
A problem of intuitiveness.
Looking at the above picture, I feel that the town should be able to build resource gathering structures on any of the 8 adjacent large tiles.
However, the 4 corner tiles (1 3 7 9 if we view the 9 large tiles laid out as a numpad) are not actually immediately accessible. Only the cross tiles (2 4 8 6) can accomodate size-4 resource gathering structures. This is because the actual grid is the smallest one, which is not very visible at the cloth-map level. This is further confused by the fact that unit movement uses the large grid.
This means that a city founded at positions 4 or 6 would not be able to access the fertile ground (for farms) until after your influence has expanded -- contrary to (my) player intuition when looking at the border on the cloth map.
Mechanics-wise I have no problems, I do think it a good thing though, if which resources are in-range and out-range is easily visible at a glance.
Possible Fixes w/ small commentary:
- Change borders so that they follow the small grid. Makes it more clear to the player what is/isn't in range, doesn't change base mechanic, borders look more angular.
- Change resource structures to only require 3/4 tiles be in range, rather than 4/4. Changes mechanic / breaks a rule for specific instances.
I am more inclined towards the 1st fix. Thoughts?