More build options

[Deornwulf]

What to do with cities in the Industrial Age.

After a city has completed its building cycle, there is nothing but wealth or units left to produce. Cities should be able to direct their energies more specifically than this with more build options being available. Such as....

Research - Converts shields directly into research points
Industry - Adds shields to all other cities in empire
Entertainment - Improves happiness in empire
Food Production - Increases food produced in that city (Faster growth)
Diplomacy - Improves relations with a specific neighbor
Espionage - Reduces or replaces the cost for spy actions

[steelehc]

How would you suggest this be done? It seems like a good idea, maybe... but very had to implement.

Steele

[dunk]

This can be done with wealth.

Shields are turned into commerce which can be spent on all those things.

[Inverse Icarus]

so basicalyl we're talking wealth dedicated to science? sounds cool, but 1 beaker is nothing.

why doesnt wealth work like capitialization and give u a ton of $$?

[Deornwulf]

Originally posted by dunk999
This can be done with wealth.

Shields are turned into commerce which can be spent on all those things.

Too simplisitic in its approach. The wealth produced is minimal. I would rather have the option through the build menu. BTW, there is no way for wealth to buy food.

[notyoueither]

Good suggestions. Alas very late in development cycle to be reinventing wheels. But maybe not. Some XPs incorporate large changes.

[Ethelred]

That is when I build for war. I can't convince myself to go to war untill I have nothing to do but build units.

If they put in more buildings I might go through the game peacefully.

[dunk]

True, you cannot build food. My mistake. This is the only thing wealth cannot do. Then again, shields (building resources) don't really translate into food. (I have this wood, let's send to to the capital so their starving people can eat.) Sharing of surplus food between cities is a good idea. If you don't like the values wealth produces, you can change them with the editor.

But, using wealth creates commerce which you can spend on whatever you like. And wealth is in the build menu.

Espionage.... More gold to spend for spying missions. In essance, this lowers the cost to you since you can more easily recover the cost.

Science... More income so you may be able to bump up your science spending or trade for techs. There you go, faster techs. Or did you want one beaker per shiled? That's too much.

Industry... You have more gold available to rush-build improvements wherever you like. Again, less cost since you can more easily gain the money back.

Entertainment... You have more income so you may be able to bump up entertainment spending. Or would you want one happy face per 3 shields or something?

Foreign Relations... You will have more gold available, so give it to your neighbors to improve relations. Again, you're able to give larger gold per turn offers and it's easier to recover big lump sum donations.

All of your concerns are addressed with wealth, except food, which I don't beleive should be able to be manufactured. It seems you just don't like how you have to adjust spending through it producing commerce instead of what you want specifically. During late industrial age / early modern age, I have had over 300 gpt coming from wealth. I was able to bump my science spending up twenty percent for techs as much as 2 turns quicker. That was with the default setting of 4 gold per shield (after banking or some tech, it's 8 gold per shield before it). This was out of about 10 cities. I think that's fair. I guess you don't.

Capitalization (ala Civ II), IMO, was to powerful. I could have my big cities on capitalization and have a 0.10.0 budget and still pull in large amounts of gpt.

[planetfall]

What was the capitalization problem with civ2? It sounds like this problem was the reason for the 50gpt cap on interest income.

[Deornwulf]

You miss the point

Dunk - I think you are missing my point entirely. I want the extra build options for two reasons. The first is to increase the immersion factor of the game. Having 10 cities producing wealth is not as cool as 2 specialized for science, 1 for entertainment, and 5 for production and 2 increasing food production.

The second reason is that the expedinture of wealth on each of the build options I mentioned are either inefficient or useless. Since the entertainment slider bar works on percentages, happiness is not increased by having more wealth. I want a more direct and dedicated process to increase the efficiency of my cities. This would require more strategy on the part of the player. Accumulated wealth can be spent on anything but if the city is dedicated to science, that's all I get.

As far as the food production, I'm not suggesting that the populace is eating the extra wood but rather that they are spending all industrial output on increasing food production. Instead of churning out swords, the blacksmith is producing plows, etc.

The production option I was suggesting could be a simple increase dedicated to one city or placed in a pool to be divided among cities. The are many different ways to work it out.

[Deornwulf]

On relations

I don't really know how money affects diplomatic relations since there seems to be no obvious system for measuring reputation. I've had furious leaders ask for MPP's and Military Alliances and polite leaders refuse trade requests and declare war.

[dunk]

I guess I still don't understand what you don't like about wealth. It's a simple tool with many uses. I like it that way. Your suggestion, IMO, would make more needless micromanagement and accomplish nothing more useful.

[ixnay]

I agree. Wealth is simple and it works. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.