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Why Settle For Less?

Sid Meier famously said, "a game is a series of meaningful choices". Ironically though, at the start of every civ game, what should be the most meaningful choice a player makes is a relatively brainless one. Rarely does a player contemplate where to settle their first city. They wisely choose to build it right where they started since the game starts you out in an optimal position.

This mod aims to fix this problem, and encourage more exploration before settling any city, by making city placement more meaningful and nuanced. This is accomplished primarily by introducing adjacency bonuses for City Centers. Other changes rebalance the economics around this system, and one or two unrelated changes have been included because they are just plain fun. I hope you enjoy this mod, and do not hesitate to offer your feedback and suggestions. It is still evolving.

1. CITY CENTERS GAIN YIELDS FOR ADJACENT TERRAIN

A City Center district gains yields for having matching terrain tiles adjacent to its city -- the bigger the set, the bigger the yields. The first yield (listed below) is granted for each pair, and the second yield is granted for 3, 5, and 6 "of-a-kind". For example, 5 Plains adjacent to a City grants the City Center +2 Culture and +2 Production, whereas 2 Plains grants just +1 Culture. Moutains are the exception to this rule. Each mountain tile provides +1 yield of its corresponding type. (Note: Gold yields are +2 rather than +1.) Here are the yields each terrain type provides:

TERRAIN.........YIELDS
Grasslands......Culture / Food
Plains...............Culture / Production
Tundra.............Culture / Gold (2)
Desert..............Culture / Faith
GrasslandHills..Science / Food
PlainsHills.........Science / Production
TundraHills.......Science / Gold (2)
DesertHills........Science / Faith
Coast/Lakes.....Gold (2) / Food
MountGrass.....Food
MountPlains.....Production
MountTundra...Gold (2)
MountDesert....Faith
MountSnow......Science

It is a little complicated at first, but another way to think about this is that the yields alternate as the matches get bigger. For example, 2 Grasslands grants +1 Culture, 3 grants +1 Food (in additon to the +1 Culture), 4 grants another +1 Culture, 5 +1 Food, and 6 Grasslands grants an additional +1 Culture and +1 Food, bringing the total bonus to +3 Culture and +3 Food.

Bonuses also stack, meaning that having 3 Plains and 3 Grasslands surrounding a city would yield +2 Culture, +1 Food, and +1 Production.

2. PALACE YIELDS ALTERED

The palace in each player's capital now yields +1 production, +3 gold, and +1 science, but no food, culture, or faith. A palace still grants +1 entertainment, but no housing.

3. POPULATION YIELDS TWEAKED

The science & culture generated by each citizen (city population point) has been changed from 70/30 to 50/50. This makes the math easy. Now every two citizens generate +1 science and +1 culture, but more importantly, more science must now be generated by other means.

4. FRESHWATER IS LESS IMPORTANT FOR HOUSING

Housing granted by settling adjacent to freshwater, coast, or neither is now 6, 5, 4, respectively (was 5, 3, 2). This makes settling by a river or lake less critical for growth.

5. FEATURE REMOVAL JUICED / FAITH LOST

Feature Food/Prod/Gold/Faith
Forest........+10/+25/+15/-15
Rainforest..+20/+15/+10/-10
Marsh........+25/+0/+0/-5

6. TUNDRA AND TUNDRA HILLS (at Civil Engineering) ARE FARMABLE

7. RIVER BANKS ARE FERTILE

Farms adjacent to rivers yield +1 food.

8. MINES POLLUTE FARMS

A farm's food yield is reduced by 1 for each adjacent mine. More strategery is good.

9. HILLS HINDER FOOD

The food output of a terrain tile with hills is reduced by one. Hills should not make a tile better; that's the job of forests and jungles. ;-) This somewhat controversial change is balanced somewhat by fertile rivers and tundra farms, and makes city placement (and the game in general) more strategic.