Large Insulae Blocks - City Builders Forums

Topic Subject: Large Insulae Blocks

Eraserhead
Pleb

posted 03-01-01 11:16 ET (US)

This is just a compilation of block designs I've had from last year. There are some I've used and some I haven't, but all of them have been previously tested (and glyphed, thankfully). They're all loop or "single-ring" blocks which provide labor access to buildings outside the block.

Feel free to comment/criticize, or if you have large insulae blocks you'd like to add, you can post them here.

PS. I hope you don't mind the lack of detailed descriptions.

[This message has been edited by Eraserhead (edited 03-01-2001).]

Author

Replies:

Eraserhead
Pleb

posted 03-01-01 11:22 ET (US) 1 / 20

- 14x16 loop
- 3192 residents, fully occupied

Except for the extra school, this one uses the bare minimum of services. The academy is not necessary for evolution of course.

[This message has been edited by Eraserhead (edited 03-01-2001).]

Eraserhead
Pleb

posted 03-01-01 11:31 ET (US) 2 / 20

- 8x21 loop
- 2688 residents, fully occupied

Legend

Eraserhead
Pleb

posted 03-01-01 11:36 ET (US) 3 / 20

-11x14 loop
-2184 residents, fully occupied

Legend

You can use an actor colony or an extra library in place of the academy. The 2-tile garden opening is simply an alternate entry point for immigrants.

Eraserhead
Pleb

posted 03-01-01 11:44 ET (US) 4 / 20

-desert block
-17x7 loop
-2016 residents, fully occupied

Legend

Eraserhead
Pleb

posted 03-01-01 11:53 ET (US) 5 / 20

-desert block
-12x8 loop
-1848 residents, fully occupied

Legend

Commonly referred to as an "inverse" block, where all housing is outside the loop. The advantage of course is that it provides labor access from all 4 sides of the block.

Eraserhead
Pleb

posted 03-01-01 11:59 ET (US) 6 / 20

(last one)
-desert block
-10x6 loop
-1092 residents, fully occupied

Legend

The loop can still be expanded to a 12x6, if you want to optimize the fountain coverage.

[This message has been edited by Eraserhead (edited 03-01-2001).]

Citizen Paul
Pleb

posted 03-04-01 23:27 ET (US) 7 / 20

One thing that always interests me is efficiency.

Here are some calculations about inhabitants / square:
block 8*21 loop:
2688 inhabitants
surface = 26x14=364
Avg = 2688/357= 7.52

2184 inhabitants
surface = 21x17=357
Avg = 2184/357= 6.11

desert block 17x7 loop:
2016 inhabitants
surface = 22x12=264
Avg = 2116/192= 7.64

1848 inhabitants
surface = 18x14=252 (not counting reservoir)
Avg = 1092/192= 7.33

desert block 10x6 loop:
1092 inhabitants
surface = 16x12=192
Avg = 1848/252= 5.69

[Omnium harum gentium virtute praecipui Batavi]

Baltic
Pleb

posted 03-05-01 08:13 ET (US) 8 / 20

Nice collection of blocks, Eraserhead!
If we would be speaking about maximum efficiency, I'd argue with your choice to use so many markets. Two should be enough for any of the blocks (except for the largest one, where I'd probably use 3) if supplies are reasonably close and housing is stable at Large Insula. Nevertheless, I agree that sometimes it is better to have more than just the absolutely necessary number.

Cherub Baltic

Smack
Pleb

posted 03-05-01 10:53 ET (US) 9 / 20

Nice blocks, Eraserhead. You seem to have lots of spare time on your hands.

Eraserhead
Pleb

posted 03-06-01 09:57 ET (US) 10 / 20

Citizen Paul,
Thanks for the additional numbers. That's an interesting way of looking at it, though I tend to consider block efficiency more in terms of just using as much of the fountain coverage and as minimal of the services needed.

Baltic,
I always like to ensure that the blocks remain stable, so I often add more markets than necessary, just to be on the safe side.

Smack,
I guess it's more like I don't have time for any other game (with Zeus the other exception).

Felix
Pleb

posted 11-30-02 16:32 ET (US) 11 / 20

To hold 5 more insulae, you can do this to the top one (I'm too lazy to draw it all out so I'll just tell you the changes)
On the far left, shift all of the houses down one tile and add one at the top. The ones at the top and bottom will still have access to the road, if you just put one signpost and surround it with gardens it will evolve into a large house which will have access to the road.
Delete the amphitheatre and academy
Do the same thing to the far right, but instead of putting a house on top, put an amphitheatre.
Delete both schools
Delete one of the 4 markets and put in a school
Put houses in where the academy, amphitheatre and school used to be at the top and where the school was at the bottom

CroMagnon
Pleb

posted 01-15-03 03:19 ET (US) 12 / 20

Just a quick question: I notice none of the markets have outside road access, how do they get supplies?

philon
Pleb

posted 01-15-03 04:10 ET (US) 13 / 20

Hi CroMagnon,
The marked ladies will walk out from the gatehouse to the warehouses and granaries if there some not very far away.
It will look like this:

Legend

Duan Xuan
Pleb

posted 01-15-03 06:02 ET (US) 14 / 20

Gatehouses are the most commonly used technique for walker control in C3. Very useful, especially for complicated housing blocks like these, where you need to be very careful with where your service providers go to.

D ^XUAN

CroMagnon
Pleb

posted 01-15-03 06:47 ET (US) 15 / 20

Doh, I didn't recognise the Gatehouse glyphs, but thanks for the answers in any case. Let me ask another question then: I'm not fond of playing military campaigns, are gatehouses available in all 'peaceful' scenarios? I'm only on Capua, but my wife has progressed as far as Carthago/Lugdudnum, so this might be more of interest to her.

Duan Xuan
Pleb

posted 01-15-03 07:54 ET (US) 16 / 20

When you reach Miletus, Caesar will tell you that "peaceful is a relative term when you get this far away from Rome".

Peaceful campaigns still have some military action, so Gatehouses will be available to you then.

I think that's quite good, or I'd probably never complete the game. I use Gatehouses a lot to control my houses, especially higher level ones, because they get complicated sometimes.

D ^XUAN

Jupiter 2000
Pleb

posted 01-15-04 06:01 ET (US) 17 / 20

I recently created this block for Grand Insulae using the minimum amount of service buildings. The block works in all provinces - in non-desert provinces you can remove either of the fountains in the middle. The block houses 2856 people altogether. I prefer to use Grand Insulae instead of Large Insulae because they generate more tax.

Legend

As you can see, the block provides labor access for industry. (The industry is on loop blocks, which continue beyond the picture.) Of course, the workshops have to be near the raw materials and this "superblock" would have to be either strategically very well-placed or replicated for each industry.

This block also has the advantage that you can fit two of them end-to-end in a mirror image, with the bottom row of gardens being shared by both blocks. This way both blocks would have access to one colosseum, with different training schools outside the gatehouse of each block.

Probably one of these industry superblocks would be enough to supply the whole city, but other blocks could be built using only the central main block to provide workers for palace blocks.

If being extreme was wrong, then I wouldn't be perfect

- JUPITER 2000

[This message has been edited by Jupiter 2000 (edited 01-15-2004 @ 11:46 AM).]

Brugle
HG Alumnus

posted 01-15-04 17:21 ET (US) 18 / 20

Jupiter 2000,

Your block looks OK, but I don't know why you'd call it a "superblock"--it's a conventional loop (or single ring) block.

If you combine 2 of these blocks (one a mirror image) so that they share the colosseum, then the houses (or at least some of them) in 1 of the blocks will not have colosseum access. (When a building touches multiple roads it uses one of the roads.)

If the colosseum has 2 shows then the amphitheater is not necessary for grand insulae, but perhaps you enjoy giving people lots of entertainment.

I recommend putting the markets closer to the gatehouse, so that market buyers don't have to go as far for food and goods. With more efficient markets, you might be able to use fewer markets (and have more houses).

Jupiter 2000
Pleb

posted 01-16-04 13:25 ET (US) 19 / 20

Hi Brugle,

I called it a "superblock" due to the extra industry loops around it.

I thought that, if the colosseum has two shows, then it will produce two walkers, who would hopefully go on the two loop blocks. Seems I was wrong. Oh well, one colosseum per block will increase city coverage.

I placed the markets where I did for desirability purposes. And anyway, I was under the imnpression that really you need about one market for every 500 people in order for market coverage to be sufficient. Maybe I need to be updated on this.

Possibly it would be better if we continued this subject under my "Housing Blocks" thread, since the block displayed here is essentially the same block that I developed based on that thread.

*edit* Odd, my signature doesn't work. Any suggestions?

[This message has been edited by Jupiter 2000 (edited 01-16-2004 @ 01:35 PM).]

Pamfafoofle
Pleb

posted 08-03-20 12:34 ET (US) 20 / 20

Here�s my �trademark� loop block that I�ve been using for years and years as the default for most scenarios. As with some of Eraserhead�s blocks (which I approve of) the basic idea is to pack all the 1x1 and 2x2 service buildings needed into the middle loop, where they can�t possibly not pass all housing*, while everything outside the block has easy labor access from the walls of housing. A Reservoir, Granaries, Warehouses, and entertainment buildings will form a row of 3x3 buildings on the Gatehouse side of the block for easy access. The inside has more space than is strictly needed, but it allows for a higher amount of housing to be serviced efficiently by a single Baths, Library, Forum, etc. and I�ve found that this size works well even in scenarios that don�t have a whole lot of building space. Also, it�s got a symmetry that aesthetically appeals to me. While the block could be used at lower levels, it�s generally assumed that all housing will be the 2x2 Large or Grand Insulae level, depending on how easy it is to provide 2 types of food, and will house 2,268 people at either of those levels.

*The exact layout of the service buildings sometimes needs to be modified in order to get the schoolchildren to pass all housing in the block. Depending on the exact position of the School, sometimes all 4 schoolchildren decide they want to run in only one direction, and that can be a problem for giving School access to the whole block.

Legend

I�ve never understood the attraction of most of the designs on this site�s Housing Blocks page, which don�t allow all housing to fit in the 2x2 framework needed for Large/Grand Insulae, and also don�t guarantee walker coverage of the whole block. They mostly seem to be focused on providing minimal Fountain coverage, and the 4 employees per fountain is pretty negligible compared to maximizing efficiency of other services. That said, once housing has reached Large Insulae level (and is guaranteed to stay there) the block can be easily modified for only 3 fountains in Central/Northern climates:

Legend

One other thing I like about this block is that, with a bit of the Continuous Aqueduct Road exploit, it�s possible to run an aqueduct through the center of this block. I find this very useful because on many scenarios I like to build my main housing as a double block that shares the row of 3x3 buildings including the single reservoir in the center, and this is the best way to get water to that reservoir with minimal decrease of desirability:

Legend

I do have to say that I do especially like Eraserhead�s 12x8 Inverse Loop block. It�s not quite as symmetrical as my block due to the presence of the 3x3 Amphitheater on the inside loop, but it�s otherwise extremely efficient and compact. I�d like to try it out if I can stand to break tradition with my own block.

[This message has been edited by Pamfafoofle (edited 08-03-2020 @ 01:03 PM).]

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