It's Weird that there are no Atomic Era Wonders... Right?

pineappledan

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Atomic Era is this bizarre dead zone for wonders. There are only 2 era-locked wonders in the entire era -- Bletchley Park and Pentagon -- so there aren't any wonders for an Industry player at all.

Modern Era only has 2 feely pickable wonders, but also 4 policy/ideology-locked wonders. Information Era has 5. So why this massive dead zone in Atomic?

What do you think would be something good to see as an Atomic-Era wonder? Is there some playstyle or victory that doesn't have quite as much oomph as it should, and could benefit from another wonder?
 
A wonder unlocking another spy action would be pretty fun and round off that gameplay aspect more. There is only a policy locked wonder in Bletchley boosting Spies and a defensive wonder in Great Firewall to my knowledge.
 
This has been rattling around in my head for a while, but if the Kremlin came back as the Kremlin, rather than as St. Basil's, there's a good candidate for an Atomic Wonder. Emphasize the Kremlin as a metonym for the government of the Soviet Union.
  • In vanilla it gave a global production bonus to Tank units, which was supposed to reference Russia's massive and efficient production of T-34s during WWII. We could bring that back, but it would need some sort of strong instant bonus, since that's not really a great bonus by itself
  • It could give a global reduction for building maintenance (there's code for that, but it's not being used in base VP), to emphasize the Soviet Union's central planning
  • It could give some sort of bonus for Vassals, or for Vassals and all civs with the same ideology as you. A reference to the Warsaw Pact.
  • Or it could give some sort of bonus for ideological pressure, like increasing the :c5unhappy:unhappiness that you trigger in other civs following a different ideology from you, forcing them to switch.
 
A few ideas for atomic wonders:
  1. Hoover Dam (electricity) - boosts power plants in some way, incentivizing construction of what are currently low-priority buildings. This would mean giving America a new Industry national wonder. I liked the earlier suggestion of Motor City, which could keep all of the current Hoover Dam's properties, except move the boosts on rivers/lakes to roads/towns. Motor city would make sense to unlock at combustion, which has the added benefit of making all of America's NWs unlock on the same tech tier.
  2. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Station (penicillin) - something science
  3. Arecibo Observatory (radar) - something else science
  4. Sears Tower (refrigeration) - synergy with corporations. Something like "each turn there is a X% chance that a foreign franchise will appear in this city, and foreign franchises in this city provide benefits as if they were corporate offices"
 
The 3 modern American wonders are a bit of a cop to the fact that America was always just going to have a lot of wonders. Also, one of the 2 policy-locked wonders in Atomic already is American. So ideally, I would try to avoid any more American representation.

Some other ideas:
Anitkabir (Turkey) - the Mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
EUR (Italy) - a residential/business district in Rome, founded in 1937 to celebrate 20 years of fascism. It was planned as the main grounds for an upcoming world’s fair, until that was cancelled by WWII. The greatest living example of Fascist architecture.
Statue of Unity (India) - the tallest statue in the world
 
This has been rattling around in my head for a while, but if the Kremlin came back as the Kremlin, rather than as St. Basil's, there's a good candidate for an Atomic Wonder. Emphasize the Kremlin as a metonym for the government of the Soviet Union.
  • In vanilla it gave a global production bonus to Tank units, which was supposed to reference Russia's massive and efficient production of T-34s during WWII. We could bring that back, but it would need some sort of strong instant bonus, since that's not really a great bonus by itself
  • It could give a global reduction for building maintenance (there's code for that, but it's not being used in base VP), to emphasize the Soviet Union's central planning
  • It could give some sort of bonus for Vassals, or for Vassals and all civs with the same ideology as you. A reference to the Warsaw Pact.
  • Or it could give some sort of bonus for ideological pressure, like increasing the :c5unhappy:unhappiness that you trigger in other civs following a different ideology from you, forcing them to switch.

This idea popped up in one of your threads, but I wonder now if it wouldn't actually be really thematic for the Kremlin/Soviet Union itself, symbolically:
Gain an embassy and open borders with civs containing your diplomat.
 
Here is another idea: how about a strategic version of the EIC? It could also pair up with another effect if it's not strong enough, like the global bonus to tank production mentioned above.
 
Ill pitch in some:

World Trade Center (o7): Generalist wonder boosting offices and yields from corporations, can only be built at corpo HQ

Motherland Calls (Order wonder is now called Kremlin which fits the espionage theme better): Turtle wonder for endgame coalitions, some combat bonus in own land, no :c5war:War exhaustion from fighting in own land, maybe bring back the Guerilla in some form if its going away

Autobahn (couldnt think of anything else for these bonuses): DomV wonder for land :c5moves:mobility through hostile and conquered land, can build roads in enemy land during war, build roads faster, faster road movement, some related military bonus

Atomium (nuclear science exhibition hall in Belgium): SV wonder that helps on the :c5production:production side, science bonuses towards Nuclear Plants, build Nuclear Plants faster, maybe a free NP or uranium

Akihabara (soft power symbol of Japan, weeb central): CV wonder giving instant GWAM points and boosts :greatwork:GW :tourism:tourism and :c5culture:culture

Palace of Nations (major UN office in Geneva, previous League of Nations HQ): DipV wonder giving free GDip(s), extra vote for every proposal you pass and have passed

One more:
Pearl Harbour (symbol of turning point towards US naval hegemony): Speeds up naval invasions, gives faster embarked movement, some bonus towards carriers, some bonus for rapid naval expansion
 
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I like the idea of restoring Kremlin to the Order Ideology wonder and moving Motherland to Atomic.

Motherland Calls was made in 67, more than 30 years after the other 2 wonders. Importantly, it is the only post-WWII wonder of the 3. It’s also a giant statue of a lady, so a bit too close to Statue of Liberty for it to also share the same tech level and free policy bonuses
 
Akademgorod (USSR, Literally Academic City)
Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant (USSR, First grid connected nuclear plant)
Calder Hall (UK, First commercial scale nuclear plant)
Aswan Dam (Egypt - Largest embankment dam)
Mostly production stuff, geopolitically Aswan was a pretty big deal at the time, the others are more obscure. Found about Calder Hall & Obninsk while googling for the first nuclear plant, I see atomic I think nuclear, I'm simple.
 
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