Urban Planning Tools! FREE!!

[rplass]

I used to spend more time than anything planning out exactly where I want my cities. It is a crucial decision, after all. But not anymore! Now that I have my new "Urban Planning Tool", it takes me just a fraction of the time! Get one today! It's free!

Here's what you get for zero monthly payments of $0.00:

An amazing new way to plan your city sites that is sugar-free, fat-free and cholesterol-free!

Other devices can cost as much as $100!!! But here's how you can get yours for nothing!

Okay, enough infomercial parody...

Take a piece of clear plastic and put it over your computer screen. Toggle ON your grid (Ctrl-G). Looking through the plastic at a city site, note the "fat X" shape, the 21 squares that define a city's working borders. Using a black Sharpie, trace that shape onto the plastic. Draw a diamond in the center to note the city location. Cut out the "fat X" with scissors and voila! You can use these little plastic fat x's (I call them "Urban Planning Tools") to stick all over your screen to plan out city sites to minimize overlap or to check which resources or terrain will fit inside the production borders.

I used a plastic freezer bag, a plastic which seemed to stick well to my computer screen with only static electricity. Plastic report covers work well if you prefer a sturdier material. I made four of them so I could plan out multiple city sites while taking into account present city production borders.

NOTE: do not draw directly onto your screen with the Sharpie. heh.
NOTE: use *clear* plastic, otherwise you can't see through the Urban Planning Tool

The other good thing about these Urban Planning Tools is that they make me clean the dust off the screen frequently...

Rob

 

[Smirk]

Often times thats not the best placement, just getting unshared squares is only like 3 or 4 on my list of where to build. And actually sharing a particular square may be beneficial so it would be good to overlap it.

Some things to think about, building cities 3 squares in some direction from another city will allow you to move a unit from one city to the next in one turn (with roads). Good way to reduce defense costs, you can leapfrog units from any other city to the city that needs them.
Building next to fresh water can be VERY important, I'll share 3 worthless squares to be able to build next to the river. Ignoring the fact that you don't need an aquaduct, those river borders give an extra commerce, which can be a big help early on in the game.

Obviously if you are placing some rush-despot cities on flood plains you only will ever need 2-3 floodplain squares, so you can build them right on top of each other almost.

Now if you are only thinking about end game, and all your land is homogenous grasslands then your plan works perfectly everytime.

 

[Theios]

hehe.. I thought I was the only weirdo who did stuff like this. I did something simular way back in Civ1. Haven't worried about it for Civ3 yet, but I probably will.

My method was to get a sturdy peice of clear vinyl big enought to cover me screen. I marked off the grid and city locations with a grease pencil. That way I could whp it out when placing a city, but have it outta my hair the rest of the time.

As for how I marked my grid out... I had it set up so that there were no "empty" squares between cities. You'd end up sharing a square or two that way. No big deal.

This is only for the anal-y inclined. There are probably many reasons why you wouldn't want to do it this way. But hey.. I did say I was a weirdo. Right?

 

[Endureth]

The magic number is 5. If you just place all your cities 5 tiles apart in any direction, they fit together pretty well.

Endureth

 

[jc011]

ERmmm.... i may be wrong, but don't the settlers have some kind of radius thing that outlines the borders?? i may be wrong, but i can already remember the city radius!

 

[Moulton]

Hah! Never thought there was a market for my city planner.

I look at optimum borders first, then put it in the most advangateous position. I want no wasted resources, but mostly in the early game, I want contiguous borders. I hate it when they build a city on the one square outside my borders.
Yes, the settler carries a diamond, the territory when the city is founded, not the ultimate growth size.

 

[tetley]

Settling next to fresh water is even more important than that, because you get Nuke Plants later. Those rivers are waaay important.

However, here's my urban planning tool: the AI. It's awful nice of the AI to settle for me, while I build military.

 

[Sam_Catchem]

Hmm..I've never gotten that bad about where to build. Maybe it is careless..but I have never noticed it hurts you in any way. Sometimes you have got no choice but to stick them where they fit.

On the higher difficulty ratings you can get boxed in rather quickly. So, build your military and let the AI figure it all out.

 

[doink66]

Settlers do have a radius around them but it is only the immediate 8 squares surrounding the settler.. it doesn't show the fully expanded future city radius which is kind of pointless because its easy to see which tiles border your unit.

But that urban planning tool sounds like a great idea! I've sat there with the grid turned on wishing I had some way of seeing exactly where the borders will extend. Instead I had to switch to other cities and count the tiles and go back to my settler and recount.. etc. etc. good job!