I do really like this concept, though with parrotmath's snaking mod operating perfectly, it really doesn't matter to me anymore.

However, I currently find little reason to build the +1 ZoC buildings for the +1 ZoC effect. If your city's ZoC did not expand with the addition of new buildings, than these ZoC buildings would have way more importance.

Also a very good point mentioned above in that you have more control over your city's ZoC when it comes to impacting against monster lairs.

This feature would also remove the ability to 'snake' toward other resources like shards or mines. ZoC buildings would be needed to reach out to these.

This feature would also make it more difficult to block an area in through city expansion.

One concern is that all buildings available would still have to be able to fit in a city's ZoC, even if say an average of half of the tiles were unavailable due to mountains/oceans/resources.

Still, seems like a good idea.

Ok, let's screw it a bit more.

Accepting this mechanics, would mean that ZoC do not expand on improvements, so you will need lots of more outposts to get the resources and your cities safe.

Currently, it is necessary spamming a lot of them to connect cities, etc.,

Can you imagine how many pioneers would be needed only to build outposts to protect cities (give them safe ZoC) with this mechanics?

As said above, you fix a problem but other things might get worse.

What will happen with cities built in a tile surrounded with swamps or mountains, with no space to build? Failed cities? And don't tell me don't build there, or I will tell you don't snake.

For me, this new mechanics might be ok, if:

pioneres could build outposts without consume OR

give +1 LOS to the outpost, to not needing so many of them. The High Vision upgrade would give another +1 LOS, so what?

My problem with this suggestion is simply that it is fixing a problem that doesn't seem like a problem to me. The ability to place buildings manually is turned off by default. If you don't like placing buildings manually, then why did you turn it on in the first place? I just don't get the problem. The old Civilization method of no border adjustment sucks. I hated it then, and I hate it now. The current method gives me options if I choose to use them. It also allows for no snaking if you choose so. Again, this seems like the dumbest thing to put effort into changing.  It still upsets me that there are people who can't let this go. You already won! They added an option to turn off the ability to snake, and made it the default. That just isn't good enough for you though, you hqve to make sure that the people who liked the feature can't have it either. 

Edit: I am sorry for getting emotional. I am just upset about streamlining the city building, since that is one of my favorite parts of the original game.

I don't see what the problem with snaking is.... I mean it's a single player game and it's not like it's going to effect anyones enjoyment except your own.... I guess what I'm trying to say leave it alone and spend your time fixing something that really needs it....

the cons of this proposal outweigh the good. How about instead limit the distance from the city square that buildings can be placed in? This allows you to get your pier or logging camp from one tile away (making locations one step better) and does not allow ridiculous straight line cities.

@kongdej: post #2 disagrees

@thadianaphena: what would the cons be? I haven't read any convincing ones yet ( except for the line of sight argument which is easy to solve ) .

also, how is your proposal better? it seems to me it would just make the limit arbitrary, instead of linked to the ZoC which imo makes perfect sense.

for pier/logging camps, there's already a nice mod by parrothmath which allows each person to make his/her own decision about that

No he doesn't, he stating that he "likes the solution" to "snaking"... What I mean is the developers are hellbent in they're hunt to kill snaking, right now its one of the more interesting features in city building, and there have been lots of ideas around snaking
(it have been talked to death more times than I have fingers... And I am a mutant with 5 arms).
The fact that none of those ideas (which I think was way more interesting) have been implemented or commented upon makes me think that only a few of the development team actually wants manual placement of buildings to actually be an option.

I might be reading too much into it though, I am but a silly 5 armed mutant who's account is hacked by batman once in a while, so don't think too much into what I say, just see it as "another" opinion .

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

ok I see where you're coming from, I agree about cities acting as super-roads

a definite improvement this proposal would bring is for the usefulness of ZoC-providing buildings. right now they're obsoleted by simply building improvements.

also, with monument+town hall we're already talking about 48 tiles. let's say 50% are unusable due to mountains, oceans and chasms, it's still 24 tiles to build upon. if you're really that desperate, you can always upgrade to town.

I agree with Martimus and Kalin.  As a relative noob who has no real idea what snaking is good for, has never used it, and can't imagine taking the effort to manually place my buildings, I cannot fathom why I should care if YOU want to do those things.  What are you all arguing about, here?  That some people use "silly" city expansion to exploit the already-stupid AI for their own amusement?  In a game that has no multiplayer support at all, but touts itself as awesomely moddable to meet the player's personal tastes, why on earth would the devs remove an optional feature? 

I see a bunch of people jumping through hopes to reconcile opinions, divine the developers' intentions, and solve problems... that no one defines the same way.

So here is my take:

Snaking is great, snaking is an art, snaked cities look great.

Trying to weaken snaking was a stupid idea in the first place, and the developers were pushed into it by a vocal minority.

Trying to eliminate snaking has led to only two things: a hell of a lot of confusion from inconsistencies, and less enjoyment from the still prevalent snaking.

My solution to the snaking problem?

Allow snaking to grant access to piers and logging, remove the stupid auto-placement, and teach the AI to get as many of the benefits of snaking as possible.

I concur.  If you don't want to bush the button, then don't push the button.  If you do push it, don't complain about it afterward.

what about thadianaphena's suggestion then? works as it does now, but snaking limited to 2/3 tiles in each direction, 3/4 for towns. seems like a reasonable restriction that allows maximum flexibility while still keeping +ZoC  buildings useful.