Building Big Efficient Cities: Borough Streets & Leveling Districts

BlueTemplar

Newcomer

4 000g2g pts

10 years ago

Jul 10, 2014, 9:58:49 PM

Kruos wrote:
Thank you for your guide and analysis Paisley.

Maybe you already suggested some changes or tuning about the borrow/district mechanism, from my side I was thinking to some slight change like a scalable bonus to district level depending of the number of adjacent tiles, like for example :

- 4 adjacent tiles -> +1lvl

- 5 adjacent tiles -> +2lvl

- 6 adjacent tiles -> +3lvl

Maybe it could lead to nicer cities..(tbc)

The problem is that if the bonus is even bigger than now, then terrain will be even less important than now than cities' geometric layouts (which is why I'm puzzled as to why the devs raised the approval bonus).

mackster

Newcomer

mackster

Newcomer

10 years ago

Jul 11, 2014, 5:05:07 PM

BlueTemplar wrote:
The problem is that if the bonus is even bigger than now, then terrain will be even less important than now than cities' geometric layouts (which is why I'm puzzled as to why the devs raised the approval bonus).

I honestly don't really have too much of a problem with this. It kind of reflects how big cities actually work (in my mind at least). Eventually once a city becomes big enough it doesn't matter where it was built in the beginning, the city itself is the more important thing.

Whether that's good for a strategy game is another thing, though.

JonathanStrange

Newcomer

JonathanStrange

Newcomer

24 300g2g pts

10 years ago

Jul 14, 2014, 1:41:56 AM

Thank you for the guide. It helped explain a few things. Watching YouTube and Twitch videos and hearing about diamond shaped cities and how the AI built snake like cities, which were apparently bad, made me wonder and was one of the main things I was seeking in this section of the forums.

j.a.paisley

Newcomer

j.a.paisley

Newcomer

10 years ago

Jul 14, 2014, 3:05:04 AM

While this thread is about how the city mechanics work now, explains how I think the district leveling process *should* work. Spoiler alert: Sticks are out, hexagons are in.

Becephalus

Newcomer

Becephalus

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 13, 2014, 2:41:00 AM

Frankly I think they need to rebalance this with 3 adjacencies as the threshold instead of 4 so that all the cities are not boring looking.

Trithemius

Mage

Trithemius the Mage

Trithemius

Mage

32 700g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 13, 2014, 4:13:23 AM

Becephalus wrote:
Frankly I think they need to rebalance this with 3 adjacencies as the threshold instead of 4 so that all the cities are not boring looking.

Using 3-adj as the base for levelling has Problems unfortunately!

Trithemius

Mage

Trithemius the Mage

Trithemius

Mage

32 700g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 13, 2014, 4:16:09 AM

Are there any thoughts about how to best make use of the capped District Levels and Ardent Mage Pillar radius? Sticks are obviously not optimal, but leaving holes in your layouts doesn't always seem like a good idea either.

Matroska

Newcomer

Matroska

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 15, 2014, 11:13:08 AM

Becephalus wrote:
Frankly I think they need to rebalance this with 3 adjacencies as the threshold instead of 4 so that all the cities are not boring looking.

See this post for a reason that can't work.

Despite the fact it can lead to weird city shapes that feel quite unbelievable, I do like this mechanic. It somewhat reminds me of the Caesar series (plus the differently themed games in the same series) in the sense that while it was initially tempting to just slap down your buildings purely going off very basic concerns (e.g. these people say they want food, I'll put a food place somewhere around here), or just because it looks nice, it actually all came down to geometric efficiency with certain block configurations being suited for different demands. There's nowhere near as much complexity to it in EL, but then it isn't the whole point of the game like it was in Caesar and co.

Anyway, thanks for this guide. Otherwise this whole area of gameplay would've passed me by.

Nodor

Forgotten Guardian

Nodor

Forgotten Guardian

31 000g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 16, 2014, 9:42:07 PM

Due to the city district cap at level 2, this guide may no longer be accurate.

With 15 sections, the stick has 4 centers at level 1, the triangle has 3 centers at level 1.

VIPNasarog

Analyzer Officer

I know nothing. To learn more, come visit us @ eXplorminate.net

VIPNasarog

Analyzer Officer

36 700g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 17, 2014, 2:46:12 AM

Yea, I hope they lift the cap level again and give us some nice options.

Kruos

Old Craver

Kruos

Old Craver

26 600g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 17, 2014, 9:21:47 AM

Nodor wrote:
Due to the city district cap at level 2, this guide may no longer be accurate.

With 15 sections, the stick has 4 centers at level 1, the triangle has 3 centers at level 1.

Yes, the triangle seems to be the optimal way to go if you target a 'heavy influence' developpment.

That being said, with the level 2 cap I would say that it is no longer a 'must path', as despite the miss of moral&influence bonuses the fids output may be more appealing in some cases. For example, playing the Necrophage it appears that going wide and spread is very interesting as the morale may be compensated by sacrifices.

On overall I am not sure that it would be a good idea to developp further this mechanism, as I tend to think that it may complicate city developpment more than needed. Even if the level 2 cap seems like a 'work around' in some ways, I am fine with it and think it is a good thing actually.

alyg69

Newcomer

alyg69

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 17, 2014, 3:29:35 PM

i always try to just build my city in a space closest to most anomalies and build my city towards that, i actually like getting the anomalies ( i get crazy obsessive about being able to exploit them )

i just wish that they weren't so spread out some times in a region :P

so i usually place city in spot where i can reach most anomalies... then reach them and then focus on leveling the districts by filling in the requirments to do so ( i.e. ad districts to make the 4 surround rule thing )

Matroska

Newcomer

Matroska

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 19, 2014, 12:12:32 AM

Yeah, if you're lucky enough to get a few of the anomalies that add to happiness, you can compensate for the penalty somewhat.

Seerinox

Eight

Seerinox

Eight

27 400g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 19, 2014, 4:30:13 PM

Had no idea things were capped at level 2 now. I guess that's the problem of reading only the first post and not the whole thread.

EzekielMoerdyk

Apprentice Chameleon

EzekielMoerdyk

Apprentice Chameleon

22 900g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 20, 2014, 5:37:58 AM

Seerinox wrote:
Had no idea things were capped at level 2 now. I guess that's the problem of reading only the first post and not the whole thread.

Dont worry, it is back to uncapped again in the release. In one of the final Cultists quest you have to level your disteict to lvl 3. I threw a tantrum right there - I had been snaking like crazy at that point

Seerinox

Eight

Seerinox

Eight

27 400g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 20, 2014, 5:56:35 AM

EzekielMoerdyk wrote:
Dont worry, it is back to uncapped again in the release. In one of the final Cultists quest you have to level your disteict to lvl 3. I threw a tantrum right there - I had been snaking like crazy at that point

Ah gotcha thanks for the info.

EzekielMoerdyk

Apprentice Chameleon