Struggling with Amenities in Civilization VI

[SeBounart]

How luxuries are distributed among cities? By example, I have 2 different luxuries. 4 cities will receive the bonus for both (so 2 amenities?). 8 cities will receive only 1 amenities or the 4 first will receive all of them?

 

[Browd]

That appears to depend on the amenity needs of each city and whether particular cities also have non-luxury amenities, reducing their need to rely on luxury amenities.

 

[Staal]

The city amenity screen needs to show as a tooltip which luxuries are used by which cities.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Except that changes every turn and is irrelevant

The city amenity screen needs to show as a tooltip which luxuries are used by which cities.

Not being able to manage which cities get which luxuries is no a UI/management issue, (like no auto builders), instead it is a mechanics/balance issue. It is the mechanism that allows one unhappy city to drag down your whole empire.

 

[Plus Ultra]

Nope, only the first (unique) luxury provides 4 amenities. Extras are only good for trading (e.g., to obtain a different unique luxury that you might need) or as a hedge against your luxuries getting pillaged or lost if you lose a city.

Thanks Browd, without a proper deal history screen and the (false) idea that extra copies provide amenities to extra cities, it was impossible for me to make sense of the "amenities from luxuries" number in the city details screen.

The city amenity screen needs to show as a tooltip which luxuries are used by which cities.

We also need to know where luxuries came from. City state? Trade deal? Your own cities?

 

[Entilzha]

Nope, only the first (unique) luxury provides 4 amenities. Extras are only good for trading (e.g., to obtain a different unique luxury that you might need) or as a hedge against your luxuries getting pillaged or lost if you lose a city.

Wow, that clears up why I had so much trouble with amenities during some of my games. It doesn't really make sense, though, if I have more of a resource available, I should be able to distribute it among more of my cities. But well, at least I now understand how it works.

 

[PendragonWRB]

I am having a hard time believing that only four cities get an amenity if you have extra copies. That just doesn't make sense. I know they talked about automatic amenity distribution in one of the live streams and I could swear they gave an example that 8 cities would get one each if you had two copies of a single amenity. I will need to do the math in my current game, but I have like 10 cities, many of which have over 10 pop and I have positive amenity values in all my cities, never really had a problem with that, but I am only playing on Prince as I am still working my way through my first game.

What is the number of citizens one amenity will keep happy? Does that change with difficulty level?

 

[Browd]

1 amenity = 2 citizens, but the first amenity in a city will cover up to 3 citizens, so 5 citizens in a city will require 2 amenities, 7 citizens will require 3 amenities, etc.

 

[Frank327]

I am having a hard time believing that only four cities get an amenity if you have extra copies. That just doesn't make sense. I know they talked about automatic amenity distribution in one of the live streams and I could swear they gave an example that 8 cities would get one each if you had two copies of a single amenity. I will need to do the math in my current game, but I have like 10 cities, many of which have over 10 pop and I have positive amenity values in all my cities, never really had a problem with that, but I am only playing on Prince as I am still working my way through my first game.

What is the number of citizens one amenity will keep happy? Does that change with difficulty level?

One amenity keeps two citizens happy. So adding a luxury means the maximum population goes up by 2. Strategically placed entertainment district with Colosseum keeps the cities happy in a similar radius as a factory, for a total of 5 amenities (3 from Colosseum, 2 from buildings).

 

[Browd]

And keep in mind that Civ VI's treatment of luxuries is much more generous than how luxuries were treated in Civ V, where a unique luxury only provided 4 happiness, but, as a general matter, each city required up to 3 happiness and each unit of population required 1 happiness, so on a standard sized map, a single unique luxury could support just a single 1-pop city. In Civ VI, a single unique luxury can support up to four 3-pop cities.

(Yes, in Civ V there were other game features (like social policies and religious beliefs) that provided happiness and/or reduced unhappiness from citizens, and many other ways of generating additional local happiness, but Civ VI also has many other ways of generating amenities, so the comparison is still useful.)

 

[PendragonWRB]

I don't even have one Entertainment District yet, only recently figured out how important Factories where. Housing is the limit I keep hitting.

 

[joncnunn]

I don't even have one Entertainment District yet, only recently figured out how important Factories where. Housing is the limit I keep hitting.

1. Build the Granary
2. Build all farms on bonus resources / plantations / fishing boats [these are all worth .5 food]
3. If the city wasn't founded on fresh water, build an aqueduct [if possible]
4. When the city looks like it's going to have housing problems in less than 10 turns (and if Neighborhood isn't yet available), spam more farms even if you aren't going to work them [for the .5 food each]

Not every city needs an Entertainment district due to regional effects. And the growth penalty for having negative one amenity is tiny in comparison with housing capacity ones so I'd fix housing problems first.

 

[abhishekab1]

Was testing with some early game. Since amenities give only +1 local happiness as opposed to Civ5, its a good idea to work Luxury resources early and prioritize their pre-requisite techs. I also found useful to settle 3 cities early, as you would have a pretty good resource diversity that way. Remember, every unique resource gives +1 Amenity to 4 cities. So, you settle city 2,3 and 4 early in nice spots, we are looking at potentially 5-7 unique luxuries.

I think once you enter middle game, its a bit easier to manage Amenities with options to build Entertainment Complex, City State Diplomacy etc.

 

[lamaros]

I've yet to see any revolt due to amenities in any of my games, and that's when I've been at war for half the game with significant penalties.

I think they need to work it, because as it is you can pretty much ignore amenities, and just think of them as a bonus.

Also, remember that because of the way amenities work entertainment districts pretty much share their amenities across the entire empire. All the area bonus really does is provide a (very powerful) multiplier.

 

[PendragonWRB]

Taking inventory of my luxuries, I have seven distinct: Dyes, Whales, Jade, Diamonds, Gypsum, Mercury, and Furs.

Rome has 9 with 7 from luxuries plus 1 from Palace and 1 from Bath
Ravena has 6 with 5 luxuries and 1 from Bath
Mbanza Kongo has 6 with 5 luxuries and 1 from Bath
Puteoli has 5 with 4 luxuries and 1 from Bath
Ostia has 4 with 3 luxuries and 1 from Bath
Mediolanum has 4 with 3 luxuries and 1 from Bath
Lugdunum has 3 with 3 luxuries
Caesaraugusta has 2 with 2 luxuries
Setia has 1 with 0 luxuries and 1 from Bath

So that's 32 amenities from luxuries but I only have 28 so I must have a trade with someone but I can't find it in the limited UI.

I guess the two for one content citizens for each amenity and the extras from Bath made it feel like the extras that I had where being used.

 

[CornPlanter]

Civ 4 had Bug mod, civ5 also had some better ui mod, I'm already looking forward to civ6 better interface mod. Current UI is just aweful in many different ways.

 

[ddd123]

The community got itself into a bit of a frenzy before the game was released, convincing itself that additional copies of luxuries provided additional amenities without any evidence to support that conclusion. It was a case of collective wishful thinking that came to be accepted by many as true, until the game came out and everyone could see that the dream was never real.

By "dream" you mean *nightmare*?
I would have been the most dumb setting of them all if you could get away with free 15 cities early just cause you have multiple copies of something (which you would always have given so many cities). It woudl be stupid ICS all over again.

Thank god sometimes even at 2k someone has a brain.