[Suggestion] Gold for buildings to be debited when placed, not when completed

from Elemental Forums

When placing a building, for example a palace that costs 500 gold, no gold is debited when the building is placed. In fact no gold is debited while it is being built. On the turn it is finished, though, 500 gold is debited from the treasury. This behavior makes it very difficult to estimate your gold reserves, since you can't easily tell how many outstanding debts you have for unfinished buildings. When I don't know how much gold I have, I can't plan how to spend my reserves very well. I'm afraid I'll build to quickly, so I end up being overly conservative. I think it should be easier to understand what your financial situation is.

4,897 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

An argument could be made either way, as well as for it to be averaged and charged over the entire build time.  Overly complex imho, but could be more realistic if throwing such a word around makes sense in this.  :-)

My personal take - if building is not instant then I hate the thought of paying up front, and if you can go into the negative w.r.t. gold then it is not a bad thing.  Perhaps a screen on the economic window that shows how much will come due in the upcoming turns?

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I think a screen with a more accurate description of the economic status would definitely be helpful. I'd also be OK with a partial cost each turn that the structure is being built, but like you said, it might be a little more complicated than necessary.

As far as going into the negative, though, I feel like that's dangerous territory. If you have a negative income, which can easily happen if you build too many units early on, then you don't have a good opportunity to correct your finances. This gameplay element separates your action/decision from the effects of that action/decision, and gives a very delayed feedback. Consequently, it's hard to correct for either over or under-building. I also have a hard time knowing exactly how quickly I can build without my bank account being stuck in the red. >:(

After thinking about this in more detail, I think I really value the ability to understand whether I made a good decision to build something or if I have overextended myself. With a delayed payment cost, I don't get that feedback.

Civilization helped prevent this by tying the upkeep cost of units to the resource required to produce them (i.e. production units/shields). Building too many buildings too quickly could still put you in negative income, but your ability to expand was more limited early on in Civilization. In Elemental, on the other hand, you can build 3 towns in the first 5 turns, and place buildings in all of them, without any restriction on overexpanding. I'd just like a better feedback mechanism for my money.

 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Guys I don't think that this economic model is anywhere near what the guys in stardock want tp have in the game, it's only a place holder

 

Having said that, I would rather have the money slowly depleting during consturction than being subtracted at the start of construction, I would allso like for the finale price to not be set in stone, most time there are building problems and missfurtunes I would rather see building acting more like SotS reaserch.

 

Warder