Harbour <--> Lighthouse

[ExpiredReign]

Does anyone else think the positioning of these two buildings is back-to-front?

You can build a lighthouse once you research Sailing, a tier 2 tech in the Ancient era, but you must wait until the Medieval era to build the tier 5 building the harbour.

Why would a city need a lighthouse to guide its ships if doesn't first have a harbour?

Sea connection was one of the earliest forms of trade routes in the ancient period yet it is the harbour that provides that benefit, but only once you reach the Medieval era.

So why not switch the position of these two. Or perhaps move them both to the tier 3 tech, Optics. That way the Great Lighthouse, lighthouses & harbours are all available when you need them.
Additionally what about moving cargo ships back one tier from Optics to Sailing?
Then you have your land trade at a tier 1 tech, Animal Husbandry, and your sea based trade comes on the next tier, Sailing.
This also means the techs that extend both these types of trade routes come in the next tier from when you first get that trade. Caravansary comes at Wheel and the harbour would be at Optics.

Just a thought.

 

[Delekhan]

Having the Lighthouse first makes total sense. A lighthouse network allows ships to operate 24 hours a day, back when ships always needed to stay within sight of the shore.

Without lighthouses, ships would have had to weigh anchor at dusk and wait around for the sun to rise before risking navigating the shore, allowing them to work twice as much in a day and therefore making coastal resources more productive.

No reason to mess with the sequence, in other words

 

[Core Xii]

Before harbors were invented, big ships anchored some distance from shore, and sent little boats to transfer stuff (or little boats were sent from the shore to meet with it).

But the big ship can't even find the shore in the dark without a lighthouse.

It does kinda make sense.

 

[Ahriman]

We had a big debate about this a couple of years ago, and it was even switched for a while in GEM. The overall conclusion was that there were strong feelings on both sides and no clear overarching win for either, and so it was simpler and less confusing to leave the vanilla design in.

 

[ExpiredReign]

And with that, I will say no more.

Who would have thought two completely opposite views could sit well with everyone?
Although I would like harbours first, I do see the logic of the lighthouse first. Thanks guys.

 

[Thalassicus]

I originally thought the same as you. I realized the harbor represents an artificial harbor - with dredging, breakwaters, sea walls, and so on to protect it from the open ocean. Constructing an artificial harbor requires a level of technological sophistication above and beyond a pre-existing natural harbor. I also realized the developers are referring to the harbor itself (the land and water), not the port (docks and other structures). We're terraforming to create the harbor. The seaport represents another level of development beyond that, with even more sophistication.