City tile limit?

from Elemental Forums

has anyone found a way to increase the city tile limit? or at least exclude resource tiles from counting towards it? im getting sick of trying to keep my cities from touching resources so I'll have a prayer of getting all the buildings that i need built X|

 

 

the mechanic in questions is this: cities have something like a 50 tile limit, you can only take up 50 tiles with a city. thats not a huge deal, but if a resource tile touches your city it ends up inside the walls and counts towards the limit. boom, 4 tiles right there. but because of other cities or terrain, you cant always avoid that. last game i was in i had a lvl 4 city and only one available tile on which to build (was well under the limit, but only one green tile) when i built there, it brought 5 resource tiles inside the walls. this put me over the 50 tile limit, and prevented the city from ever reaching lvl 5.

 

anyways, QQ over, has anyone found a way around this?

19,425 views 29 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Tiles and the tile limit appear to be hardcoded at this time.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

This isn't a difficult fix. I can upload my ModCityHubs.XML once I return home from dinner. The limit is certainly not hard-coded though.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Oh, how did I miss that... yeah, there's a <BuildableTiles> tag in the cityhub files. Also note that they're designated once for each city level.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

ok, found that. I changed it in the core file because i don't know how to make a mod >.<

 

all the guides assume you have a basic knowledge that i apparently lack... how do i make a mod file so that i don't have to mess with the core files?

 

also, that didn;t seem to work, can't find any <BuildableTiles> tags i missed, but its still at 50

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

You can't just change that and load the game, there's a routine you have to follow if you want to change core files. Best to stay away from that altogether.

Anyway, the right way is to make a new file, put it in Elementals/Mods and redefine the type. Like this:

http://www.thedyinggrounds.com/Elemental/test2F_CityHubs.xml

However, I got some very odd results when I did that with the cityhub. Like, cities had twice their normal pop cap from the town. So I'm not sure what's up with that. Lets hope James009D doesn't forget about us and uploads a working file.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Alright, here is my ModCityHubsNew.XML file which increases city size to 75 and grants a little gold to larger cities.

http://depositfiles.com/files/jnk9fcze0

I had to fix a duplication error before uploading it, works now.

BTW, this also includes an EXPERIMENTAL "Small Hamlet" that enables conquered minor race cities to expand beyond level 1. Lemme know if this works, havent really had time to test it yet.

P.S. Hadn't forgotten, just took me a while to fix... things.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

That's the last thing this game needs is extra ways to earn gold... :P

 

I updated mine to allow for extra tiles as the cities get larger

 

50 for level 1

60 for level 2

75 for level 3

100 for level 4

250 for level 5

 

I've yet to have a problem with running out of tiles...

 

You're small hamlet idea sounds cool though. I may have to take a look at how you did that, and possibly incorporate it into my game if it works. If anyone wants my modded CityHub.xml files, let me know...the only change I've made is the the number of buildable tiles.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

If that was directed at me, I haven't uploaded mine. I wasn't sure if anyone would want it.

 

If you're interested I can  upload it though.

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting James009D, reply 6
Alright, here is my ModCityHubsNew.XML file which increases city size to 75 and grants a little gold to larger cities.

http://depositfiles.com/files/jnk9fcze0

I had to fix a duplication error before uploading it, works now.

BTW, this also includes an EXPERIMENTAL "Small Hamlet" that enables conquered minor race cities to expand beyond level 1. Lemme know if this works, havent really had time to test it yet.

P.S. Hadn't forgotten, just took me a while to fix... things.
End of James009D's quote

Woah... I was under the impression we had to rewrite the entire type when we used an old internalname... that's awesome!

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Ok I didn't see anyone tell you this so the files you were looking for were

K_CityHubs.xml

and

F_CityHubs.xml

In

\Elemental\data\English\Core Improvements

The values you would modify if you wanted to change the tile limit are 

<BuildableTiles>50</BuildableTiles>

You can manually increase them to whatever you like.

Before editing them you should copy and paste them into your

My Documents\My Games\Elemental\ folder (folder layout may differ depending on OS), I consider the Tiles folder a good place for them. Edit them there and the changes will automatically be applied when starting a new game

 

Sharing mods is great, but also sharing the where and how also empowers the user and grows the modding community :D

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

If you just overwrite the whole type, the population caps and prestige (and possibly other values) will become messed up. You need to do like James009D did.

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 13

Woah... I was under the impression we had to rewrite the entire type when we used an old internalname... that's awesome!
End of Heavenfall's quote

Yeah, that took me quite a bit of time to figure this out. Don't copy entire files, folks, or you risk doubling (NOTE: I think some traits are doubling in my abilities mod).

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

I guess we need to start making a list of what we can't overwrite, because clearly this doesn't apply across the board.

Reply #18 from Elemental Forums Top

i don't want more tile

if you have 75 tile you can build everything in a city

you lose the strategy of city building, just line up the buildings and that's all

but if you have less tile you must focus your settlements, you can have specialized cities, you have to plan and the settlements will be different

Reply #19 from Elemental Forums Top

Then don't use the mod. Are you going to post in every mod that appears that you won't use it because it changes the game? That's not necessary or wanted.

Reply #20 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting sinusgamma, reply 18
i don't want more tile

if you have 75 tile you can build everything in a city

you lose the strategy of city building, just line up the buildings and that's all

but if you have less tile you must focus your settlements, you can have specialized cities, you have to plan and the settlements will be different
End of sinusgamma's quote

 

the problem is you only get 50, and if you like to play on smaller maps (like i do) resources get so dense that its entirely conceivable to lose 20+ tiles to resources simply because it is impossible to avoid them. and you shouldn't have to avoid them, damn it. I'm all for strategy and thoughtful city building, but the snaky things i generally end up with are just a pain in the ass.

 

anyways, back to the thread topic. thanks for the helps everyone, this has been very informative.. who knows, i might manage to learn how to mod yet!

Reply #21 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting sinusgamma, reply 18
i don't want more tile

if you have 75 tile you can build everything in a city

you lose the strategy of city building, just line up the buildings and that's all

but if you have less tile you must focus your settlements, you can have specialized cities, you have to plan and the settlements will be different
End of sinusgamma's quote

Forgive my bluntness but why did you come into a thread discussing increasing the tile limit? The purpose of the tile limit increase is because some buildings, especially resource buildings and homes, can add quite a bit of tiles to your cities.

Perhaps this mod just isn't for you... :(

Reply #23 from Elemental Forums Top

Sorry for the Beginner question James009D but do we just put your files in the \Documents\My Games\Elemental root folder or does it have to be in a specific one under it?

Reply #24 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Enigma_Legion, reply 23
Sorry for the Beginner question James009D but do we just put your files in the \Documents\My Games\Elemental root folder or does it have to be in a specific one under it?
End of Enigma_Legion's quote

I think they can go there, but the person who posted this mod suggested it to be put in Program Files\Stardock  Games\Elemental\Mods folder.

So I would just do that, as it works the same never the less.

This looks good, will give it try after I finish my game I'm on.

Edit: Question though, can I subfolder that mods folder in the main directory, and it will still detect all mods? Just like to keep things organized if possible, and find out what mods are what in case I got problems, don't have to go searching through a lot of xml files, lol.

Reply #25 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting James009D, reply 6
Alright, here is my ModCityHubsNew.XML file which increases city size to 75 and grants a little gold to larger cities.

http://depositfiles.com/files/jnk9fcze0

I had to fix a duplication error before uploading it, works now.

BTW, this also includes an EXPERIMENTAL "Small Hamlet" that enables conquered minor race cities to expand beyond level 1. Lemme know if this works, havent really had time to test it yet.

P.S. Hadn't forgotten, just took me a while to fix... things.
End of James009D's quote

James, how do you get this file to work? I put it in the root mod folder and in:

...\Documents\My Games\Elemental\ModCityHubsNEW.xml

Can you not use this mod with a Custom Leader and/or Faction?  I tried picking one of the premade leaders adn premade faction and it showed but when I try a custom one it shows 50 tiles>. Is there any way to fix that?