The first new idea I had while building LuxPal256 was a chariot reduction. I had discovered that the hippodrome (unlike other venues) generated multiple chariots, at irregular intervals that averaged about 1 per month. In LuxPal256, each of those chariots ran through the same half of the palace blocks then back to its walk target near the hippodrome, so there were typically 4 or 5 chariots from the hippodrome. (It would have been too far to send chariots through the other half of the palaces then back to the hippodrome.) My idea was to have 3 of the walk targets connected through a short garden path to the hippodrome's start and finish points, so that the chariots heading for those walk targets would quickly go there and return to the hippodrome, so that only 1 or 2 chariots generated by the hippodrome would be active. I would have made this easy improvement in LuxPal256 if there had been a sign of hitting the walker limit during development, but there wasn't.
I later thought of a better chariot scheme. There are 6 or 7 chariots generated by the chariot maker supplying hippodrome coverage to half of the palaces. All but 1 of the chariots from the chariot maker could be eliminated by moving the hippodrome to a somewhat more central location, moving the chariot maker close to the hippodrome, and sending each chariot from the hippodrome by a quarter of the palaces then back to its walk target near the hippodrome. (Without the chariot maker the hippodrome would have no shows and would therefore generate citizens, messing up the chariots' rotation through the four walk targets.) With chariots from the hippodrome going shorter distances, I think there would be 2 to 5 total chariots. The garden paths snaking around from the more distant palaces to the hippodrome would make the space between a few palaces and the edge of the map quite cramped, but that's OK.
I also thought of a non-chariot entertainer reduction (plus worker reduction) during LuxPal256's development. The lion generated by the colosseum could be eliminated by not staffing the colosseum and touching it with a gatehouse (not a road). Soon after, I realized that the actor generated by 1 of the amphitheaters (the one that covers the same palaces that get colosseum coverage from gladiators) could also be eliminated by not staffing that amphitheater, moving it beside the colosseum, and touching it only with the same gatehouse. Gladiators would sometimes go to the colosseum and sometimes to that amphitheater. 2 walkers and 37 workers saved at the cost of 1 additional building is well worth it (although having an amphitheater and colosseum not working is an aesthetic flaw).
I later thought of a different (and probably better) non-chariot entertainer scheme. The colosseum and all amphitheaters are staffed. All but 1 of the gladiators are eliminated by moving the gladiator school near the colosseum and sending the lion from the colosseum by a quarter of the palaces (those that otherwise would get colosseum coverage from gladiators) to its walk target near the colosseum. (All of the colosseum's walk targets would be used by lions going by those palaces.) The colosseum would have to be moved to a somewhat less central location, so lions from lion pits would go somewhat farther, but lions from 2 of the lion pits would disappear before they went very much farther. I hated to give up the 37 worker reduction (from the previous scheme), but I decided that reducing walkers was more important.
Anyway, before finishing LuxPal256 I was already designing a city with 304 luxury palaces (almost half of them not adjacent to a road). Similar in some ways, it would have 19 palaces in each of 16 blocks. The increased population (probably a little over 80000) would require 110 (6 more) oracles. There would be 8 fewer fountains (but each of those 8 would have to exist until its houses got large enough to be covered by another fountain), 8 fewer palaces' reservoirs, no (12 fewer) temples (but temples would have to exist until their houses become medium palaces--before then they would take the places of theaters, amphitheaters, and (when 3 temples are needed) forums), 1 (3 fewer) forums (4 until the city can be profitable with fewer), no (16 fewer) governor's palaces, and 15 (5 fewer) triumphal arches. All building sprites would be used. The non-market service-providing buildings would be more distributed instead of all being clustered in four areas. I have 6 pages of detailed diagrams.
I have locations for the blocks of 2x2 large tents (outside of the supply areas), their fountains, and their reservoirs. With less free space available, tents' reservoirs will be less efficient: each tents' reservoir will supply only 3 fountains (that aren't already supplied from palaces' reservoirs), compared to 4 in LuxPal256. There wouldn't be as many unemployed workers as in LuxPal256, but if development doesn't take much longer there should be enough.
I have only rough sketches of some of the supply areas. There would be a total of 8 more fishing wharves (1 more in each fishing hole) providing plenty of fish, 32 or 40 more farms (half wheat and half vegetable), 4 more wine workshops, and (I hoped) 4 fewer engineer posts. To enable the engineer reduction (I hoped), the palaces would be to the SE and NW of the supply areas (compared to NE and SW in LuxPal256).
Sound nice? I thought so. Then some things hit me, including why stop at 304 luxury palaces? More ideas ... but that's a story for another post.
Anyone think of a second way to reduce desirability boosters significantly?
[Edit: changed "roads" to "garden paths" in one place, and changed "something hit me. Why" to "some things hit me, including why" in another.][This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 12-19-2010 @ 09:35 AM).]