Tips on City Specialization

[futurehermit]

Mine seem to stay in BtS, but I usually only keep them for a short time anyways.

 

[twocan7]

Thanks. I'll just grab a screen print and put in paint. This has been a big help. I've never quite understood dotmapping and picking specialist cities.

 

[futurehermit]

No problem, glad you found it helpful

 

[futurehermit]

There seems to be another round of questions about city specialization so I thought I would bump this thread

 

[Biffa001]

I find this very useful thank you. One annoying problem is that I can't get my zoom to work like yours does. At just the point where the strategy layer option kicks in my map is too zoomed out to see any land tiles properly etc. If I zoom in just a small amount it is then too close for the strategy layer option to be there...!!

I can use paint but it is a pain in the butt having to swich between civ and paint all the time and pasting multiple screen shots together.....! Any advice?

Also, if you have a moment please look at my thread where (after your excellent advice) I am trying to put together a dot map of my on on my current game

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=262345

ta mate

 

[futurehermit]

Do you have a scroll-wheel on your mouse? If not, get a new mouse with a scroll-wheel!!! It helps a lot. If have a friend who plays civ4 without a scroll-wheel mouse and I just can't help but wonder how he does it

 

[Artichoker]

I like the general concept, but I think you could save a lot of time in the process by taking your analysis in context of the cities already settled by you or your neighboring rivals.

Because when you conquer rival cities, it is often more economical to keep the existing city location and population, than to raze the city and build a new one.

Also, the focus should be on the next group of cities to be settled, rather than the all the potential city sites on the entire continent. For example, it may take millenia before an area on the opposite corner of the continent ever becomes relevant for analysis. You're much better off focusing on the area of land that has an immediate impact on the game.

 

[Biffa001]

Forgot to mention I am using a laptop so I have to use page up/down. I've checked everywhere and I cant seem to find a way of adjusting how much they zoom in/out on Civ IV. SOmetimes it seems it moves a couple of "zooms" (if you see what I mean) sometimes it does 1 at a time...odd and v.annoying.

 

[futurehermit]

I like the general concept, but I think you could save a lot of time in the process by taking your analysis in context of the cities already settled by you or your neighboring rivals.

Because when you conquer rival cities, it is often more economical to keep the existing city location and population, than to raze the city and build a new one.

Also, the focus should be on the next group of cities to be settled, rather than the all the potential city sites on the entire continent. For example, it may take millenia before an area on the opposite corner of the continent ever becomes relevant for analysis. You're much better off focusing on the area of land that has an immediate impact on the game.

Well, yes, in my regular games I don't go to this detail. I am just giving it here as a learning experience for people in terms of how to think about the land. I will go into more detail like this, however, if I am isolated or if I have a wide expanse of land to settle myself. If I am just conquering large AI empires, however, I will generally keep their cities. What often happens in my recent games, however, is that I am capturing their capital early, razing the other cities because of maintenance and then end up with a wide expanse of land to settle myself. At that point, this kind of analysis can be really helpful for getting the most long-term benefit out of your empire.

Forgot to mention I am using a laptop so I have to use page up/down. I've checked everywhere and I cant seem to find a way of adjusting how much they zoom in/out on Civ IV. SOmetimes it seems it moves a couple of "zooms" (if you see what I mean) sometimes it does 1 at a time...odd and v.annoying.

Hmm...that sucks, but surely you could get an external scroll-wheel mouse for your laptop? Works on my laptop, although I usually play civ4 on my desktop.

 

[Biffa001]

Hmm...that sucks, but surely you could get an external scroll-wheel mouse for your laptop? Works on my laptop, although I usually play civ4 on my desktop.

I suppose I could do but trying not too!

 

[futurehermit]

It would save you a bunch of civ4 pain Otherwise, your frustrations will probably continue Alternatively, you could try to get in the habit of just eyeballing city locations. Once you get practiced enough with bfcs that you see them in your sleep, you should be able to eyeball most of the good locations. I still like to dotmap, but it's easy to do with my scroll-wheel mouse

 

[Biffa001]

...going to get a USB scroll mouse tomorrow me thinks ;-)

 

[futurehermit]

 

[Phatkarp]

Great thread Futurehermit!

 

[Ultimocrat]

By your definition of food tiles (4+ food), shouldn't you be marking all floodplains with circles?

 

[futurehermit]

Only if you farm them. I usually circle them myself, but chose not to for this thread.

 

[Phatkarp]

So are you using the drawing tools available in the game? I've used the sign feature, but never the drawing feature.

I can't wait to try your method on my next game. I'm at the stage where I understand the concepts of city specialization and terrain selection, but when it comes actually picking a city site I suffer from information overload. I zoom out, examine the resources, scratch my head a bit, and then my eyes glaze over and I just end up plopping something down. You have come up with a nice way to organize that information and come up with a Master Plan.

 

[futurehermit]

yep, i use the in-game drawing feature. works good.

 

[Maestro_Innit]

OK - n00b question alert:

How does one create one of these thingies? How does one access these magical drawing tools of which you speak.

I've always done this mentally by zooming out and just zoning out, staring at the screen until I decide all my city placements. Being able to draw this lot out, perhaps even to print it would be a great help! Excellent thread d00d.


Gonna get me a random, emporer game on when I get home from work... in fact ... I'm off now

 

[Biffa001]

if you can zoom out to a level where you can still see the tarrain and the icons above the little map bottom right change - select the strategy layer button and draw away.

If like me you cant - then you can take screen shot (print screen) and use MS Paint to draw all over them.