be nice if you can stack the surplus on the city centre for no reward and even nicer if you could stack them also on an entertainment district for 0.50 amenty per citizen.

 

[EpicWestern]

My last game I used slots to decent effect for a science victory, and I'll probably be using them for all victory types more often. Early on of course, they're just completely worthless, but late game there's a point where you've completed your victory buildings, and your cities don't really have anything that important to build. With 10 cities, switching to science specialists with multipliers gives you up +66 science which obviously huge (though some cities don't have to food to support 3 specialists).

Not sure if the same would be true for a cultural victory. Getting to social media ASAP is obviously important, but going another two techs to globalization really isn't. Also since campuses and theater districts are both significantly important for a cultural win, you'll have more you need to build.

For a religious victory I definitely see myself switching to faith specialists after mosques are built. There's really no buildings that are essential after that point.

Domination they're probably close to worthless as you're almost always building units. Still, if you're flush with food for whatever reason I don't see why not.

 

[Esperr]

No they do not, just a couple of food, prod, culture , science or gold, quite dill and useless.
I would rather they shortened projects at least

I think this is it right here pretty much, they would need to give some insane yields to really make them worth more then "well ive got nowhere better to put them...". Now I just look at them as a late game food sink when your out of useful tiles, but even then they don't give you enough to make it something worth "going for".

 

[MyOtherName]

I think this is it right here pretty much, they would need to give some insane yields to really make them worth more then "well ive got nowhere better to put them...". Now I just look at them as a late game food sink when your out of useful tiles, but even then they don't give you enough to make it something worth "going for".

In my impression, people overrate the value of tiles. Suppose you've got your mined hill, milled forests, and improved resources worked.

Then... you can work a flatland farm. They give you the food you need to grow... to work another flatland farm... which lets you grow to work another flatland farm....

Growing on farms to work farms doesn't really do anything except slowly increase your science and culture per turn (and slowly drain your housing, amenities and builder charges) as you buy increasingly expensive citizens. I don't think that's anywhere near as useful as popular opinion about them seems to be.

 

[LordBalkoth]

I don't think that's anywhere near as useful as popular opinion about them seems to be.

I think habits from Civ V die hard for most people. Each citizen in Civ V would wind up being 4 Science and more gold from trade routes...little bit different from 0.7 science and 0.3 culture.

There's really not much benefit going past 7 pop these days except for big production centers -- that's enough for a Commercial Hub, Campus, and Theater Square/Encampment/Industrial Zone/Entertainment Complex. The IZ and EC nerfs (along with not having Harbor and Commercial Hub trade route slots stack) really reduced the need for even semi-big cities.

A city with 7 pop and 8 production is much worse than a city with 7 pop and 30 production.

 

[Abraxis]

I disagree with everyone saying they're worthless early on. They're great for certain specific situations like if you're Norway with feed the world for your stave churches you need somewhere to stick the milk drinkers who aren't out raiding.

They're useful for everyone though. once you hit the point at which your housing starts slowing your growth there's not much reason to have any growth what-so-ever. It will be very inefficient use of their time. Since you're probably already working your good production tiles, you might as well just throw the farmers into a district until you have more housing.

 

[MadDjinn]

I'd still prefer specialists to give the GPp rather than get them just for having a district and buildings. It would give an important reason to have taller cities if you want lots of districts in a city.

And well, there's always the old standby of 'everything is on the map', so why not only have buildings give their full yields if a specialist is in there?

 

[Chibisuke]

I have rarely used specialists. They are very weak. If they gave GPP like in Civ 5, they might be worth considering. Otherwise, they are basically just the same as putting s citizen on a very weak tile such as a tundra tile.

 

[sa1vy]

I'd still prefer specialists to give the GPp rather than get them just for having a district and buildings. It would give an important reason to have taller cities if you want lots of districts in a city.

And well, there's always the old standby of 'everything is on the map', so why not only have buildings give their full yields if a specialist is in there?

I like this idea! An empty university won't do much good unless there are people there!

 

[NegativeZero]

In my impression, people overrate the value of tiles. Suppose you've got your mined hill, milled forests, and improved resources worked.

Then... you can work a flatland farm. They give you the food you need to grow... to work another flatland farm... which lets you grow to work another flatland farm....

Growing on farms to work farms doesn't really do anything except slowly increase your science and culture per turn (and slowly drain your housing, amenities and builder charges) as you buy increasingly expensive citizens. I don't think that's anywhere near as useful as popular opinion about them seems to be.

I really like focusing food tiles in cities that have been settled late in game. You don't have any expectations for a 1-2 pop city 150-170 turns into the game, but can become quite a good and productive city once the population is up to par with the rest.

I do feel specialists are lackluster but could easily become quite important if some very small changes or additions occurred to policy cards.