Yesterday I wrote about deposits, and how every quarter of a map is now rich in something different. The post ended with a list of what was missing. The region window didn't say what each quarter was good for, and there was no way to use a quarter you hadn't settled. Both of those are in now.
Every quarter has a name
Open the Region window and each quarter is a card. It has a compass point and a nickname, like Farmland, Inland valleys, The bay or Rocky headland. There are 16 of those across the four maps. Under the name it says whose it is, your city or a neighbouring town or nobody yet, and what it's rich in, with a filled dot for rich and a ring for some.
That last line shows from the start, plan or no plan. Knowing that the north east is where the ore is shouldn't cost you anything.
Surveyors
Surveyors is a cheap plan, 8 Ideas, and it's the one that fills in the detail. Pick a quarter and you get a little map of its ground in the same shades as the Resources view, and its best spots, like "Rich ore, best spot digs 60". It's how you decide where your second town should go before you've spent anything on it.
Mining Claims
This is the one I'd wanted since the deposits work. Sometimes the rich ore is in a quarter you've no wish to build a whole town in. Now you can stake a claim on it instead.
A claim costs a lump sum up front and then a small amount each month. It digs the quarter's best patch and sends what it digs to your stores, 30 a month from rich ground, 20 from fair and 10 from poor. You can have one claim per unsettled quarter.
The catch is that it has to reach you. A road or a railway heading that way will do, or a cargo dock. If nothing links it, the claim waits. Nothing comes in, and you don't pay for it either, and the map's edge tells you what's needed, something like "Ore claim waiting, build a road east or a Cargo Dock". Once it's linked, the same spot says how much is arriving each month.
If you found a town in that quarter later, the claim ends and the new town can build the mine itself.
The Regional Capital
Then there's the big one. To make your city the regional capital you need a town in every quarter, each one linked, and each with 20 of its own specialty to spare. Each quarter is rich in something different, so that's four different materials. When you make the plan, they send it.
After that every town in the region counts as linked to the capital for trade, era goals and level ups, and claims dig half as much again. It's a nice place to end up after a long game, and you can't really rush it.
Where it sits
All three are plans in the Region branch of Town Plans. The deposits post explains why the clay sits by the water. This is the part where you go and fetch the ore.