1 City radius changes with growth.
2 Will there be suburbs
3 Will there be regions

2: We can hope, but how would that work? I haven't seen anything that says there will be, but I haven't seen anything that says there won't be either.

I think of the city radius like this. Think of Boston or any other large city that has sprawling suburbs.

In the center is the "city" (Boston itself). That is the city icon. Now every tile you use I see as a suburb of the central city. Which really makes sense. As your population grows, you start utilizing more tiles. I see these new tiles as part of the greater, growing city region, but not the actual city itself (suburbs). Though there is nothing to represent that anything but the city icon is populated, you've gotta use your imagination. (why would you build roads in every square in your city radius? People live off roads. Businesses work off roads. Think about it )

Remember, in a lot of cases city populations are not just calculated by the actual city itself but with the suburbs. For example again, Boston alone is not a huge city, but with the cities surrounding it (greater boston), it is quite large indeed.

I had posted to the CtP2 forums concerning a tile improvement called the 'town.' Essentially, after a certain population size has been reached, or you acquire tohe appropriate tech (or a combination of the two), you could build a town within your city radius. This town must be connected by a road to the city, would offer gold bonuses, and would ease overcrowding in the parent city. The graphic would be a small town. Not only is this a useful improvement, it would make the map look more realistic in the modern era, as the space between cities is dotted with towns among the farmland and mines.

quote: Originally posted by SerapisIV on 04-13-2001 03:10 PM What do you mean by regions? Using your wording as an idea, what about mini-palaces/capitals that you can build throughout your empire that would lower corruption/waste in nearby cities, sort of like territorial governors of Rome.

SerapisIV,

Instead of stating other people's positions and stealing their ideas, I have found the following threads on regions that should answer most of your questions. I have either posted on those threads or read them in the past. In my opinion, regions would be a strong addition to the tradition of the Civ series.

Managing 40 Cities
Villages/Towns/Conurbations
Provinces

Evidences

3: Your guess is as good as mine.
*** Probably not, yours is better, mine are hopeful wishes.

Besides looking at a map comparing it to the world, a city-radius is about the size of Texas currently. So they're already mini-regions in and of themselves
*** Okay, map showed city radius already encompasses land out side the one square graphic city icon.

Perhaps like a Civ's borders expand with an increased culture rating the culture rating of each individual city dictates it's radius?
*** I was thinking like that too, it would be unseen from the screen shots we have seen.

In the center is the "city" (Boston itself). That is the city icon. Now every tile you use I see as a suburb of the central city. Which really makes sense. As your population grows, you start utilizing more tiles.
*** vote two - *** Okay, map showed city radius already encompasses land out side the one square graphic city icon.

In my opinion, regions would be a strong addition to the tradition of the Civ series. Hope this helps!
*** Me too, do you see any evidence of this in the sceen shots we've seen?

Well Civ has always been about Greek city-state type organization, CTP went more towards the national level of control and come back with below par results. Sid's keeping his model for better of for worse. The threads you listed seemed to gloss over much of the city-improvement and unit production control that is the heart of what has been the past three Civs (including SMAC). It takes away realism and gives you more micromanagement but is also simple and allows for an inordinate amount of tweaking a variation in strategy, so I like the current system.
*** And this is what Im afraid of. A constant city radius will tie the game up to a constant radius world. I want to be in order President, King, Regional Director(appointed by King), govenor, city councilmen.