Confused over building/rebuilding razed cities

[Gregorovitch]

Beginning of the Goblin campaign you find this Goblin settler army up north of where you start and some kind of dwarven gun thing to kill. I think they said the drarves had juist wasted their city.

The settler won't let me build a city there 'cos it says a structure already exists, which I assume is the original city, now razed.

So obviously you are supposed to rebuild this city, but it's is not at all obvious how you do that - can the Goblin settler do it, if so how, and if not how do you do it?

[GreyHuntr]

Normally you have to just use the regular settle button, just make sure you are targeting the center hex. It had been awhile since I played the campaign, so maybe there is a trigger where you must kill the dwarf unit first.

[Gregorovitch]

I've just found the solution as it happens. You have to move the settler over a specific tile, or possible one a few specific tiles. Then it says "Valid location" as opposed to "Structure already exists" and the normal city building option on the builder works. Presumably the tile in question was the centre of the original razed city or something.

Of course there is no way of knowing which the specific tile(s) is beyond trial and error as far as I can tell, and the "Valid location" vs. "Structure already exists" messages are singularly unhelpful.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Of course there is no way of knowing which the specific tile(s) is beyond trial and error as far as I can tell, and the "Valid location" vs. "Structure already exists" messages are singularly unhelpful.

You can see it on the map.

All hexes the city used to occupy are covered in brown debris. Cities are always 7 hexes in size, 1 centre hex surrounded by 6 outer ones, so you just find the centre hex and build there. (Mountains or water may block the outer hexes, leaving a city with less territory, but the center hex is always there.)

And you don't need to move the settler either to find the right spot, you can just click "build city" and then hover the mouse over the map until the cursor turns green.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Iguana-on-a-stick:

You can see it on the map.

All hexes the city used to occupy are covered in brown debris. Cities are always 7 hexes in size, 1 centre hex surrounded by 6 outer ones, so you just find the centre hex and build there. (Mountains or water may block the outer hexes, leaving a city with less territory, but the center hex is always there.)

And you don't need to move the settler either to find the right spot, you can just click "build city" and then hover the mouse over the map until the cursor turns green.

Yes, well once you know that it's simple, it seems obvious and logical. If you don't it's not, it's completely mystifying. That's 'cos you've pointed out three facts that the UI itself doesn't explain.

It's not the most egregious UI crime ever committed, however it is a classic example of how hard it is for devs working on something like that to see it through the eyes of player who doesn't know how something works yet.

[Darth Brooks]

Still can't get it to rebuild. It says valid location.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

And you are clicking on the hex that says valid location? And have enough movement to reach that hex?

It should work if you do those things.