Tangible Culture Benefits:
I thought the idea in Civ 3 where certain Great Wonders could become tourist attractions that generate revenue was pretty cool and I suggest that the developers should extend the idea to cultural city improvements. This would make high culture more effective than simply defining borders and as a possible victory condition. They could also apply the tourism mechanism to provide other benefits (such as science and reduced corruption) in addition to gold.
To illustrate my thinking I will use the existing cultural buildings as examples:
Over time (e.g. after 1000 years) temples & cathedrals could generate gold for tourism because these beautiful buildings make the city a more attractive place & add a rich, distinctive, historical element to the city which makes the city more appealing to tourists. In addition, these improvements could generate science beakers because temples & cathedrals have served as repositories of knowledge in the past and they have set up schools and charities to improve (and increase access to) education. Similarly cathedrals and temples could reduce corruption over time, which would represent their role in promoting responsible, civic behaviour and in setting up charities that seek to help the most vulnerable groups in society which has the effect of providing alternatives to crime.
Libraries, universities, and research labs could produce significant quantities of bonus science beakers over time, which would represent these improvements becoming long-established Centres of Excellence, which have produced a long list of great minds and innovations and have acquired vast quantities of accumulated knowledge and prestige and therefore they attract the best academics from around the world, which distinguishes these institutions from similar, less established ones in other cities.
Coliseums were a bit tricky because they are far narrower in scope and seem very closely associated with the Romans (although the improvement suddenly changes into a sports stadium in Industrial Times). I personally interpret coliseums as the creation of facilities for mass entertainment such as sports stadiums, theatres, concert halls, opera houses etc in which case this improvement could generate large amounts of tourism income over time as these various entertainments would attract tourists.
This idea would be simple and straightforward to implement by the programmers as it is merely an extension of something that already exists in Civ 3 (they could simply extend the options in the editor). It would also require no extra micromanagement by the player as the computer would upgrade the city improvements automatically as it does now with the Wonders. But this simple suggestion would provide a strong incentive to build cultural improvements early and reward the Civs that make the effort to generate a strong culture.
Any thoughts and suggestions, either constructive or critical are most welcome.
I thought the idea in Civ 3 where certain Great Wonders could become tourist attractions that generate revenue was pretty cool and I suggest that the developers should extend the idea to cultural city improvements. This would make high culture more effective than simply defining borders and as a possible victory condition. They could also apply the tourism mechanism to provide other benefits (such as science and reduced corruption) in addition to gold.
To illustrate my thinking I will use the existing cultural buildings as examples:
Over time (e.g. after 1000 years) temples & cathedrals could generate gold for tourism because these beautiful buildings make the city a more attractive place & add a rich, distinctive, historical element to the city which makes the city more appealing to tourists. In addition, these improvements could generate science beakers because temples & cathedrals have served as repositories of knowledge in the past and they have set up schools and charities to improve (and increase access to) education. Similarly cathedrals and temples could reduce corruption over time, which would represent their role in promoting responsible, civic behaviour and in setting up charities that seek to help the most vulnerable groups in society which has the effect of providing alternatives to crime.
Libraries, universities, and research labs could produce significant quantities of bonus science beakers over time, which would represent these improvements becoming long-established Centres of Excellence, which have produced a long list of great minds and innovations and have acquired vast quantities of accumulated knowledge and prestige and therefore they attract the best academics from around the world, which distinguishes these institutions from similar, less established ones in other cities.
Coliseums were a bit tricky because they are far narrower in scope and seem very closely associated with the Romans (although the improvement suddenly changes into a sports stadium in Industrial Times). I personally interpret coliseums as the creation of facilities for mass entertainment such as sports stadiums, theatres, concert halls, opera houses etc in which case this improvement could generate large amounts of tourism income over time as these various entertainments would attract tourists.
This idea would be simple and straightforward to implement by the programmers as it is merely an extension of something that already exists in Civ 3 (they could simply extend the options in the editor). It would also require no extra micromanagement by the player as the computer would upgrade the city improvements automatically as it does now with the Wonders. But this simple suggestion would provide a strong incentive to build cultural improvements early and reward the Civs that make the effort to generate a strong culture.
Any thoughts and suggestions, either constructive or critical are most welcome.
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