During my games of C2C I found myself building mostly the same thing in every city, save for a few ones specific to terrain (river/ocean mainly) or resource and the occasional wonder. The build order is quite similar and my cities end up looking all alike when sufficiently developed.
I'd find very interesting if there was a way to make them more different by specializing them; here's a system I have in mind.
* Specialization buildings
When the city reaches pop level 2, 6 and 13, it gains access to a "specialization building" which offers various bonuses and unlocks buildings. Each specialization building is mutually exclusive with the others from the same level.
Specialization at level 2
* Production city: bonus to , unlocks several buildings that provide . This is the kind of specialization you chose for a city to make it very productive.
* Vibrant city: bonus to , unlocks several buildings that provide
. This is the kind of specialization you chose for a city to make it grow fast and far.
* Military outpost: bonus to defenses, unlocks several buildings that increase defense, damage attackers and make it more difficult to conquer. This is the kind of specialization you chose for a city on a strategic location or near a neighboring civ.
The first two specializations offer long-term boosts to the city (productive cities will get more buildings, vibrant cities will be larger), the latter will maybe make the city itself a bit less powerful on the long run, but is something you definitely want to consider if the city was built in a tense location.
Specialization at level 6
Whatever the city chose for its first specialization, it can chose any of the following specialization building at level 6:
- Training city, which provides a boost to unit production and unlocks access to buildings unlocking or improving certain combat-focused units
- Manufacturing city, which provides a boost to building production and unlocks access to many "finished products" manufacturing buildings (iron wares, etc.)
- Trade city, which provides a boost as well as unlocks access to buildings and units related to trade (merchants, caravans, etc.) and trade routes
- Cultural city, which increases the cultural output of the city and unlocks cultural-related buildings and units (bard...)
- Port city, which unlocks advanced harbor buildings and ships.
The idea here is to give a strong orientation of what the city's main role and contribution will be in the empire.
Specialization at level 13
Finally, the city can chose another specialization at level 13:
- Educational city, which can provide bonuses to , but also to the xp of units trained there
- Financial city, which mainly provides bonuses to output from any source
- Lifestyle city, which provides , happiness, specialists, etc. to make the city more focused on specialists than terrain
Which buildings and units can be built in a city will depend on its specializations, with a significant core number, especially those that have resource requirement, that can be built anywhere (ex. library, walls...), some that will require one specialization (ex. high walls for a military outpost, theater for a cultural city) and a few that will require a combination of specializations (ex. forge will require production + manufacturing, military academy will require training + educational).
What I'd like to do also is to have the buildings giving the various "low importance" manufactured resources (such as hats, etc.) require 2 or 3 specializations, so that you won't be able to manufacture everything everywhere: either you have to specialize your cities differently or you have to trade them with other civilizations. To make up for that, each manufacturing buildings could provide several resources at once so you have some to trade. As there are 3*5*3 = 45 different orientations for cities (far too much for one civ, at least early on), trading those resources will be useful anyway.
It's of course possible to change specialization at any time by selling the specialization building and building another (for example turning a military outpost in a production city once the border is no longer a threat) but this isn't something you'll want to do too often since it will deactivate all the buildings the deleted specialization allowed.
* But I don't like not having access to all the buildings!
Well, that's already the case
But if that's something important to some players, there are three things I can think of that can alleviate that pain.
1/ Add a "generalist" specialization at each level. That specialization unlocks every building normally exclusive to the other specializations, but you don't get the other benefits of the specialization (and might even get some light penalties).
2/ Allow one city in the empire to stay generalist. That city will be able to build any building (except for the other restrictions such as resources or coast, of course). It could be the capital and/or another city through a national wonder.
3/ Activate or deactivate the whole specialization mechanism depending on the civic you chose. Civics that deactivate specialization will offer less benefits to compensate.
* Terrain-dependent specialization
On the long run, something I'd also like to improve is the impact of the terrain around the city (I talked about it in another thread), so that the base bonus of terrain (improved or not) is higher, while most building would provide benefits under the form of +%, not directly +ressource.
Any thoughts?
I'd find very interesting if there was a way to make them more different by specializing them; here's a system I have in mind.
* Specialization buildings
When the city reaches pop level 2, 6 and 13, it gains access to a "specialization building" which offers various bonuses and unlocks buildings. Each specialization building is mutually exclusive with the others from the same level.
Specialization at level 2
* Production city: bonus to , unlocks several buildings that provide . This is the kind of specialization you chose for a city to make it very productive.
* Vibrant city: bonus to , unlocks several buildings that provide
. This is the kind of specialization you chose for a city to make it grow fast and far.
* Military outpost: bonus to defenses, unlocks several buildings that increase defense, damage attackers and make it more difficult to conquer. This is the kind of specialization you chose for a city on a strategic location or near a neighboring civ.
The first two specializations offer long-term boosts to the city (productive cities will get more buildings, vibrant cities will be larger), the latter will maybe make the city itself a bit less powerful on the long run, but is something you definitely want to consider if the city was built in a tense location.
Specialization at level 6
Whatever the city chose for its first specialization, it can chose any of the following specialization building at level 6:
- Training city, which provides a boost to unit production and unlocks access to buildings unlocking or improving certain combat-focused units
- Manufacturing city, which provides a boost to building production and unlocks access to many "finished products" manufacturing buildings (iron wares, etc.)
- Trade city, which provides a boost as well as unlocks access to buildings and units related to trade (merchants, caravans, etc.) and trade routes
- Cultural city, which increases the cultural output of the city and unlocks cultural-related buildings and units (bard...)
- Port city, which unlocks advanced harbor buildings and ships.
The idea here is to give a strong orientation of what the city's main role and contribution will be in the empire.
Specialization at level 13
Finally, the city can chose another specialization at level 13:
- Educational city, which can provide bonuses to , but also to the xp of units trained there
- Financial city, which mainly provides bonuses to output from any source
- Lifestyle city, which provides , happiness, specialists, etc. to make the city more focused on specialists than terrain
Which buildings and units can be built in a city will depend on its specializations, with a significant core number, especially those that have resource requirement, that can be built anywhere (ex. library, walls...), some that will require one specialization (ex. high walls for a military outpost, theater for a cultural city) and a few that will require a combination of specializations (ex. forge will require production + manufacturing, military academy will require training + educational).
What I'd like to do also is to have the buildings giving the various "low importance" manufactured resources (such as hats, etc.) require 2 or 3 specializations, so that you won't be able to manufacture everything everywhere: either you have to specialize your cities differently or you have to trade them with other civilizations. To make up for that, each manufacturing buildings could provide several resources at once so you have some to trade. As there are 3*5*3 = 45 different orientations for cities (far too much for one civ, at least early on), trading those resources will be useful anyway.
It's of course possible to change specialization at any time by selling the specialization building and building another (for example turning a military outpost in a production city once the border is no longer a threat) but this isn't something you'll want to do too often since it will deactivate all the buildings the deleted specialization allowed.
* But I don't like not having access to all the buildings!
Well, that's already the case
But if that's something important to some players, there are three things I can think of that can alleviate that pain.
1/ Add a "generalist" specialization at each level. That specialization unlocks every building normally exclusive to the other specializations, but you don't get the other benefits of the specialization (and might even get some light penalties).
2/ Allow one city in the empire to stay generalist. That city will be able to build any building (except for the other restrictions such as resources or coast, of course). It could be the capital and/or another city through a national wonder.
3/ Activate or deactivate the whole specialization mechanism depending on the civic you chose. Civics that deactivate specialization will offer less benefits to compensate.
* Terrain-dependent specialization
On the long run, something I'd also like to improve is the impact of the terrain around the city (I talked about it in another thread), so that the base bonus of terrain (improved or not) is higher, while most building would provide benefits under the form of +%, not directly +ressource.
Any thoughts?