Bay 12 Games Forum

There are several types of settlements. They're all pretty abstract; there's not much, if any, in-game difference between a village of adobe huts, a village in a large cave, or a village of flying buildings.
Plantation--A small settlement of under 100 people dedicated to farming. Plantations take up 0.01 hexes each, consume 1 unit of food, and produce 2 (net +1). A plantation takes 2 Industrial Units*Turns (IU/T) to set up--In other words, contributing 1 Industrial Unit for two turns or contributing 2 IU's for one turn.
Village--A settlement of no more than several hundred people, but usually at least 100. They are typically dedicated to food production and take up 0.05 hexes. No more than 10 villages should usually be in a hex. A village consumes 5 units of food and produces 8 (net +3). Villages also produce 2 Industry Units. Building a village requires 15 IU/T. A village can be upgraded to a town with 30 IU/T.
Town--A town is about one or two thousand people. It has notable gardens and some small-time farmers on the outskirts (or some other methods of producing some food), but mostly relies on imports. The biggest benefit is an increase in industrial capacity. A town takes up 0.1 hexes (although no more than 4 should be in one hex) and consumes 10 units of food and produces 2 (net -8). It also produces 15 Industry Units. A town requires 40 to be built. Upgrading a town to a city costs 75 IU/T.
City--A city is a massive settlement of several thousand people. Typically, gardens are minimal, but industrial capacity is unparalleled. A city takes up 0.2 hexes; no more than a single city should be present in a single hex. It consumes 20 units of food and produces 30 Industry Units. 100 Industrial Units are required to build a city.
Fortress--A separate type of settlement, a garrison of about one or two hundred people. It consumes 1 unit of food and takes up 0.05 hexes. Only a single fortress is needed in a single hex. It is useful in protecting from attack. It takes 12 IU/T to build a fortress.
Colony--A cheap but not self-sustaining settlement which takes up 0.1 hexes and requires 15 IU/T to set up. It is composed of about a thousand people who just settled in a new land and consumes 10 units of food while producing none (net -10). It produces 7 Industrial Units. A colony can be upgraded to a town with just 25 IU/T. Its benefit over just building a town is that it can be set up more quickly and then build itself easily.
Note that all of these numbers are tentative.
Food is generally best consumed and produced in the same hex or in adjacent hexes. Each additional hex that a unit of food must be brought through costs 0.1 units of food. For instance, feeding a colony from 5 hexes away costs (0.1*5)(10) 5 extra units of food!
Building a new settlement requires using Industrial Units. Building something in the same hex or an adjacent one to where the Industrial Units are coming from costs nothing extra; building farther away costs 10%, plus 0.2 units of food per hex from the nearest settlement, per turn. Obviously, building distant settlements is best done cheap.
Upgrading a settlement costs a given amount of IU/T, and can be done over many turns.
Industrial Units can also be used to create units or special buildings, or to accelerate research on certain subjects.

An empire generally starts with three villages and either a town or a fortress and another village, all in one hex.

You have 10 points to spend on traits. Some traits increase your allotment rather than costing points.

Colony: You have a Colony in addition to your other settlements. It can be anywhere on the map, but remember that it takes a lot of food to send food far away...2 points.
Culture: Cultural traits are pretty varied and versatile. They are pretty much any aspect of your civilization's psychology that affects gameplay. A 25% bonus to Industry from being dedicated workers might be 3 points; researching things twice as fast due to being innovative might cost 2; and an inability to respond maturely to insults except by war might be -1 or -2 depending on how prone to war this makes you.
Extra Hex: You have another hex to expand to. 3 points.
Fortress: You have another fortress under your control. 3 points.
Inhuman: Your civilization is not humans. This trait varies on how "powerful" a settlement of the species is compared to a similar settlement of humans. If a village of dragons is a half-dozen of them, who get taken down easily by a squadron of a hundred humans and don't have notable magical qualities to make up for it, this trait would probably cost less than a race of innovative goblins who live a thousand to a village and swarm human troops. Basically, divide up the notable qualities of the race into "perks" (which make the race more powerful), "flaws" (which make the race less powerful), and "quirks" (which do neither). A race's point cost will be determined by the following rough criteria: A race which is weaker than humans overall will be worth negative points; a race of mice with prehensile tails and human-level intelligence would probably be -5 points or so. If a race is about as powerful as humans but less versatile and more focused, that's 0 points. More powerful races would cost more points. Real vague; real flexible.
Magic: Civilizations do not, by default, know much about magic. There are typically witches or shamans who can use magic, but they are typically informal, rare, and isolationist, not to mention fairly weak. Access to more potent, common, or reliable magic costs points depending on the exact amount and type of magic available.
Plantation: You have a plantation under your control. 1 point.
Technology: Civilizations typically start around Bronze Age tech. Reducing this to Stone Age or so gives you 4 points; Iron Age casts about 4; and medieval tech costs 8. You can't start past that level of technology, but you can get somewhere in an intermediate area for an intermediate amount of points.
Town: You have another town under your control. 5 points.
Village: You have another village under your control. 2 points.

All civilization creation will be overviewed by me upon its completion. Approved civs will be finalized. Once all civs are approved AND finalized, we will begin Step 3.