Caesar Housing

Housing ladder

Sixteen grades, from the hut the Housing command places to a 3×3 house, with what each needs to keep its place, what it needs to climb, and how many people it holds. The game names no grade, so they are numbered; and the ladder is not quite a ladder, because a house climbs to a pair of tiles or to a single one depending on room, and the routes meet again.

Where this comes from

Caesar has no engine to read. These rules are the original executable's own housing routines as the Gaius project has disassembled them, one for each of the sixteen tile ids a house can be (0xC8 to 0xD7), and the manual agrees with everything it states: sixteen grades, the same order of needs, and the fanciest houses being slightly less dense. People is four per population unit per tile over the grade's footprint; that the unit sum is the population is a strong inference, which the real saves bear out exactly. Land value is the layer the Maps panel shows as land value: a house climbs when it is above the first figure and falls when it is below the second. Needs are what the monthly pass finds within reach of the house, and one missing drops it a grade whatever its land value. City sizes are the whole city's, in people. Unrest, drawn on the Maps panel as trouble areas, collapses only the first four grades. What is not here: the exact room each grade needs to swallow a neighbour (it is per grade in the source), and the small random draw that moves land value each month.

Gaius - findings, section 16 (the housing routines) ↗Gaius - systems/housing.cpp ↗Caesar manual (Impressions Games, 1993) ↗

#	Rung	Size	People	Climbs above	Falls below	Needs
1	Grade 1 `tile 0xC8`	1×1	4	0	0	Keeps: nothing. To climb: nothing beyond land value. Tax units a tile: 1. Falls to bare ground below 0. Collapses to rubble, and a rioter appears, if unrest at its cell passes 20.
2	Grade 2 `tile 0xC9`	1×1	4	1	1	Keeps: nothing. To climb: water. Tax units a tile: 2. Collapses if unrest passes 30.
3	Grade 3 `tile 0xCA`	1×1	8	2	2	Keeps: water. To climb: nothing beyond land value. Tax units a tile: 4. Collapses if unrest passes 40.
4	Grade 4 `tile 0xCB`	1×1	12	4	3	Keeps: water. To climb: forum road, a city of 100 people. Tax units a tile: 6. Collapses if unrest passes 48. Climbs to a pair (0xCC) if the cell to its right is free or a small house, otherwise to the one-tile 0xCF.
5	Grade 5 `tile 0xCC`	2×1	24	5	5	Keeps: water, a forum road. To climb: a city of 200 people. Tax units a tile: 7. A pair: two tiles, the right one swallowed from the neighbour.
6	Grade 6 `tile 0xCD`	2×1	40	6	6	Keeps: water, a forum road. To climb: a market in reach, a city of 300 people. Tax units a tile: 10.
7	Grade 7 `tile 0xCE`	2×1	48	7	7	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market. To climb: baths in reach, a city of 400 people. Tax units a tile: 14. Climbs to the pair 0xD1.
8	Grade 8 `tile 0xCF`	1×1	20	6	5	Keeps: water, a forum road. To climb: a market in reach, a city of 300 people. Tax units a tile: 9. The one-tile branch, where a pair could not form. Falls back to 0xCB.
9	Grade 9 `tile 0xD0`	1×1	24	7	7	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market. To climb: baths in reach, a city of 400 people, and a free or small neighbour to its right. Tax units a tile: 13. Becomes the pair 0xD1.
10	Grade 10 `tile 0xD1`	2×1	32	10	8	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market, baths. To climb: a city of 500 people. Tax units a tile: 15. Both branches meet here.
11	Grade 11 `tile 0xD2`	2×1	32	13	11	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market, baths. To climb: a school or hospital, a city of 600 people. Tax units a tile: 16.
12	Grade 12 `tile 0xD3`	2×1	24	16	14	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market, baths, a school or hospital. To climb: a city of 700 people. Tax units a tile: 17.
13	Grade 13 `tile 0xD4`	2×1	24	18	17	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market, baths, a school or hospital. To climb: entertainment, a city of 800 people, and room for a 2×2. Tax units a tile: 18.
14	Grade 14 `tile 0xD5`	2×2	32	20	19	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market, baths, a school or hospital, entertainment. To climb: a city of 900 people. Tax units a tile: 20. Falls back to two 0xD4 pairs.
15	Grade 15 `tile 0xD6`	2×2	32	22	21	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market, baths, a school or hospital, entertainment. To climb: a city of 1000 people and room for a 3×3. Tax units a tile: 22.
16	Grade 16 `tile 0xD7`	3×3	36	—	23	Keeps: water, a forum road, a market, baths, a school or hospital, entertainment. To climb: nothing: the top grade. Tax units a tile: 25. Falls back to a 2×2, a pair and three one-tile houses.