Hamlet Explanaion

[Mick]

Can someone explain hamlets to me.. as if I were a child?

I read the in game wall of text on them, and it felt a bit confusing. I kinda got the general idea (randomly selected buildings, oldest in the stack have a multiplier, place on ruins, +/- culture depending on what is nearby...)

When I place a building somewhere where the tooltip says I will get a number of points, I sometimes don't get as many as I thought (or worse, I end up with negative).

[x4000]

Are you in Idyll mode, or in the main game?  These don't give you points, which may be one source of confusion -- they give you culture.  In Idyll mode that shows up like the score in the top bar, but in the regular game it shows up on the sidebar as a culture resource.

I wonder if you're looking at the wrong numbers when you're hovering over.  The numbers are at the bottom center, maybe you're looking at them as if they were top center?  It definitely is a you-get-what-it-says situation, so I'm a bit confused there.

Hopefully that clears things up some at least; I wrote the wall of text in the game, so I might not be the best one to try to write something more condensed (that WAS my attempt ).  That said, if you have specific questions I'm always up for it.

[Mick]

Main game, and I meant culture points.

It sounds like I'm looking at the wrong number in the tooltip.

What do the numbers represent on the map itself? If it says +100 on a specific square, does that mean +100 is what I'd get for placement there, or do I have to sum up that square with all the ones surrounding it as well? That's part of what confuses me.

[x4000]

Main game, and I meant culture points.

Okay, got it.

It sounds like I'm looking at the wrong number in the tooltip.

Oh!  In the tooltip.  All those numbers in there get added around, so it's very complicated to calculate what it will actually be.  There is the base amount they add, then all sorts of effects based on other adjacent tiles.  So if you're trying to go off the tooltip, you'll have a devil of a time doing all that math.  You can, but it would take 30-40 seconds per tooltip for me, personally.

What do the numbers represent on the map itself? If it says +100 on a specific square, does that mean +100 is what I'd get for placement there, or do I have to sum up that square with all the ones surrounding it as well? That's part of what confuses me.

The numbers on the map are the game saving you the time of doing all that math -- that tells you exactly how much culture you will get from placing your tile on that square.  The only thing that matters in terms of culture generated is that number on the tile you place it on.  So if it says +100, you'll have 100 more culture from placing the building there.  If it says -1, that's what you'll get.

The numbers in the tooltips tell you the story behind why the numbers are what they are on the map, but the map tells you the final result.  And when it comes to something like -1, that's a secondary rule that is basically saying you get that score for placing a tile on an existing tile of the same type.

Hope that helps!

[Mick]

Thank you for the explanation. That clears things up a lot. I was under the impression that placing a tile in an area surrounded by red numbers was bad because I assumed that it was telling me those buildings would contribute that negative amount. Likewise, I thought an area with many green was good. So in my mind, the value on the tile itself was just secondary.

Knowing it is showing the final result clears things up a lot.

[x4000]

Awesome!