Sewers Useless?

[TheGreatSleepyOne]

That's a production expensive proc.

You only need to build 2 of them. And you don't have to spend production on them either, nothing is stopping you from rush buying with gold especially with the Purchasing discount from the Merchant Republic government.

 

[isau]

^^ This works. We get Granary early and its the only housing increase we can build until aqueducts then Sewers. Ideally both should be available at the same time but then Aqueducts would never get built. If Aqueducts added food like in CrazyScotts mod and Sewers were cheaper in production cost AND came at the same time as Aqueducts then that would be a good change.

I think Aqueducts should lower the amount of food each citizen requires, like a few wonders did in past games.

 

[joncnunn]

I am curious what other people's experience with sewers has been.

For me, it seems that every game that I get them, I either already have Neighborhoods that get me more housing, or if not, can use an Aqueduct to bridge the gap until I do. In both tall and wide games, they seem to be the building that never gets built.

I am sure that there are times when they are useful, but I am just not seeing it. I feel like they should have a bigger Housing bonus, come earlier or have some other benefit like an added Amenity.

Have others found them more useful?

If you already have the ability to build Neighborhoods before the ability to build Sewers, then yes, it normally doesn't appear worth it to build a sewer.
However it is possible to gain the ability to build Sewers before Neighborhoods (perhaps a game in which you had a lot of science but little culture?); and that appears to be the primary case they are for.
I'm doubting it's worth either buying or building two sewers just for the inspiration; there's better things to put gold and hammers into.

 

[Silverdawn]

They are useful on Island Plates maps when your cities don't have many tiles on an island.

 

[Heklios]

I must say Sewers don't feel quite right.

And it's not the fact that most of the time, neighbourhoods are stronger.
I quite like the idea of having some buildings generally weaker than others but that will have their rare moment of fame.

I remember that tight Islands game where I had 6 tiles island capital, with something like 5 crabs, 3 fishes and a whale around. Oh man what a great game. And I can tell you, I was very, very happy when the sewers came about. I just could not get the housing to work all those great Sea Resources and could not afford the neighbourhood tile! Yet multiple Trade Routes were supporting the city's food supply.

And that's fine, that's great. Having a couple clutch buildings that you often don't build but that will sometimes be useful is great gameplay.
I think the game should have plenty of buildings, units, policy cards, and strategic moves that follow that concept. Often useless, but right here right now, this is what I need.

But you know what's throwing people off about the sewers ? It's the fact that they're "Sewers". Which kind of city that needs housing (therefore is a growing, is a big city), does not need sewers ?!

Where's it going when you're flushing man ? Down the Research Lab ? or to the Stock Exchange ?

So I believe that yeah, I stand by the idea that some buildings can be generally weak but situationally strong, but none of them should be called Sewers.

 

[Futumch]

If you get stuck with a tiny island start, with only 3 hexes of land to plop down a city, then you're going to be making a very careful decision as to which hex becomes a district. Sewers are useful in that situation. I suppose they help in limited land availability situations.
For the record I am underwhelmed with the Island Plates map generator.

 

[dexters]

Sewers are nice because they stack inside your city tile so isn't crowding out an otherwise useful tile. I just think +2 flat pop bonus is a bit weak and not even realistic.

It should perhaps be re-balanced slightly perhaps with a 1 or 2 pop cap boost with a late game tech to extend their use, but they are the kinds of buildings you don't spam in every city. They take your big core cities over the top. Precisely because those cities will be starved for space and 2 extra pop without having to build a district is a nice thing to have.

Actually Civ6 kind of encourages you not to spam every building in every city, that's a different Civ game.

So yeah, smaller satellite cities can build neighborhoods ; big core cities already with neighborhoods with space at a premium will benefit a lot from sewers as the extra pop will give you more science gold, production, culture from specialists

Actually, thinking about it, sewers feel more like Hospitals to me. In terms of its cost and current specialization. It's hard to imagine cities without sewers.

Perhaps in an expansion, they'll rejig the health line of buildings from a vastly cheaper sewers (which maybe only adds 1 pop) leading into a much more expansive hospital building with a 3 or 4 pop boost.

 

[Karoq]

in my emperor game it only takes me four turns in my big cities that I need them in and I turning out about 90 GPT. admittedly I'm not using my cards to get the best GPT yield as I could and my trade routes are for science, but it's nice to leave tiles free.

 

[kaspergm]

I have yet to build a sewer. Way too expensive compared to what they give, and the gap between sewers and neighborhoods is rather short. If they gave one or two housing more than their current value and possibly came a tech level earlier, they would be much more relevant (or alternatively: Were a lot cheaper).

 

[Aedn]

sewers are useful to maximize housing in ICS like city layouts or smaller cities which are supporting your larger cities with districts and tiles are a premium, and the eureka for democracy.

 

[joncnunn]

Moderator Action: Moved three posts to https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/sewer-mod.606071/ in Creation & Customization

 

[idjit]

Sewers are really good if you're gunning for a culture vic since it's really demanding on tile real estate.

 

[Gtdead]

When I try to finish a domination game, and I get annoyed by all the "City needs production" pop ups, I just build the sewers. It usually takes around 40 turns in an occupied city.

If anything, I'd prefer if they were more expensive.

 

[Midori]

I think they're extremely underwhelming for their cost, but I've occasionally bought them if I really need more housing and have land management problems. They seem like something that ought to feel more essential.

 

[Disgustipated]

Sewers are incredibly underpowered. You'd think they would be better considering the tech quote. I know they feel the need to balance it since it doesn't take a tile, but giving us 3 wouldn't be the end of the world.

I often don't build them because neighborhoods come first for me. My space age empire is still using outhouses.