This time I’d like to talk about infrastructure: The Districts, Buildings, and Tile Improvements in the Oceans mod. To begin with, let me share an image of a coastal city at peak performance in the base game!

I feel this image illustrates the existing problems with Coastal Infrastructure in Civ 6. There are only two Tile Improvements of note for the majority of the game: neither are particularly interesting gameplaywise. While there are two separate coastal Districts, only the Harbor is commonly built, with the Water Park often being forgotten. Let’s discuss all this in more detail

Tile Improvements

Coastal tile improvements have long been rather problematic in the base game. You have two options for the majority of the game: Fishing Boats, and Fisheries after unlocking the appropriate promotion via Liang. Both of these require little thought and planning. The former is restricted to resource tiles, and while the latter has yields that improve with good positioning, there is very little reason not to spam the improvement on all tiles, especially if you can station Liang in the city to provide the +1 Production boost.

The ideal here really would have been to split the fishing boat into two or three different improvements, maybe introduce a couple of new ones that can be strategically placed to interact with adjacent districts and improvements. However, as I mentioned in my previous post, I was limited in what I could do as a solo modder, as well as the fact that it is simply difficult to come up with something that thematically makes sense.

So I opted instead to try and rework the ever-spammable Fishery. I made it unworkable and had it buff adjacent Fishing Boats instead. With these changes, Spamming Fisheries is no longer an option; instead, you need to think about where you want to put your Fisheries to get the most benefit. As a bonus, it made the improvement distinct from the Indonesian Kampung as well.

Districts and Buildings

The other big infrastructure change in the mod is, of course, the underutilised Water Park district, along with two of its buildings, the Aquarium and Aquatic Stadium. I had a few goals in mind when adjusting the Water Park.

1. To encourage its construction
2. To introduce additional planning to coastal tiles
3. To make different coastal tiles feel more diverse.

On to the changes themselves!

The Water Park

I gave the district a +1 Amenity bonus when next to Kelp, mimicking the Aqueduct’s interaction with Geothermal Vents. This change was mainly to give Kelp adjacency interaction (the Reef already has adjacency interaction with the Campus), as well as to make the Water Park a little more attractive.

The Aquarium

The Aquarium changed from:

+1 Science to each coastal resource, Shipwreck, and Reef tile in this city.

to:

+1 Science to each Reef, Kelp Forest, or Shipwreck tile in this city. An additional +1 Science to them if they are adjacent to the Water Park.

This change was primarily intended to move yields around further. Coastal yield bonuses tended to be focused on Coastal Resouces, with many yield bonuses targeting Fishing Boats. Moving from +1 Science on Resources to +1 Science on Features in general helps make Coastal Features more distinct as a gameplay element. The additional +1 Science when adjacent is, of course, intended to encourage planning.

The Aquatics Center

This building changed from:

+2 Tourism for each Wonder built in this city on or adjacent to a Coast tile.

to:

Receives +2 Tourism for each adjacent coastal feature.

The previous bonus felt overly restrictive to me. How many wonders does one build per game? In the same city as a Water Park, AND on or adjacent to the Coast? While it is possible to plan for it, the +2 Tourism feels paltry when compared to the +4 from each Great Work of Writing that you have at this point, or even the +3 from an un-themed Work of Art.

Changing it to a Coastal Feature adjacency makes the bonus much more manageable and more consistent. Much like the Aquarium bonus, it brings Coastal Features to the fore, independent of Coastal Resources, and a slight consistency boost makes the entire chain feel more worth building.

But what about the Harbor?

The big and final question. Why didn’t the Harbor receive changes as well?

The answer: I did plan changes, but it never really got very far. The core of the planned changes was to move yields around, further differentiating resources and features. Currently, most of the Harbor’s yield bonuses affect all coastal tiles equally: and I had vague plans to maybe have some of the bonuses affect only tiles without Features (like for instance, the Lighthouse, so that the early Food you get from Kelp is not further boosted).

Ultimately these plans never went beyond a conceptual stage for two reasons. Firstly, with all the changes I was already making, I wanted to see where the game would settle before I made even more sweeping changes: remember that all of the buildings affect all Coastal tiles, adjusting that would have significant gameplay consequences. Secondly, I felt I couldn’t do these plans justice without introducing a new building to the district for players to choose between: Having tiles give different yields won’t feel too significant unless players have to make a choice as to which tiles to affect. Something that cannot be done with a linear building chain.

Perhaps if I have time, I can revisit the Harbor in the future update. In the meantime maybe check out this recently released mod by Albro which adds a few new Coastal Districts to the mix. It even supports the Oceans mod!