Fun Ideas For "Zones"

[WoodenP]

Zones are a big shake up and many of us have expressed our reservations about them. In response PDX has suggested that they could open up cool new story/gameplay options.

So far we've seen:

• The Betharian zone
• Urban zones for Mining districts [Subterranean empires].
• ???

What else? I feel like I want more cool ideas to get on the hype train.

_____________

I just proposed this thread in another area of the forum, to which PDX responded:

[such a thread would] give us good ideas for ways we can expand the system to give you some of the things you're looking for.

I expect that we'll spend a decent part of the summer adding more new Zone types to special planetary features, civics, and actions you've taken.

So the devs are listening!

What are your favourite ideas?

 

[Beauty Nova]

Nature Preserve zones for environmentalists.

Archaeology zones for curator civics/relic worlds.

Giant Paperclip Depository zones for Obsessive Directive.

Buffet zones for Terravores.

And one big one I think might already exist but am unsure of because I haven't had a chance to play the betas: at least one zone that lets you spam entertainers.

 

[WoodenP]

I'm really struggling to visualise "Planetary Feature" based zones because a "Zone" is an area within every district across the whole planet but features are localised phenomenon.

Let's say there sits a rich mountain or an oasis. And so now I can assign an "oasis zone" or "mountaintop retreat zone" across the entire globe? How does that work? Surely the feature is only in one place.

In the current 3.14 model I just place a "Mountaintop Retreat" building and we can imagine that infrastructure to be on the area of the planet with the feature.

The zone proposal treats districts as these amorphous things that span the planet, often overlapping when they need access to different features. It's cut back on the storytelling scale dramatically and is somewhat hazy. I don't want planets that are just a single "City district". I want to build a bunch of cities! (Or mining settlements, or w.e).

Edit:
Perhaps a solution is to re-theme all the planetary deposits in the game to be in the plural? If you have an oasis, it's not that it's literally one, it's a planet covered in them. (But I don't see how this comfortably accounts for having 2, 3, 4 or more of the same deposit on a planet. And abstracting the specifics here is losing a lot of the magic for me. [Oh and event deposits might not work for this either])

 

[HowlingKestrel]

A special Corporate Zone/Garrison Zone that Megacorps and overlords can build on planets instead in the holdings tab would be cool.

That way you can have a scaling bonus with the planet population instead of the existing system. Different types of megacorp could have different types of zones they can build, but then slot whatever building they like in.

A Gaia seeding zone for Idyllic bloom that gets built in agricultural districts and gives terraforming progress from farmers.

A set of ecosphere zones you can research that goes in agricultural districts and boosts planet habitability for one of wet/dry/cold preferences.

A pristine nature zone that slots into cities for Environmentalists that reduces job scaling from cities but with scaling bonuses for blockers.

Archaeology zones in mining districts for planets with completed archaeology sites that give artefacts and research from miners.

Catalytic farms zone in food districts for catalytic processors that provides metallurgists/alloys from farmers.

Cryomines in mining districts for hydrocentric civs on cold planets that provide one boost size per district size.

Surface habitat zones in city districts for void dwellers that reduce planet penalties by 50%.

Rememberance zones that can be built on tomb worlds for unity jobs and society researchers.

Hunting grounds zones for food districts that provide less food but give amenities as well.

Ecofuel zones for food districts that give energy from farmers.

I feel there are a lot of possibilities here that the devs haven’t really talked about in concrete terms yet.

Edit: One that would work well IMO is a slave zone that can go into any district and forces a set proportion of pops working in that district to be enslaved, so you can more easily set up slave factories etc.

Maybe a refugee camp zone for urban districts that makes refugees way more likely to settle in that planet would be cool. You could set up a single planet properly and get huge pop growth when wars are going on in the galaxy.

 

[Thiend]

The option that most occurs to me is to add a free zone for anything currently adding scaling jobs.

For example, Holy Covenants add Priest jobs per X pops, where X is modified by planetary ascension, on all worlds with a Unity designation.

Remove the designation requirement and instead make it add a bonus Zone to the planet with a similar effect, scaling off planetary ascension or not, and then you get the slots to upgrade those jobs without needing to also devote an actual Zone slot. That's a way to use Zones well.

You could also use it, without any spoilers, for something Treasure Hunters get in the same way.

Them asking for ideas makes me more encouraged for Zones as an idea and even less for adding them in 4.0.

 

[WoodenP]

-snip-

These are all fun! Aren't they basically buildings? They would fit into 3.14 perfectly - we've just slapped the word "zone" on them.

Surely we're looking for things that specifically require the "zone" model... Otherwise what's the point?

 

[HowlingKestrel]

These are all fun! Aren't they basically buildings? They would fit into 3.14 perfectly - we've just slapped the word "zone" on them.

Surely we're looking for things that specifically require the "zone" model... Otherwise what's the point?

I was just going off the framework of betharian being a zone rather than a building for these.

I guess I’d see the main difference as being tiers of scarcity in terms of the number of slots - you only have 5 zone slots on the newest beta patch, vs a significantly higher number of building slots available.

It also helps with mutual exclusivity for options. Rather than having a set of ie 5 different buildings you can only build one of, it’s clear you have 1 zone slot for resource districts and you have to choose only one. Then you have a list of buildings to pick from. I can also see that being simpler to teach to the AI.

Finally, the opportunity cost is lower for a specialised planet. Say you have a 3.14 science world - you don’t necessarily want to build 2-4 buildings of stuff that causes your farmers to produce habitability and amenities. On beta, it’s a lot lower cost to build a single food district and a zone that does the same thing with a couple of bonuses to it.

Finally, zones are clearly meant to provide jobs scaling with district development, and buildings are not( either modifying zone job output/type or providing a smaller number of flat jobs). I think this creates nice design space, and having some buildings provide scaling jobs and some not would be terrible from a consistency standpoint, and consistency is vital to making a game learnable.

 

[NorseGod]

I'm really struggling to visualise "Planetary Feature" based zones because a "Zone" is an area within every district across the whole planet but features are localised phenomenon.

Let's say there sits a rich mountain or an oasis. And so now I can assign an "oasis zone" or "mountaintop retreat zone" across the entire globe? How does that work? Surely the feature is only in one place.

In the current 3.14 model I just place a "Mountaintop Retreat" building and we can imagine that infrastructure to be on the area of the planet with the feature.

The zone proposal treats districts as these amorphous things that span the planet, often overlapping when they need access to different features. It's cut back on the storytelling scale dramatically and is somewhat hazy. I don't want planets that are just a single "City district". I want to build a bunch of cities! (Or mining settlements, or w.e).

Edit:
Perhaps a solution is to re-theme all the planetary deposits in the game to be in the plural? If you have an oasis, it's not that it's literally one, it's a planet covered in them. (But I don't see how this comfortably accounts for having 2, 3, 4 or more of the same deposit on a planet. And abstracting the specifics here is losing a lot of the magic for me. [Oh and event deposits might not work for this either])

Yeah, that's the thing. Planetary features as presented right now make more sense as either allowing custom buildings to be built, or as direct modifiers to Jobs, not so much as Zones.

In order for a feature to make a Zone, that Zone has to in turn create a set of custom Jobs, and it needs to make sense that those Jobs are created as the major output of "half" the City Districts on the Planet. The Betharian Zone is an easy one, because it's a variant of the Mining Zone that outputs Energy instead.

 

[Bergest]

Arena Zones for warrior cultures.

Hunting Grounds as an alternative food district zone for empires with the Primal Calling origin.

National Park zone for the environmentalist civic.

Red Light District zone for Pleasureseekers.

Temple zones as a variation of unity zones for all spiritualist empires with a stronger version for Exalted Priesthood

Loot Market zone as a trade zone equivalent for Barbaric Despoilers.

 

[NorseGod]

Arena Zones for warrior cultures.

Hunting Grounds as an alternative food district zone for empires with the Wilderness origin.

National Park zone for the environmentalist civic.

Red Light District zone for Pleasureseekers.

Temple zones as a variation of unity zones for all spiritualist empires with a stronger version for Exalted Priesthood

But what would those do? What different jobs would those zones create?

 

[Kataclyszm]

None of these are actual 'new things' that can't be done in the current model. Like, zero.

 

[Archael90]

There was said that but:
mines/generators/farms of forced labors for authoritarian empires that gives: slave miners/technitians/farmers jobs that basically enslave pops based on job they occupy.
Same can be done for city districts tho less severe that gives indenture and domestic servants status.

 

[Romulus Augustus]

Would love a zone that reverts planets to 3.14.x management

 

[Lorenerd11]

Nature Preserve zones for environmentalists.

Archaeology zones for curator civics/relic worlds.

Giant Paperclip Depository zones for Obsessive Directive.

What would these do?

Wouldn't Archaeology Zone just be a Research Zone? Faculty of Archaeostudies already swaps Biologists into Archaeo-Engineers.

Archaeology zones in mining districts for planets with completed archaeology sites that give artefacts and research from miners.

Actually, this one sounds like a fun implementation.

I have to say though, most of the suggestions made thus far just sound like they could've been buildings instead.

Ranger Lodge is already a building that converts Biologists into Rangers rather than a zone, Amenities Zone was removed and Duelist would have been part of that, and Priests and Memorialist are already attached to the Unity Zone as Bureaucrat job swaps.

 

[Lorenerd11]

Personally, I wouldn't mind a Refinery Zone with jobs split between the available refinery jobs (all three if you have all three required techs, two if you only have two of the techs, one if you only have one of the techs, zone unavailable if you have none), with the refinery buildings shifting the zone's/planet's jobs just like research buildings.

I still think I'd like to keep individual refinery jobs, as opposed to simply adding strategic resource output to metallurgists and artisans.

 

[Beauty Nova]

What would these do?

Wouldn't Archeology Zone just be a Research Zone? Faculty of Archaeostudies already swaps Biologists into Archaeo-Engineers.


Actually, this one sounds like a fun implementation.

I have to say though, most of the suggestions made thus far just sound like they could've been buildings instead.

Ranger Lodge is already a building that converts Biologists into Rangers rather than a zone, Amenities Zone was removed and Duelist would have been part of that, and Priests and Memorialist are already attached to the Unity Zone as Bureaucrat job swaps.

For nature preserves, I picture something that replaces the current nature preserve mechanic environmentalists have, which has the bonus of letting you queue multiple. I was similarly picturing archaeology as a mining zone replacement to get minor artifacts.

Giant paperclip pile is a giant pile of paperclips. It doesn't do much.

Must meet quota, must make paperclips, must meet quota, must make paperclips, must meet quota, must make...

 

[Lorenerd11]

Giant paperclip pile is a giant pile of paperclips. It doesn't do much.

Then it achieves nothing that is not achieved with a handful of Resource Silos buildings, on top of wasting an urban zone slot by not providing jobs, doesn't it?

 

[Lorenerd11]

If we're going to have zone swaps, Unity Zone could be changed into the following:

• Bureaucratic Zone (default)
• Management Zone if Corporate
• Temple Zone if Spiritualist
• Memorial Zone if Memorialist
• Coordination Zone if Machine
• Synapse Zone if Hive

I think it is likely it will just stay as the Unity Zone as the general term for all of these, though.

 

[Lorenerd11]

Maybe an "urban" zone for Agriculture districts with Agrarian Idyll similar to the Subterranean one, called something like Idyllic Settlements? It would likewise add Clerks could and also make Farmers produce slightly less food in exchange for amenities and unity, making Agriculture districts more valuable to build for other purposes besides food production.

When combined with Anglers, it could swap into Sea Settlements, combining the effects of Idyllic Settlements and Fishing Zone.

 

[Beauty Nova]

Then it achieves nothing that is not achieved with a handful of Resource Silos buildings, on top of wasting an urban zone slot by not providing jobs, doesn't it?

Sorry, was being a bit facetious. It'd probably be a mining zone swap that lets you gather paperclips from this oh so convenient "deposit" of them you just "found", similar to how the civic adds CG deposits to planetary bodies.