City building limits

[Adam7Eight]

Came across this in the "GlobalDefines.xml" file:

<Define>
		<DefineName>MAX_BUILDINGS_PER_CITY</DefineName>
		<iDefineIntVal>-1</iDefineIntVal>
	</Define>

I'm sure this could be used to make a strategy game a little more strategic. I know I've heard complaints about being able to build every building in every city over the years. This would certainly put an end to that problem. A granary or a library? Barracks or Drydock? Interesting.

 

[fitchn]

I agree! At least in previous civ games, each of the buildings had a cost associated with it. At the same time, though, I'm not too keen on the arbitrary limit of 2 national wonders per city, and wouldn't want to impose the same arbitrary type of restriction on builidngs.

What I would love to see, however, is tying the number of allowed buildings to the population size of the city! For example, a city of size 5 could build 5 buildings, while a city of size 9 could build 9 buildings. I think this could be justified, in that buildings need to be maintained and operated... the bigger the city is, the more buildings could be supported.

I think that this would do several things to the game:

1. It would encourage strategic decisions (do I want to increase my science, or my income in this city?)
2. It would further reduce ICS, by encouraging fewer larger and more developed cities rather than numerous small, undeveloped cities.
3. It would greatly promote city specialization, which I think was the intended result of the limit on national wonders. (I'll have this city focus on science, and this city focus on income/taxes, while this one will focus on building military units)
4. Provide an opportunity for more civic options, wonders, etc. (eg, a new wonder might increase the limit by 1 per city, a new civic might provide a free building in each city, a new national wonder might remove the limit on that city altogether)

But, unfortunatly the XML does not support this idea... and the AI wouldn't be able to anticipate any python code that might simulate it...

Any thoughts?