The ultimate Tall vs Wide? I like it.

Thanks. I hope it is possible, but I haven't figured it out yet.

From the way Civ BE is designed, namely how many wonders, buildings, and even units draw on the same strategic resoruces, I figure that a city in a one city challenge pretty much has to meet at least one of the following criteria:

1) accept that they will be unable to build more than one or two affinity specific structures and units.

2) have some way of making limited strategic resources go a lot farther.

3) have access to additional territory to increase the chances of having those resources within one's territory.


That being said, I *have* successfully done several "single city challenges." These have all been on map sizes below "standard". On duel maps, a single city challenge can be done fairly effectively using any of the standard sponsors. So long as one doesn't try to get into a late-game large scale war with affinity units, they go quite well. And so long as one doesn't build too many wonders.

I have done a single SSC game on a large map, but I was playing with the "Venice in Space" mod. Venice gets a ridiculous number of trade route slots (20+), and while it can't found cities, it *can* found stations. Each station goes through the normal city founding process of claiming each tile around it, then once it reaches completion, replaces the colony with a random station. But the territory it claimed in the process remains yours. So it gives you a means of gaining access to new territory across the world, and, well, stations might not be the best thing in the world, but when you can have 20+ trade routes to stations.... It makes for a very potent setup. Too powerful, even.


My thoughts on overcoming the strategic resource limitations for a single city challenge are to give them one of the following special abilities:

1) allow the city to work up to 4 tiles radius (maybe 5, depending on how well it works)

2) Give the faction a flat "reduced costs" ability: All strategic resource requirements reduced by 1.

3) Give the faction a percentage "reduced costs" ability: All strategic resource requirements reduced by 40% (round up to nearest whole number)

4) Have the faction start out with a certain amount of free resources - say, 5 of each strategic resource.



Each of these has its own advantages and disadvantages.

1) Allows for a much bigger city population, higher production, and lets you push out your territory farther. This will likely result in having at least one or two more resources within one's territory, but no guarantees.

2) Given the number of single resource requiring basic units, this would lead to a faction that would be very good at swarming opponents with basic affinity units - CNDRs, Battlesuits, and Xeno swarm, since these would all have 0 strategic resource requirement. That being said, they'd still be handicapped at the higher tier units and structures, since they'd still have fairly limited resources. With a single city, the total numbers of units would be fairly limited, too.

3) This would be ideal for allowing them to get a few more of the late game structures and units - ones that a simple "-1" wouldn't really help much.

4) This would keep the general game balance intact, and would guarantee that, no matter how bad the starting location is, they'd always be able to do at least some affinity things. In a small map, this bonus would likely be very powerful, on a massive map, probably not substantial enough. Might need to have it scale. 3 each on smaller maps, 5 each on a standard, and 8 or 9 on big maps.


Personally, my preferred option is the first one, as I think that would make for the most interesting game-play. My second choice would be option 4, as it gives a lot of freedom without locking people into one direction, and doesn't change the game balance of unit/structure costs. Ideally, I'd like to try the first option, see how it goes over several games. If it still seems too weak, add one of the others. Maybe a toned down version of option 4.

Also, anyone have any idea how to implement the "larger city radius" bonus?

I've found a few Civ V mods that change the maximum city working radius, but I can't find those variables in Civ BE.

This is copied from WHoward's mod that increases the working plot distance for Civ V.

<Defines>
<Replace>
<!-- General work tile maximum distance from city centre (default is 3) -->
<!-- Min value is 2, max value is 5 (these are hard-coded in the DLL) -->
<!-- Traits, techs, policies and buildings can increase this value for specific civs and specific cities -->
<Name>MAXIMUM_WORK_PLOT_DISTANCE</Name>
<Value>3</Value>
</Replace>
<Replace>
<!-- General buy tile maximum distance from city centre (default is 3) -->
<!-- Min value is 2, max value is 5 (these are hard-coded in the DLL) -->
<!-- The buy plot distance for a specific city will never be less than the work plot distance for that city -->
<Name>MAXIMUM_BUY_PLOT_DISTANCE</Name>
<Value>3</Value>
</Replace>
</Defines>


That being said, I've found the variables (in GlobalDefines.xml) for setting the maximum distance a city can *acquire* a plot, as well as the maximum distance that one can *buy* a plot, but no (obvious) variable for how far away one can *work* a plot.

Either way, being able to significantly increase the acquire/buy ranges will at least bring some strategic resources into range, even if they can't actually be worked.

For right now, I'll try out what it's like to build a 1 cty faction with the expanded acquire and buy radiuses. Maybe it'll be enough.