Removing the "Build City" function

[dagriggstar]

But how do we build cities without a build city function one might ask ?

Begin with a civilization wide food yield, similar to how faith works. You will use food to purchase additional worker/builder units.
One of your starting units (builder/worker) can create improvements and (simple) buildings.
Improvements are large areas that primarily produce food and production. Early examples might include farmlands (+1 food), mines (+1 production) or camps(+1 food every 3 adjacent unimproved tiles). Improvements take up an entire tile.
Simple buildings can be placed on the corners of hexes (that is, where 3 hexes meet). Early examples include granary (+1 food each adjacent farm), workshop (+1 production each adjacent mine), burial site, monument, boatyard (+2 food)
When an individual tile becomes surrounded by 3 buildings, it can become an "urban" tile, replacing any improvement on that tile with an "urban" improvement. Urban tiles can hold more specialized buildings (libraries, palaces, markets etc).
The first Urban tile basically becomes the "city center". It gets a name and you get the city info by clicking on it.

Later in the game, you can straight up found cities if you choose, I'm more thinking in the early game, not settling down right away.

 

[Naokaukodem]

Interesting, although I nearly dislike the fact you have to "waste" a good tile (the more improved by a building) for an urban tile. However, that could be a good way to have "cities" next to each others, and maybe megalopolises you can find in western Europe, although there would be plenty ways to achieve that.

Lately I was thinking about a way to build cities from another city queue.

One thing I like about your idea though, is that urban centers appear organically.

 

[dagriggstar]

Interesting, although I nearly dislike the fact you have to "waste" a good tile (the more improved by a building) for an urban tile. However, that could be a good way to have "cities" next to each others, and maybe megalopolises you can find in western Europe, although there would be plenty ways to achieve that.

Yeah one of the tricks design wise would be for it to be viewed as a tile "upgrade" rather than a waste of a good tile. For instance, libraries must be built adjacent to an Urban tile.