1. The yields granted by each terrain type adjacent to the City Center has been modified according to the chart below. The first yield is granted for each pair, and the second yield is granted for 3, 5, and 6 "of-a-kind". For example, 5 Plains adjacent to a City grants the City Center +2 Culture and +2 Production, whereas 2 Plains grants just +1 Culture. Moutains are the exception to this rule. Each mountain tile provides +1 yield of its corresponding type. (Note: Gold yields are +2 rather than +1 like all others.)

TERRAIN.........YIELDS
Grasslands......Culture / Food
Plains...............Culture / Production
Tundra.............Culture / Gold (2)
Desert..............Culture / Faith
GrasslandHills..Science / Food
PlainsHills.........Science / Production
TundraHills.......Science / Gold (2)
DesertHills........Science / Faith
Coast/Lakes.....Gold (2) / Food
MountGrass.....Food
MountPlains.....Production
MountTundra...Gold (2)
MountDesert....Faith
MountSnow......Science

2. The Palace has been rebalanced for the changes to this mod. It now provides just +1 Production, +3 Gold, and +1 Science. Entertainment has been returned to the default of +1, and it still provides no additional housing.

3. Settler movement speed has been increased to 3 (from 2).

4. Removed the improved goody huts, and created a separate mod for this popular feature. If you'd like to continue using it, please subscribe to "Good Goody Huts".

Sid Meier famously said, "a game is a series of meaningful choices". Ironically though, at the start of every civ game, what should be the most meaningful choice a player makes is a relatively brainless one. Rarely does a player contemplate where to settle their first city. They wisely choose to build it right where they started since the game starts you out in an optimal position.

This mod aims to fix this problem, and encourage more exploration when settling any city, by making city placement more meaningful and nuanced. This is accomplished primarily by introducing adjacency bonuses for City Centers. Other changes rebalance the economics around this system, and one or two unrelated changes have been included because they are just plain fun. I hope you enjoy this mod, and do not hesitate to offer your feedback and suggestions. It is still evolving.

1. City Centers gain yields for adjacent terrain.
A City Center district gains yields for having matching terrain tiles adjacent to its city -- the bigger the set, the bigger the yield. For example, a city adjacent to 2 Grasslands receives a bonus yield of +1 culture, but for each additional adjacent Grassland, the yield gains +1. This means that 3 adjacent Grasslands yields +2, 4 yields +3, and 5 yields +4. A city completely surrounded by the same terrain type gets an additional bonus of +1, bringing the total yield to +6. Here are the yields each terrain type provides:

TERRAIN YIELD TYPE
Grasslands & Plains Culture
Desert Culture/Faith
Tundra Culture
Grasslands Hills & Plains Hills Gold
Desert Hills Gold/Faith
Tundra Hills Gold
Coasts & Lakes Science
Mountains Production

2. Palace benefits altered
The palace in each player’s capital now yields +1 food, +2 production, +3 gold, and +1 science, but no culture or faith. A palace now also grants +2 entertainment, but no housing.

3. Population yield percentages altered.
The science & culture generated by each citizen (city population point) has been changed from 70/30 to 50/50. This makes the math easy. Now every two citizens generate +1 science and +1 culture, but more importantly, more science must now be generated by other means.

4. Freshwater less important for housing.
Housing granted by settling adjacent to freshwater, coast, or neither is now 6, 5, 4, respectively (was 5, 3, 2). This makes settling by a river or lake less critical for growth.

5. Feature removal provides more yields, but faith is lost.

FEATURE FOOD PROD GOLD FAITH
Forest +10 +25 +15 -15
Rainforest +20 +15 +10 -10
Marsh +25 0 0 -5

6. Tundra is farmable.
Tundra and Tundra Hills (at Civil Engineering) are now farmable.

7. Rivers banks are fertile.
Farms adjacent to rivers yield +1 food.

8. Mines pollute farms.
A farm’s food yield is reduced by 1 for each adjacent mine. More strategery is good.

9. Hills hinder food.
The food output of a terrain tile with hills is reduced by one. Hills should not make a tile better; that’s the job of forests and jungles. ;-)

TERRAIN YIELD
Grasslands 2 Food
Grasslands Hills 1 Food / 1 Prod
Plains 1 Food / 1 Prod
Plains Hills 2 Prod
Tundra 1 Food
Tundra Hills 1 Prod
Snow 0

10. Improved Goodie Huts
Goodie Huts now provide, on average, better rewards, in part because the better rewards are now available at the start of the game. Better rewards will also appear with great frequency, but still less often than lesser rewards.