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#138 TURN-BASED STRATEGY: THE THINKING PERSON'S GAME Father Beast returns to voice his opinion on the calibre of the turn-based strategist. #137 IS TURN-BASED STRATEGY IN DANGER? Tim Bromige examines the playing field of the turn-based strategy genre today. #136 THE MEANING OF THE POST COUNT AT APOLYTON FORUMS Xuenay takes aim at the Apolyton administration for their handling of forum post count situations. #135 WHY I'M STILL PLAYING CIVILIZATION II DaveV can count to four reasons as to why he is still playing CivII more than four years after its original release. #134 A MODEL FOR A CHEAT-FREE GAME Kent Wang re-investigates the model used for multi-player gamers, and offers an alternative. COLUMN ARCHIVE

When we conceptualized CTP2, we had no delusions about revolutionising the genre. CTP2 is an incarnation of Civ-style games -- that is, a turn-based strategy. What we set out to do was to innovate the gameplay, strategies, and interface, and to distill the game experience, eliminating some of the micromanagement while still maintaining complexity. Following that verbose and somewhat dry introduction, I'd like to talk about resource management in CTP2 cities.

As always, cities collect resources from the terrain within and around the city. These resources include food, production, and commerce, as well as special resources, or goods (I may come back and elaborate on these, but for now, the concept is enough). One of the biggest changes to resource collection is that you no longer place individual workers on specific tiles. Before you micromanagers start panicking, you will still be able to tweak each city out to get faster growth, more production, or science out your ears. However, we wanted the "city" metaphor to extend to the idea that a city is made up of a large population of people. For example, each "worker" actually represents 10,000 (or some other very large number of) people.

A city's radius of influence, that is, the area from which it can collect resources, is based on the number of workers it has. There are basically two occupations you can assign people to: workers, who proportionally collect all three resources from the land, and specialists, who focus solely on one type of resource. There are 5 kinds of specialists: Entertainers (happiness), Farmers (food), Labourers (production), Scientists (what else - science), and Merchants (gold).

The simplest example of city resource collection is a city of size 1. When a city reaches a threshold size (in CTP2, the first threshold is 7), the city radius increases. Let's say that we have no specialists, and have assigned our people to be workers. The amount of food, commerce, and production is totalled from the 9 tiles under the city's influence - the one the city's sitting on, and the 8 surrounding it. Since the city's first threshold is 7, that means that the current radius around the city will support 6 workers (because at 7, the radius expands). So, we have 1 worker who can collect 1/6 of the resources around the city. When the city has 2 workers, the city can collect 2/6, or 1/3 of the resources around the city. And so on and so on. Simple, huh?

Now I know the question that's burning in your minds: what happens when the city reaches 7? OK, let's say you have 7 workers and a city of size 7 (no specialists - let's keep it simple for now). From the original area of influence (that is, the area the city controlled while it was 6 people and less), the city collects 100% of the resources available. From the new territory the city gained when it increased to 7, the worker collects 1/12 of the resources available. Confusing? Here's a picture: city in the middle. The first radius (A) is a ring around the city. The second radius (B) is a ring around that ring (like the cross-section of an onion). 7 workers in a city means that the city collects 100% of resources in ring A, and ~8% of resources in ring B. And so on, as the city grows.

So what happens when you pull workers off the land and make them Specialists? Well, that's where the micromanagement comes in. Specialists increase specific resources. Back to our size 7 city: let's say that growth isn't what it should be. To speed up city growth, you need to increase the city's food availability. By increasing the number of Farmers, you can boost the city's food by, let's say, 15% (net), but by reassigning 1 worker to become a farmer, you lose about 5% of your production and 5% of your commerce. Is it worth it? Do you need to build some catapults in a hurry to defend your border? Or do you need that extra gold to rush buy the Great Wall? That's up to you.

Hopefully more to come regarding Trade, Happiness, and all sorts of other good stuff. Thanks for reading!

Winnie Lee
Game Designer
ATVI

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About the author: "A long time player of civ and other great strategy games, as long as they're on the cheap rack".

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