I think that the game is currently geare dvery much toward expansionism. There is nothing holding you back from expanding (exept if you restrict yourself for some roleplaying reasons or otherwise). But for efficiency, its always better to have more cities. The only mechanic (revolutions aside) holding you back is city upkeep, but thats nowhere enough.
I am not saying that this is a bad thing ( I do love to expand), but it would also be nice to have a feasable alternative. So what if we make the new trade buildings like this:
+ 1
per connected domestic city (max 5
)
+ 1
per 3 (scaled for map size, 3 is standard) connected foreign cities of civ 1 (max 5
)
+ 1
per 3 (scaled for map size, 3 is standard) connected foreign cities of civ 2 (max 5
)
+ 1
per 3 (scaled for map size, 3 is standard) connected foreign cities of civ 3 (max 5
)
...
+ 1
per 3 (scaled for map size, 3 is standard) connected foreign cities of civ N (max 5
)
N could be diffent from building to building, and be affected by wonders, civics, techs...
On the negative side, we would need a new algorithm that would select and sort your trade partners, but that sounds doable for me.
On the plus side, it would counterbalance warmongering.
One more thing came to my mind: In the very early game, the first trade routes between your cities are dearly needed to increase your income a tiny bit, since alternatives are few. If they fall away, we need to compensate. How about add something like + 1
per connected domestic city (max 5
) to the palace?
