I usually base it of their resouces or with energy, on where it's located. I've been meaning to start a game where I focus on using a single specialization only to see if there is a benefit to it. Might do a Slavic Federation game with just Industry cities and see how it fairs.

I usually make my capital production, so my other cities get the boost from that culture thing that makes things go faster that have already been built in the capital. I make my 2nd city energy so that i can keep up with the costs for stuff like the moonbase resource makers. I then make my other cities metropolis or energy and get the 3rd tier culture thing that makes capital all three specs. Hey, this is my opinion and my playstyle, so it isn't guaranteed to work.

I feel like power grids aren't really useful right now if you aren't going to buy lots of stuff with energy. and in the last game I played, I made my capital a metropolis and then nothing else because I was getting science too fast anyway, so all my new cities just ended up being industrial cities.

I find having a few power grids can be very useful so that you can set all the modifiers in the empire tabs to high. I just tried a game without power grids and I found myself starving for energy quite a bit.

Originally posted by starrynite120:

I find having a few power grids can be very useful so that you can set all the modifiers in the empire tabs to high. I just tried a game without power grids and I found myself starving for energy quite a bit.

In my game i only had one of my 4 cities as a power grid but even with everything on high, i was making over 120 energy per turn, but most of my military power came from buying units because my production was struggling to keep up with my science

Oh I had 6 cities without a power grid. Yeah that was a mistake haha.

very much so , especially as rhere are only 3 specialisations

I found that going in rotation, ie capitol production, 2nd city energy, 3rd city food etc. works very well for me.

Um. Hi. Sorry to necropost, but I just can't figure out this whole specialization thing. HOW? Where? I feel like an idiot right now.

Also, nothing seems to cost building modules, but I can live with that...

Originally posted by rfmacros:

Um. Hi. Sorry to necropost, but I just can't figure out this whole specialization thing. HOW? Where? I feel like an idiot right now.

Also, nothing seems to cost building modules, but I can live with that...

Sinplest thing would be specializing in energy if you have "energy" reosurses in your city, production in case of prod tiles/resource, and so on.
Building modules are required for some buildings in metropolis cities (cult/cap/sciense specialization)

a mix of both i look at natural produciton fo city and what i need right now.
if im starved i will choce what i lack if not i will optimise a bit more?

I think one of the main things when customizing your city is whether or not you have geothermal in range. If so, then you need to make that city a Energy Producer. Why? Because things like Geothermal Extractors only work if there is geothermal energy. And since that's needed for Wonders, you really have to maximize how much you have.

Also, like health, energy is something one needs to be looking at towards the late game. It's easy, if you're doing it right, to get a lot of energy per turn and think you're doing well but then towards the end, you're building buildings that are 25 energy per turn each. That drains you really fast. I found that in the mid-game, if you're doing well with energy, bump up your research and culture to a higher level to use up that excess energy. Then you can lower your tax level back to normal when you need the energy to build building that will give you better bonuses and free buildings to boot.