Feng Shui in Detail
Continuation from the Feng Shui Basics.
I did a few more tests on Feng Shui, and these are the results:
First, I made a map with a rock and a tree right next to each other on grassy land like this:
| R | T |
By scanning the area around the tree and rock with different small statues I found this: the feng shui influence of rocks and trees (both positive and negative) is 3 tiles to the north-east and north-west side, and 4 tiles to the south-east and -west side. For a building to be totally harmonious it needs to be either totally within the range of the rock/tree (when the buildings is 'compatible' with the rock or tree), or totally out of the range of the rock/tree (when the building is 'not compatible' with the rock or tree.
To represent it in a table:
(w=water, e=earth,
t=wood(tree) => feng shui elements)
(T=tree, R=rock, N indicates North)
| N | ||||||||||
| w | w | w | w | w | w | w | w | w | w | w |
| w | e | e | e | e | t | t | t | t | t | w |
| w | e | e | e | e | t | t | t | t | t | w |
| w | e | e | e | e | t | t | t | t | t | w |
| w | e | e | e | R | T | t | t | t | t | w |
| w | e | e | e | e | t | t | t | t | t | w |
| w | e | e | e | e | t | t | t | t | t | w |
| w | e | e | e | e | t | t | t | t | t | w |
| w | e | e | e | e | t | t | t | t | t | w |
| w | w | w | w | w | w | w | w | w | w | w |
As you can see, water (grass) is easily 'overpowered' by other feng shui elements, such as rocks. Next question: are there differences in how strong certain terrain elements are? The answer is yes: there are 2 'levels', weak and strong. The weak elements are water and fire: grassland and bare land. The strong elements are wood (trees), metal (ore-bearing rocks) and earth (rocks, cliffs and quarries).
Typically, the feng shui element of a certain tile is the same as the nearest strong element, which can be up to 3 tiles to the south of the tile, and 4 tiles to the north.
If there are 2 or more stong elements on the same distance, the tile will have the feng shui of the strongest nearby element, which will either be metal (in the case of ore rocks and trees close to each other) or earth (in the case of rocks/etc and ore or trees close to each other). (discovered by MarvL)
We have the following terrain elements: grassy land, barren land, rock, tree, bamboo, salt marsh, copper ore, iron ore, quarries, elevations, sand dunes and pinnacle. From a few tests I can conclude this:
- salt marsh, sand dunes and pinnacles don't have a feng shui element associated with them
- barren land (fire) and grass (water) are equally strong (weak elements)
- rocks (earth), elevation changes (earth), stone quarries (earth), trees (wood), bamboo (wood), copper ore (metal) and iron ore (metal) are all equally strong (strong elements), exception: see #5
- Elements from #3 overpower elements from #2
- If a tile is equidistant to two elements of category 3, the 'strongest' element is chosen: earth is stronger than metal, and metal is stronger than wood
Now you know everything, go and create some Perfect Harmony cities!