I have one last pair of Wonders that I want to post before I start pulling everything together and merging for a final build. This is a pair of road-building wonders: the Via Appia and the Golden Spike.
Here's my reasoning for including both of these:
Via Appia's primary effect is to lay down a Paved Roads network connecting all your cities. This sounds like a powerful effect, but I think it's muted a little bit because of the relative sizes of empires in the mid-Classical Era and that it requires both City Planning and Construction to build. If you get Construction first and start laying down Paved Roads, then Via Appia will wind up not doing as much. Via Appia uses Python to count back and forth between your cities and lay down the shortest possible road path between them. After the Via is built, it provides a little culture and GPP as all Wonders do, and it also provides +50% trade route income, which I will admit is somewhat of a placeholder effect and we can find something else for it to do once we settle on what Trade Routes wind up becoming.
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The Golden Spike lays down a Transcontinental Railroad on completion. What this translates to is that it will identify the west-most and east-most points on the building city's continent and connect them by rail to the building city. The tricky part of this is that map coordinates aren't enough if the continent wraps around the map edge; I was able to code for if it wraps around one edge, but a very artificial continent (like an S-shape that goes off both edges) won't quite work; the railroad will stop at the map edge. On the other hand, it will create a globe-circling railway on a map that is almost all land (like the Great Plains script). I am very interested in seeing saved games on maps where the Spike doesn't quite do what is expected.
After the Spike is built, it carries the idea of "Manifest Destiny" and "taming the wilderness"; it increases Worker speed by 25% (I might increase it to 50%) and 50% faster production of Pioneers (since they are already available) and Workers.
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Here's my reasoning for including both of these:
- I'm moving Mining Inc from Railroad to Explosives. I think Explosives is a better fit and gives Explosives a nice broad range of content attached. This leaves Railroad as a one-trick-pony tech (the Railroad improvement) and it needs something else; therefore, the Golden Spike.
- I hate to do anything only once and prefer things in pairs, trios, or otherwise linked. I think Via Appia serves as a neat precursor to the Spike.
Via Appia's primary effect is to lay down a Paved Roads network connecting all your cities. This sounds like a powerful effect, but I think it's muted a little bit because of the relative sizes of empires in the mid-Classical Era and that it requires both City Planning and Construction to build. If you get Construction first and start laying down Paved Roads, then Via Appia will wind up not doing as much. Via Appia uses Python to count back and forth between your cities and lay down the shortest possible road path between them. After the Via is built, it provides a little culture and GPP as all Wonders do, and it also provides +50% trade route income, which I will admit is somewhat of a placeholder effect and we can find something else for it to do once we settle on what Trade Routes wind up becoming.
View attachment 378740View attachment 378741
The Golden Spike lays down a Transcontinental Railroad on completion. What this translates to is that it will identify the west-most and east-most points on the building city's continent and connect them by rail to the building city. The tricky part of this is that map coordinates aren't enough if the continent wraps around the map edge; I was able to code for if it wraps around one edge, but a very artificial continent (like an S-shape that goes off both edges) won't quite work; the railroad will stop at the map edge. On the other hand, it will create a globe-circling railway on a map that is almost all land (like the Great Plains script). I am very interested in seeing saved games on maps where the Spike doesn't quite do what is expected.
After the Spike is built, it carries the idea of "Manifest Destiny" and "taming the wilderness"; it increases Worker speed by 25% (I might increase it to 50%) and 50% faster production of Pioneers (since they are already available) and Workers.
View attachment 378742View attachment 378743
with the routes wonders!
from Priest. This is in addition to its current effects. Right now, Bach feels like a weak version of Notre Dame. This will make it more of a cross between Notre Dame and Sistine Chapel. On a second note, I also want to move Bach's expiration up to Mass Media. Wonders should get at least two full eras of effectiveness to compensate for the effort it takes to build them.
. Bauhaus School is supposed to hybridize Artists and Engineers. The Artist works fine with +1 hammer, but I'd be much happier with giving Engineers culture instead of commerce.
from Engineer. This replaces the current +1
from Scientist. Edison is supposed to help Engineers, not Scientists.
and +2
for priests.
in City, +1 
