I'm thinking through ideas for giving cities more ways to feel specialized. National Wonders and specialist-focuses are decent at this: you might spread your GWAM guilds across your capital and 6 expansions, and your GEMSD in a similar way. This can happen whether you are Progress or Tradition. Basic Buildings, however, tend to struggle with lending an identity to a city. By their nature they are generally useful, and they are better than working a Process most if not all of the time. You build until you run out of buildings, and then you look for stuff to do (wars being an exception).
A few general approaches stand out for giving buildings focus:
A few general approaches stand out for giving buildings focus:
- Direct synergies between buildings (Arena + Barracks/Forge/Armory; Baths + Temple/Amphitheater/Gardens)
- Scaling yields that must be built into or fed (Gardens + Guilds; Harbor/Caravansary + Trade Routes)
- Exclusive buildings or yields, often by terrain-gating or implicit terrain biases (Granary and Lodge; Well and Water Wheel; Seaport and Train Station)
- Events which add a permanent new yield to a building type, or upgrade one of a few building types