Overall guidance -- please :)

[BASTian]

Well let me say that I am loving this game so far. However I am running into problems of which I am not sure what the solution is.

Let me say first that I was/am a huge fan of Pharoah/Cleopatra games and perhaps that is my problem.

I generally seem to be building my city incorrectly. I have completed the tutorials and I am in the starting Easy city of Nelket? I believe. The goal here is have 6 luxury townhouses and maintain 60 prestige.

I have restarted this particular scenario about 7-8 times. All leading to dismal events happening. Generally, what causes me grief is in the setup. I have the mentality that you get from pharoah where the proximity of the townhouses to the farms (working class) would choke the possibility of the townhouse upgrading. So I generally have them a good distance away.

Basically ya have the river and from the coast I have the farmers/resource gathers, then the shops a little bit further away ... then the townhouses quite a ways back from them (thinking in the long term about expansion).

Problem is this scenario never have happy townhouses. They are always to far away from something. Whether it be shops, religion, what have you.

Does proximity to other buildings have such an effect like it did in pharoah??

Also, are there some guidelines as to what order to create buildings and how many of each is recommended?

As in .. when you first start its a good idea to plant 6 farmhouses for every townhouse, or dont do this when you dont have that. I dont know if that is making sense ... but generally I cant get into the game because my layout is terrible.

Whew -- sorry for the rant. Just wanting to get this down ... cuz I love it so much. :)

Thanks all for reading.
-BASTian

[micharjuna]

I was so excited when I bought this game.
I was disappointed by the time I finished the tutorial.
Now I love it. What a great game.

I was a diehard fan of the Pharaoh/Zeus/Emporer games, and it took some time to adjust to this. I realized that COTN is much more realistic and historically accurate than Pharaoh was. (Think about it. Am I going to starve and emigrate just because a food peddler didn't walk by my house? I'll just pick some dates and pomegranites.)

My wife doesn't like it that much. She was a fan of the other games, and she can't seem to get in the groove with this one, but I think this blows the others away.
..............................

Make sure your farms equals your Max Farms.
Make sure you have a scribe or scribes counting fields.
Make sure your people can worship whom they wish.
Make sure your people can receive health care.
Make sure you produce ample amounts of common goods.

Have plenty of Brickmakers and Bricklayers, and build some mastabas early on in the game to get your prestige going.
It's really all about prestige, because it affects your priests' and scribes' efficiencies, which are the ultimate factors in your people's satisfaction.

Yes, it was a classic, but you MUST forget about Pharaoh.

[mouse]

Ok you need to change your mind set from old city builder to CotN :D

Farmers need common wares shops very close I usually put them right in the middle of my farmers. Craftsmen (brick layers, brick makers, bakers and so on) need both a bakery and common wares shops very close by. Educated folks and nobles need luxury shops, commonwares shops, bakery and enetertaiment (I put them right where they can reach them very easily) usually right outside the front door. All the folks share hospitals, apothecaries, schools, shrines and temples which means they need to be close to the common folks and elite folks. The nobles and educated class also need a court house and gardener. Hope that helps get you started :D

[Bugsy]

Basically ya have the river and from the coast I have the farmers/resource gathers, then the shops a little bit further away ... then the townhouses quite a ways back from them (thinking in the long term about expansion).

Problem is this scenario never have happy townhouses. They are always to far away from something. Whether it be shops, religion, what have you.

Does proximity to other buildings have such an effect like it did in pharoah??
Ok, you do not have to have them close, you do not have to have them far away. Buildings do not impact the desirability any longer. Roads are not even needed.

You sound like you have a decent setup, for the long term. Now, let's plan a bit better for a small beginning. When you place the farms, they DO need to be near the Nile, to quickly get to their workplace. The nobles, they can be anywhere. I put mine a little distance away from the farms. I put all the support buildings like hospitals, shrines, temples, and such, closer to the nobles, but still in between the nobles and the farm areas, to keep them all happier until my city can support more. They won't stay completely happy. That's ok.


Also, are there some guidelines as to what order to create buildings and how many of each is recommended?I would recommend you read through some of Grumpus' walkthroughs, and also the FAQ by Cironir. Links to both are:

Cironir's FAQ (http://ccc.1asphost.com/cotnuntied/faq.html)

Grumpus's Walthroughs (http://irvdon.freeprohost.com/)

As in .. when you first start its a good idea to plant 6 farmhouses for every townhouse, or dont do this when you dont have that. I dont know if that is making sense ... but generally I cant get into the game because my layout is terrible.

Whew -- sorry for the rant. Just wanting to get this down ... cuz I love it so much. :)

Thanks all for reading.
-BASTianI would still recommend replaying the first tutorials for this. They should have helped give you a much better idea as to how many for each one. They walk you through creating your first city, telling you how many of this and that to place, and basically explaining all you have asked. I do hope that doesn't sound snotty, it truly is not meant to. I myself played them quickly the first time, yeah, yeah, do 'em, get em out of the way, and then jumped in to building, and didn't have a clue what to do with my first blank map. So I went back to them, and really dug in and explored them and read much of the help files. (You can also read different threads in the forums, there is one for what people do in the Early Game, which is what this is, and what to do first.) I truly hope this helps you some, if not, don't hesitate to ask more questions! ;)

Good luck, and welcome to the forums!! :)

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Home of NileChat and NileGames!

[BASTian]

Wow --- thank you all for the quick responses and generous advice. I will go through the tutorials again, was thinking about doing that anyway actually.

Also, many thanks for the links to Grumpus/Cironir guides.

I am so excited to get into this game ... shoulda done some more homework (as was nicely noted :P). I guess my pharoah tendencies are going to have to go by the wayside.

In anycase --- enough chatting, time to build :)

Thanks again,

-BASTian

P.S. Perhaps there could be a stickied thread to guides such as these?

[sitearm]

BASTian: Here ya' go:
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4035

* yep it's in general discussion instead of game help & strategy :rolleyes: go figure... :D *

...stickied thread to guides such as these?

[Bugsy]

BASTian, I did much more thinking of your question after my reply. So last night, when I began my next city in the campaign, I took some screenshots. Then I labelled them and shared them in this thread, where folks are talking of making the most efficient areas.

This thread in particular should give you a very good idea of the hard numbers of things to place. I'll add my labelled screenshots to this post as well though, for your ease in seeing them. I have a labelled and unlabelled version in that other thread, so you can compare to see what the text may be covering.

I hope this helps much better than my sketchy reply yesterday! :D

Thread: http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4736

[BASTian]

Bugsy (and everyone else who responded) -

Thanks again for the time you spent in showing me what seems to be the basics. I felt kinda embarassed asking the questions I did, but wow I am so glad I did.

For what its worth I was doing the city planning all wrong. From your nice screenshots (Wow - that was so great to see. Thanks for taking time to make it) and the Grumpus advice I really was doing it all wrong.

My city was spread out much farther apart then what I see here. I guess that darn Pharaoh thinking was clouding me up some :). If I had taken some screenshots of my beginning games I am sure you all would laugh hysterically. In fact, if i think about it, it would take probably at least 2 (maybe 3) screenshots to cover my initial setup. YES!! that was how far apart they were. NO wonder nothing was working :P

In anycase -- thanks for the guidance and kind words. You all have saved me from pulling my hair out :P

Many thanks,
-BASTian

[Maatkaamun]

@BASTian,

Here are some great threads for early game advice and experiences.
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4044 (how food works)
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4097 (early game tips)
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4600 (medical, worship)

As to a spread-out city, you may have left too much space in yours, but on the other hand, some people do make a spread-out plan work. It just requires more services, etc. Once you master Grumpus', Bugsy's and others' compact city layouts, you can experiment with something more spread out, if that's what you like. :D

Welcome, and enjoy!

((PS, I echo the advice to forget everything you knew and all the habits you used in Pharoah, et al. Some will turn out to again be useful, but when learning CotN, you definately want to aproach it with a clean mental slate. :p ))

[Cassie]

Okay, I have been playing this game under a week and I am totally grooving with it. I, too, was excited to see animals in the menagerie. I found a cat wandering around, and I have noted a few things I just wanted to share.

I have two shores with an island in the center. I started what I thought would be an easy scenario for my first gig. Asyut--which is a large map. It was a rough start, but things are coming along nicely. The tutorial wasn't all encompassing in teaching the techniques needed to start the game. I was oblivious about building orientation and the need for plenty of laborers. Striking that balance of all things is the never-ending quest as time marches on over your city.

I had read a thread in regards to Apothecaries vs. Hospitals. I started my city on the island. My palace is there and things seemed fine. I had one of each. However, as I started to build up a city on the right shore to support the mastabas and pyramids I am building, I kept having healthcare complaints. I had an apothecary. So, I built another one on the "south side". Things seemed to clear up. It was such a short-lived fix. When I built my hospital, it was nuts. It was like the hospital was the hottest thing to hit town. Most of the visitors are children, noble women, and common shopkeeper women.

On the third day of business, I kept count of the visitors. By 9:30am, there were 11 patients. By noon, there were 20 patients and by day's end a whopping 57 patients served. The end of the day for my hard working priest as 10:30pm. Hospitals are definitely needed!!!

I was confused about the statues. I was able to get a few statues erected right away, but most of them just had these flat bases. I couldn't find it anywhere that I needed basalt. The materials needed just mentioned bricks. I was so frustrated. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I couldn't find this information anywhere. It is very important to get that prestige up as quickly as possible. This is what I noted, but feel free to correct me, as some of these were built in the middle of the night and I was tired:
Anubis, The Jackal - bricks and small basalt statue
Anubis Reclining - bricks and small basalt statue
Reclining Ram of Amun - bricks and small basalt statue
Horus the Falcon - bricks and small basalt statue
Bast Sitting - bricks and small basalt statue
Lesser Seated Pharaoh - bricks and small basalt statue
Lesser Striding Pharaoh - bricks and small basalt statue
Colossal Seated Pharoah - bricks and large basalt statue
Colossal Striding Pharoah - bricks and large basalt statue
Lesser Guardian Sphinx - JUST BRICKS!!
Greater Sphinx Statue - JUST BRICKS!!
All Mastabas - JUST BRICKS!!

Once I noticed this, I was able to redirect my energies to the items for bricks only. I didn't have the banked bread to open up trade to the basalt quarries, yet.

Hope this helps!!!

[Maatkaamun]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I couldn't find this information anywhere. It is very important to get that prestige up as quickly as possible. This is what I noted, but feel free to correct me, as some of these were built in the middle of the night and I was tired:
Anubis, The Jackal - bricks and small basalt statue
...

Nope, you're right on what each statue needs, and that the basalt requirement isn't listed in the menu. I'm pretty sure it's listed in the help files though. I tripped over that requirement the first time I built a statue, too. :D :o