Vhorthex

Join Date 11/2009

[SUGGESTION] - City Building - Variable Building Construction Costs based on Terrain Type

Hello everyone,

First of all I'll start by saying that the values listed in this post are PURELY arbitrary.

Concept: Building costs vary depending on what terrain you construct a building on

Terrain List:

Grasslands: 0%

Hills: 25%

Swamp: 50%

Desert & Artic: 75%

Example:

Let's say you want to construct a building that it's base cost is 10 Material and 10 Gold Pieces. Should you build it on a Swamp, then it's cost would be 15 Materials and 15 Gold pieces. Thus reflecting the difficulties of erecting a building in a swamp. I think this would add flavor to city building and terrain.

This could also/only/instead be applied to construction time.

I really think there should be some consideration given to somekind of impact based on terrain type, other than the few battle condition modifiers for forests or hills.

Please anybody, feel free to jump in!

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Goodmorning,

Can you think of any benefits there might be to building in the different terrain types? If it's only negative there isn't much strategy.

Perhaps Hills cost more to build on, but less to maintain *less heating because the hillside itself provides insulation*, or defense structures on hills add more defense then otherwise.

Just thinking.
Robbie Price

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Hi Robbie,

Actually my thought process was not to give a "bonus" per say, but try to incorporate somekind of strategic value to terrain. As it strands it offers minimal impact on combat, and will prevent you from building on cliffs, mountains or forests. There is no difference if you build something on a swamp or Arctic. I think that something should reflect this aspect.

I wouldn't mind if it were in terms of build time or extra material costs, I just want "something".

Although, I would be interested in seeing more terrain specific buildings. Farms on Plains & mines on mountains? To be fair, I wasn't part of the beta and from reading certain posts I noticed that some people were saying that "back in the day" it was possible to build farms, and then people just had that. I think the key is balance, so make sure that the costs for making a farm are high enough so it's not easy to just spam those buildings. (high GP upkeep? Material used / turn, only 1 per city, something.)

I would of liked to see more terrain exploitation, and make the 'resource nodes' just extra bonuses, a bit like how civilization or Master of Magic would do it. This would make it so that even in the absence of 'ressource nodes' terrain still needs to be considered when building a city. Which is not so much the case presently.

Hope this helps flesh out my suggestion.

thanks for your feedback!

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I'm going to blame you for my recent thought, but you started it with your terrain thinking. The world of Elemental is supposed to be recovering from a cataclysm. Food is a super scarce resource and supposed to be oh so wanted, though I never seem to have a problem with, especially with the exploration techs. Back to the point though, what about water? It's one of the most basic needs for any living thing. Now sure, they could catch rain, drink from rivers, etc. but your desert thing brought this to mind. If the cataclysm is so devestating, and basically nuked most of the soil, wouldn't poison the majority of the potable water? Folks don't need to dig wells, create cisterns or live near water. Of course there aren't any creeks, rivers, or streams - I hear they are having problems getting them to work well. But if part of founding a city required water, if would put another spin on where to build a town or at least cause you to need to build a well. Deserts and unpleasant terrain could reflect the cost of output of a water resource.

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Quoting Eisenhund,

reply 3

I'm going to blame you for my recent thought, but you started it with your terrain thinking.

Blame me all you want If it inspires brainstorming it's all good.

Woa, I have to say you took this to a whole other level. This water aspect could be another ressource, and towns far from the coast lines or rivers/lakes would have to be supplied by cities that have water?

Maybe somekind of "fallout-ish" mod could perhaps reflect this idea?

I'm guessing that if nature is regaining of it's strength after the cataclysm, that the water isn't as "dirty" as it used to be? We should read those damn books that Brad is writing to get a better glimpse of the landscape and what people do to survive in the world...

Cheers,

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