Starting on the coast. Is this considered bad?

[Artifex]

My settlers almost always start on a coast it seems. Unless I am playing a pangea.

Is this considered a mandatory restart? Due to corruption issues. I guess it might be ok for a colossus in your capital city. But overall capital and core cities on the coast seems hurtful.

[Inverse Icarus]

i suppose you could see it as a downside, but i also end up with coastal cities (i like to play islands / small continents).

production is definately hurt (especially late game), food is a major downside until harbors, but trade is pretty good.

i usually end up with the colossus and great lighthouse.

[vondrack]

Well, I do not consider starting on a coast bad... I even move my first settler a tile or two to reach it... I actually like coasts. I do not think you can generally say coasts are good or bad... I prefer locations that have access to sea (allows building naval units, Great Lighthouse, Colossus), but do not have THAT many sea/ocean squares in their radius.

I do not think corruption is relevant here - it will be the same irrespective of if you are on the coast or not.

Generally, my personal preference is to have my capital on the coast, even if the later cities are mostly inland. In my games (two or three continent geography), Great Lighthouse is usually of crucial importance, because it allows discovering the other continent(s), which usually helps me to catch up by trading contacts and techs.

[The Pioneer]

I agree with Vondrack, I also like coastal cities ad I usually build a naval unit asap to explre the coastline of the continent I am on.

[Deathwalker]

I also like costal cities in my games. Manly because I like building up a navy

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Deathwalker
I also like costal cities in my games. Manly because I like building up a navy

as a researcher, i must have a lot of coastal cities. my capital or second city has colossus and all the researching improvements and wonders. that alone guarantees to keep up in the tech race until flight (end of colossus) and further.

ofcourse production isn't that great. but that's what my hill-near cities are for

[Solver]

Yeah, coastal cities are good. Generally, you're better off relocating your Palace later, but coastal cities give you good commerce, especially if you get the Colossus, and for the starting city to be on coast, it can provide even nicer commerce. Also, your starting city is highly likely to be one of your best - you'll be able to build quite a few Battleships there.

[Iskandar Reza]

I like coastal cities as well, but I prefer to start in the middle. 70% of the cities surrounding the capital should be coastal (i play archipelagoes)

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by vondrack
I do not think corruption is relevant here - it will be the same irrespective of if you are on the coast or not.

Just to clarify Artifex's point. A capital palace in the center of a continent allows a ring of cities to be close by. A coastal capital palace generally only supports a half-ring of cities. Overall corruption will be higher for the same number of cities in the second case.

On the other hand, Artifex, those are the vagaries of history. Play the hand you were dealt. Each position has its own challenges.

[Solver]

On the other hand, I got lucky my last game by generally starting in the middle of my continent - the part of it that I turned out to control, and I liked it, really. Later I reinforced the northern part with a Forbidden Palace, and get quite a productive empire.

However, I play with overall lowered corruption - pretty slighlty.

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Zachriel

Just to clarify Artifex's point. A capital palace in the center of a continent allows a ring of cities to be close by. A coastal capital palace generally only supports a half-ring of cities. Overall corruption will be higher for the same number of cities in the second case.

On the other hand, Artifex, those are the vagaries of history. Play the hand you were dealt. Each position has its own challenges.

true...

well, best is in that case a capital in the middle of the continent/island with access to the sea

something like this:

00000000000000
00001111110000
00111111111100
00111111111100
0011111C000000
00111111111100
00001111110000
00000000000000

0 = water
1 = land
C = perfect city

[Iskandar Reza]

Originally posted by Zachriel

Just to clarify Artifex's point. A capital palace in the center of a continent allows a ring of cities to be close by. A coastal capital palace generally only supports a half-ring of cities. Overall corruption will be higher for the same number of cities in the second case.

Exactly my point for wanting to start smack in the middle of the island. Otherwise I'd have to move the capital and early in the game that's pretty impossible.

[Iskandar Reza]

Originally posted by sabrewolf


true...

well, best is in that case a capital in the middle of the continent/island with access to the sea

something like this:

00000000000000
00001111110000
00111111111100
00111111111100
0011111C000000
00111111111100
00001111110000
00000000000000

0 = water
1 = land
C = perfect city

That only happened to me once. Best game I played. I fondly remember it...

[Solver]

Firaxis has also made moving Palace so tough...

[dunk]

I hate being one tile away from the ocean. It's so annoying to see that.

Sometimes I put a city one tile inland since 8 of the surrounding tiles are cows.