7/3/2016 - City Templates and Bulk Infrastructure/Land Purchasing

[Alex]

This is a big quality of life update, and has two important parts.

 

The first part of this update is the addition of City Templates. What this means is that you can Export a template of a city's improvements, and then copy and paste that template to Import it to another city. What this does is updates the second city so that it matches the first city. Basically, instead of having to click the "+" and "-" buttons 40 times to buy and sell improvements in each of your cities, you can quickly and easily update all of your improvements in just a few clicks.

 

You'll find small "Import / Export" links on your city pages near the improvements section. When you click Export, you'll be taken to a page with your city's template; copy this to your clipboard and then go to the city that you want to import the template to, click the "Import" link, and paste in the template. Then you can preview the operation as well to see how much Money, Steel, and Aluminum it will cost you to execute. Then, of course, you can go through with the operation, provided you have the necessary funds.

 

---

 

The next part of this update is the Bulk Purchasing of Infrastructure and Land.

 

Prices have not been reduced or changed; this is again simply to make your life easier. Instead of having to buy multiple batches of 100 or 500 of infrastructure and land respectively, you can enter in the total amount that you wish to purchase (up to 5,000) and it will automatically buy it in batches of 100/500 at the most efficient rate. This will again save you time and clicks, and the Cost Calculator will still display what it will cost you to execute the operation.

 

That's it for this update; I hope that I've explained clearly what changes have been made. For more information, you can check out this video from two weeks ago in which I previewed these changes, and demonstrate them visually.

 

 

EDIT: Because I'm sure it will be asked, I will point out two things:

 

When purchasing Infrastructure and Land, the algorithm is configured to purchase any amount smaller than 100 first, and then in increments of 100 thereafter. For example, if you have 55 Infrastructure, and you wish to purchase up to 300, it would calculate the cost like so: 55->100->200->300

 

Second, City Templates will not automatically sell all of your improvements and then buy all new ones. If you are going from a template that has 1 farm to 2 farms, it will not sell your farm, then buy two farms. It will only buy 1 additional farm. So manually buying/selling improvements is not more cost efficient than using templates.

[saeton]

You have the voice of an angel. It's like Jesus and Fergi made love and your voice was the result. 

[Alex]

Posting this here for anyone curious as well:

 

<Psweet> Sheepy, what happens if I use a template from one city with 1600 infra on another city with 1500 infra?  Just a generic error, or will it attempt to buy the infra for me, or something else?

<~Sheepy> Just an error

<~Sheepy> "You don't have enough infra to use this template" or something like that

[Filthy Fifths]

Only took you 3 years or so to do something so small.

[Donald Trump]

where is button in game for template? link? 

[Vack]

Very handy addition, thanks Alex

[Alex]

Only took you 3 years or so to do something so small.

The game isn't even 2 years old bud

 

where is button in game for template? link? 

[Peacity Peace]

Nice.

[Culdee]

This update was EXACTLY what I had in minds for the past couple months.  Alex nailed it.  THANK YOU.

 

I had 2 ideas:

 

1) City Templates so we don't have to click millions of times to switch from econ mode to war mode

2) Cost feature that tells how much it will cost to switch a given city over to the update

 

...and Alex nailed them both.  Kudos!

 

This game has just had a HUGE step up in quality of life.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Culdee

[Dillon A McCann]

What is next?

[Fistandantilus]

Thank you so much!

[Greene]

Wonderful, love this change,  thanks a bajillion!

[japan77]

makes rebuilds much easier, thnx...Would've been extremely useful like 2 days ago, but better late than never.

[DragonK]

 

When purchasing Infrastructure and Land, the algorithm is configured to purchase any amount smaller than 100 first, and then in increments of 100 thereafter. For example, if you have 55 Infrastructure, and you wish to purchase up to 300, it would calculate the cost like so: 55->100->200->300

 

Why not 55->155->255->300? Literally all you have to do is make it prioritize the buying of 100s first. (Compare StillHasToBuy with 100 and then buy wichever is less) Who in their right mind would buy to round up first and then pay more expenisve infra up to their desired level.

 

Also, when are you gonna fix war?

[Kid Winchell]

Pro tip: If you want to label your templates, you can do so by adding extra fields like so:

{
    "name": "Econ Build",
    "continent": "Africa",

    "infra_needed": 1300,
    "imp_total": 26,
    "imp_coalpower": 0,
    "etc": "..."
}

{
    "name": "War Build",
    "continent": "North America",
    "comment": "Roll Sheepy",
    "infra_needed": 1300,
    "imp_total": 26,
    "imp_coalpower": 0,
    "etc": "..."
}

They just have to be in the format "key": "value", (comma included unless it's the last line), and the strings have to be valid JSON strings. (Stick to ASCII text and avoid using quotes ( " ) and backslashes ( \ ) if you don't care to look that up.)

[Kid Winchell]

When purchasing Infrastructure and Land, the algorithm is configured to purchase any amount smaller than 100 first, and then in increments of 100 thereafter. For example, if you have 55 Infrastructure, and you wish to purchase up to 300, it would calculate the cost like so: 55->100->200->300

 

Why not 55->155->255->300? Literally all you have to do is make it prioritize the buying of 100s first. (Compare StillHasToBuy with 100 and then buy wichever is less) Who in their right mind would buy to round up first and then pay more expenisve infra up to their desired level.

People with competent maths skills who like to spend less on infra, that's who.

 

Remainder First:		Remainder Last:
 55 -> 100 =  $14,253.32	 55 -> 155 =  $31,674.03
100 -> 200 =  $36,468.04	155 -> 255 =  $46,393.35
200 -> 300 =  $57,769.59	255 -> 300 =  $34,015.70
 55 -> 300 = $108,490.95	 55 -> 300 = $112,083.08

[Spooner]

Question: What happens if a player in my alliance tries to import one of my cities with something like a Lead Mine when he can't produce Lead due to his continent?

[DragonK]

People with competent maths skills who like to spend less on infra, that's who.

 

Remainder First:		Remainder Last:
 55 -> 100 =  $14,253.32	 55 -> 155 =  $31,674.03
100 -> 200 =  $36,468.04	155 -> 255 =  $46,393.35
200 -> 300 =  $57,769.59	255 -> 300 =  $34,015.70
 55 -> 300 = $108,490.95	 55 -> 300 = $112,083.08

Interesting... I saw bunch of guides that suggested qutie the opposite, since price raises with amount of infra you have.

 

Damn it.... I did it the wrong way. Sheeeeeeet.

 

Still mindblown. Can't belive i was wrong for so long.

Edited July 4, 2016 by DragonK

[Alex]

 

When purchasing Infrastructure and Land, the algorithm is configured to purchase any amount smaller than 100 first, and then in increments of 100 thereafter. For example, if you have 55 Infrastructure, and you wish to purchase up to 300, it would calculate the cost like so: 55->100->200->300

 

Why not 55->155->255->300? Literally all you have to do is make it prioritize the buying of 100s first. (Compare StillHasToBuy with 100 and then buy wichever is less) Who in their right mind would buy to round up first and then pay more expenisve infra up to their desired level.

 

Also, when are you gonna fix war?

 

 

As Ghux pointed out, it's cheaper to do it the other way. It is unintuitive.

 

Question: What happens if a player in my alliance tries to import one of my cities with something like a Lead Mine when he can't produce Lead due to his continent?

 

You'll get an error saying you're not on the correct continent for that improvement.

 

Interesting... I saw bunch of guides that suggested qutie the opposite, since price raises with amount of infra you have.

 

Damn it.... I did it the wrong way. Sheeeeeeet.

 

Still mindblown. Can't belive i was wrong for so long.

 

Also blew my mind; I previously believed as you did until others pointed out it was cheaper this way.

[Veslinar]

This is a nice update, but by using the template you seem to be able to bypass the troop maximum.

[Beowulf the Second]

o sht gib him a bounty for that^

[Peacity Peace]

This is a nice update, but by using the template you seem to be able to bypass the troop maximum.

 

How exactly?

[Beowulf the Second]

i assume: be currently at max mil, max military improvements. change city template to one with no military improvements, retaining full mil and freeing slots for full econ

 

normally if you destroy mil improvments one by one it checks to see if that puts ur max troop capacity below ur current troops, maybe using a city template it doesnt do that.

 

someone pls confirm this bug btw or im talking out my butt

[Alex]

i assume: be currently at max mil, max military improvements. change city template to one with no military improvements, retaining full mil and freeing slots for full econ

 

normally if you destroy mil improvments one by one it checks to see if that puts ur max troop capacity below ur current troops, maybe using a city template it doesnt do that.

 

someone pls confirm this bug btw or im talking out my butt

 

There's no bug - it won't let you sell improvements that you need to support your military. You can't just assume something's broken without trying it.

[Alex]

I even double checked, but yes, I accounted for this from the beginning.