[Comment] Beta 1G building restrictions

from Elemental Forums

For the first betas, the player was restricted to (city level * 8) tiles when building city improvements. That was the only restriction. While I personnally liked that system, it caused problems as it often left cities unable to grow (lets say after building one farm and one mine, you couldn't add the necessary huts).

In beta 1G, this has changed to have a large number of tiles available, even at city level 1, but even this limit is supposed to go away soon. To compensate, now cities have limits for each building. They cannot build more than (city level) farms, (city level) libraries, etc. Houses are exempts, but I haven't checked all the buildings to see if any other was too.

So what is the point of this post? Well, it is simply to say that I dislike the new system. Here are my reasons :

  1. It allows huge production towns without the population. You can have a level 1 hamlet (with 10 citizens) with 1 farm, 1 mine, 1 stone pit, 1 lumbermill, 1 orchard, 1 library and 1 market if you find a lucky spot. The advantage of big cities is lessened to increase research and cash (and building many times the same building when possible).
  2. It actively discourages specialized towns in favor of generalist builds. There is never any reason to not build a market in your research heavy city, except if you don't have the ressources to build it. Same for a library in a economy heavy city.
  3. Hum, I though I had a third point, but I must have forgotten it...

If I had to make a suggestion for a replacement system, it would be to have all limited buildings share a common limit (increased of course).

 

Any opinions on building restrictions?

2,132 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I also currently do not undestand what is the point of having large population? They do not generate much money (you probably have to spend more on housing). I also liked the previous system better, but I also do like limitation of each building type. Kind of stupid to expect 10 theaters in one city...

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

After getting 4 or 5 cities at the max levels, I can't say they're impressive. They lack som espaces, and they need so many houses to get to that level that few other buildings can be built.

I think housing shouldn't be in the tile limits. You should always be able to add a house. And th elimitations shouldn't be per/tile but "overall buildings"/city. So if I want a city with 10 barracks, I can.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Each medieval city used to have a marketplace. So I don't see a problem if it happens in the game. Lots of people = lots of residential areas. It is logical too. The point is to have just right number of people in the city. So suggestion:

each building requires some amount of workforce. You don't have enough people in the city, the building is not working even if it is already built. A city with several fams / mines is still logical, if it can support other cities. On the other hand some buildings are illogical if they are more than one in the town.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Assuming that the random Map generator, based on what we see so far, in regards to distribution of assets, this Town

"You can have a level 1 hamlet (with 10 citizens) with 1 farm, 1 mine, 1 stone pit, 1 lumbermill, 1 orchard, 1 library and 1 market if you find a lucky spot."
End of quote

would not be a "lucky spot", but bloody "Nirvana" (nice Town name as well :) and is nearly impossible to acheive. You aslo forgot to add a Shard or two to "Nirvana"

But I do agree that Large Towns should have to have a mix that is directly supported by its population base.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, in one of my 1G game, I had a food source (I think honey), a mine, a shard and a (multitiles) forest in a very concentrated spot. Of course this is going to be depending on the map generator, but I don't such a concentration is bad thing, as it reduces the need to have many cities to have at least of every (important) ressource.