As we try to get the beta ready for a finished release, thought it was time to do a building review to see how everything stacks up.
I'm not going to go through every building, just the ones I think may need a look.
Ancient Era: I think everything is fine here. I like all of the buildings!
Classical Era:
Forge: This is a building I have trouble getting excited about. The problem is its a core building that often acts like a niche one. The engineer slot is nice...in a select group of cities early game, now that specialists are less of a general thing. The mine bonus can be nice...for a few cities and not until later when you get those mines going.
It feels like the forge is too back loaded. Sure once I have an arena, and I'm working that engineer, and I have a bunch of mines it looks good. But it takes a while to get there. This is a building I find I forget at times until its time for workshops.
I would suggest changing the bonus from mines to hills so that it comes online quicker, though that means grassland iron suffers as a result.
Caravansary: This building has always felt like a red-headed step child of buildings to me. It is clearly more useful than the core, but I think it still has problems.
I think its trying to be too fancy and just not effective enough. The 10% city connection bonus is actually a pittance for most of the game. The merchant bonus I don't think is needed to make merchants useful, but if people wanted to argue that point I wouldn't disagree. But it also makes it even more of a niche building, especially if you aren't making a lot of merchants.
So I would go one of two directions:
1) Drop the 10%, add +1 gold.
2) Drop the 10% and the merchant bonus, add +2 gold.
Just give it some straight up benefit, it doesn't need to be fancy.
Medieval:
Chancery: I actually wanted to give G credit for turning this building from (imo) a piece of crap, to one of my favorite buildings. That said...it may be too good, and may need some kind of cap. Late game when I'm rocking 8 allies, and getting +8 gold and +16 hammers with a single building...that's pretty intense.
Workshop: This a niche building trying to be a prereq building. If I don't have forests I hate to be bothered with this building. I can't remember how many times I've gone "why can't I build factories...oh yeah I still need that damn workshop". Maybe this could add in a 5% bonus for buildings (and take away from the windmill), just to give it something to do. Honestly even with that I probably wouldn't care for it, so not quite sure on this one.
Renaissance:
Windmill: This is completely a nitpick, and fine if ignored. I think the windmill should just get a +2 food bonus, and not "granary/grocery gets a +1". Those buildings are already great, they are almost always built before this guy anyway, and it just muddies the waters unnecessarily. The "give another building a bonus" is a nice mechanic, but I think its used too frequently. Again, complete nitpick, the building is fine generally.
Opera House: While I didn't like the 10% culture nerf to 5%, it was probably the right call. My one change here is change the gold bonus for musicians guilds to +2. The amphitheater gets to make money when all its guilds are built, and I think the opera house should too. It gives it just that little bit extra that will round it off.
Industrial:
General: Just generally noting this is the point in the game when I notice my building speed start to go down. I think as growth starts to slow down at this point, cities don't increase their hammers that much more than in older eras, and you start to notice it.
Museum: Keeping with the Amphithreater/Opera House theme, I would increase the gold bonus from artists to +3 (or at least +2 to break even). The museum still remains a questionable building to me, its a lot of hammers to not provide specialists or base culture. Compare it to the public school for example. So even with the change, might still be on the watch list for me.
Agribusiness: Having used it a few times since the recent change...its a flat out worse building than before. +1 farms/pastures does not equal 15% more food....15% is a lot more food. I would just change it back.
Factory: Just to show some context. If we assume a nice big city, or a few manufactories...we could assume the factory provides a +10 hammer bonus....maybe. Now, lets assume a 50% hammer bonus in the city from various bonuses which are common at that point. So +15 hammers. That means it takes 83 turns to pay for itself. At this point in the game, that's a lot of turns....and it requires coal! I think this building needs some love, if not more hammers, than something else (gold bonus?).
Modern
Stock Exchange: This is one of those buildings that looks good on perception, but I'm wondering how good it is. The 10% discount on purchasing looks attractive. But I'm curious how much gold that translates to at this point in the game, and to warrant the 1800 hammer cost. Its one I might need to crunch some real numbers to see if its really worth it.
Coal Refinery: Personally I would go with the aluminum refinery model. Just give me the coal, no production bonus. Its meant as a building to give me emergency coal, I don't think it should also be a production building as well.
That said, I would also be fine removing this building. To me...the whole point of strategic resources is they should be "oh horsehocky" moments. Things are fine, and then suddenly the world is moving in a new direction and you have to race to keep up. If you have coal, great. If you don't...well you better trade, CS ally, or war and go get it! I think this building "coddles" people too much.
Wire Service: Similar to chancery, might need some cap. Beyond that, I would switch the bonuses. I feel culture is a stronger bonus over science and should take more to earn.
Research Lab: I feel like this building is a bit scattered. The bonus to medical labs makes sense to spread the science out. But I think the rest is a bit unnecessary. I would just give it a +12 to science (it is one of the capstone science buildings). Then keep the terrain bonuses, Medical lab, and GS bonus.
Atomic
Medical Lab: So in best case scenarios (lets say a city is working all specialists), its what +5 science, hammers, and gold? So the gold is obliterated by the maintenance cost, the hammers aren't worth the building price tag, and the science bonus is pretty low at this point in the game.
Honestly, I think the medical lap could just be removed from the game, and let agribusiness take on the load. Or, continue the hospital mechanic, and convert food into more science or culture or something.
Wind/Hydro Plant: I feel like each is on the weaker side, and I think usually the one you want is pretty obvious, so I don't see a reason to have 2 separate buildings. I actually would love to combine these together. Use Wind Plant as a base, change it to the "Wind and River Plant" or "Renewable Plant". Gain the wind plant benefit, +1 prod per river tile.
Information
Solar Plant: Generally its just a more expensive nuclear plant. The desert prereq throws a bone to desert, but its not like I'm building desert cities back in the day going "one day I can build a solar plant here!".
This building should not exist. Strategic resources exist to be coveted. If you want raw production power, you better go get some uranium!
I'm not going to go through every building, just the ones I think may need a look.
Ancient Era: I think everything is fine here. I like all of the buildings!
Classical Era:
Forge: This is a building I have trouble getting excited about. The problem is its a core building that often acts like a niche one. The engineer slot is nice...in a select group of cities early game, now that specialists are less of a general thing. The mine bonus can be nice...for a few cities and not until later when you get those mines going.
It feels like the forge is too back loaded. Sure once I have an arena, and I'm working that engineer, and I have a bunch of mines it looks good. But it takes a while to get there. This is a building I find I forget at times until its time for workshops.
I would suggest changing the bonus from mines to hills so that it comes online quicker, though that means grassland iron suffers as a result.
Caravansary: This building has always felt like a red-headed step child of buildings to me. It is clearly more useful than the core, but I think it still has problems.
I think its trying to be too fancy and just not effective enough. The 10% city connection bonus is actually a pittance for most of the game. The merchant bonus I don't think is needed to make merchants useful, but if people wanted to argue that point I wouldn't disagree. But it also makes it even more of a niche building, especially if you aren't making a lot of merchants.
So I would go one of two directions:
1) Drop the 10%, add +1 gold.
2) Drop the 10% and the merchant bonus, add +2 gold.
Just give it some straight up benefit, it doesn't need to be fancy.
Medieval:
Chancery: I actually wanted to give G credit for turning this building from (imo) a piece of crap, to one of my favorite buildings. That said...it may be too good, and may need some kind of cap. Late game when I'm rocking 8 allies, and getting +8 gold and +16 hammers with a single building...that's pretty intense.
Workshop: This a niche building trying to be a prereq building. If I don't have forests I hate to be bothered with this building. I can't remember how many times I've gone "why can't I build factories...oh yeah I still need that damn workshop". Maybe this could add in a 5% bonus for buildings (and take away from the windmill), just to give it something to do. Honestly even with that I probably wouldn't care for it, so not quite sure on this one.
Renaissance:
Windmill: This is completely a nitpick, and fine if ignored. I think the windmill should just get a +2 food bonus, and not "granary/grocery gets a +1". Those buildings are already great, they are almost always built before this guy anyway, and it just muddies the waters unnecessarily. The "give another building a bonus" is a nice mechanic, but I think its used too frequently. Again, complete nitpick, the building is fine generally.
Opera House: While I didn't like the 10% culture nerf to 5%, it was probably the right call. My one change here is change the gold bonus for musicians guilds to +2. The amphitheater gets to make money when all its guilds are built, and I think the opera house should too. It gives it just that little bit extra that will round it off.
Industrial:
General: Just generally noting this is the point in the game when I notice my building speed start to go down. I think as growth starts to slow down at this point, cities don't increase their hammers that much more than in older eras, and you start to notice it.
Museum: Keeping with the Amphithreater/Opera House theme, I would increase the gold bonus from artists to +3 (or at least +2 to break even). The museum still remains a questionable building to me, its a lot of hammers to not provide specialists or base culture. Compare it to the public school for example. So even with the change, might still be on the watch list for me.
Agribusiness: Having used it a few times since the recent change...its a flat out worse building than before. +1 farms/pastures does not equal 15% more food....15% is a lot more food. I would just change it back.
Factory: Just to show some context. If we assume a nice big city, or a few manufactories...we could assume the factory provides a +10 hammer bonus....maybe. Now, lets assume a 50% hammer bonus in the city from various bonuses which are common at that point. So +15 hammers. That means it takes 83 turns to pay for itself. At this point in the game, that's a lot of turns....and it requires coal! I think this building needs some love, if not more hammers, than something else (gold bonus?).
Modern
Stock Exchange: This is one of those buildings that looks good on perception, but I'm wondering how good it is. The 10% discount on purchasing looks attractive. But I'm curious how much gold that translates to at this point in the game, and to warrant the 1800 hammer cost. Its one I might need to crunch some real numbers to see if its really worth it.
Coal Refinery: Personally I would go with the aluminum refinery model. Just give me the coal, no production bonus. Its meant as a building to give me emergency coal, I don't think it should also be a production building as well.
That said, I would also be fine removing this building. To me...the whole point of strategic resources is they should be "oh horsehocky" moments. Things are fine, and then suddenly the world is moving in a new direction and you have to race to keep up. If you have coal, great. If you don't...well you better trade, CS ally, or war and go get it! I think this building "coddles" people too much.
Wire Service: Similar to chancery, might need some cap. Beyond that, I would switch the bonuses. I feel culture is a stronger bonus over science and should take more to earn.
Research Lab: I feel like this building is a bit scattered. The bonus to medical labs makes sense to spread the science out. But I think the rest is a bit unnecessary. I would just give it a +12 to science (it is one of the capstone science buildings). Then keep the terrain bonuses, Medical lab, and GS bonus.
Atomic
Medical Lab: So in best case scenarios (lets say a city is working all specialists), its what +5 science, hammers, and gold? So the gold is obliterated by the maintenance cost, the hammers aren't worth the building price tag, and the science bonus is pretty low at this point in the game.
Honestly, I think the medical lap could just be removed from the game, and let agribusiness take on the load. Or, continue the hospital mechanic, and convert food into more science or culture or something.
Wind/Hydro Plant: I feel like each is on the weaker side, and I think usually the one you want is pretty obvious, so I don't see a reason to have 2 separate buildings. I actually would love to combine these together. Use Wind Plant as a base, change it to the "Wind and River Plant" or "Renewable Plant". Gain the wind plant benefit, +1 prod per river tile.
Information
Solar Plant: Generally its just a more expensive nuclear plant. The desert prereq throws a bone to desert, but its not like I'm building desert cities back in the day going "one day I can build a solar plant here!".
This building should not exist. Strategic resources exist to be coveted. If you want raw production power, you better go get some uranium!