Still utterly confused about canals...

[doink000]

Just captured Cumae...debating whether or not to keep or raze it (it has the Great Lighthouse but :/). Main factor is whether or not I can use this city to build a canal. It says it can build a Panama Canal (highlighted in green) ..but no Canal option available. What would the Panama Canal actually do? Is it possible to create a canal connecting east to west? Thanks!!

 

[Sostratus]

Main factor is whether or not I can use this city to build a canal.

I'm assuming you want a way to get around that pesky iceberg blocking passage. More on that below...

What would the Panama Canal actually do?

The panama canal will build the wonder tile on the green tile, and it will place a canal district on the rice tile just below it. (It will most likely hook up to the dock in the cumae city tile.) This will effectively give you a waterway around the ice blockage. If global warming is happening, that ice will probably melt soon, though. (Once tiles are permanently lost to sea rise, you can sail on them.) By the way, if you make a 3 tile panama canal in other situations, it has to be 3 tiles in a straight line - it can't make a little arc. (Even though a city with canals on each side could do that.)

Is it possible to create a canal connecting east to west?

So canals can only go on flat land. This is also true of the panama canal and its 2-3 tiles. If that horse resource next to rome wasn't there, for example, rome could have built the panama canal directly across the peninsula, emptying out where the lumbermill is.
However, since you have some districts and such, and existing city placement, your only option is the panama canal where shown, if you want to get around the ice.
Suppose cumae was on the Mine tile directly below it; then it would be able to build a normal canal district on the rice, and another one either where the city is now, or over the lumbermill. (You can only build 2 canals per city.)

 

[doink000]

Gotcha, thanks for the reply! I think what confuses me is how the green portion is one tile and only indicates "one" of the tiles..not where the entire panama canal would be built.

 

[Sostratus]

I think what confuses me is how the green portion is one tile and only indicates "one" of the tiles..not where the entire panama canal would be built.

Yeah it's kinda funny because it autoplaces the 1-2 canals it needs once the main wonder is placed. And sometimes there's multiple options. Just remember that:
1) If the wonder is placed next to a city it will always connect to the city
2) The wonder will only place it's extra canals in a straight line with itself. This usually helps figure out if which "side" it will end up in.
3) canals can never be placed such that a 3 way junction with another existing canal is made. It just won't be allowed at all; so any tiles like that will be ruled out.

Don't forget that canals also give +2 to neighboring IZs! You can do some handy stuff with them (see IZ guide in my sig for details.)

 

[oakdragon]

Gotcha, thanks for the reply! I think what confuses me is how the green portion is one tile and only indicates "one" of the tiles..not where the entire panama canal would be built.

That annoys me as well. I wish the UI for canal (particularly Panama Canal) placement was more intuitive.

 

[Tech Osen]

Gotcha, thanks for the reply! I think what confuses me is how the green portion is one tile and only indicates "one" of the tiles..not where the entire panama canal would be built.

The rice spot should also be a valid spot but I'm guessing it bekongs to Rome.

 

[shaglio]

That annoys me as well. I wish the UI for canal (particularly Panama Canal) placement was more intuitive.

I wish, when trying to build the Panama Canal, hovering the mouse over the green tiles where it can potentially be placed would highlight in blue the additional canal tiles it would make.

 

[iammaxhailme]

Save your game and put the wonder down and see what tiles it goes on. Post a pic and if it's bad, just reload the save

 

[kaspergm]

I wish, when trying to build the Panama Canal, hovering the mouse over the green tiles where it can potentially be placed would highlight in blue the addition canal tiles it would make.

I think it does so in my games, I wonder if this is an effect of a mod I use? I just build it the other day, quite sure two tiles were highlighted (albeit both in green).

EDIT> Come to think of it, maybe what it did was show me to valid hexes to place the wonder, but not where the canal would actually go. It was a strip of two piece of land with water on either side, so it highlighted a hex on either side of the land.

 

[steveg700]

The requirement that the land has to be flat gets me every time. I wish there was some tech that removes that restriction.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

The requirement that the land has to be flat gets me every time. I wish there was some tech that removes that restriction.

Or remove the restriction single-tile canals.

Because guess what, the game actually doesn't get set on fire if you place them individually, a requirement that a canal needs to be adjacent to what it is now OR another canal tile should be implemented tbh, and then change the Panama Canal to be adjacent to 2 canals or something.

You can place canals freely via FireTuner and they actually look fairly normal.