David wrote:
It could be due to the AI's consideration of the freight costs and it always try to minimize the distances between farms, factories and retail stores, to minimize freight costs.
In fact, the AI actually tends to build on the outer ring of the downtown, instead of exactly in the downtown.
I agree with Inarius that there should be some sort of penalty for building farms or factories in the middle of a city. Perhaps a 'council rates' penalty to farms and factories to increase monthly costs.
This monthly cost could simply be a percentage based formula based on how much the land's value is above the 'open land' cost.
Eg- Base land is $5 million.
If you build in a location costing $5.5 million, using a percentage of 10%, your monthly cost increases by $50,000
If you build in a location costing $7 million, using a percentage of 10%, your monthly cost increases by $200,000
If you build in a location costing $10 million, using a percentage of 10%, your monthly cost increases by $500,000
To use this successfully, the AI will need to be able to use the 'relocate business' button
The penalty would not apply to retail, commercial or residential buildings