What would make the wonders wonderful?

[thecrazyscot]

Here is a full list of the world wonders and their current bonuses. In the spoiler tags I've included some of the lore from the civilopedia regarding each wonder. Personally, I think they are a mixed bag, with some wonders being pretty useful, and others being pretty useless - even after the update.

This is my philosophy when it comes to wonders:
1. Wonders should provide a substantial return on investment
2. Wonders should give you an advantage (i.e. a player who is unable to build the wonder should be bummed)
3. Wonders should not be REQUIRED for victory
4. Wonders should either provide a one-time large advantage or a smaller over-time advantage

So, what do you think the wonders should be? Maybe we could even come out with a community patch for the wonders...who knows. Personally, I'd love to see some wonders that require certain affinity levels.

My current ideas for the wonders:

Spoiler :

Cost pass on all wonders (in general make them all cheaper).

Ansible --
Current: affinity XP is gained 25% faster
Proposed: no changes

Archimedes Lever --
Current: enemy units within 2 tiles of this city suffer 10 attrition damage each turn
Proposed: +10 geothermal, 10 attrition

Armasail --
Current: city suffers 50% less damage from ranged attacks
Proposed: free global infantry unit promotion +15% strength when defending, city suffers 25% less damage from ranged attacks

Bytegeist --
Current: virtue tier synergy bonus requirements are reduced by 1
Proposed: no changes

Crawler --
Current: +25% production for buildings and wonders
Proposed: +50% production in this city

Cynosure --
Current: +1 science per 3 population in this city
Proposed: +1 science per 4 population in every city (can be achieved by granting a free building in every city when the wonder is built)

Daedalus Ladder --
Current: +10% culture, food, energy, science, and production
Proposed: no changes

Deep Memory --
Current: +1 culture per 3 population in this city
Proposed: +1 culture per 4 population in every city

Drone Sphere --
Current: workers and explorers work 50% faster
Proposed: no changes

Ectogenesis Pod --
Current: +1 food per 4 population in this city
Proposed: +1 population in every city

Gene Vault --
Current: all new cities start with a free worker unit
Proposed: no change

Holon Chamber --
Current: gain science income equal to 10% of global energy income
Proposed: Supremacy unique wonder. Buff to 15%

Human Hive --
Current: city immune to covert operations
Proposed: Specialists' primary yields increased by 3

Markov Eclipse --
Current: military units fight at full strength even when damaged
Proposed: no changes

Mass Driver --
Current: city strike range +1 and 25% city strength
Proposed: no changes

Master Control --
Current: free maintenance and +1 movement for workers
Proposed: no changes

Memetwork --
Current: affinity level requirements for units, buildings and wonders are reduced by 1
Proposed: +2 free virtues

Nanothermite --
Current: ranged, air, and city strike attacks are 25% stronger
Proposed: no changes

New Terran Myth --
Current: +2 Culture from Trade Routes
Proposed: +2 culture from Old Earth Relics, +2 veterancy levels for military units. Purity unique wonder

Panopticon --
Current: all military units receive +1 sight
Proposed: no changes

Precog Project --
Current: military units can achieve two additional levels of veterancy
Proposed: Soldiers trained in this city gain 1 extra attack and can move after attacking

Promethean --
Current: city no longer produces unhealth
Proposed: no changes

Quantum Computer --
Current: free maintenance and +50% duration for orbital units
Proposed: 2 free technologies

Resurrection Device --
Current: benefits from positive health levels increased by 50%
Proposed: no changes

Stellar Codex --
Current: +8 Orbital Coverage range
Proposed: +1 science and +1 culture from Arrays.

Tectonic Anvil --
Current: +5 Production from Canyons
Proposed: no changes

Xenodrome --
Current: provides a small positive influence to alien opinion each turn, and negative alien opinion recovers twice as quickly
Proposed: +2 food from Miasma. Harmony unique wonder.

Xenomalleum --
Current: +5 petroleum, titanium, and geothermal resources
Proposed: +10 petroleum and +10 titanium

Xenonova --
Current: penalties from negative health levels reduced by 50%
Proposed: +3% health per population from Pharmalabs

--------------------
Ansible -- affinity XP is gained 25% faster

Spoiler :

As mundane as we find FTL communications in this era, the ability to instantaneously transmit information - any information, from the grandest political statements to the most intimate personal whispers - utterly transformed colonial society. Bringing a new definition to the old trope of “always on,” progress in every aspect of cultural and social development leapt forward with the vastly increased connectivity. Societies blessed with Ansible terminals seemingly overnight became blessed with greater understanding, greater industry, and greater compassion, and quickly took a position on the vanguard of social progress and human evolution.

Archimedes Lever -- enemy units within 2 tiles of this city suffer 10 attrition damage each turn

Spoiler :

But none of these could compare to the Archimedes Lever. In addition to possessing the most energetic seismic resonator batteries ever developed, its huge size allowed it to focus over much longer distances. It was also fortuitously situated on a region of highly crystalized substrate, which mitigated energy dissipation over range. Coupled with detailed surveys of the terrain within kilometers, the Archimedes Lever could bring energy to bear on the terrain comparable to the effects of fission weapons. Its crew was an elite cadre of scientists and soldiers, officially known as the Special Planetary Research Division. The diamond cluster of their badge is made of stones the Lever dredged up from the deep interior of the planet.

While the military applications of this device are now legendary (the Battle of Slurry Hill is a representative example), little attention is paid to the geoscience discoveries made while the device was being tested and constructed. For example, the Archimedes Lever was the first tool that allowed direct sampling of the outer core.

Armasail -- city suffers 50% less damage from ranged attacks

Spoiler :

An Armasail garment is studded with countless microsensors that respond and react to sudden shocks or disturbances and stiffen the cloth to resist. A diaphanous veil of Armasail can easily resist punctures by railgun slugs or the fragmentation of an artillery shell. An Armasail shirt can resist cutting by grayblades or fractal knives. Even when it fails to protect, it is usually the result of the microsensor array breaking down rather than a fault of the fabric itself.

Bytegeist -- virtue tier synergy bonus requirements are reduced by 1

Spoiler :

Bytegeist developmental history. Bytegeist is a revolutionary step beyond cultural archives and personal assistant intelligences to create the first true social network prosthesis. Unlike previous systems, Bytegeist acts in real time, across many agents, synthesizing, analyzing, and disseminating information all to make its users' lives easier. Did you know you accessed Bytegeist 233 times yesterday? Did you know you were only directing 28 of those inquiries? Bytegeist anticipated the rest! Cross index to subroutines.

Crawler -- +25% production for buildings and wonders

Spoiler :

The projects undertaken by the Crawler and its list of records are most impressive. The Crawler laid the foundation for the Xenomalleum, bored the deepest and most efficient geothermal wells (many of which are still in operation today), and laid the Camino Paracoastal by itself in under a year. It marched to the front lines during the Toshe Station War to turn out cavalry units which were sent to a combat front less than six clicks away. Crews reported that they could still feel the forge heat in the metal as they drove into combat.

Cynosure -- +1 science per 3 population in this city

Spoiler :

Cynosure's metacognition demonstrably spans multiple universes, and may perturb events in multiple polycosms. Reflected echoes of its processing can be detected in electron disturbances on distant worlds, possibly even on Earth itself. It is Maximally Strange on the Bazzell Scale of non-human behavior - possessing recognizable sentience and manifesting this sentience only through symbolic manipulation. It is physically foreboding, the black quasicrystalline slabs of its arrays making no sounds, alternating between heat and chill, the occasional tracery of electrical activity playing just below the surface. Its interface to this world is a neurosymbolic terminal system whose complexity is far beyond the Markov Eclipse. The Operators who serve Cynosure must be selected at a young age and conditioned over years to the Cynosure's symbolic language before they are first permitted to attempt interface with Cynosure's immense, ponderous, and cold intelligence.

Daedalus Ladder -- +10% culture, food, energy, science, and production

Spoiler :

Observe now the facility where the Ladder was first implemented, preserved as we have left it, now that we need no machine to bring Humanity along the Ladder. Is it not strange, that a single species could uplift itself so profoundly? We can, if we wish, experience the limitations of old humanity - and we know it to be a confining, haunted existence. But we pay it homage, for without our ancestors, we would not hold this galaxy as our birthright.

Deep Memory -- +1 culture per 3 population in this city

Spoiler :

Deep Memory is a system that links the entire corpus and its metacommentary, extrapolates on the social conditions at the time the works were written, and then creates brain maps which can simulate the period in question. When a patron accesses Deep Memory, they can access a highly plausible and accurate simulacrum of the original creation of the work. One can, for example, see Shakespeare's plays performed in a Globe Theater, by the original actors. One can listen to blind Homer recite the Iliad in the original Greek, understand him, and appreciate the beauty of the work without the degradation of time and translation. One can experience a videogame of Civilization, on a personal computer, at 4 o'clock in the morning. Deep Memory provides context and depth of understanding that is the work of centuries of human development, and which was previously only accessible to experts.

Drone Sphere -- workers and explorers work 50% faster

Spoiler :

Precursors of the Drone Sphere must have existed on pre-Mistake Earth, as those cultures possessed the necessary resources and rudimentary AI to build limited versions of these. With a new world's resources and the sophistication of networked neourban facilitators the true Drone Sphere became a reality. The control towers themselves became architecture, the silent and unmoving fingers which cast the spell that sent this flying hive to life. But the true heart of the Drone Sphere was the Langstroth Frame, where the racked AI cells directed assemblers to construct and repair drones, as they conferred with each other on new ways to optimize the lives of their human masters.

And what a reality for those living within it! Automated servitors filled the sky, laden with goods or garbage, replacing and repairing and upgrading in a seamless symphonic hum of rotors and servoarms. Trash was taken out and drinks refilled, all with nothing more than an idle request aired to the listening AI. And the ancillary benefits for security! Anomalous actions were instantly detected and handled, and then reported to the masters. Who could forget the time an arboriformer performed an improvised cephalotomy on a trio of agents?

Ectogenesis Pod -- +1 food per 4 population in this city

Spoiler :

The Ectogenesis Pods are truly a wonder of their era, combining sophisticated genetic storehouses and recombinators with the first true Lotaxl tanks, all housed in a structure designed to insulate the developing creatures within from errant radiation, planetary contaminants, and marauding armies. From within the Ectogenesis Pods came forth new herds of animals for planetary Colonists, cures for microorganism-based diseases, and not infrequently, workers for the planetary colonies themselves.

Gene Vault -- All new cities start with a free worker unit.

Spoiler :

Given the expense and difficulty of Seeding with the limited resources of Earth, it is unsurprising that most expeditions carried with them genetic libraries of Earth's species of plants and animals. It is likely that at least one Seeding attempt included actual genetic samples, not simply records.

The Gene Vault is a wonder of the first days of planetfall, a structure whose architecture is undeniably terran, not only in its shape but in the materials used in its construction. Within its walls were likely cryogenic banks, the only technology available at the time to reliably store genetic material without damage.

Holon Chamber -- gain science income equal to 10% of global energy income

Spoiler :

The immense, spherical structure of brilliant white transceramic commanded the landscape, and contemporary scientists remarked that it either created a feeling of optimism or profound unease set against the landscape of the new planet. Its generators spanned hectares around the structure with power feeds whose current distorted the planet's magnetic field observably. Its operational AI was repurposed from a military battlefield integrator, and its simulational/analytical AI was so dense that it was almost disconnected on security grounds. And within its heart, past the banks of diamond refractors and plasma pinch magnets, was the hohlraum, whose walls were the smoothest substance that can exist in this universe. And within the hohlraum were contained the hellacious energies of primordial creation, streaming strangeness out to waiting detectors.

Human Hive -- city immune to covert operations

Spoiler :

As the human in its unenlightened condition seeks to operate in terms of the individualized self, removing the obstacles to the collective whole requires a holistic approach, and thus the Human Hive is conceived. It begins with a structure designed for total self-less realization, its architecture self-sustaining while permitting no internal isolation. Within this building it houses individuals who seek the reification of the collective human purpose, practicing systems of ego-abnegation which transcend the usual pejorative "groupthink drill." And then this system must practice sustaining itself, optimizing the collective behavior until the Hive responds as a whole.

Markov Eclipse -- military units fight at full strength even when damaged

Spoiler :

A small series of Markovian decision-making AI models had been in use for some generations, providing reliable if somewhat unexciting advantage to holistic analyses of well-described battlespace problems. What was unique about these were their parallel state descriptors, projecting not only the best-guess current state, but a Bayesian array of most likely alternatives. When sudden changes to the battlescape appeared, the AI would simply switch to the alternative chain that best described the current situation, and updated accordingly. This turned out to have a psychophysiological equivalent in certain brain structures associated with alternate-world formulation in the human prefrontal cortex.

From there, it was a simple matter of developing a system of mnemonic training and deep-perceptual visualization interfaces for the human operators. With sufficient training (9 years being modal, with acceptable results occurring as early as Year 4 in precocious operators), an operator could view a highly schematized representation of the AI battlespace model and intuitively process what the AI was seeing. Fine-resolution positron emission feedback from the operator's brain would go back to the AI, which could update some of its assumptions regarding human psychological elements, and quickly update its model. Together, a human and AI system formed a powerful team, capable of processing massive bands of probability data and directing troops with a minimum of wasted time and surprise.

Mass Driver -- city strike range +1 and 25% city strength

Spoiler :

The Mass Driver operated on the same principles as those ancient railguns, but on a much greater scale. The massive capacitor banks were buried deep beneath the ground, their power feeds rising like tendrils to merge with the long racks of electromagnets in the barrel. The long barrel was housed inside the gunspire, while nearby high-energy microwave phased radar arrays painted potential targets as they passed overhead.

Master Control -- free maintenance and +1 movement for workers

Spoiler :

There is obvious brilliance in letting a combination of yoked AI modules look at patterns of resource use and provide direction for optimization. Curiously, there is considerable evidence that Master Control was received coolly by many colonists, many of whom still believed in maximizing individual political autonomy in the early colony. What we know about the adoption of Master Control is largely the result of jeremiads written opposing it. What we know about the success of the Master Control system can be seen in the archaeological record: Before MC was implemented, the colonists were disorganized, squabbling, starving and sick. Afterwards, they were not.

Memetwork -- affinity level requirements for units, buildings and wonders are reduced by 1

Spoiler :

At some point, these sophisticated meme-preservation and transference techniques may have been rediscovered and extended, becoming the basis for a highly-connected system of directed current cultural transference. Now, certain ideas, beliefs, and goals could be promoted and woven seamlessly into the social fabric of colonial culture to increase social harmony and keep undesirable meme-tracks from rooting into the colony. At first, the Memetwork was used to promote ideas of shared responsibility and safety ("Only YOU can prevent mycotoxic spore infiltration!"), but eventually came to promote more subtle aesthetic and moral judgments as well.

Nanothermite -- ranged, air, and city strike attacks are 25% stronger

Spoiler :

After planetfall, propellant technology continued from developments at the time of Seeding, although industrial efforts were largely focused on recapturing the scale of production that were achieved at the apex of human civilizations prior to the Great Mistake. This enabled the local production of stable propellants, most notably for conventional munitions - first for defense, followed very quickly for offense. As material sciences improved, researchers discovered new stable high-energy compounds, including the first nanobaric compounds - explosives capable of incredibly precise targeted explosions that could shatter molecular bonds. There were also nanothermal compounds, capable of molecular excitation and efficient heat production. So it was not long before these two substances were combined to produce a class of powerful explosives generally called nanothermite.

New Terran Myth -- +2 Culture from Trade Routes

Spoiler :

Observe the power with which the people embrace the New Terran Myth! Let the scientist explain it in terms of memetic ultrapenetration vectors. Let the tyrants sneer at it as the opioid of cultures. They cannot deny its force. They cannot deny that billions of minds receive it and embrace it. They cannot deny that hope has been given to a people, and now they understand what they must do in this galaxy.

Panopticon -- all military units receive +1 sight

Spoiler :

For the interested student of history, the Panopticon's algorithms are an insight into paranoia and violence. Everything detectable is screened for threat, and then parsed within categories (and such truly fascinating categories!) and matched with a response ranging from "evaluate again in n seconds" to the euphemistic "terminate with extreme prejudice".

Precog Project -- military units can achieve two additional levels of veterancy

Spoiler :

The Precog Project proved to be fantastically accurate at predicting outcomes of combat operations within a prescribed geographic space. Since highly accurate geospatial records were matched closely with threat response algorithms and an impressively broad selection of real-time combat data (from army-level logistical tables down to the rounds remaining in a given soldier's rifle), the system could provide the most optimal response to a given threat with the resources at hand.

Promethean -- city no longer produces unhealth

Spoiler :

The Promethean idea was to create a new human genotype. It would be compatible with the genetics of humanity, but strip out problematic genes and replace many sequences with more optimal protein operators. Not only would this undo the damage of the Great Mistake, but strip away the impediments of humanity's evolution - the dead-end sequences, the mistake codes, the hidden landmines that lead to disease. The resulting creature would look like human, but be something more than a human.

Quantum Computer -- free maintenance and +50% duration for orbital units

Spoiler :

Curiously, though the quantum computer was created as an application of quantum theory, it turns out that the computers lent impressive insight into the deep fabric of the cosmos. Analyzing the noise results of millions of operations gave researchers a wealth of material to study statistically. Furthermore, this noise seemed to validate (at least at some level) the Many Worlds theories posited centuries before the Great Mistake. This discovery in turn had profound cultural implications. As the reader is no doubt aware, the most famous of these is the ongoing Miskatonic Reading Group, a department of researchers whose publications on what these alternate worlds may hold is simultaneously deeply interesting and incredibly disturbing.

Resurrection Device -- benefits from positive health levels increased by 50%

Spoiler :

This facility operates the Resurrection Protocol under a veil of automation and a deeper mask of secrecy. Few know of the Resurrection Device until they are chosen to undertake it, selected for their apex contributions to culture, science, governance, or religion. Candidates are whisked away to Resurrection City, where the Protocol is applied. Over the course of weeks their body's DNA is repaired, swarms of the most advanced nanites scour the body for developmental defects (which are corrected), and the candidate's brainform is fully holographed for future storage. Only then does the candidate emerge, and then the culture can observe that the candidate reverses in age - becoming younger.

Stellar Codex -- +8 Orbital Coverage range

Spoiler :

While created to solve simple problems of navigation and assist in space research, the Stellar Codex also had tremendous influence on the cultural development of the colonists. Did those early colonists perhaps still carry ancient senses carefully attuned to a clear night sky above them? Or was it a matter of recognizing the truly vast distances that separated the planet from Earth? Or did the Seeding raise the possibility of other worlds around other stars being habited by people, and thus make the sky less threatening? Whatever the case, it is common to find records in the Stellar Codex shot through with veins of awed prose.

Tectonic Anvil -- +5 Production from Canyons

Spoiler :

The Tectonic Anvil was created out of a need to extract higher quantities of rare and heavy materials (ironically including floatstone) out of the deepest layer of the planet's crust. As surface deposits were increasingly scarce or politically difficult to access, materials engineers and applied geologists looked at renewing mining methods pioneered on Earth prior to the Seeding - drilling deep into the crust to extract the mineral wealth therein. On Earth, this process had been hampered by the relative age of the planet, the degraded state of the regolith, and relatively high energy costs. With a younger planet possessing a less fragmented crust and cheaper energy, the process of deep extraction was a somewhat simpler proposition.

Xenodrome -- provides a small positive influence to alien opinion each turn, and negative alien opinion recovers twice as quickly

Spoiler :

There was a great joy in striding through the habizones, coming eye to eye with the huge grazers and herds, seeing the whorl of swarms overhead, and even spying a distant predator in semiconcealment. They could swim with the Sea Dragon, or walk through the den of the Raptor Bug without fear of harm (a far cry from what their ancestors experienced!). The Xenodrome accounts for a disproportionately large number of video and still images taken and preserved by amateurs, for it allowed visitors to feel something akin to the pulse of the planet's life.

But the greatest, longest-lasting impact of the Xenodrome may be that it implanted in people the idea of the planet as a living collective whole, and in time that awareness would take on a new and deeper understanding of the world the colonists had settled.

Xenomalleum -- +5 petroleum, titanium, and geothermal resources

Spoiler :

In one of the great serendipitous events of the planetfall, researchers working on nanodelivery of therapeutic RNA strands found a gene sequence which caused the bacteria contaminating the oils to act as tiny refineries, stacking hydrocarbon chains and feeding on dross from the process. Simply by dumping the appropriate virus into contaminated planetary fuel, the fuel could be converted into one of the most powerful, energy-efficient substances ever created through organic process. The resulting material was called Xenomalleum.

In retrospect, the creation of Xenomalleum probably saved the entire prospect of biochemical fuels, and prevented the new world from going from hydrofuel Eden to a wasted Armageddon. Xenomalleum underpins all our complex hydrocarbon chemistry: Fuels, fertilizers, drugs, plastics, lubricants, refrigerants, nanite stabilizers - all possible now only because of the miracle of Xenomalleum.

Xenonova -- penalties from negative health levels reduced by 50%

Spoiler :

Xenonova is sometimes described as "the miracle drug," which is incredibly inaccurate. Xenonova is not a drug, but a complex, symbiotic ecosystem of designer organisms which is overlaid on a plant host to boost growth, improve nutrient retention, and allow the plant to thrive in untreated soil. The ubiquity of Xenonova is a critical part of the success of the human colonies on this world. It was only through the adoption of planetary biosystemics that human beings were able to create plants whose output exceeded those of Old Earth.

Even better, the plants' yields are free from the genetic contaminants found in many Old Earth strains. They retain a better selection of nutrients, thus making the food far healthier than any found before. It is a testament to the power of the Xenonova that we hardly think of its power today, we well-fed, healthy descendants of those who brought a few sparse kernels of yellow corn from the old world.

 

[JokerJace]

This is my philosophy when it comes to wonders:
1. Wonders should provide a substantial return on investment
2. Wonders should give you an advantage (i.e. a player who is unable to build the wonder should be bummed)
3. Wonders should not be REQUIRED for victory
4. Wonders should either provide a one-time large advantage or a smaller over-time advantage

I agree with this. As I said in another post, the balance of a wonder should come from the risk / reward ratio in a competetive environment and the need to pass on or delay other things the faster I want to get it (which also increases my disadvantage if I still fail to get it in the end). So if the game is coherent in itself, strong wonders will also balance themselves. That's why - in my opinion - crappy wonders are a symptom of a 'broken' game. Let's hope we won't have a discussion about the word 'broken' now. What I mean by that is that the developers are reluctant to introduce really strong wonders, because it's harder to measure their impact on gameplay than in a balanced game. One misplaced item can mess up a lot if the mechanics of the game are already maladjusted. It's visible that the decision to include a certain number of wonders (because people expect them in a Civ title) came before the actual discussion about what roles they should fill and how strong they should be etc. So they ended up with a lot of placeholders that they're trying to fill with importance now.

 

[tedeviatings]

To be honest I actually like most wonders effect post-patch. They might be pretty cool in the future, provided the numbers are changed in a way that makes them a worthwhile investment.

 

[Gamewizard]

Another problem for wonders are the trade routes. Some trade routes can yield BIG numbers, making all those hammers you have to dump into wonders look so wasted in comparison to the hammer price of a trade depot plus, for me anyways, the 270 energy for the convoy.

And it has been said, the tech web prevents any one wonder from being OP, so they chose the path of having them all be par. If you take PAC's possible 75% discount to build some of the higher tier ones they don't look so bad.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I've put my ideas in the OP...let me know what you guys think.

 

[liv]

My take on wonders is that they should not be in this game.

If you have a science web wonders seems to not belong.

You could give extra bonuses for some of the things you can do on the outer rings and make those dependable on resources or affinity points.

 

[JokerJace]

I think most wonders should go farther than adapting some numbers.
Some ideas to improve the wonders:

Xenomalleum
choose petroleum, titanium or geothermal, all requirements of the chosen resource are removed.

Spoiler :

Xenomalleum was evolved into a substance that could be used to create a substitute for certain native resources.

Xenodrome
alien opinion is always at max
+1 culture every turn for each alien unit within 2 tiles of your borders
(since aliens are only a threat in the very early game anyway)

Spoiler :

The Xenodrome symbolizes the incorporation of alien life into society.

Quantum Computer
when converting the production of the city into science / culture / energy the respective yield is multiplied by 5

Spoiler :

The miraculous computational power of the Quantum Computer could be used to amplify any intellectual efforts.

Precog Project
gain vision of any military units of any player you are at war with

Spoiler :

(directly derived from lore)

Panopticon
covert operations are 50% faster and cause 50% more intrigue
(obviously ARC's ability needs to change, but it should anyway)

Spoiler :

(directly derived from lore)

Human Hive
This needs to be a very strong wonder, since the whole idea of culture is to regulate the peaceful coexistence of your society and from its lore this wonder provides exactly that in one blow. I would either give it a copy of the tier 3 synergy bonus or an increased bonus that only applies to the city it was build in. Probably 20% to all yields.

Spoiler :

(directly derived from lore)

Gene Vault
+5 culture
20% of culture is added onto global happiness

Spoiler :

Apart from being a place of contemplation, the vast genetic data storage of earth's inhabitants could be used to enhance the colony with earth's fauna were possible and sensible. For many, this provided some ease facing the hardships of the expedition.

Ectogenesis Pod
+15% growth in all cities while happiness is positive

Spoiler :

(directly derived from lore)

Crawler
This one is okay, but it needs to move much more inward to make any sense. I need to build roughly 4 wonders so this thing pays for itself. So when I even consider building this, it has to be early in the game.

 

[Browd]

Moderator Action: Moved to Ideas & Suggestions.

 

[HandyVac]

Game mechanics aside, what would make the wonders feel more wonderful is having some more interesting pictures for their splashscreens. Pictures where you can tell by looking at it what the thing is or what it does.


There are some great descriptions in the civilopedia entries, I want to see paintings of the things described there, not a line drawing of some vaguely-sci-fi-looking building.
E.g. For the Ectogenesis Pod show me a row of cloning tanks with baby sheep and cows growing in them, for Cyosure show me those foreboding arrays of black quasicrystaline slabs connected up to the operator's console, for Deep Memory show me a guy plugged into a virtual reality helmet next to a hologram of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.


This is not just about looking pretty (though that is part of it), it's about communicating relevant information to the player. If you see a picture showing farm animals being mass produced then you know that wonder is about food and growth, even before you've read the tooltip or pedia entry. If you see a picture showing a great big computer then you know that wonder is about science and research. Yes, you can also learn that information by reading, but it's always best to communicate the same information in several different ways.

 

[Minor Annoyance]

Mine:
Gene vault: Have it be give a free worker for each outpost built. Then it can start work before the city is up and have improvements ready to go right away. Also, give free workers equal to the cities you already have when it is build. Then it doesn't feel like a waste if you didn't get it right away.

Ectogenisis pod: I'd have its effect applied to every city but still have the food bonus be based on the population of city it is built in. So having it in your biggest city helps grow every city. Grow more humans and spread them throughout your colony. Even better if they're prometheans! No unhealth so the city can be as big as you can feed.