Splitting up Art and Artifacts

[sadv]

I propose splitting up Art and Artifacts for two reasons:

1) The normal slot building is available too late. As is, you can begin earning Artists as a tier 1 Medieval tech. However, getting slots for Art can be difficult until you get Museums at Archaeology, which is two eras later in the Industrial. In the meantime, your options are: Cathedrals, the Sistine Chapel, the Uffizi, and the Hermitage. The first one you probably won't get unless you found a religion, and even then the AI seems to like picking the faith buildings first. The next two are crap-shoots on higher difficulties, you probably won't get them unless you pop some Scientists and/or Engineers. Lastly, building the Hermitage can be painful unless you use Legalism for free Opera Houses; also, why is the Music building required for Art?

In contrast, Writers and Musicians get a building to slot their works from the same tech that unlocks their guild. It doesn't make sense that Guilds doesn't provide a building to place Art in. Maybe Firaxis was just trying to make Art work differently, but I don't think it was a good choice.

2) Artifacts are often less useful than Art. Its harder to get theme bonuses from them, as you can get many useless combinations (oh god not the barb beads!). You can't use them for theme bonuses from the Ufizzi, the Sistine Chapel, or the Hermitage. Sometimes you will wind up with a bunch of worthless Artifacts clogging up space that could be better used for Art instead.

Having Art and Artifacts taking the same slot also undermines the usefulness of the Exploration finisher. There just aren't enough slots right now to make unearthing a whole new set of Artifacts worthwhile most of the time.


What I would like to see:

1) Gallery: Unlocked at Guilds. +1 culture. 2 Art slots, same theme bonus as museum1 Art slot to put it in line with Amphitheaters and Opera Houses, replaces the Opera House as the prerequisite for Hermitage.

2) Museum: +1 culture. 2 Artifact slots. Same theme requirement.

3) British Museum: Replaces Louvre as Exploration Wonder. Unlocked at Scientific Theory. +2 culture. 3 Artifact slots. Theme requirement is foreign artifacts from different sources. Free Museum and 3 Archeologists appear.

4) Museum of Natural History: Unlocked at Plastics. Requires a Museum in each city.
+5 culture and adds 50% of science in city to culture. 3 Artifact slots. Theme requirement is artifacts from different eras.

5) Louvre: 2 Art and 2 Artifact slots. No Artifacts in Ufizzi, Sistine Chapel, Hermitage, or Cathedrals.

 

[kaspergm]

I agree with most of what you say, and I think your post is very well rounded and thorough. The only thing I'm not sure about is the Gallery having 2 Art slots. The reason for this is that currently there are no buildings giving theming bonuses so early in the game, and since the theming bonus is quite significant (effectively +50 %) I don't think we want to unlock those too early, because otherwise culture victory will come too early.

I do think it makes sense to be able to put Art in the Museum, but on the other hand it does have a certain nice aspect of tidiness to keep the two apart, so I can see the point in having two slots unless another Art building is unlocked later, less you will perhaps run out of places. Or maybe you won't - I can't even remember off-hand how many Writing and Music slots we have in general buildings in each city, and I normally don't get to fill all of those?

I *love* your idea about British Museum and National History Museum - PERFECT!

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Why can't Artifacts just be placed in University and Research Lab slots for Science (maybe some culture as well)? A Religion bonus might also be an alternate use for them.

 

[DudewiththeFood]

I like the gallery idea. Also the promotion of Britain, good to see some national pride around here. But yes, something needs to be done. Put artifacts in museums and universities, art where it is and galleries. I'd use the British museum if it wasn't called that so Smithsonian is a less location-based name. That is the Louvre/Uffizi/Broadway equivalent.

 

[Galgus]

Why can't Artifacts just be placed in University and Research Lab slots for Science (maybe some culture as well)? A Religion bonus might also be an alternate use for them.

That could be a fun idea.

What if artifacts could be placed in Temples, Universities, or Museums for different bonuses?

They would give in Temples, in Universities, and in Museums.

It would only really make sense for religiously significant artifacts to give , but I'd be fine ignoring reality for some gameplay.

 

[kaspergm]

I looked a bit into it yesterday, and good news is that almost everything in the OP is easily moddable. If I'm not mistaken splitting Artifacts and Art into two different slots is easily done, and adding the buildings would also be easy. Sucritact even posted some artwork for special Artifact slots, so while it would take a bit of extra work to get that implemented, that also seems very possible. The only thing that isn't readily done is the 50 % Culture to Science bonus for NHM, so one would probably have to come up with something different for that one (like just a plain Science bonus).

 

[kaspergm]

I'm working on a mod that does pretty much what the OP suggests. I've made pretty good progress, although I've encountered a couple of problems I still haven't wrapped my head around (one of them being a crash when I finish an archeological dig, but I need to test what the one reproduces). Another issue is that with Art and Artifacts being split into separate categories, Louvre no longer can do the mixing, and will have to be 4 Art slots.

UPDATE > Got it working thanx to a tip from the modding forum!



Now I need to work on those wonders.

 

[lockstep]

I propose splitting up Art and Artifacts for two reasons:

1) The normal slot building is available too late. [...]

2) Artifacts are often less useful than Art.

I agree with thesis no. 1, but are undecided about no. 2. I'm looking forward to kaspergm's mod which deals with both issues. However, a possibility for a "reduced" mod would be to keep art and artifacts together, but nevertheless to add a new art/artifact building ("Gallery", one slot, new prerequisite for Hermitage) at Guilds. The Opera House/Broadcast Tower combo is precedence for two buildings serving the same Great Works category.

Also, both the "comprehensive" and the "reduced" mods diminish the usefulness of the Cathedral (art slots are more abundand), so it should be buffed. I suggest to keep the art slot, but to add 2 culture, making it a 1 happiness/3 culture/1 faith building.

 

[lockstep]

I created a mod that makes slots for Great Works of Art available earlier by unlocking the Museum at Banking (plus some other changes, no buildings added): Art Buildings Tweaks (BNW).