Luxury resources and amenities

[Soterius]

Trying to understand exactly how this works...

Diamonds is a luxury resources, the Civilopedia says it provides 4 amenities (1 per city)

So if I have one diamond resource and five cities, only four of those cities will get an amenity from the diamond resource and one city will get nothing, is that correct?

So how does the game determine WHICH of the five cities gets nothing??

 

[Browd]

That is correct. It appears to prioritize allocation of luxuries based on city need -- to avoid negative growth and yield penalties in as many cities as possible.

 

[TruthfulCake]

I read somewhere that it's allocated based on need. So the lower the amenity score of a city is, the higher it is in priority to receive the amenity.

 

[Soterius]

Thanks for helping me solve this, guys!

One other question... Suppose one of my cities has jus enough amenities to keep it happy and those amenities come from diamond resources. Now if I go to negotiate a trade deal with another civilization, will those diamond resources be available for trade with the other civ? Or does the game "protect" you from trading rluxury esources when they are crucial to your happiness and only makes them available for trade when you have enough of them to guarantee your happiness?

In other words, can I safely assume that if a luxury resource is available to share with other civilizations, then I don't really need it myself at the moment? Or do I need to think very carefully and check my cities' happiness everytime I am about to trade a luxury resource?

 

[Browd]

The game does not prevent you from trading away your last improved copy of a luxury, since there may be circumstances where you are OK with trading away that copy -- maybe you know you have another copy of that luxury coming on line in a couple of turns, maybe you are getting that luxury from a city state over which you are suzerain, so your improved copy is actually a duplicate (as long as you remain suzerain and the CS's lux tile isn't pillaged), maybe you just build the Colosseum and are swimming in extra amenities, etc.

When you go to the deal screen with another civ, it might show that you have 2 diamonds and 1 spices (or whatever). If you click diamonds on your side of the deal screen, one copy of ciamonds will be added to your side of the trade. If, on the other hand, you click on spices, your only copy of spices will be added to your side of the screen.

 

[Soterius]

I see...

I assume the amenity bonus is accumulative, though? One diamond gives 4 amenities (1 per city), so if I have 2 diamonds I can provide for 8 cities?

Again, thanks a lot, it's really great that we can help each other out with understanding the game together

 

[Browd]

I assume the amenity bonus is accumulative, though? One diamond gives 4 amenities (1 per city), so if I have 2 diamonds I can provide for 8 cities?

Nope. Only the first copy of a luxury provides amenities, so max amenities from all of your copies of a luxury is 4 amenities. Extra copies of a luxury can be traded to other civs for a luxury you need or for gold, gpt, strategic resources, open obrders, a great work, or whatever else the other civ might be willing to pay. Or you can hoard the extras as a hedge against losing some luxury copies to barb pillaging, loss of a city or other calamities.

 

[mnf]

This is a long winded way to explain how it works, for those who prefer to have it spelled out letter by letter.

• You gather all your luxuries, but you only take the first copy of each type and seal the rest away in a box labeled "for trading only".
• You are left with one of each luxury resource, and all of them are different to each other. E.g. you had 4 Sugar and 2 Salt, so you box away 3 Sugar and 1 Salt, and you can only work with 1 Sugar and 1 Salt for your amenity needs.
• Now you take each of the resources and cut them up into 4 pieces and set them up on the table in little stacks. Each stack consist of 4 pieces of the same. Following the previous example, you now have one stack of 4 Sugar pieces, and one stack of 4 Salt pieces.
• The governors of all your cities come to you. They know how many amenities they each need, and they have worked out among themselves who goes first.
• They now walk up to your table in a line, and start taking from the stacks.

The rule is simple:

• Each governor can only take 1 piece from each individual stack. They may not take 2 or more pieces from the same stack.
• When each governor approach the table. He must start taking from the biggest stack, to leave as many different stacks available as possible. But if he needs it and it's the last piece in the stack, then tough luck for the rest of them---they decided on an order for exactly this reason.
• Each piece of whatever resource they get, gives them one amenity.

So in the example above: We can already know that:

• Since we only have 2 stacks (i.e. 2 unique luxury resources), at most any governor can take home is 2 amenities.
• Since each stack has only 4 pieces, at most 4 governors can take from a stack and later governors don't get a piece from that stack.

Let's count it down manually. We have 2 stacks of 4 pieces each. (i.e. 2 unique luxuries each providing 4 amenities.)

• City #1 needs 4 amenities. He takes 1 piece from each stack, end up with 2 pieces. He has 2 amenities, his citizens are not happy.
  Remaining pieces: Sugar stack has 3 pieces left, Salt stack has has 3 pieces left.
• CIty #2 needs 3 amenities. He takes 1 piece from each stack, end up with 2 pieces. He has 2 amenities, his citizens are not happy.
  Remaining pieces: Sugar stack has 2 pieces left, Salt stack has has 2 pieces left.
  
• City #3 needs 2 amenities. He takes 1 piece from 1 stack and walks away. He has 2 amenity. His citizens are content.
  Remaining pieces: Sugar stack has 1 pieces left, Salt stack has has 1 pieces left.
  
• City #4 only needs 1 amenity. He takes 1 piece from 1 stack and walks away. He has 1 amenity. His citizens are content.
  Remaining pieces: Sugar stack has gone, Salt stack has has 1 pieces left.
  
• City #5 also only needs 1 amenity. He takes 1 piece from 1 stack and walks away. He has 1 amenity. His citizens are content.
  Remaining pieces: Sugar stack has gone. Salt stack has also gone. Nothing left on the table.
• City #6 also only needs 1 amenity, but it was decided beforehand that his needs were less important, so he has to take one for the nation. He has 0 amenities. His citizens are not amused.