Useless vs. Must-Have City Improvements

[chickensaver]

Which city improvements do you usually build?/Not build?
(consider an average city)
I've always been caught in paying too much in maintenance.

 

[Kool Keith]

Hate to say it but....it depends.

It depends on what your goal for the game is.

It depends on how much gold and/or beakers the city is producing.

It depends on how many lux's you have.

And much, much more.

I can say that if you are caught paying too much in maintenance you are possibly either using the wrong government (monarchy) or are building improvements that ultimately are not "improving" anything.

 

[Sashie VII]

Even if they do improve something, it might not be necessary. For instance, if you have a size twelve city, eight happy and four are sad then you don't need to build a colosseum in it.

 

[Kool Keith]

If this helps, in a warmonger game I never build banks, colosseums, cathedrals, and only rarely do I build temples. Only build libraries if you have enough beakers per turn in a town/city to make sure that 50% is getting you something. Even then, it still may not be worth it if you already are outresearching the AI. Markets are built more for the happiness than the GPT. If you are jacking up you tech slider, you do not benefit from any GPT because it is all going to research. So only build markets if you are either using a low-research strategy or if you have at least a couple of lux's so that you get enough happy faces to make a difference.

 

[Sashie VII]

A market makes no difference for happiness with only a couple of lux. Even if you're outresearching the AI, you might still want libraries if you're doing research on your own so that you get those Knights faster, or cavs a bit earlier.

Oh, and IMO warmongering needs banks.

 

[AznWarlord]

Walls are useless, towns grow to cities like mold. Unless your town is in a desert for incense or something, then that's different. I prefer the Colosseum over church and cathedral, and I usually build the market and banks for the load of cash I get back. I never research literature though (it's optional) so I never go the library-univ way.

 

[Sashie VII]

Walls can be useful/useless depending on the situation at hand.

Cathedral gives you more content faces for the same maintainance. Add in Sistine and colosseum just goes into the corner.

 

[AznWarlord]

Yeah but remember, Cathedrals need way more shields, if I remember correctly. It's a medieval age building opposed to the ancient age colosseum.

 

[Sashie VII]

It's a medieval age building opposed to the ancient age colosseum.

It's only one tech later and for the extra contentment it gives, I'd go the extra 40 shields anytime

And if you're religious, it's 80 shields for cath vs 120 col.

 

[Desertsnow]

Yeah. I'm a nigh-fanatical builder myself, but I only very rarely build colosseums anymore, except maybe as a prebuild item for something more useful.

 

[darski]

along this line, I do build most items in the list - cuz I like to build stuff.

In a game I was just playing, i was pushing every culture trick in the book to try to bump some Germans to my side. I managed to get a bottleneck that stopped them dead from any expansion and I don't want them wanting my land, Because of that, I was building coliseums which I don't normally build. Are they likely to put that final push on. (My culture advisor assures me that this is so

 

[Pyrrhos]

You don't really need the collosseum until you reach metropolis size and sometimes not even then.

 

[Aceman101]

You only need it if the city is having serious problems with civil disorder.

 

[greygamer]

I never research literature though (it's optional) so I never go the library-univ way.

I like libraries as they increase your research and increase your borders as well. There are otherways to deal with unhappiness so I go for them if and when. Colloseums get a bad reputation but sometimes you need the extra lux and cathedrals are a way off, especially if you don't have any libraries.

 

[Sashie VII]

Well to be fair, it's not that I don't build colosseums ever. But they can wait till I get to hospitals.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

In order from most to least usefull.

Aquaduct
Barracks
Granary
Harbor
Marketplace
Factory
Library
Courthouse
University
ResearchLab
Temple
Bank
Cathedral
Colloseum
City Walls

 

[MAS]

@WackenOpenAir: You forgot about the coastal fortress.

(can't blame you though)

EDIT: Thinking about it..
Your list lacks the hospital too.
And the commercial dock, stock exchange, power plant/nuke plant, offshore platform, and even even more I couldn't think off at the moment//

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Indeed, i just made it from the top of my head and didn't include buildings that i never even got to consider building. (the bottom 4 of that list i only considered in my first 3 games when i really didn't know what i was doing yet)

That is not to say all buildings i didn't mention are useless, it is just so rare to get to the modern age. I may have forgotten more of em. Powerplants are not included because of hoover dam. I never played trough industrial without getting it.

Hospitals are normally also not worth consideration because if they would be, your city placement sucks.

 

[Norton II]

Markets are built more for the happiness than the GPT. If you are jacking up you tech slider, you do not benefit from any GPT because it is all going to research. So only build markets if you are either using a low-research strategy or if you have at least a couple of lux's so that you get enough happy faces to make a difference.

Can't competely agree with that. After you switch to republic, especially if you do it as early as possible, you'll be hurting for cash and might have to take the research slider down quite a bit (in a deity game I'm playing now, I was losing money with research at zero and lux just high enough to keep my cities from rioting, but that doesn't happen to me often). Markets might give you enough gold to move the slider up, so they can help indirectly with research at that point in the game. Also, even if you don't have many or any luxes, your neighbors probably do, so markets will become more useful after you take those luxes.

 

[Pyrrhos]

@WackenOpenAir:

* A river has the same effect as an aqueduct, has no construction cost and zero upkeep
* You only need a granary for your settler factory/-ies
* You only need barracks for your warrior/spearma,... ...modern armour factories
* Harbours are essential once you go overseas as a harbour means you benefit from all your luxuries and have access to all your resorces...
* A courthouse will double your production at max corruption. Add a police station and you produce three shields, not one, per turn --> Forbidden Palace in 67 instead of 200 turns...
* Temples are just as useful as libraries in pushing out your borders and will help in beating corruption by WLTKD, something libraries don't do