[Suggestion] Specialized Cities

from Elemental Forums


While I enjoy the idea of leveling up your cities, the buildings that you are provided with are far too random to put a particular plan in motion (and thus develop a strategy) and their bonuses in some cases are lackluster. I suggest a similar 'leveling' system to heroes. That is on the first level up you choose a 'path' and that path opens up new buildings and building choices on level up for you. Say for example the paths are:

 

Growth (Chance for prestige, food and growth buildings)

Military (Chance for military, unrest and production buildings)

Technology (Chance for buildings that increase tech and provide minor new unique techs)

Trade (Chance for city gildar, caravan trade, diplomatic capital and treaties bonus's buildings)

Magic (Chance for buildings that produce crystals, shards, mana/turn and free city spells)

 

Keep in mind that city levels need not be limited to a single building choice, but the very first thing that needs to be looked at is balancing the buildings with one another. I find that I =always= build gallows, as the benefit of +10% production or +10% research is easily trumped by providing both of those things through reduced unrest. The bakery is an example of a good building. It is not 'always' a good choice but is strong enough on it's own that I want to shoot for the next city level to get it.

10,243 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top


shameless bump

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

some interesting ideas.  i already "specialize" my cities in regards to growth cities (number of food with buildings that enhance this...this in turn increases gold so i build my gold generating buildings here as well.  my second city usually focuses on production finding a spot that has a lot of materials.  i then build my production bonus buildings in this city etc.  I think this works pretty well, but i do really like your idea of an increased specialization for each city where buildings become available depending on the route you are taking.

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Given the recent post about feedback, I am going to start going through every building and analyzing them. There are alot of citylevelup buildings that just don't matter. I too always choose gallows at that level. Prison is also a must. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top


the only problem i see with this is you have to commit to a strategy for your town upon the first level up. sometimes you might not know how to best specialize you towns till later in the game. yes there are some obvious expamples when you settle next to 3 shards or 2 mines or whatever but those in itself should be pretty rare.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

that's a good point.  in essence though it's kinda 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other.  i guess weighing as many pros and cons of both systems could help make a "best choice" as i personally do not believe there is a perfect solution (just a better one).

 

then again the specialization could come after level 2 when you actually have something more than just a village.  in the meantime there could be generic (basic) production, growth, and military buildings to get the towns up and running.   hmmmm (things to think about).

 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't like it either. It's slightly better than what we have now, but it will also make cities more static than they are now. Like legaceez pointed out, you will have to select what to specialize the town in at first level, and have no way of really changing that later if in-game circumstances change.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

@sartrhan and legaceez That is a good point, I hadn't thought of that. I highly dislike that I cannot choose what my cities' objective will be, and for the most part I know what they are, but I could see a situation where I wanted to say, revert to a unit bonus building if I was in a sudden war. Perhaps a 'random' option could be available, or the pool of specializations granted you two special buildings based on your selection and the other three were randomly rolled like they are normally.

As it is now, you don't get to directly determine anything, preventing any sort of option of responding to later circumstance changes, since the choices are entirely random.