Killtech
Discutator
i have a suggestion on how to simplify things a little and reduce economies overweight. a good thing might be to group all buildings into upgrade chains just like the ports buildings (river port -> harbor -> port -> commercial port).
there are several reasons for why i think this is a good idea:
1. while progressing through in the tech tree tons of new buildings become available and if a player doesn't focus most production on those economic buildings (buildings that grant you additional food, hammer and commerce) he'll have to leave some of them out obviously. but this also means he'll need more time to construct future buildings (compared to players who have maxed heir
) and since new buildings never stop becoming available he'll never be able to build all the economic buildings he missed. this means that his economy will fall back with each new tech level and there's not much he can do against it.
but if new buildings replace the old ones this effect is greatly reduced since by building the most modern building (e.g. factory) your production would jump directly at the same level as a player focusing on economy.
2. the AI would greatly benefit from this. the reason is 1 because the AI does not focus on economy too much. i find this very important so i made it an own point.
3. so a foundry just give me the very same production bonus like a simple ancient forge (or even a factory without electricity)? it would be much better if these buildings would simply upgrade into one another and thus the factory bonuses would be increased (sum of forge + foundry + factory bonuses).
4. this also gives the developer the possibility to check on how great the overall economic bonuses can become since he just need to view the most modern economic buildings.
5. as long as new buildings form modmods include themselves into the upgrade chains they cannot overflow the economy anymore so game balance isn't affected that greatly. same goes for happiness and health bonus buildings (there's still too much of both in pure RoM & anD in later ages). - so i could consider using some of hydros modmods.
6. as new buildings replace old ones the building list left in the city screen will be finite.
7. not trivial decision for city production: should i build the forge now if can get the foundry in a short? tough decisions => strategy => fun.
8. obsoletion of buildings! a very nasty thing. and somewhat strange to try to go around a tech to keep some building bonus longer alive. if buildings upgrade into modern versions they don't need to become obsolete. however most buildings should still become obsolete to clear the available building list clear - but: with a tech long after they can be upgraded!
9. culture bombs. old culture buildings tend to give a lot of culture causing some problems with specific victory conditions. if there's a much better building you could upgrade your old ones you could bring the player willingly to replace this culture bombs by something less cultural. so it's easier for developers to keep the culture levels under control so you cannot win cultural victory too early.
10. civic building exploit. can occur easily in snail games where you have enough time to build all civic specific buildings before switching to the next civic. an example: a city with caravan post + slave market + guild hall + national mint + imperial mint is just too overpowered (this bonuses become too excessive when such a city arrives in the industrial age). easy solution: civic specific buildings (of same civic type) replace each other.
most of the suggested is pure XML changes as i see it. however one detail would require a deeper change: the BUG display shows you the actual benefits of a building (does this come from BUG anyway?) but does not consider the replacement of a prior building although it should display the difference between new building bonuses - replaced building bonuses. i bet it's not a big deal for an SDK modder though.
thoughts?
there are several reasons for why i think this is a good idea:
1. while progressing through in the tech tree tons of new buildings become available and if a player doesn't focus most production on those economic buildings (buildings that grant you additional food, hammer and commerce) he'll have to leave some of them out obviously. but this also means he'll need more time to construct future buildings (compared to players who have maxed heir
) and since new buildings never stop becoming available he'll never be able to build all the economic buildings he missed. this means that his economy will fall back with each new tech level and there's not much he can do against it.but if new buildings replace the old ones this effect is greatly reduced since by building the most modern
building (e.g. factory) your production would jump directly at the same level as a player focusing on economy.2. the AI would greatly benefit from this. the reason is 1 because the AI does not focus on economy too much. i find this very important so i made it an own point.
3. so a foundry just give me the very same production bonus like a simple ancient forge (or even a factory without electricity)? it would be much better if these buildings would simply upgrade into one another and thus the factory bonuses would be increased (sum of forge + foundry + factory bonuses).
4. this also gives the developer the possibility to check on how great the overall economic bonuses can become since he just need to view the most modern economic buildings.
5. as long as new buildings form modmods include themselves into the upgrade chains they cannot overflow the economy anymore so game balance isn't affected that greatly. same goes for happiness and health bonus buildings (there's still too much of both in pure RoM & anD in later ages). - so i could consider using some of hydros modmods.
6. as new buildings replace old ones the building list left in the city screen will be finite.
7. not trivial decision for city production: should i build the forge now if can get the foundry in a short? tough decisions => strategy => fun.
8. obsoletion of buildings! a very nasty thing. and somewhat strange to try to go around a tech to keep some building bonus longer alive. if buildings upgrade into modern versions they don't need to become obsolete. however most buildings should still become obsolete to clear the available building list clear - but: with a tech long after they can be upgraded!
9. culture bombs. old culture buildings tend to give a lot of culture causing some problems with specific victory conditions. if there's a much better building you could upgrade your old ones you could bring the player willingly to replace this culture bombs by something less cultural. so it's easier for developers to keep the culture levels under control so you cannot win cultural victory too early.
10. civic building exploit. can occur easily in snail games where you have enough time to build all civic specific buildings before switching to the next civic. an example: a city with caravan post + slave market + guild hall + national mint + imperial mint is just too overpowered (this bonuses become too excessive when such a city arrives in the industrial age). easy solution: civic specific buildings (of same civic type) replace each other.
most of the suggested is pure XML changes as i see it. however one detail would require a deeper change: the BUG display shows you the actual benefits of a building (does this come from BUG anyway?) but does not consider the replacement of a prior building although it should display the difference between new building bonuses - replaced building bonuses. i bet it's not a big deal for an SDK modder though.
thoughts?
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