Tiny Islands

[Barathor]

With the new district system, I wonder how tiny island cities will now function.

I hope this finally means that map scripts will be optimized to remove tiny islands from the map and favor larger landmasses (Not everything huge and clumpy, like a low grain fractal -- but, for example, having an area requirement of at least 12 tiles or something).

I never liked tiny islands or cities on them; especially with 1UPT. I also really disliked that island cities could have tighter spacing than cities on the same landmass.

Perhaps it could be combination of things: optimized map scripts to support district gameplay "and" some type of area-restriction in the rules when settling new cities.

With the above combo, I guess tiny islands could still exist to some extent, but only if they're "drips" off of a large enough landmass, within a certain radius of them. This way, you can't settle on these tiny islands, but they can still become workable tiles (such as districts) off of a landmass that's at least 12 tiles (for example) in area.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I don't think tiny islands will be of much value. All they could get would be a Harbor District and a smattering of resource tiles. You would only build a city on one to access a resource, control a strategic location, or to connect a Trade Route to a civ too far away from your main region.

 

[Aristos]

Floating districts?

Joke aside, I hope they don't borrow "unconventional" ideas from their sinking sister, BERT.

 

[Hail]

some buildings will be constructed on the city tile. depending on the quality & quantity of such buildings and the quantity & quality of water-based resources, island cities can vary from marginally useful to decent. alot depends on the expansion penalties for civ6, which are yet to be announced. still, absymal AI magnified by the district mechanic will lower the desirability of archipelago/island maps.

the whole civ series neglected coast/sea/ocean tiles, unlike the CtP series.

 

[AriochIV]

The city radius is reportedly exactly the same (three tiles from center, 36 total) as it was in Civ V, so it would seem that island cities will function pretty much the same in VI as V.

Maybe a little bit better in VI, since some districts (like the harbor) can go directly in water tiles.

 

[joncnunn]

I'm not so sure that tiny islands would reduce the number of districts that the capital could support compared to a land locked capital city.
In BNW, a lighthouse caused tiles with fish to produce 4 food (which increased to 5 with fishing boats), and so each fish tile (which was common in coastal island starts) could support 2+ districts as long as it wasn't on a zero food tile such as desert.

 

[AriochIV]

If it's true that Neighborhood improvements(or districts, or whatever they are) are required for a city to grow above a certain size, then one-tile-island cities may be limited as to how large they can grow (when there is no land to put a Neighborhood on).

 

[bite]

It will depend on what sea resource exist, and how good harbors are

 

[AriochIV]

It will depend on what sea resource exist, and how good harbors are

But if the city center can only support so many citizens, and neighborhoods are required to grow past that point, then one-tile-island cities will be capped at that size, regardless of how much food is available.

 

[bite]

But if the city center can only support so many citizens, and neighborhoods are required to grow past that point, then one-tile-island cities will be capped at that size, regardless of how much food is available.

indeed, but they have moved away from that needing an aqueduct to expand model, so it will be interesting to see if they go back to it

 

[Hajee]

hmm, would interesting if they pull out Civ 3 colonies for small island, or perhaps airfields and modern type bases

 

[Pistol]

well if they build good enought AI to be able to make naval warfare (specialy late in game) tiny islands would have segnificant strategic value as air base for bombers (like in real world) .... but as i said , that depend on AI abillity to make naval warfare (which wast really good in CIV 5 , they didnt have any tactics or i didnt saw)

 

[joncnunn]

But if the city center can only support so many citizens, and neighborhoods are required to grow past that point, then one-tile-island cities will be capped at that size, regardless of how much food is available.

So far I've not seen anything requiring there be X districts for a city to be allowed to grow beyond size Y.

What I am seeing is the converse, you need to be working X food in order to be able to have enough food to support Y districts -> the city must be large enough to be working several farms (or fish) to support having districts if you don't want population growth to grind to a halt.

In addition, not all one tile islands are created equal; there may very well be other islands within the city radius of a one tile island that you can build districts on. For that matter you might have a one tile hex within workable range of your coastal city on another island and want to place a district on the one tile island.

 

[AriochIV]

So far I've not seen anything requiring there be X districts for a city to be allowed to grow beyond size Y.

What I am seeing is the converse, you need to be working X food in order to be able to have enough food to support Y districts -> the city must be large enough to be working several farms to support having districts if you don't want population growth to grind to a halt.

Districts appear to be dependent on city size. I'm talking about Neighborhoods, which would probably be improvements rather than districts.

Neighborhoods are only mentioned in one of the previews; the quote is: 'As time goes on and farmland becomes less essential, you can start replacing those farms with suburban communities — called "neighborhoods" — to house more citizens.'

Assuming for a moment that's correct and not just the previewer's imagination, if a neighborhood houses more citizens, then that implies that there is limited housing without one.

 

[Hail]

districts will be pop hardcapped. neighborhoods apparently increase the pop cap of a city. the only benefit of an island city is that it does not need farms, because it relies on marine food source(s).

 

[stealth_nsk]

Population mechanic is totally unclear at this point, so we can't tell for sure. In general, 1-tile island city should be able to host Harbor and sea-based Wonders. We don't know if any sea-based late-game district exists. Clearly 1-tile island cities will be unable to host buildings, requiring land-based districts, i.e. encampment required to produce land units.

That's all we could say now

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

From the screenshots I do get the idea that harbor districts are placed in a coast tile and not on land. If it is also possible to have more districts from the same type then growth to a certain extent is still possible. I hope also that 2 or 3 different types of districts on coast exists.

Also I am curious whether you need certain districts to build certain buildings. If that is the case than cities on small/tiny islands would be rather useless.

 

[UWHabs]

1-tile island cities I expect to be nearly useless, as they won't be able to support many buildings.

But small islands, as long as they have 2-3 tiles apart from the city centre, should still remain viable. But you'll need those to now be free tiles - if they're resources (horses, iron, etc...) then your city will again not really have much usable space.

 

[Callonia]

In Civ5, I generally kept the populace on one hex island city low. But grew it just enough to work all the special resource hexs, like fishes, etc. They're still going to be useful in civ6 because they bring that piece of land into your sphere of influence and serve as your own territory for military to function and recover in. And allows you to cover even more ocean territory to better protect your shipping routes from barbarians.

 

[Lucius_]

It depends on how coast/ocean tiles are handled in regards to yields. A harbor district with a lighthouse plus other water tile enhancing buildings, maybe they would still be able to specialize in some way. Obviously not science or culture specialized, but perhaps they would be a superior production, gold, or food supplier.