Plus Ultra - I think you both adapt to what you find and search for good spots for specialized cities. If you start in the middle of a landmass you won't plan for a strong navy. You'll use what you have. You'll also want to spread to different kinds of terrain.
I get that, I'm just trying to wrap my head around the new system. I'll limit my rambling to wonders, since that is the goal of this thread. I'm perfectly aware we don't know how the new systems work, and the numbers and prequisites could be changed, please bear with me.
I see myself losing control over the techs, buildings, districts and wonders I wan't to build becouse of the new system. Again, I'm not sure that is necessarily bad.
In the case of techs and districts, we just lose bonuses for not using the terrain, which is... good I guess?. But, in the case of wonders, there are restrictions in place that make building them impossible, and they seem fairly common.
With the current information, I'm starting to wonder whether the new system could end up reducing options for the player and creating an optimal path for specializing each location we settle in.
In other words, if rather than expanding withing an area close to my capital and imposing my "empire-design" on the terrain, with the new system my only choices are:
-Accept that the terrain close to me is going to dictate the wonders I can build (and therefore, at least partially, how I focus/design my empire).
-Search for optimal terrain for my strategy/design, which could be far, far away and require forward settling and wierd city placement.
Just ignore me If all this rambling sounds like nonsense to you, it probably is.
The only hard requirement for Venetial Arsenal is an industrial district near shore. You're going to have a shore city with industrial district anyway if you plan to have strong navy. So, this one don't look like an issue.
Look at the Mahabodhi Temple:
-Must be built on wood
-Adjacent to a holy site district
-Pre-built Temple in the holy site
-You must have found a religion
Now, let's imagine you are 100% focused on faith and wan't to build 3 out of 4 religious wonders in your holy city, and imagine the prequisites for each one look something like those...
Overall looking at the requirements, I have a feeling what on standard+ map sizes, nearly always there will be at least 2-3 civs racing for each wonder, so it's interesting. Less race, but still race.
I have no idea if 2-3 civs (out of 8, right?) is reasonable or not. But, 2/8 civs racing for a wonder means that you, as a player, might be out of the race for 3/4 of the wonders, and that sounds quite wierd, right?