Location
Where a site stands sets what it costs and what it makes. The numbers are fixed when you build: a built site never changes when the world around it does.
Land and yield
Section titled Land and yieldEvery town pulls on the land around it. Close to a town, land is dear and fields grow less. Far from every town, land is cheap and fertile, and the drive to a market is longer. That is the trade.
| Place | Price and upkeep | Rate of a producer |
|---|---|---|
| Open country | -20% | +10% |
| Center of a town of 50,000 | +38% | -9% |
| Center of a town of 500,000 or more | +100% | -30% |
A farm of €40,000 costs €32,000 in open country and €80,000 in the center of the largest towns.
- A town of 50,000 inhabitants reaches 12 km, the largest towns 30 km. Beyond the reach of every town the land is open country.
- A site that stands in a town, such as a workshop, pays no land factor.
- The yield applies to producers. A depot, a processor and a workshop work the same everywhere.
- The site of your start is granted at the plain price and rate.
The build dialog shows both numbers for the point you picked, before you pay.
Areas
Section titled AreasThe map holds 96 areas, each with one to four tags. A tag says what the land is known for. It changes what a producer makes there, what housing earns there, or which site types can stand there. The map draws the areas while you place a site that they change. Areas lists all of them.
| Tag | Areas | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| City | 16 | Rent of housing +15% |
| Farmland | 32 |  Grain +20% |
| Pasture | 23 |  Milk +20% |
| Heath | 12 |  Logs +15% Grain -15% |
| Uplands | 42 | Logs +20%  Gravel +20% Grain -15% |
| Alps | 3 | Milk +20% Logs +15% Grain -25% |
| Coast | 9 | Nothing yet |
| Hops | 6 | Only here:  Hop farm |
| Ore | 8 | Nothing yet |
| Coal | 14 | Nothing yet |
| Wine | 15 | Only here:  Vineyard |
Where an area has several tags, the best bonus for a good counts. A penalty applies only where no tag of the area helps that good.
Crowding
Section titled CrowdingYour own sites of one class slow each other down when they stand close: two farms, two apartment blocks.
- Beyond 300 m two sites leave each other alone.
- Closer than that, each loses a share of its work. At the least distance of 50 m one neighbour takes 30%.
- Several neighbours multiply. A site never falls below 40% of its work.
- Crowding slows the rate of a producer and a processor and lowers the rent of housing. Storage, garage, price and upkeep stay.
- A depot crowds nothing. The sites of other companies never crowd yours.
While you place a site, the map draws a ring of 300 m around your sites of that class, and the build dialog names what both sites lose.
Local time
Section titled Local timeEvery site lives on the sun time of its place. The night falls earlier in the east than in the west. See Day, night and upgrades.