City vs Game

[Scrounge Witch]

Do you see playing the game as means to having a beautiful city?
or
Do you see building a city as a means to playing a superior game?

Yes, it's possible to try to balance both, but which way do you lean?

I lean heavily towards beautiful city, and I won't place powerful buildings if I think they're ugly (no phoenixes or other giant animals) or just don't fit into the esthetic of my city. Even so, I almost always get to at least 1800 in the tournament and get into the lab in the spire more often than not.

 

[iamthouth]

I'm all about the efficiency per tile. But there are so many possible variations for game strategies, I don't think I've ever seen two cities the same.

 

[FairyInBellbottoms]

For me, it's using all my tiles and keeping my population, culture and thus culture bonus as high as I can.

 

[StarLoad]

Neither, I am about having fun and Helping my FS, aesthetics don't matter to me since beauty is in what we see, not what others see.

 

[dikke ikke]

I go for score, when the tech tree is finished i try to use all available tiles, have enough factories but no too much, upgrade aw to the max (still ongoing) and have a load of armories (that can be replaced by workshops and level 1 marble factories if my fs decides to go all in on a FA)

 

[Scrounge Witch]

"using all my tiles" .... "use all available tiles"

Funny thing, I do the opposite. I like to have some free space so I can rearrange things whenever I like without deleting/transporting.
It also comes in handy for FA shanty towns. I also hold festivals there from time to time with buildings I don't want to place permanently and to clear out my summoning inventory (I get enough scrolls from the spire).

 

[Katwick]

The third option is to add and upgrade the buildings that you can fit in without demolishing your city.

 

[Henroo]

I am trying to have the most efficient city possible. I do appreciate the artwork of the buildings, but square for square efficiency is my biggest concern. I also am trying to maintain a high (8000+) tournament average, so space is a factor due to the fact that overall number of expansions is part of the cost formula for tournament and spire. I have multiple unplaced expansions I am holding back to try to keep my tournament and spire costs lower.

 

[Rythel]

Can I vote beauty in efficiency? lol

Nothing makes me happier than when I have everything grouped in similar buildings with nice, even, straight roads and every tile filled. There's just a part of me that feels satisfied when everything is nice and orderly. My planned arrangement for my current chapter is probably the best one I've done yet, and it's absolutely beautiful to see all the repeating motifs all in a line.

 

[crackie]

I lack the courage for this level of superior beauty as shown by @indervention.

 

[ajqtrz]

While I do enjoy arranging my city for efficiency and organization, the reason I play is for my teammates. Thus, my city has to be helpful to them and that means pretty efficient. If I were playing on my own I might go for beauty and design.

AJ

 

[MaidenFair]

Hmm, interesting question!

My strategy is overall rather like @Henroo ’s. I strive for extreme efficiency as a catering city (to the point of letting spreadsheets and math dictate when I upgrade my manufactories).

However, I do make several deviations from that overall strategy in pursuit of aesthetics. If there’s a really efficient or helpful building but I strongly dislike it (Witch’s Hut and Maze of the Dark Matter immediately come to mind), I won’t put it out. I also really dislike visual repetition in my city, so I try to avoid having more than 2 or 3 of any building (not counting manufactories), even if that means choosing slightly less efficient options, and I also avoid putting my manufactories, workshops, or residences in rows as much as possible. When I was starting out playing, every time I looked at larger players’ cities for inspiration and saw the rows on rows on rows of exact workshops and residences, I had a claustrophobic feeling that I had wondered into a tenement block or something, and early on resolved to avoid that in my city at all costs, lol. So I scatter them through the city hither and yon, and it makes me much happier aesthetically.

Now if I ever decide to retire from the game or greatly reduce my participation, I’m absolutely building double-wide streets, parks and little vignettes, probably put out some previous chapters guest race portals or buildings, maybe even buying some of the prettiest premium culture buildings…if I’m not trying to maintain a certain (self-imposed) level of gameplay any longer, I’m going pure aesthetics, since that is what drew me to the game in the first place.

 

[Silly Bubbles]

I like to have everything organised and efficient. I do use spreadsheet to calculate efficiency per square as well. But I do have limits, I have a little row of buildings that I love just because the way they look and when I don't like the look of an efficient building, I build the second best.

 

[theuser]

After the goals of the city are met then I arrange them for beauty, order. For the way I operate, there is sufficient land for both..

The primary goal of my city, Voitan, is to efficiently complete quests and win stage 10 grand prize buildings. I keep a trophy row of them.
After that is handled, I have several secondary goals: among them

• collecting extra KP to give to the fellowship AWs,
• beautiful, efficient layout,
• keeping buildings with similar themes grouped together.
• killing the tournament (20 tents to 6 rounds)
• wandering around the spire laboratory

I voted beautiful city because achieving these goals is not very demanding on land for a middle chapter city*. Success in primary goal enhances all the others because of the high productivity and special attributes of stage 10 grand prizes.

*Does not apply to Chapter 8. Orcs land use is insatiable, portal profits are essential.

 

[Iyapo]

I am a gold spire fanatic, my cities are built to let me negotiate the mini game in the Spire. I try to keep my city in neat little rows.

 

[Dew Spinner]

My city is a mean and lean fighting machine! I am currently in a major redesign and things look a little crappy but I am waiting for Teleport Spells to clean it up!

 

[Elvenar357P]

I might have an addiction to blueprints and possibly gold spire, but restrict it now to one world, one city. Finding a nice way through the chapters and trying to maximise my city’s output is my driver now, so the beauty is only in the efficiency/capability of my city. Occasionally I get to admire some beautiful cities: one on Ceravyn particularly comes to mind, now in chapter 15, although it was at the peak of its beauty in my mind while cruising at the end of chapter 5, when I regularly visited it.

 

[Scrounge Witch]

saw the rows on rows on rows of exact workshops and residences, I had a claustrophobic feeling that I had wondered into a tenement block or something

Placing lots of trees helps break up that vibe, I find.