I'm trying to find the formula for city absorb cost which I have not managed to do yet, however what I have found may still be of use and if anyone want they can try to help, I used this game for testing purposes: auto-save 2191.ctr
Anyway what I have found is city absorb cost seems to be based on 3 things:
Number of territories the absorbing city have
Number of districts the absorb target have
The industry cost of any infrastructure one city have that the other city don't have
Also influence cost is always half the money cost, I use money but if you want to know the influence cost divide my values with 2.
Some things that don't impact absorb cost:
Number of population in the cities
National ceremonies made by each city
Effects of absorbing city:
The absorbed city is removed from the game and all is territories become parts of the absorbing city, with the absorbed city's city center becoming an administrative center.
The absorbing city get all infrastructure the absorbed city had that it was missing.
The absorbing city gain all population of the absorbed city.
National cermonies made by the absorbed city is lost.
The minimum base cost of absorbing a city with just the city center (1 district) and with both cities having one territory and same infrastructure is 200 money which is really low, often much less than attaching an outpost.
The first thing that increase absorb cost is the number of territories the absorbing city (the city you will keep after an absorption) have. This increase seems to just be 100 money per each territory the city already have, which is a really low increase, far less than the one used for attaching outposts. This mean absorbing two cities at minimum cost will cost 200 for the first and 300 for the second for a total of 500 money which is pretty much nothing.
The second thing that increase absorb cost is the number of districts the absorb target city have, the type of district or their industry cost don't matter, all that matter is the number of districts and this do include things such as administrative centers and resource extractors as well. I have not been able to figure out the exact formula for this increase, but it is quite close to be linear, atleast for the first 25 districts, I have the values in a google sheet document.
The last thing that increase the city absorb cost is the difference in infrastructure between the cities and this seems by far the most important thing. In the case of multiple infrastructure, it don't matter if one city have all infrastructures and the other city have non, or each have some the other lacks, the cost increase will be same. However how much the cost increase per missing infrastructure is based on its industrial cost, the more expensive infrastructures have bigger impact, but yet again I don't know the exact formula, but it do look quite close to be linear as can be seen in the google sheet document.
Thank you for the insight into the cost of Absorbs. . . I don't find it possible to use them the way I'm playing the game. I don't even consider it until late game - for example:
I've only 162 turns left and was considering absorbing a city without much infrastructure into one fairly complete.
My absorb cost is 601,000 influence
I am gaining influence at the rate of 970 per turn, but still have four territories to link to cities so I can expand.
So, I could absorb the city in about 620+ turns but of course, the cost escalates on some logarithmic scale.
This is just ludicrous, please review the cost calculations. I'm playing as a single-player, on the town setting, with 4 AI opponents.
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