About the new Houses...

[TowerWizard]

Tonight I played a game in which I researched Drama and got the question about getting the support of one of the Houses of Erebus. I refused, since I wanted the science-boosting one later. What happend?

1. My capital got the symbol of the House, and thus the "benefits" of it.
2. Another of my cities got the Headquarters building, but not the "benefits" of the House.

What is the "benefits" of the House, then, you might ask? Why, only +1 gold and some culture. Oh, and then I had to pay EIGHTEEN GOLD PER TURN AS CORPORATION PAYMENTS!!!!!!

This is totally outrageous. 18 gold? Who came up with that sum? The headquarters produce only one gold per city, for crying out loud!! How can one earn a profit here? By spreading to foreign cities, you say? Well, let me just say that I was furious when I found out about this, and still am. In BtS is was hard to earn a profit on the coroprations, but in this game it seems totally impossible.

 

[saathei]

The houses of Erebus are very much a work in progress. Only Ghallanda has anything resembling the final form. I'd recommend playing with them off until more of them complete.

 

[Imuratep]

Spreading them to foreign cities costs about 150 gold. I want to understand how this one should pay off.

 

[TowerWizard]

Why release them if they are not at all ready?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

cuz they are an optional game option. if you want to try them you do, otherwise you just not tick that box

this way people who want to help with testing can do so and provide useful insights to have the mechanic eventually become fully fleshed out.

 

[TowerWizard]

Then consider this my three useful insights: The House should be founded by building the Headquarters as a relatively cheap World Wonder. That is both flavorful and fitting. The way you used GP to build them i BtS was something I never liked. Then, when it is built, all players with which you have contact (or maybe open borders) can build the merchants as a normal unit.

The amount of gold you pay for the effects should scale with the benefits linearly, but with a starting cost. Say 1 gold per resource used plus 2 gold as a fee.

The Headquarters should give enough of a bonus to make it worth building. It need not be gold, of course. It could (should?) also provide one resource (at random?) from among the ones used by the House.