Should I just turn City States off?

[CivAddict2013]

Too often I notice that City States spawn way too close to the player. I'm someone who likes to go wide and it is impossible when City States block you in every direction. I notice this on large maps. This seems to happen more often than not.

Should I just turn City States off? Their main purpose just seems to be to stop you from expanding.

 

[Browd]

Well, the main purpose of CSs is to provide interest and variation to the game, but if you don't know how to make best use of them and/or just find them annoying, you certainly can turn them off. Without CSs you will probably be beset by barbarians, but you can turn them off as well. You might also reduce the number of civs on the map, since other civs just compete with you for settlement space.

Decide what you want -- I think most players enjoy the sense of urgency arising from competition with the AI for space, while others (perhaps you are among them) want more of a sandbox, with plenty of room to settle and grow cities as they please without competition or a sense of urgency -- and set up your game accordingly.

 

[LordBalkoth]

The map type also matters -- if you play on Pangaea and set the sea level to low, for example, you'll have more room than on medium or high sea level.

Could you perhaps post a screenshot where you show how you feel blocked in by CSes? In most cases you can easily expand regardless of the CSes.

 

[CivAddict2013]

The map type also matters -- if you play on Pangaea and set the sea level to low, for example, you'll have more room than on medium or high sea level.

Could you perhaps post a screenshot where you show how you feel blocked in by CSes? In most cases you can easily expand regardless of the CSes.

Well I play Earth maps for the most part. Later I might post a screenshot of what I'm talking about.

Basically, I'll spawn my capital and less than 10 tiles away there be a city state. What's worse if sometimes there will be a city state blocking you in every direction. These city states are conveniently spawned next to all the resources.

I mean, you already have to deal with the AI being programmed to settle next to you. Now you're blocked by city states too? Might as well just turn them off if you're going wide.

 

[docbud]

Just out of curiosity--if city states are turned off, how does the UN vote work?

It would also make the patronage tree totally useless, as well as a loss of city states would mean no special units from militaristic CS's.

It would be interesting to see a game with no city states. I imagine it would definitely alter game play.

 

[CivAddict2013]

Here's a screenshot of what I'm talking about.

Spoiler :

Moderator Action: Wide image wrapped in spoiler tags

 

[zxcvbob]

CS's 10 tiles away sounds like good trading partners. If one of them is "hostile" (so you aren't going to maintain friendship for more than a few turns anyway) declare war; steal a worker and use the city for target practice to level-up your units.

Nobody (I'm mainly talking about the other CS's) cares if you declare war on one CS only one time and never capture them. If you declare war, settle peace, declare war on the same CS again later, it will poison relations with all the other CS's that you've met. I don't know if it poisons the ones you haven't met yet.

ETA: I just saw the pic; settle right where you are, or on the stone next to the mountain.

 

[mnf]

When I came back to Civ 5 after dabbling in CivBE, I was also shocked at how often city-states block my way and often fragment an otherwise perfect city distribution. So I did play a few games without city-states.

Personally I find a zero city-state setup to be better for builder games where I specifically select a civilization and restart my games until I have an ideal starting location, then just build mindlessly and enjoy the bliss.

But after a few games of that I started missing the city-states that add variation to the landscape and kind of push forward the game by leaving you less space to settle. Games with city-states are often less of a chore for me and now I am back playing default settings.

My recommendation is to just play a few game with 0 city-states. In the end you may like it better. It's your game.

 

[LordBalkoth]

Here's a screenshot of what I'm talking about

Looks like you started in South America in the Amazon, basically? That's a really cramped continent with the mountain ranges and narrow shape no matter how you slice it. Regardless, you could easily settle 3ish cities near there if you wanted -- and there's nothing preventing you from settling on the other side of the CS (with a road going through the CS's territory or using a Harbor for connections).

If you started in Asia or something it'd be much less of a problem -- the map type is the primary issue here, I think.

 

[sunbeam]

What annoys me is how often city states are located right by natural wonders.

In a typically crappy location to boot. It's almost like they are placed in the very worst place to found a city around a natural wonder.

 

[joncnunn]

Too often I notice that City States spawn way too close to the player. I'm someone who likes to go wide and it is impossible when City States block you in every direction. I notice this on large maps. This seems to happen more often than not.

Should I just turn City States off? Their main purpose just seems to be to stop you from expanding.

Keep in mind that even if you set city states to zero, some of the AIs will waste policy points by investing in Patronage.

Keep in mind that going wide, you benefit more from being allied with Maritime city states than those going tall. (+1 food for each and every non capital city in addition to the higher bonus to the capital)

The other types of city state though do benefit tall players more than wide.

A possible compromise is to reduce number of city states from the default 2:1 ratio down to 1:1, which won't hurt the AI too much, while allowing a few more city spots to be founded. (Or several more spots in case of a huge map)

 

[Illianor123]

Rather than turning the off, perhaps just reduce the number by a third or a half?

 

[Wojciech_R]

I usually reduce number of City States to 10 - 12 on standard map
Way more space.

 

[MrRadar]

If you have a certain map pack dlc (Explorers, it seems to me), you could use 'Pangea Plus' or 'Continents Plus' maps. In 'Plus' maps city states are put on nearby islands off the main landmasses. It really leaves much more space for you and the AIs to expand.

 

[phillipwyllie]

@OP: short answer no as CS provide way more benefits if you befriend/ally them. If you're going wide you're not going tall so working all 36 tiles isn't an option. I'd recommend playing as the Shoshone as when you settle you loads of land. Barb camps near a Cs can provide a nice supply of workers/influence.

 

[Wojciech_R]

If you have a certain map pack dlc (Explorers, it seems to me), you could use 'Pangea Plus' or 'Continents Plus' maps. In 'Plus' maps city states are put on nearby islands off the main landmasses. It really leaves much more space for you and the AIs to expand.

Best advice

 

[cazaderonus]

Meh, just grab one cs that bothers you. And tbh, a cs right in the middle of your land isnt bad, just make it a solid ally. It can be a pretty solid defense as well if it s in a narrow path toward enemies

 

[Tatran]

I usually reduce number of City States to 10 - 12 on standard map
Way more space.

And the game goes faster.
Too many city-states unbalance the game.

 

[phillipwyllie]

Here's a reason to keep Cs turned on

 

[sixty4half]

If you have a certain map pack dlc (Explorers, it seems to me), you could use 'Pangea Plus' or 'Continents Plus' maps. In 'Plus' maps city states are put on nearby islands off the main landmasses. It really leaves much more space for you and the AIs to expand.

Thanks so much for saying this. I've always wondered what the Plus was and this sounds like a feature I would like to use in a game every once in a while. Is this confirmed that this is what "Plus" does?