Rethinking Districts (and a new district)

[dunkleosteus]

Basic idea: districts clumped around the city centre, forming a dense city clump rather than spread out.

I've had a love-hate relationship with districts since they were announced. Actually, it was a hate-hate relationship when they were announced, but the love came after I got the game and played with them a bit. I really like district projects. I like aqueducts and I can get behind aerodromes, harbors and spaceports. But still, it bugs me that the cities end up so spread out. It makes no sense to me why the library and museum are miles apart, and a fair distance (with farmland inbetween!) from the city centre where everyone lives. Cities are dense. They are compact and in ancient times, were enclosed in tight walls. Defensively and realistically, districts don't make sense the way they are.

But I still kinda like them, and so many features are wrapped up in them that I felt like it would be better to make them into more of a city "expansion" than a lonesome tile by itself.

To do this, I'm dividing districts into two groups: core districts and accessory districts.

Core Districts have to be adjacent to the city centre. Clearly, this is really limiting for terrain adjacency bonuses, but I think those should really only be an extra bonus, not the main meat of where your district gets its bonuses. I'd like districts to interact with each other rather than the environment. The following districts are core districts: campus, holy site, industrial zone, commercial hub, theatre, entertainment, and food.

That last one may have surprised you. The districts we have are all based on yields: gold, faith, science, culture etc., so the only reasonable district I can imagine adding would be a food district. I'll go into detail about what buildings it could have later.

Accessory Districts usually AREN'T adjacent to the city centre, but have to be adjacent to a core district. The exception to this rule is the harbor and aqueduct, which can be either adjacent to a core district or the city centre. Other districts in this category include the aerodrome, space centre and encampment.

So, the 6 tiles immediately around your city center tile can be any of the following: commercial, holy, campus, theatre, entertainment, industrial, food, harbor, aqueduct. The next ring of tiles can have a spaceport, aerodrome, harbor or aqueduct as long as the tile is adjacent to a core district (thereby connecting it to the city centre).

Encampments probably won't be allowed to touch other districts.

For military, city walls will extend around all the core districts, and any district can launch a city attack, but only one attack can be made per turn by the city. Additionally, spreading religion can be done adjacent to any core district.

Buildings:

I'll start with some ideas for buildings for the Food district (I don't have a proper name for it, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to toss them in)
First building: Farmer's Market, unlocked with Animal Husbandry. +3 food, +1 housing
Second: Watermill/Windmill, unlocked with Machinery. I'm moving the watermill from the wheel and city centre to the food district and with machinery. +1 food, +1 housing. Farms on resources get +1 food. Unlike the regular watermill, all farms on resources get +1 food, not just resources adjacent to rivers. The windmill costs 25% more than the watermill, and you can only build one. The watermill can only be built if the food district is adjacent to a river.
Third: Grocer, unlocked with Urbanization. +6 food, +3 housing.

But the main meat of this district packing is that districts get extra buildings based on adjacent districts. Because of the way core districts work, there will be at most 2 other core districts adjacent to them. Each core district has 3 other core districts that allow special buildings to be built, but you can only build one of them in each district and only if you are adjacent to the right districts.

Here are the extra buildings:
Campus:
If adjacent to a Holy Site, you can build a Medical Lab, unlocked with Chemistry. +2 Food and housing, +5 science, -10% food requirement for citizens (each citizen consumes 1.8 food instead of 2).
If adjacent to an Industrial Zone, you can build an Engineering Lab, unlocked with Steel. +2 production and gold, +5 science. +10% production.
If adjacent to a Food District, you can build an Agricultural Lab, unlocked with Plastics. +8 food, +4 science, +5% growth.

Commercial Hub:
If adjacent to a Campus, you can build Offices, unlocked with Urbanization. +6 gold, +3 science. International trade routes to this city provide +2 science to the route owner and +1 gold to the city, trade routes from this city provide +2 gold.
If adjacent to an Industrial Zone, you can build a Train Station, unlocked with Steam Power. +7 production and gold, international trade routes to this city provide +3 gold to the route owner and the city. Internal trade routes provide +2 food and production.
If adjacent to an Entertainment Complex, you can build a Theme Park Resort, unlocked with Electricity. Must be in range of a powerplant to construct. +6 tourism and gold, +1 amenity.

Holy Site:
If adjacent to a Campus, you can build a Hospital, unlocked with Sanitation. +3 housing, +6 faith, +2 science, -10% food requirement.
If adjacent to a Commercial Hub, you can build a Good Will Center, unlocked with Urbanization. +2 housing, +10 faith, +5% faith in this city.
If adjacent to a Food District, you can build a Soup Kitchen, unlocked with Urbanization. +2 housing, +4 food, +6 faith. +5% faith in this city.

Industrial Zone:
If adjacent to a Campus, you can build a Recycling Plant, unlocked with Electricity. +4 production, -10% purchasing cost (faith or gold) for buying units or buildings in this city. -10% unit upgrade cost in this city. -10% production cost in this city.
If adjacent to a Commercial Hub, you can build a Manufacturing Plant, unlocked with Replaceable Parts. +12 production, +10% production.
If adjacent to a Food District, you can build a Cannery, unlocked with Sanitation. +3 production, +6 food, +5% growth.

Theatre:
If adjacent to a Campus, you can build a Science Centre, unlocked with Scientific Theory. +7 science and culture. +1 amenity.
If adjacent to a Commercial Hub, you can build a Film Studio (America can have something else instead), unlocked with Mass Media. Must be in range of a powerplant. +4 tourism, culture and gold. +1 amenity.
If adjacent to an Entertainment Complex, you can build an Opera House, unlocked with Opera and Ballet. +9 culture, +1 amenity.

Entertainment Complex:
If adjacent to a Commercial Hub, you can build a Cable TV Network, unlocked with Mass Media. Must be in range of a powerplant. +2 amenities and culture, 25% higher cost than the Aerial TV Network.
If adjacent to a Theatre, you can build an Aerial TV Network, unlocked with Mass Media. Must be in range of a powerplant, Theatre must have a broadcast tower. +2 amenities and culture.
If adjacent to a Campus, you can build a Satellite TV Network, unlocked with Mass Media. Must be in range of a powerplant, must have launched a Television Satellite (more on that later). Can replace an existing Cable TV Network or Aerial TV Network. +4 amenities and culture.

Food District:
If adjacent to a Commercial Hub, you can build a Superstore, unlocked with Sanitation. +5 food and gold, +2 housing.
If adjacent to an Industrial Zone, you can build a Stockyard, unlocked with Mass Production. +6 production and food, +3 gold.
If adjacent to an Entertainment Complex, you can build a Brewery, unlocked with Mass Production. +2 food and gold, +1 amenity.

That's all of the core district buildings out of the way. Remember, each building is antirequisite for the others, you can only build one per district, so choose carefully. Some districts have additional adjacency buildings for Accessory Districts though. These buildings do not interact with the core buildings, or prevent you from building them.

Accessory Buildings:

Campus:
If adjacent to a Space Centre or Aerodrome, you can build an Aerospace Engineering Lab, unlocked with Flight. The first time you build this building, you get a boost to Rocketry. +3 science and production. After researching Rocketry, gives a +10% boost to space race projects in this city.

Commercial Hub:
If adjacent to an Aerodrome or Harbor, you can build a Hotel, unlocked with Electricity. Must be in range of a powerplant. +3 tourism and gold. +1 amenity.

Industrial Zone:
If adjacent to a Harbor, you can build a Drydock, unlocked with Industrialization. +8 production towards naval units in this city.

Theatre:
If adjacent to an Aqueduct, you can build a Public Fountain, unlocked with Engineering. +4 culture.

Food District:
If adjacent to an Aqueduct, you can build a Water Treatment Plant, unlocked with Sanitation. +5 housing.
If adjacent to a Harbor, you can build a Fish Market, unlocked with Sailing. +2 food, +1 food on improved sea bonus resources.

Projects:
We add two new projects, only available after you launch the earth satellite (the first step of the space race). The two projects are the Television Satellite and the Military Satellite. The Television Satellite is required to build Satellite TV networks, and once launched enables them to be built. The Military Satellite allows all of your spies (spying and counterspying) to operate as if they were 1 level higher.

Additional Buildings:
Obviously, resources could get in the way of building districts so it would be best if districts could be built on top of them. An Improvement building can be built inside any district on top of a resource. Once built, the resource is counted as improved, and the district gains the yield of the improvement and resource, but not the base tile.

I hope some of you liked these ideas, or at least read the post all the way to the end. I'd love to hear what you think.

 

[Manifold]

A few good approaches and ideas no question,

BUT I do not see the civ cities as real cities. Rather than regional centers, because they reach over whole countries in the map scale.
I like to find the right place for every district in the entire area of influence. And e.g. the industrial district could be next to the harbor and away from the center center because of the pollution.

AND it is also realistic. I know a lot of real industrial districts which were not near the city center same for science districts and encampments even harbors are not near the city center of a huge metropole. Holy districts and commercial markets of course are often the center center by themselves. But for playing the game it is ok this way.

Example:
Look if you play France on a world map and you put the holy district 2 tiles from your city center away to the south (example). This holy district could be Abbey of Cluny or the Cathedral of Reims in the east.

Very important for your Food District should be the slaughterhouse.

 

[dunkleosteus]

If you renamed cities to provinces and treated districts more like towns, this approach would make more sense. The slaughterhouse is an excellent idea for the Food District, thanks!

 

[Manifold]

Accessory Buildings:

Campus:
If adjacent to a Space Centre or Aerodrome, you can build an Aerospace Engineering Lab, unlocked with Flight. The first time you build this building, you get a boost to Rocketry. +3 science and production. After researching Rocketry, gives a +10% boost to space race projects in this city.

Commercial Hub:
If adjacent to an Aerodrome or Harbor, you can build a Hotel, unlocked with Electricity. Must be in range of a powerplant. +3 tourism and gold. +1 amenity.

Industrial Zone:
If adjacent to a Harbor, you can build a Drydock, unlocked with Industrialization. +8 production towards naval units in this city.

Theatre:
If adjacent to an Aqueduct, you can build a Public Fountain, unlocked with Engineering. +4 culture.

Food District:
If adjacent to an Aqueduct, you can build a Water Treatment Plant, unlocked with Sanitation. +5 housing.
If adjacent to a Harbor, you can build a Fish Market, unlocked with Sailing. +2 food, +1 food on improved sea bonus resources.

Projects:
We add two new projects, only available after you launch the earth satellite (the first step of the space race). The two projects are the Television Satellite and the Military Satellite. The Television Satellite is required to build Satellite TV networks, and once launched enables them to be built. The Military Satellite allows all of your spies (spying and counterspying) to operate as if they were 1 level higher.

Additional Buildings:
Obviously, resources could get in the way of building districts so it would be best if districts could be built on top of them. An Improvement building can be built inside any district on top of a resource. Once built, the resource is counted as improved, and the district gains the yield of the improvement and resource, but not the base tile.

I hope some of you liked these ideas, or at least read the post all the way to the end. I'd love to hear what you think.

More interaction between the districts would be great. I think it makes sense to allow additional buildings only under new conditions.

Satellites are very important. And we need more modern things to build.
Another question is, how would it be possible to destroy enemy Satellites?

 

[dunkleosteus]

Getting rid of enemy satellites is an issue, maybe. I think if you're at war you should be able to launch a missile to shoot them down? But otherwise, I don't think that's a very good idea.

 

[Naokaukodem]

If you renamed cities to provinces and treated districts more like towns, this approach would make more sense.

Actually when reading your ideas I thought more about districts being cities just like Manifold. Except that I didn't think about core cities, I would still call them cities, and not even "core regional cities" because other cities it may build around may surpass them in size and importance.

All in all, that story of districts may suit comfortably as a basis for one of my dreams for Civ series : having plenty cities concentrated, like ICS, even tighter (on every square possibly ?), to represent the number of cities a modest country could have. We could even extend the range of "districts" (cities...) in order to not have a weird geographical repartition where settlers cities are surrounded with other cities but the other land totally empty. We could simulate migratins in this way, and simulate a little bit how people travelled and implanted throughout the world and History.

 

[megabearsfan]

Having the cities so spread out was kind of weird for me at first too. But now I mostly see cities as an abstraction for regions. The city is the largest urban center in a region, and the districts (and improvements) represent smaller communities and villages. So your campus isn't necessarily in The City; it's a small "college town" outside The City or in the suburbs.

However, if the OP's philosophy were pursued, I would say that districts shouldn't necessarily have to be built clustered around the city center. Rather, most districts should simply require that they be adjacent to at least one other district. Exceptions would be made for certain wonders, maybe the harbor and the aerodrome as well.

I do like the idea of adjacent districts playing off of each other more and having different combinations and specializations available. I'd like to see more stuff like that. I feel like every district could probably have a set of exclusive buildings (along the line of the Barracks / Stable for Encampments, and the Art / History Museum for Theater Districts). It would also be nice to have more buildings play off of the underlying or nearby environment, like the Campus having an Observatory building that requires an adjacent mountain, and which further buffs the Campus' mountain adjacency bonus.