Observatories

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Observatories can only be built near Mountain tile(s).

But if you own the Polynesia Scenario you might notice that because of the nature of the Scneario they changed the requirement to Oceans. So, I was thiniking...

Doesn't it make sense that Observatories should be placed where there's lack of "clutter"? I mean, my idea is that if a city has either that a snow tile / an a lot of ocean tiles (it's more or less a island) or a mountain tile that an Observatory can be built there?

Doesn't that make sense? To some extent :/

 

[FeiLing]

Well there sure is some advantage in high altitude observatories I don't really understand. Another advantage though is the absence of civilization and therefore light. That however could also be realized in deserts or to some extend also forests. In fact, there are observatories in deserts for real, the majority however is build as high as possible.

I was never really fan of the observatory in civ 5 usually being built maybe 0.5 times per game, as I simply don't have mountains near cities all the time, unless I specifically chose to do so and sacrifice productivity elsewhere for it.

What changes I'd like for civ 5:
Mountain within range 2 should be enough for an observatory... no real reason for it being range 1. Range 2 is even more realistic actually.

Or: An observatory could be build upon availability of one of the following tiles, which would affects it's efficiency, for e.g.:
Flat Desert - 20%
Improved Hill (Trading Post/Mine) - 30%
Unimproved Hill - 40 %
Mountain - 50%

More options/choices like this seem very appealing to me (not talking about balance here).

 

[buchengshi]

What does "clutter" have to do with observatories?

What would make more sense is not having observatories in cities, siince that's one of the worst places to build one.

Edit: I hate when someone else makes a better post while I'm working on mine.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

What does "clutter" have to do with observatories?

What would make more sense is not having observatories in cities, siince that's one of the worst places to build one.

Edit: I hate when someone else makes a better post while I'm working on mine.

I belive this count towards you "Seriously??" Achievement xD

I dunno, I just meant clutter as in stuff that would make it hard for observatories.. i.e light. I don't know why I thought of grassland areas as a clutter :/ (including forests -.- )

 

[King_Course]

Observatories are build in high altitude to avoid the atmosphere breaking the light and distorting or blurring the images. In Civ you can´t build on a mountaintop, so instead this necessity is emulated by only being able to build in cities adjacent to mountains. You need to roleplay that the observatory is on the mountain top, like Machu Picchu.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

there is an observatory in Los Angeles, the Griffith Observatory. It has elevation, certainly, but it also has LA and it's smog and potential light problems. I think they could/should relax the 'right next to a mountain' requirement.

i dont have Polynesia yet (will get it from the steam sale), but i always thought they should have a significant science construct or tech bonus to reflect Marine Biology, and not just getting The Great Barrier Reef in you territory. Something like all worked sea luxuries (whale/pearls) provide 2 beakers or something, but not until late industrial or early modern eras.

 

[Glassmage]

Lick Observatory in Northern California is built on Mt.Hamilton, the highest point in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was up there to do research on globular star cluster and you could see San Jose and SF. It's really amazing and make sense that observatory can only be built in city next to mountain.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Lick Observatory in Northern California is built on Mt.Hamilton, the highest point in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was up there to do research on globular star cluster and you could see San Jose and SF. It's really amazing and make sense that observatory can only be built in city next to mountain.

Are there any Observatories that are placed in desreted areas (like in pacific ocean/tropical islands) or deserts, or even snow (like Antarctica) that are still low (not high) areas.

 

[bonafide11]

It's for gameplay mechanics. If you were able to have observatories in every city, the research rate would be way too fast. Instead they want to make them a rare building that you can't build often.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

It's for gameplay mechanics. If you were able to have observatories in every city, the research rate would be way too fast. Instead they want to make them a rare building that you can't build often.

Obviously the logical thing would be to reduce the amount of research rate it provides (instead of 50%).

 

[bonafide11]

Obviously the logical thing would be to reduce the amount of research rate it provides (instead of 50%).

That would just make the Observatory into yet another science building without anything unique about it. Instead it's nice to have a unique building that can't be built in every city which helps you specialize cities. It's nice to have buildings that can't be built in every city to make them more unique than other cities.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

i think it should be within two tiles, not right next to it. LA is a very spread out city with lots of burbs and absorbed surrounding towns for the metro area. Their observatory doesnt really require being near downtown.

at most ive only had 3 observatories in my empires. only two of them were really big bonuses. but one was like a 50% bonus on 25 science when i was in the 400's. not really a game changer on that one when techs cost 3000+ beakers. put that within two tiles and people still will only have them in 3-4 cities, it will just be more often. Only Korea could really abuse it. but also you could have diminishing returns on it. 50% for the first one, 40% for the next, all the way to 10 to really hinder any interest in building a lot of them.

plus it might change the value of GP to being better than RAs. would inspire a new set of strategies and debates. at the very least it might be interesting.

 

[headcase]

This is a little out of the box, but maybe there could be a worker improvement that can only be built in tundra and gives science and possibly some gold, but the improvement requires a fairly late tech (or not as late, but another later tech increases the yield of the improvement so it's more practical). There could also be another science improvement requiring a future tech that can only be placed on snow.

 

[joncnunn]

In addition to Mountains, Natural Wonders also count for building the observatory.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

This is a little out of the box, but maybe there could be a worker improvement that can only be built in tundra and gives science and possibly some gold, but the improvement requires a fairly late tech (or not as late, but another later tech increases the yield of the improvement so it's more practical). There could also be another science improvement requiring a future tech that can only be placed on snow.

Refigeration strikes me as being able to do that...

 

[Zaimejs]

I do think that they could make a graphic that would work on a mountain tile. I mean, it's 2012. You'd think graphic designers could make an "observatory" tile, right? It might be cool to have other tiles like that in the game that expand beyond the city when needed.

 

[Nevyn]

Obviously you build all expensive high tech far away so that James Bond and his current ivul nemesis can't use it as drama/action platform and have it be blown up as if it was made out of gasoline. Well, they always manage to find those places and do it, but it shouldn't be easy! =)