Overbuilding Fix- Persistent Age-Relevant Buildings with Unique Effects & Scalable Yields

[mellow quartz]

So one of the main issues I find with overbuilding is that almost every building is just a direct upgrade from the previous age. They mostly all do the same thing but with a slight increase in yields per age.

For example, a Library (outside of having 2 Great Work Slots) has +3 Science. An Observatory has +6. Meanwhile a Schoolhouse has +9. These buildings feel like a chore to upgrade since they don't do anything else except increase your yields.

So I propose that each building in each age should do something unique while also staying relevant the entire game. Here's an example:

• Library: +1 Science on Great Works.
• Academy: +1 Science on Quarters.
• Observatory: +2 Science on Mountain terrain.
• University: +1 Science on Specialists.
• Schoolhouse: +1 Science per Rural population.
• Laboratory: +1 Science per Urban population.

Every building would automatically have their yields increased per age. So if you stick with an Academy it'll give you Modern age yields in the Modern age. But essentially, these buildings do not just become obsolete.

I would suggest that you could only have 2 buildings of said type per settlement. So you can't just build all 6 types of Science buildings in the Modern era. If you want to change what building you have, you can replace it with a different one. This way you're not stuck with whatever buildings you built in the previous age. But it also means overbuilding isn't just a chore to get the most modern buildings for their yields, there's actually a benefit in doing so.

I figure almost all buildings in the game have some relevance in every era. A Library is still a thing in the Modern age. Hospitals, Banks, Markets, Barracks, etc. still are relevant to this day.

Some buildings might need to be renamed or redone. An Armorer might not make sense in the Modern era, but a Forge would. Same can be said about a Dungeon, perhaps it could be a Jail instead.

Models might need to be updated to be in line with each era, but over all, I think every building currently in the game can do something unique so that it always stays relevant every era.

[low geyser]

Overbuilding Fix- Persistent Age-Relevant Buildings with Unique Effects & Scalable Yields

[uncut spade]

The only problem I see is that Observatory's bonus is kinda useless unless you play Inca, but I like the idea

[mellow quartz]

They're just examples that I thought off the top of my head, they don't need to be exactly what I posted. I would hope in a scenario where these ideas are used, the Devs would balance them properly for each building.

Besides, the whole point of the idea is that if you don't like the building's buffs you could always keep older buildings and mix and match to get the most powerful / useful combo of bonuses to you!

[uncut spade]

Yeah that's fair.
Also having Jail as building would be funny, bonus should be +5% production to military for each conquered settlement

[thorn flax]

Speaking about overbuilding, has there been any talks about being able to choose which specific building to buildover? Is super silly just being able to replace whichever was built first in that quarter, right?

[mellow quartz]

I hope that's a feature they will introduce at some point in the future. It would 100% be necessary for a feature like this to exist!

[silver palm]

One of the top requests (not to go off topic here but yeah it’s deffo needed)

[low beacon]

I feel like this idea swings too far the other way. The game should give 2 main choices with lots of benefits and downsides to each. To overbuild or to just build more. This solution would fit in the 'build more' but would seemingly takeaway the overbuilding completely. Maybe thats ok, but i think the solution also needs to have a good reason to want to overbuild.

[mellow quartz]

Well in this case the point of overbuilding would be to swap out which bonuses the building gives your settlement. Since each age would probably give you a reason to change your play style a bit.

I just don't like how overbuilding currently is just replace the same building with a newer one that does the same thing but with a bit higher yields on it.