@Ahriman
Consider the Granary change I made two years ago. They used to have only one purpose:
I gave them three purposes:
- Food bonus
- Improve resources
- Discourages infinite-city-spam (more efficient to place 1 granary for 2 resources than 2 for 2)
These "blurred" roles mean we may get Granaries because we need the food,
or because we have lots of the resources nearby. Granaries have a variable value combining both of the two factors. It depends on circumstances of the game and terrain. This makes it more challenging to analyze how useful the granary is for a specific situation, which means it rewards our skill at considering the multiple complex factors. I talk about this subject some more in the
main project goal thread.
In short, it has several strong advantages:
- More complex
- More challenging
- Rewards skill
I've been following this overall game design philosophy for two years, and Firaxis added things like this to the base game (such as the Granary change), so I feel it's a well-proven method to make the game more fun.
I'm a visual thinker, so I picture the "blurred roles" concept with the graph below. The original granary was on the left side of the scale: it was the best choice
only if we needed more food, and it was the
only early building choice to raise our food in most cities (second part is why I added Aqueducts). Now it's in the center of the scale: good for both food and improving resources, and there are two choices to raise our food. This is more complex and challenging, which I feel makes the game more enjoyable.