Building Big Efficient Cities: Borough Streets & Leveling Districts

PaleBluePixel

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 28, 2014, 1:14:51 PM

Having read the entire thread, I am left confused. What is the optimal layout post-release? Do terrain features/anomalies/rivers etc affect optimal layout?

Vinzio

Newcomer

Vinzio

Newcomer

21 500g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 28, 2014, 1:50:43 PM

I believe this thread is no longer of use. Since the update, and confirmed by the cultists focus video, there is a maximum of lvl 2 for most of the factions, with the cultists put aside. The optimal cities can vary with the faction you play, and i've been drawing some sketches of city designs for a possible guide. If you think about triangular cities there are a lot of lvl 2 tiles, however not much terrain tiles. Stick cities have a little more terrain to work but less lvl 2 districts or city tiles. My point is, we now need to think of our city layout depending on the resources available, and if we want to have a city with more lvl 2 tiles or a city with more terrain.

PaleBluePixel

Newcomer

PaleBluePixel

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 28, 2014, 2:11:24 PM

So this means that the huge late-game bonus from having level 3+ districts is gone, and therefore tiles can be more valuable than higher level districts, so long as happiness is under control?

VIPAnwyl

Chameleon

VIPAnwyl

Chameleon

27 800g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 28, 2014, 6:23:26 PM

Well, districts will still provide you with influence, so they are necessary if you want to interact with other factions.

abmpicoli

Newcomer

abmpicoli

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 28, 2014, 11:28:23 PM

I've thought about the best disposition, and I am thinking that the pattern should provide maximum expansion, and eventually warrantee that all tiles will eventually reach level 2 to sustain further expansion.

This means that each burrough is surrounded by 4, and only 4, burroughs districts. This pattern eventually makes possible maximum expansion while making possible that all burroughs will eventually be level 2.

PaleBluePixel

Newcomer

PaleBluePixel

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 29, 2014, 6:21:39 AM

This is a very interesting layout. Essentially, the city contains "parks" and evolves in a asymmetrical pattern.

Argionelite

Heretic in Disguise

-Argionelite

Argionelite

Heretic in Disguise

22 900g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 29, 2014, 12:01:42 PM

Question, When you build the Triangle one, Where would your main city be when there are 3 center squares?

BlueTemplar

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BlueTemplar

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4 000g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 29, 2014, 12:10:21 PM

Wherever you want, it can even be on the tip, as you can see from the screenshots below.

Apheirox

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Apheirox

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6 000g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 29, 2014, 4:43:36 PM

Vinzio wrote:
I believe this thread is no longer of use.

It would be good if Paisley updates his original post to reflect this. This thread is going to attract a lot of attention because of how big it is and how well Paisley originally presented it. I was one of the first readers/posters on this thread yet now I opened the thread again and am surprised to learn the rules have changed and the OP no longer relevant.

AFAIK the manual doesn't mention anything about city boroughs having a level cap and the in-game tutorial certainly doesn't so we already have plenty of confusing or missing information on how to best build up cities without excellent, but now obsolete guides!

abmpicoli

Newcomer

abmpicoli

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 29, 2014, 8:44:17 PM

abmpicoli wrote:
I've thought about the best disposition, and I am thinking that the pattern should provide maximum expansion, and eventually warrantee that all tiles will eventually reach level 2 to sustain further expansion.

This means that each burrough is surrounded by 4, and only 4, burroughs districts. This pattern eventually makes possible maximum expansion while making possible that all burroughs will eventually be level 2.

Well, I take my word back on this one. This layout is not good, because it would cost way too much in unhappiness to evolve. The better layouts now seems to me the ones where the happiness loss is kept in check.

The stick layout is the best of all for increasing happiness of a region, because it has the least possible ends and the most possible happiness upgrade.

Explaining better: there are two kinds of expansions. Opening and closing ones. Opening expansions are the ones that doesn't level-up a district. They cost 10 happiness.

Close expansions are the ones that level-up at least one district. They increase overall happiness, because you keep having the same number of level 1 districts, but gain one or more level 2 districts.

So, the rule that each burrough should be surrounded by 4, and only 4, burrough districts is yet valid, if you are thriving for achieving more explored tiles. This holds true even with multi-leveled districts.

This inspired me the configurtion below: I call it "the star":

As you can see, it starts as a common triangle development. From each triangle point, a reverted triangle is made. Each reverted triangle ends up creating a bonus of extra 10 happiness to the city, while keeping the intermediate unhappiness before the pattern is complete at a -15 from the starting happiness. The cherry of the cake is that, eventually, the pattern overlaps, generating some areas that gives a solid +15 happiness. by using only 4 tile expansions.

BlueTemplar

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BlueTemplar

Newcomer

4 000g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 30, 2014, 3:33:09 AM

Niiice! BTW, I would bet that there's an area in mathemathics which deals with problems like that. Worth looking up...

Ceath

Newcomer

Ceath

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 30, 2014, 4:47:47 AM

Really cool layout abmpicoli. Just a few quick questions though:

What are the +15, +25, +35 etc on the triangles?

Another thing is if I were to start the city centre in a less than ideal location, i.e. not the centre of the star as depicted, is there any differences to the progression of the star? If so, how should I proceed?

myrec

Broken Horatio

myrec

Broken Horatio

18 000g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 30, 2014, 7:04:50 AM

There is a mathematics problem concerning this, but there is too many variables. Like how many districts will you have, how much you want to lose happiness in progress. etc.

But solution to almost all cases is 2-line or triangles connected by one of their vertices (this is that before mentioned star).

BlueTemplar

Newcomer

BlueTemplar

Newcomer

4 000g2g pts

10 years ago

Sep 30, 2014, 2:55:08 PM

The +15, +25, +35 numbers are the total resulting morale after adding these (clusters of) districts.

PaleBluePixel

Newcomer

PaleBluePixel

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 30, 2014, 3:31:31 PM

Approximately what is the highest number of districts one can expect a city to reach during a normal single-player game?

abmpicoli

Newcomer

abmpicoli

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 30, 2014, 11:22:28 PM

PaleBluePixel wrote:
Approximately what is the highest number of districts one can expect a city to reach during a normal single-player game?

I'm not sure, and will vary wildly according to the strategy used by who is playing.

In my last games I've been opting to make a cycle of grow / create burrough until there are six tiles: put people on food until there is enough population for a burrough, then build the burrough...

But, yes, It seems my layout seems a little "far fetched" in the number of tiles... I just couldn't stop drawing it

.

But, anyway, the idea of expand in triangles seems yet a good strategy to me, because it allows for eventually occupying all the region squares, and not to limit growth in only one direction like the stick layout. A solid expansion growth should aquire 3 tiles for each burrough most of the time...

abmpicoli

Newcomer

abmpicoli

Newcomer

10 years ago

Sep 30, 2014, 11:25:37 PM

Ceath wrote:
Really cool layout abmpicoli. Just a few quick questions though:

What are the +15, +25, +35 etc on the triangles?

Another thing is if I were to start the city centre in a less than ideal location, i.e. not the centre of the star as depicted, is there any differences to the progression of the star? If so, how should I proceed?

Note that the city center doesn't need to be in the central triangle, no... Any internal triangle tile may start as the center. Then it is only a question to which direction will I create the next one...

Krug

Newcomer

Krug

Newcomer

10 years ago

Oct 1, 2014, 10:06:21 AM

PaleBluePixel wrote:
Approximately what is the highest number of districts one can expect a city to reach during a normal single-player game?

With most races I personally get a few cities with 6-9 burroughs, though with the cultists I had 40 by the time I could crush the last two civs.

abmpicoli

Newcomer

abmpicoli

Newcomer

10 years ago

Oct 2, 2014, 4:37:38 AM

Well, nothing like playing the game a little more to see how gibberish is something that you have published yourself yesterday. The "star" pattern is very difficult to achieve using the current region borders and geographic accidents...

This is the plan I'm adopting for my capital. I'm making a controlled 4-only-4 neighbors expansion. In the end, the stick layout is really very powerful, although you can "twist" and extend it to make some curves without too much space loss.

Note that the start is always a moon expansion followed by a closing burrowgh. The stick is a steady "happiness accumulator", since each burrough ends up providing an extra 5 happiness, and allows for a solid 2 extra exploited tiles expansion. To get to the sweet spot land to the west, I'm working on an extra stick to the west. Using these "twists" you can get a set of city sticks followed by 2-tile wide "gardens", where you gain a lot of occupied land with less burrough tiles and acceptable happiness.

Ebongreen

Newcomer

Ebongreen

Newcomer

10 years ago

Oct 12, 2014, 9:23:30 PM

As a new player post-release, I rediscovered most of the OP's theories and found them sound, FWIW. Even with the level 2 district cap, having L2 districts powering your research, production, approval, etc still seems worth it...

... and before discovering this thread, I posted about it in the Loading Tips one. Oops. :-(

Still, six-hex triangle cities have been making my Vaulters ... well, vault.