Settlements and Essence

from Elemental Forums

Firstly, I really like the inclusion of Essence into the game.  It's done a lot to keep City Enchantment madness under control.

However, when a settler builds a new city on a tile w/o essence yet is adjacent to an essence tile it's baffling to me that even though the city you're building upon encompasses an area you KNOW contains essence, you are never able to benefit from it's being under your sphere of influence.

Why not build it on the essence tile in the first place you ask;

- There is a single spot in a field of buildable tiles that has the ability to provide essence and another player has parked a unit on top of it so that you cannot benefit from it

- You would prefer to create your settlement closer to a river/forest/terrain tile as it gives you more strategic benefit over where the essence tile is

- Building on the Essence tile would close out all of the other buildable tiles in the area

If possible, I would prefer to see a settlement gain the benefit of the best essence tile in/adjacent to the settled tile, this would in most cases correct the problems posited above.

3,098 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

The center tile is the only tile that matters. It IS the total of all the other squares. Why don't they add up then? Because every other set of numbers you see is also the total of the 8 surrounding it as well. This method has basically taken the "math" out of picking your spots. Now you can easily see the total, and combined with other resources make your choice.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

A tile's yield is made up of the 9 tiles surrounding it. If you are not on a tile with essence, the tiles around you do not have essence. If they show some essence, that only means that the tile adjacent to you is adjacent to some essence. 

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I still believe there to be a disconnect.  If you have essence being produced in a tile, then in theory the surrounding tiles should have access to that essence which would show 9 tiles of essence which obviously isn't the case.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

seanw3 was talking about the background mechanics. In those mechanics, tile yields are gathered from surrounding tiles. But the only thing that matters is what the player sees on one tile in-game.

 

Okay so this is how I see it. The tile yield is not figuratively speaking exactly what you can mine from one single tile. Rather, it represents your ability to take advantage of the surrounding environment based on that position. So it is not a matter of simply "collecting" another tile to get its yields. Those things are already being collected.

So let's say you are next to a shard. You have the choice of 3 different tiles that all have 2 essence. But on each of the tiles that essence is coming from the shard. It doesn't matter which one you settle on, because whichever you settle on you'll get access to the essence of the shard. The actual amount of magic available isn't 6 essence, it is 2 essence but you can reach it from different places.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting BernieTime, reply 3
I still believe there to be a disconnect.  If you have essence being produced in a tile, then in theory the surrounding tiles should have access to that essence which would show 9 tiles of essence which obviously isn't the case.
End of BernieTime's quote

In that case there is nothing nearby that provides 1 full essence point (As I understand it, hard to say without a picture to go by).

Either that or the other 7 spots around the tile with essence, is without grain.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top


would incresing the radii by 1 help out or would it implode the system ?

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 5
Okay so this is how I see it. The tile yield is not figuratively speaking exactly what you can mine from one single tile. Rather, it represents your ability to take advantage of the surrounding environment based on that position. So it is not a matter of simply "collecting" another tile to get its yields. Those things are already being collected.

So let's say you are next to a shard. You have the choice of 3 different tiles that all have 2 essence. But on each of the tiles that essence is coming from the shard. It doesn't matter which one you settle on, because whichever you settle on you'll get access to the essence of the shard. The actual amount of magic available isn't 6 essence, it is 2 essence but you can reach it from different places.
End of Heavenfall's quote

Nicely written; this is my understanding as well.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting BernieTime, reply 3
I still believe there to be a disconnect.  If you have essence being produced in a tile, then in theory the surrounding tiles should have access to that essence which would show 9 tiles of essence which obviously isn't the case.
End of BernieTime's quote

You don't necessarily know what is being produced in any single tile, you just know what the sum of all nine tiles is.