Reason that we can't pick which building to overbuild?

[BrianKindly]

I have a tile with the Amphitheater and Villa on it starting out the Exploration Age. I want to put my Temple on it but would rather overbuild the Amphitheater in order to keep the +2 influence from the Villa. It seems like there is no way for me to force it to overbuild the Amphitheater instead of the Villa causing me to lose the +2 influence, which is a rare yield and something I'd like to keep.

Any ideas why this is the case or is it something that will hopefully change in the future?

 

[queenpea]

Are you using a mod, and if so, which one?

No clue why we can't choose what we build over. I really wish we had agency here.

 

[BrianKindly]

Are you using a mod, and if so, which one?

No clue why we can't choose what we build over. I really wish we had agency here.

Thread '[List] Civ 7 Mods that make the game and UI more understandable (especially for a new player)'

Mar 11, 2025

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I dug into the mods available and found the ones that are objective improvements to the game's UI and QoL, making the game easier to understand. I thought having a list together could be helpful for other players who are discouraged by any lack of function or information. Importantly, these mods all work together...

• BrianKindly
• Replies: 37
• Forum: Civ7 - General Discussions

• 

 

[Disgustipated]

Yeah I hate when they want to overbuild my influence generating buildings at the start of the modern age. I usually try to overbuild my temples instead.

 

[Pfeffersack]

I agree that (optionally) being able to make an active choice here would be good.

For the reasons why we can't...my gut feeling is that it is probably not an intended design choice (of forcing a certain overbuild for balance or whatever reasons), but rather "not wanting to face players with a decision here" and/or "not considered/too low priority to be implemented (yet) because of the need to find an UI solution for it then".

If not generally added, a possible optional implementation would be "press key [x] during overbuilt to trigger a choice pop-up"

 

[AD1730]

For the reasons why we can't...my gut feeling is that it is probably not an intended design choice (of forcing a certain overbuild for balance or whatever reasons), but rather "not wanting to face players with a decision here" and/or "not considered/too low priority to be implemented (yet) because of the need to find an UI solution for it then".

I'm guessing you're right. If so, I don't get their reasoning here. As things currently stand, it appears that the player now has to contemplate what they'll do with a tile one or two ages from where they are currently. Rather than allowing players to choose what they overbuild later, they're effectively confronting the player with the decision earlier in the game when they lack adequate information to know what the right choice is. Not very good design, if you ask me.

 

[Krikkit1]

Yeah I hate when they want to overbuild my influence generating buildings at the start of the modern age. I usually try to overbuild my temples instead.

I think the solution to this may be to have obsolete buildings generate 0 influence if they generate any other yield ie remove most of the reason to prefer one over the other.

 

[BrianKindly]

It feels like you should be able to just hit a key and this yellow marker showing which building will be overbuilt, just swaps to the other.

Intuitively I tried the "shift" key thinking it would be a thing you could switch/choose.

 

[Willie5000]

Does it matter? You’re gonna want to build over both anyways.

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

Does it matter? You’re gonna want to build over both anyways.

Influence is hard to come by, keeping as many sources of it as possible can definitely be worth it.

 

[StargazingDog]

Does it matter? You’re gonna want to build over both anyways.

This realization really hit me in my current game. You really don't want to waste happiness on old buildings. I was often hesitant to build over my library or monument or whatever. Now I accept that there is always something better to place there. Two gold and two happiness for a measly 2 research or influence is not worth it when you could have so much more from a modern building. It makes a huge difference when you have specialists.

 

[Krikkit1]

This realization really hit me in my current game. You really don't want to waste happiness on old buildings. I was often hesitant to build over my library or monument or whatever. Now I accept that there is always something better to place there. Two gold and two happiness for a measly 2 research or influence is not worth it when you could have so much more from a modern building. It makes a huge difference when you have specialists.

Influence is a bit of an exception since there is a definite limit and it never gets adjacency (which obsolete buildings lose.. but the influence on an obsolete building is basically as good as on a new one because neither has adjacency)

 

[Yzman]

Influence is a bit of an exception since there is a definite limit and it never gets adjacency (which obsolete buildings lose.. but the influence on an obsolete building is basically as good as on a new one because neither has adjacency)

Plus it increases through the ages so that old monument is giving you like 3 per turn, which adds up.

 

[Taefin]

I now always put my influence buildings together somewhere with terrible adjacencies, even though they loose out in the age they are built, so I can keep them all game, and often in the city center although you loose out on an easy permanent quarter with a warehouse there.

I am torn, but I think giving the player complete freedom to overbuild either obsolete building AND contemporary buildings and warehouses (likely with a confirmation popup) will make the game more enjoyable. Currently I always regret my warehouse placement since I cannot (and/or refuse to) predict my wonders 300 turns in the future. No matter where I put them it becomes obvious 50 turns later I screwed up, often exactly where I was a unique quarter.

 

[AriochIV]

My guess is that it's a UI simplification, part of the dumbing-down of the UI for mobile/console.

 

[Elhoim]

My guess is that it's a UI simplification, part of the dumbing-down of the UI for mobile/console.

It feels also there's a design intent of hiding the loss of yields, so that the players always feels they are earning stuff instead of losing it.

 

[marius_kaparius]

It feels also there's a design intent of hiding the loss of yields, so that the players always feels they are earning stuff instead of losing it.

Ooh, I cringe if that is true. The entire point of the decision making in these types of games is trade-offs - how does that help?

 

[Elhoim]

Ooh, I cringe if that is true. The entire point of the decision making in these types of games is trade-offs - how does that help?

Well, it's just pure speculation on my part, but from my dev experience a vast majority of players have a strong aversion at seeing negative numbers on screen, or get decision paralysis if there are many different numbers and possibilities. So I wouldn't put it past a big AAA release on PC and consoles to try and avoid backlash from there.

 

[evonannoredars]

Ooh, I cringe if that is true. The entire point of the decision making in these types of games is trade-offs - how does that help?

I don't think there really are any significant trade-offs when it comes to overbuilding, with the exception of influence buildings - the yields lost when overbuilding are so small it doesn't really matter what is being overbuilt imo.

 

[Krikkit1]

I don't think there really are any significant trade-offs when it comes to overbuilding, with the exception of influence buildings - the yields lost when overbuilding are so small it doesn't really matter what is being overbuilt imo.

Which is why I think the likely solution will be just removing influence from obsolete buildings.