(LOCKED) Going for Gold: Specialists

[BiteInTheMark]

Fine. Still doesn’t negate my point that it’s not a yield:yield trade. Engineers for example get you wonders worth thousands of production, and merchants get you wltkd, gold, and poverty reduction.

G

If you get an GE early, you get 150 or 200 hammers, not thousands. And you need 50 turns to get one. While you also could work a mine on hill with forge = 5 hammer... 2 more hammer for 50 turns = 100 hammer. Add 50 food cause the specialist need one more, and you have 150 yields... not that much difference to using the GE at early game.
And the more GE you get, the next will be harder and harder. For me, this looks like a reason to buff them for late game, cause in this case you need forever to get a new engineer.
Atleast buff the merchant. One village on a road gives more than a specialist, which consumes also food.

 

[wobuffet]

Perhaps some small change to make merchants more attractive/fun? Some ideas:

1. Produce to Market: Merchants inherently require 1 less Food than other Specialists (so -2 instead of -3).
2. Bigger markets = more money: Add a +0.1 GPT per Citizen in the Merchant's City (perhaps tied to a building).
3. Profit incentive gets things done: Change Merchants' base yield from 3 GPT to 2GPT+2Production per turn.
4. Entrepreneurs build commercial infrastructure: Using a Great Merchant to plant a Town adds 0.5GPT to Merchants in that City (or +1 Great Merchant point?).

 

[BiteInTheMark]

Point 2 sounds good. How would be market gives +1 gold to merchants for every 5 citizen and remove one or two of the later "+1 gold for merchants" buffs to compensate a bit?
I think most cities will have 5 or more citizen, before they build markets and unlock the merchant, which would lead to a starting value of 4.
Sounds like a great idea.

 

[Gazebo]

Perhaps some small change to make merchants more attractive/fun? Some ideas:

1. Produce to Market: Merchants inherently require 1 less Food than other Specialists (so -2 instead of -3).
2. Bigger markets = more money: Add a +0.1 GPT per Citizen in the Merchant's City (perhaps tied to a building).
3. Profit incentive gets things done: Change Merchants' base yield from 3 GPT to 2GPT+2Production per turn.
4. Entrepreneurs build commercial infrastructure: Using a Great Merchant to plant a Town adds 0.5GPT to Merchants in that City (or +1 Great Merchant point?).

New code, nope.

G

 

[BiteInTheMark]

New code, nope.

G

Like calculating the the need modifier from tech with a median of all players instead of the players one?

 

[Gazebo]

Like calculating the the need modifier from tech with a median of all players instead of the players one?

Didn't have to alter AI code for this, unlike the stuff above. Furthermore it was preexisting code that I tweaked, not 100% new code.

G

 

[BiteInTheMark]

Didn't have to alter AI code for this, unlike the stuff above. Furthermore it was preexisting code that I tweaked, not 100% new code.

G

The AI isnt able to recognize the increased value of its merchants by itself? I thought you could use the same mechanic which is increasing the yields by techor watermill.

 

[Gazebo]

The AI isnt able to recognize the increased value of its merchants by itself? I thought you could use the same mechanic which is increasing the yields by techor watermill.

AIs cannot do anything 'by themselves.' That's the whole point of programming.

G

 

[chicorbeef]

If you guys really want to buff Merchants, increasing their gold base by +1 should do the trick.

But I don't think it's necessary.

 

[tu_79]

If you guys really want to buff Merchants, increasing their gold base by +1 should do the trick.

But I don't think it's necessary.

Caravanseries boost merchant gold production. If the gold they give is still low, other buildings may do the same.

 

[Grabbl]

I don't think merchants need a buff, in many of my games, they are the most worked specialists for poverty reduction. Also, gold is the most flexible yield, so I'm happy working them.

Engineers don't get much work in my games, usually, mainly because they have a straight happiness cost (unlike the others which also reduce happiness), but they are in a good point when maximizing production or avoiding growth. In general, specialists seem well-balanced to me.