I know this kinda drifts off topic a bit, but I really don't like that city ZoC overrides outpost ZoC, no matter the distance.
2 squares away from a city should be priority ZoC towards that city.
1 sqares away from an outpost should be priority ZoC towards that outpost.
No city/outpost can be constructed in another faction's ZoC
I've had situations where the city ZoC has been 4 squares away, and I want to outpost beside to have a 'conduit' through a bottleneck...and I can't.
Naturally, in the points of conflict, cities should prioritize. I can accept that.
There obviously should be no point at which two outposts conflict (min distance is 3 away).
Imo, min distance between cities and outposts should ALSO be 3 away.
Just some thoughts...
I don't like it. That's what the sphere of influence (SoI) represents - the word of one particular sovereign is heard in this area, and no one else's.
An outpost erected by a bunch of idiot pioneers should not survive at the outskirts of a major city. We get enough of a crazy patchwork quilt as it is.
BTW, the hostile flipping of outposts is the one single feature I liked best in the .98 release. Converting outpost via SoI push is just the peaceful way of doing the same thing.
If want a conduit through a bottleneck, snake a city, terraform a mountain, drain a lake, or just go to war. But no one should be able to built anything too close to another's holdings, and "within SoI" is too close.
Now, if you want to argue that cities' SoI is too large, that's another discussion.