I would propose that some of the truly late-game buildings be buffed. First of all, when considering whether to build the 4th or 5th building that grants a 25%
or
or
bonus, it is doing proportionally much less than when you build your first forge or market. This is just because of math. Secondly, what is the point of constructing a building that increases research by 25% when there are only 5 or 6 techs left to research? Thirdly, once you're in the final 3-4 columns of techs, you're not playing for the UHV and you're likely to already be snowballing to victory. At this point, continuing to play is because there are awesome, cool things you will be able to do if you just invent the next tech, build the next building, play the next turn. Based on this, I'd argue there is a good case to be made for really buffing many late game buildings. Late game buildings and wonders should be
powerful to compensate for the short time when they will be useful before the game is over. I would propose doubling the bonii of the final tier of buildings to 50%: automated factory, logistics center, supercomputer.
In line with this, I would propose seriously buffing some of the latest game wonders. Take the Oriental Pearl Tower as an example. When you finally unlock it, any player is almost guaranteed to be producing multiple thousands of
per turn. At best, this wonder is going to get you maybe 50 or 60
per turn. Stacked optimally with multipliers, you are, at best, looking at a few additional percentage points in your science output in exchange for spending many turns of production in a city. I'm not going to be bothered to do the math but it wouldn't shock me if it was a better return to just build research for the number of turns it takes to build the wonder. It is not worth it! These wonders that give middling flat bonuses to a single city are not very good at this point in the game. The same rationale applies to Burj Dubai, Atomium, Global Seed Vault, Space Elevator, etc.
I recognize that to some degree this is a bit of a game design decision, but I would advocate for giving the player some really fun goodies at the end of the tech tree because, at that point, it's not about UHV, it's about finishing some other victory while slogging through long turn times. Make the Pearl Tower 10
per pop, Burj Dubai 3
per world corporation. Make the Large Hadron Collider +500%
. The Space Elevator Should be absolutely game changing, maybe +20%
per space project completed around the world. These are all there to boost your progress towards a space victory. But I think there is a missing niche for a very late game militaristic wonder that would be clearly aligned with making the final push for domination victory. Will have to give that some more thought.
does not have as many multipliers but it gets a lot of buildings with a flat bonus so it synergizes well with a large empire, so I'm not sure it's at such a disadvantage. For a National Wonder, maybe the the Intelligence Agency or the Secret Service could take that role. I' don't know what the base building would become, an Embassy?
slider it's almost always for happiness and/or UHV, not culture itself.
, as a boost to cities with bad terrain. That would make settling desert or arctic regions more worthwhile, along with islands.
