CaptainPatch wrote:
I'm probably misunderstanding you, but from what I've seen, if you build a District on top of a resource like Glassteel, you not only get the District benefits (and minuses), but you also get the resource added to your production. That saves you the need to build an extractor on that hex.

Note that you need the proper "extractor" tech for it to work. If you land on titanium but don't have the tech to make titanium extractors, the district or city wont' give you that resource.

I can confirm that the method is the same.



Level 2 District = surrounded by 4 Districts of Level 1 or higher

Level 3 District = surrounded by 4 Districts of Level 2 or higher



hence the dominance of the stick: you get your first level 3 district with two level 2's on either side and two level 1's on either side of that (1+4+4 tiles total); you then get an additional level 3 district for each district you add to the stick:





Once you've got a good "happiness base" though (from district levels), you should start grabbing those exploitation tiles (boosters make up the difference). So even though the stick might be better, for most factions including Cultists, I go for the 10 tile triangle and then branch out.

gap81 wrote:
That was true in an earlier revision of the game. Currently only cultists can get to lvl 3. Everyone else is capped at lvl 2

Yes. That was said just a few posts above. By about three different posters, one of whom was me.



The point I was raising was over how the Cultists raise districts to level 3, because the method I heard about was different from the one that CaptainPatch mentioned in the post directly above my last one.

That was true in an earlier revision of the game. Currently only cultists can get to lvl 3. Everyone else is capped at lvl 2

I heard that you get a district to level 3 by having 4 adjacent districts that are themselves level 2 or higher.

Well, the Cultists needed something, given that they will only ever have the ONE city. I would even expect that they would be able to have multiple Level 3 Districts (a District surrounded by six other Districts).

Or even level 3 if you play cultists...which may be a specific faction quest for them if I'm not mistaken. Though it may be just to level up any district to lvl 3.

DrakenKin wrote:
The city counts as district, and it can also be leveled to level 2 if you surround it by 4 districts.

Now that is real news !!!

The city counts as district, and it can also be leveled to level 2 if you surround it by 4 districts.

Ok thank you !! This game is a bit complicated and full of mysteries to a niewbie .. I assume that the main city tile doesn't count as district..

A district with at least 4 other districts adjacent to it gains a level. Each district can only be leveled once (unless you are playing Cultists).

I am new to this game .. I am playing the Mages ( as my first playthrough ) at turn 150 something right now .. I wanted to ask how you can upgrade a district? What is a level 1 and level 2 district ? I can bulid districts to expand my cities to reach other tiles but i don't know other concept except this ..

Yup, it works for LvL 1 Districts and your starting City Tile for any luxury or strategic resource as long as you have the tech associated with that resource. If you place it there and get the tech later, before building an extractor, you will get the extractor for free the turn you finish the appropriate tech. This saves you some time and production cost if you plan your city accordingly.

Just how big of a difference is there between a Level 1 and Level 2 District? How does that trade off with the fact that at least one District will have added at most one additional hex to the city's footprint? (Whereas most other Districts will have added 2 or three additional hexes, boosting production of Food and/or Industry and/or Science and/or Money and/or Influence.) Given something other than a quest requirement, I think that a "linear" expansion - adding at least three hexes to the city with every expansion -- would be more valuable in the long run.

Antistone wrote:
That means it doesn't matter which tile you leave as an exploitation or turn into a district, only the total number of exploitations you have.

I'm probably misunderstanding you, but from what I've seen, if you build a District on top of a resource like Glassteel, you not only get the District benefits (and minuses), but you also get the resource added to your production. That saves you the need to build an extractor on that hex.

Is this not just a pure mathematical problem?



The way I see it is that it is more important to spread out in the early game when a single hex does not yield so much. But once you start adding more resources on each hex from building those percentages from a Fervent city becomes so much more important not to mention you also get you Empire state wide bonus to Dust and Science as well. So Fervent cities get +30% Production/Food while a Fervent Empire get +30% Dust/Science.



So basically if you place a District and go down from Fervent to Happy you loose 15% Production/Food perhaps also 15% Dust/Science.



Placing a new District to gain a level 2 District also usually give you one or two new hexes plus the extra bonus of that new District. I would say it is hard to not go for levelling up your district and do so in a smart way as to also grab more land in the process.



The most efficient way seem to be using the 3x3x3 triangular star formation or some variation of them. They provide for the best coverage of level 2 Districts and more land.



As long as you remain Fervent you can spread out in any direction you want to grab more tiles.



Keeping your cities Fervent is obviously not the ONLY strategy of the game, but it is important for small Empires. Large Empires should perhaps just make sure to at least keep their cities content and a few as Fervent powerhouses to produce stockpiles of goods for other cities. Although, large empire have problem with easy access to bonuses from luxuries until very late in the game.



If you want a small Empire make sure you get access to Wine, that gives you +30 happiness and is very important to keep your cities happy in the beginning of the game. Scout out the map and quickly grab any regions with Wine in them. Two Wine resources can keep three regions with a +30 happiness bonus and then +2 for each Wine resource you have so you can keep expanding the Empire in style. Make sure to keep your cities in Fervent state at all times so you don't loose that +15% Dust/Science from Empire state wide happiness. New cities you build should build the Sewer system as quickly as possible to become Fervent as well, you should be able to have three to five regions in the middle of the game all being power houses in pretty much all fields.



As I said, it is not the only strategy, but it is a powerful one...

DrakenKin wrote:
Keep in mind one thing, buildings that give bonuses to "exploitations" do not apply to districts. So think twice about where you place your districts, tiles with 3 to 4 resources are very valuable and it is better to not cover them with districts when possible since that destroys multiple bonuses you could be getting from buildings.

Unless I'm mistaken, all the bonuses that are limited to exploitations apply to all exploitation tiles, regardless of the underlying terrain. That means it doesn't matter which tile you leave as an exploitation or turn into a district, only the total number of exploitations you have.



I believe the only bonus that cares both about whether something is a district or exploitation and what kind of land you place it on is the era 5 building that gives +50 industry for districts containing a strategic resource (limit 1 in your empire).



Though districts also give -1 food, which means placing them on terrain that already has zero food will save you 1 food compared to placing them on terrain that generates food, all else being equal. I think it would be extremely rare where that 1 food is more important than the structural reasons to place a district in one place vs another, though.

There is a downside to making the best tiles explotation tiles only during war. If you city becomes seiged you lose all that income. If they are part of a district you at least have a reasonable working economy for the turns until your fortifications fail.



It will really depend on how you and your neighboring factions interact that detrimins what is best, and that may not be well understood early game.



The best thing about this game is there is no one best way to do anything as I see it. Everything has its place and every decision it's advantage and disadvantages.

The short answer is that early game it is better to level up districts, and in the late game (starting era 4-5 especially) it is better to widen up to cover as many titles as possible.



Keep in mind one thing, buildings that give bonuses to "exploitations" do not apply to districts. So think twice about where you place your districts, tiles with 3 to 4 resources are very valuable and it is better to not cover them with districts when possible since that destroys multiple bonuses you could be getting from buildings.

Antistone wrote:
So you may eventually find that increasing your city's area becomes more important than leveling districts. In my last game, most of my cities eventually switched to a hybrid approach where they leveled enough districts to maintain "fervent" status, but also had some districts that were positioned purely for access to more terrain...and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if a careful analysis revealed that it would have been better to let my cities drop from "fervent" to merely "happy".

Don't forget there are buildings that add bonuses when a city is Fervent.

^ excellent observation about the balance act between maintaining high approval and expanding your cities to get the most FIDSI

IIRC leveling a district gives +2 science, +2 dust, +2 influence, and +15 happiness.



Structuring your city in such a way that you can level your districts typically means that you give up roughly 1 exploitation per level (if you ignore levels you can expand your city area by 3 tiles per district, but you can't sustainably add more than 2 tiles per district unless you increase the number of non-leveled districts).



In the early game, an exploitation on "ordinary" terrain gives 3 FIDS in some combination. That's half the FIDSI you get for leveling a district, even if you ignore the happiness. If it's a trade-off between leveling a district or getting an anomaly, then I might go for the anomaly (especially if it gives a happiness bonus), but with ordinary terrain the level is usually going to be a better option.



Even if leveling a district gave you less FIDSI, happiness raises food/industry (and on an empire level, science/dust) by a percentage, so the bigger you get, the more you would tend to prefer the happiness over raw FIDSI.



However, in the late game it's possible to reach a point where you have more happiness than you know what to do with (particularly if you can sustain lots of luxury boosters). It's also possible to get buildings that will greatly increase the FIDS you get per tile--there's a building that gives you +3 industry on terrain with industry, one that gives you +3 food on terrain with food, two that give you +3 food on exploitations, etc. Under ideal circumstances, you can get over +20 FIDS per exploitation tile above the base terrain output (and much more on rivers), which starts to make the +6 FIDSI for leveling a district look paltry in comparison.



So you may eventually find that increasing your city's area becomes more important than leveling districts. In my last game, most of my cities eventually switched to a hybrid approach where they leveled enough districts to maintain "fervent" status, but also had some districts that were positioned purely for access to more terrain...and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if a careful analysis revealed that it would have been better to let my cities drop from "fervent" to merely "happy".

I belive only cultists can achieve a level 3 district now, and then only on their cental city tile. All other districts are capped at level 2, including all other factions central cities.

If you build your districts so that you get the most tiles available you will earn 3 tiles per new district.

If you build them in an efficient way (two adjacent lines), you will only get something like 2 tiles per district, but you will get additional bonus due to level 2 / level 3 district and extra happiness.

So yeah definitely worth it.

The problem with not leveling up districts is the happiness penalty each level 1 district incurres. Building up to level 2 basicly reduces this penalty in half. Check out my thread on expansion disapproval for more details, but this plays a big role later in the game once % modifiers become more meaningful to your FIDS output.