I've wondered how the game assigns territory to players. I've looked around, but haven't found any information on the underlying mechanics.
How do city proximity, unit placement, and terrain improvements figure in? There have been times where I've had units on a tile I've improved, and an AI border encroaches on my tile.
Under 2.2 beta, the system is considerably different (and more confusing)! The 2.2 method seems overly-generous with granting territory around cities, and the initial turns are a big land grab for borders. Changing the 'National Borders' setting in 'Game Settings' doesn't seem to impact the game, unless you turn borders off completely. I play solo games against AI...my favorite is me versus 29 AI on 'Hard' skill level. In 2.2, I'm forced to back this off to 15-20 due to the border issues.
Anybody have any insight?
Units and terrain improvements (other than fortresses) have no affect on the borders.
The border system was changed a few times between 2.1 and 2.2. What we have now is a concept of 'border strength' where the strongest wins.
From the dev list:
From highest priority to lowest: 1) Border source tile is always owned by border source (city or fortress) 2) Tiles within city radius that city has once claimed can never be claimed by another border source 3) Tile is claimed by the border source that has most strength at the tile. Strength depends on city size (fortress has strength 1, cities have strength size+2) and distance from source 4) If two sources have equal strength, current owner keeps the tile
Border system uses real distance, not the number of moves unit needs to travel between tiles nor manhattan distance.
That helps a great deal. I had noticed the ability to 'influence' the borders in 2.2. Except for the large size initially influenced by a new city, I like the new border system in 2.2. Since a settler cannot build on another civilization's claimed tile, the generous border size can cause difficulty in a game with numerous players.
Another change that I'm starting to like more and more is the movement of triremes in shallow ocean tiles. This does force you to alter your tactics regarding building triremes early on, whether or not to build the Lighthouse wonder, and how soon to research navigation to obtain improved ships.
Good job, team!
66.112.71.56 21:30, January 1, 2010 (UTC)